Marty McDonald, founder of Boss Women Media, joins Cheddar News to talk about how her company is supporting female business owners. 

Between Bells

Boss Women Media Connects and Supports Businesswomen 

Welcome back to Between Bells. This segment is brought to you by Jpmorgan Chase celebrating women's history month and empowering all women to thrive. One company wants you to feel like a boss 365 days a year. Boss women media is an online membership platform helping to support women in corporate and those with their own businesses. The company does this by creating events for women to connect through summits, conferencing and network opportunities joining us. Now to discuss is marty Mcdonald, founder of Boss Women Media marty, welcome to the show, I love discussing this with you, You took a leap of faith, left your corporate job to create your own company, How are you able to bet on yourself and start this? Because I think I think a lot of women think about it, but never actually do it. Yeah, absolutely, thanks so much for having me, you know, if you don't bet on yourself, who's going to, if you don't have the confidence to create the life that you want, no one's gonna give it to you. And there was a lot of hardships that came along with me learning those exact lessons, but I decided that, you know, my purpose, my, my positioning in life, what I was really good at led me into entrepreneurship and really inspiring, empowering, connecting and story telling the women who have paved the way so that others know that their big possibility is all around the corner, once they take the big leap, why is it so important to create mentorship and connect women with other women who are making those boss moves in corporate spaces? You know, it's important because once you see someone else has no matter what their hardships are, you know that you can too. And so mentorship is a two way street, right um in order for you to be a mentor or to get mentored, there is a commonality that comes in, that's the place that you want to be in life or they've really made it to the, but they are and they want to lean back and help someone else. And so I think that once, you know that it's possible through seeing it through the lens of someone else and specifically if that someone looks like you, then you know, hey, nothing can stop me from having the career of my dreams marty. Can you talk about the struggles black women face specifically when navigating the corporate world and what do you think needs to change spending so much time in that sector? You know, the, the, the issues that are really that I experienced personally in corporate America led itself to, you know, imposter syndrome let itself to me not knowing my worth if I was smart enough and it's simply boiled down to one thing. The biggest issue was that I didn't see people who look like me in leadership. So I didn't know if it was possible for me. It's so important for organizations and companies to showcase talent at all levels, right? Um if we're looking for diabetes talent and included pushing into our workplaces, we have to show it at the top levels, the middle levels and the bottom level so that someone can see themselves in it. And so for me, some of the issues that I personally face were things that I had to come overcome myself and I was worthy. I belonged here. Um and um ultimately that led me to not seeing myself and I made an exit out of corporate and I think that we need both women in both spaces. We need entrepreneurs fighting the good fight. We need corporate queens sitting at tables making decisions that impact the black community, you know, securing funding as you know, can be such a challenge, especially when it comes not only to women, but for black women and brown entrepreneurs. Tell us how your your partnership with First United Bank is helping with that. You know, we have this new program called Women to Watch, we're super excited about it. Are Women to watch is a grant program that we're giving out for Women's History month. It allows a woman that is on the up front of an idea or her business is just getting off of the ground And she'll be able to get about $2500 we're gonna award to women with that to help them with tools that they need to really thrive and move forward. You know, when we're looking at the submissions for that or if you're pitching to any business itself. Um it's so it's important that you have a problem that you're solving in the marketplace and then you're being a disruptor um for that solution so that someone can see how you can make impact with your business. And that's how you have the art opportunity dollars specifically as a black woman, we know that that was the first LTD and so we want to make sure that our part them to the forefront, Let's talk about your clothing line, L Olivia because you've said you created it to uplift young women of color, how is your clothing line doing that marty? You know, you know me growing up as a child, I never saw people who looked like me on tv often. I remember one of my favorite tv shows. It was clearly explains it all. Of course it didn't look like me, right? And then when sister sister came on the forefront, it was like finally someone who looks like me, I can identify with, We had a little girl in earlier in 2021 we had a nicu experience that really taught me about advocacy. If I can if I can go back to that lesson around advocating for her and always teaching her how to advocate for herself. That the full circle moment of me kind of growing up is this kid who didn't see myself in certain spaces and places. I didn't want that to be my daughter's story. I wanted her story to be the story of representation of big possibility and I wanted her to make sure that her future mattered. And so the clothing line really is a representation of that. We're seeing the merchandise on the screen and it looks incredible marty from someone who started in news many, many years ago. No one looked like me. I wish there were more women like you in this space. Marty Mcdonald, founder of Boss Women Media. Thank you so much for your time. Marty. JPMorgan Chase is committed to advancing financial equality, empowering all women to thrive, visit Jpmorgan Chase dot com slash W O T M to learn more.