Being CEO of your own life
“You are here for a reason.”
- Marshawn Evans
Entertainment attorney and entrepreneur Marshawn Evans likes acronyms.
To her, a CEO is someone “who confidently expects opportunity” and acts on it. Formerly one of Glamour magazine’s Top Ten College Women, she’s a Georgetown University Law Center graduate who went on to start a successful marketing agency in the testosterone-driven industry of professional sports.
After years of traveling around the country delivering her you-can-do-it-too message to college students and corporations, Evans wrote a book to bring her passion to the masses. S.K.I.R.T.S in the Boardroom is one-part biography, one-part handbook, one-part workbook to help other women pinpoint and achieve their dreams.
She emphasizes the importance of helping other women succeed. In a paragraph about sisterhood, she writes:
Women need to mentor and support one another’s growth, while also learning to work togther. Therefore, I don’t mean sisterhood in the soft, fluffy sense. I mean it in the strong, focused sense. There is nothing wrong wtih soft and fluffy, but’s not a legitimate basis for professional success. Feminine is fine — nothing wrong with that, either. Heck, I still prep for a client meeting the same way I prepped for a Miss America interview. You can bet that my hair and makeup will be on point. I’m saying that there is tremendous value in helping other women learn the tricks of the trade as well. I’m not threatened by another woman’s success — even a competitor’s — instead I see it as a challenge to improve myself. As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. That is what sisterhood, and this book, is all about.”
I like this philosophy. Smart men have promoted each other through an “old boys’ network” for years, and it’s time we got with the program.
Evans includes exercises to help readers determine the insecurities and pitfalls that prevent their success. She includes others designed to build commitment and courage. Her chapter on developing effective communication skills is especially valuable, as is a discourse on branding oneself (according to Evans, whether you like it or not, you’re already branded; she offers solid advice on how to determine and develop a better brand).
S.K.I.R.T.S in the Boardroom is a solid guidebook for women who want to make things happen, instead of letting things happen.
