Laura B Tedesco for Celebrating Women - 2023

Speaker: Laura B Tedesco, Chief Strategy & Chief Marketing Officer, The Honey Pot Company

Laura B Tedesco: Hi, I'm Laura Tedesco. I am the Chief Marketing and Chief Strategy Officer of The Honey Pot Company. As I think about celebrating women for International Women's Day and International Women's Month. I actually think it's important that we celebrate year-round. Every day should be a celebration of the incredible trailblazers that have sort of created an incredible history and glide path for women today as well as the trailblazers that are setting up our future. You know, I'm so grateful to the women before me who created an environment that allowed me to be able to sort of rise to the point I am in my career. I especially thank my mom who, you know, really helped to guide me through that. So I want to celebrate her. She's been such an important part of my career development. I celebrate my colleagues. My colleagues at The Honey Pot are an incredible set of people. All of them! But we are a majority female. And those women are inspiring every day. At every step of the organization, it's an incredible set of talent. We're able to learn from each other and mentor each other and guide each other both in work and outside of work and personal matters. And I also want to celebrate by thinking about the future. Obviously, so much of what I've been able to achieve has been enabled and unlocked by leaders of our past. And so as I think to the future, I want to make sure that I'm doing my part to unlock leadership opportunities, growth opportunities and equality for women. I have two young girls who are five and seven. And so a big part of my job and my mission in life is to make sure that they are entering a world where they are celebrated and they are leaders. And so they inspire me every day to make sure that the work I'm doing now will serve them in the future.

Laura B Tedesco: As I think about embracing equity, I think about the role that we all play in that effort. And that is not just women. I think that is everyone needs to embrace the effort around equity. I had an interesting situation about two months ago. My seven year old daughter told my husband that the bosses are boys. And my husband said, well, why do you say that your mom is a boss? And she said, no, no, whenever I see bosses on TV, they're always the boys. And so what's interesting is that as early as seven years old, she's already been conditioned to think about genders differently and to think about leadership opportunities differently. And so as I think about the idea of embracing equity, to me, it's critically important that we, it is a conversation that everyone is participating in and not just women participating in. I think that fundamentally better ideas come from diverse perspectives, better ideas come from more people having a voice in the room and more people collaborating. And so as we think about embracing equity, it unlocks the ability for more people to have that opportunity and fundamentally then outcomes becoming stronger and better both in the workplace, but also at home. And kind of in overall society. So embracing equity and having everyone part of that effort to me is the critical path to success.

Laura B Tedesco: So one of my favorite quotes, and one that I reflect on quite often, even today is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that says: "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." I think in this world it's very natural as humans to have a level of self doubt or to not be sure of oneself or to feel like you're not stacking up. But I think it's critically important as you're entering the work world and you're thinking about your career is to have confidence yourself, you have something special to offer, tap into what that special, you know, that special offering is, be confident in what you know, to be true and your convictions. And be able to be, you know, be able to articulate that more broadly. You know, believing yourself is so critically important and that is a big part of career growth. And so take that sort of level of self confidence and apply it to what you're doing on a daily basis. If there are areas where you feel like you need to improve or you need to grow or you need to learn. Certainly focus on those but try to the extent possible to believe in yourself, to be confident in yourself and to make sure that you have a voice in the room.

Laura B Tedesco: So favorite Google Workspace hack would have to be uh a shared family calendar. So my husband and I both work fairly demanding jobs. We have a five and a seven year old at home. We have an active family and friends life. So there's a lot going on at all times. And so we leverage a shared Google Calendar to make sure that we can stay on top of everything that's happening. That calendar is a lifesaver both in terms of running our personal lives, but also allowing me to make sure I can focus on work when I need to and then focus on home when I need to. And keep track of it all. So definitely a shared calendar on Google for the family is a critical, critical planning element.