Anne Sullivan

I attribute my success to my father, who owned his own patent law firm in New York City. He gave me a strong work ethic and foundation. He always told me it's important to be kind to everybody, and when he passed, everyone from the mailroom person all the way through to his global partners came to his funeral because everybody loved him. You just hope that you have that kind of legacy. I learned to surround myself with great people, and I've been really fortunate. I've been privileged to be surrounded by amazing people throughout my career, and they're all very successful on their own. A lot of the people that worked for me were early career folks, and they've become very successful. We stay in touch and stay as a wonderful network. I'm pretty proud of keeping those relationships going and knowing how to surround myself with great people that make everybody successful. Bringing together the right people has been one of my biggest accomplishments. I also have to say that the company I have now started out with my own kids, not as a professional but as a mom. That makes me proud too, because not only was I able to help my own children, but I've been able to help thousands of others.

The best piece of advice I received was to try to find more personal balance. I always worked hard, like everybody does, but you have to try not to lose sight of what's important with family, your friends, having hobbies, having outlets for yourself that are healthy. For a while, I really didn't have that. The best piece of advice from coworkers, from friends, from family was that it's great that you're great at your job, but you need to make sure you have other things in your world. That was, oddly, a learning lesson for me, and that was probably the best piece of advice because I became a better person, a better leader, a better mom when I started doing that.

It's not always easy, but don't give up. And don't expect to be brought into a field just because you're a woman. Make sure you can show why you belong there. You don't need to fight, you just need to prove your value, and I think there's an acceptance there once you prove your value. That's something that's important for all women and all people. You can't be expected to be accepted unless you do the things that you say, keep your commitments, keep your word, do what you say you're gonna do, communicate effectively, and be kind. Everybody's in this together. We're all trying to figure something out, we're all trying to get a job done, no matter what field you're in. Whether I'm looking at technology, education, or advertising, there's a similar strand in that everybody was working together to get a job done. And in the end, it just mattered that the job got done. Working together with other people is really important.

For me, my biggest challenge is that with Lifestream, for digital natives, we're changing habits. Students and people generally who are digital natives are not used to saving stuff effectively and organizing it. The program will organize the digital media for you, but you have to put it in there, you have to put your descriptions in there. It's a unique challenge because we're changing habits. But once a student or professional starts using Lifestream, they find out how easy it is. That's probably one of the biggest challenges, the adoption of it and helping people understand that it's really easy to use. Once we get over the hump with a school or with a person, it works out well. We really relaunched in 2023, so we're still an early-stage company, and the brand isn't as well known yet as we want it to be. Just getting out there, getting the word out, and helping people change their habits. It's a short-term habit change for a long-term value and gain. Once they have their stuff in Lifestream, it is so easy for them to just access it when they need it, for whatever they need it for. The reflective component has become so significant, more so than we ever anticipated, because the way Lifestream is designed really helps people reflect on what they've done and tell their story. The biggest challenge we have is getting over that initial habit change, which has made the growth of the business slower than we anticipated, but we're still growing and working to grow more.

Trust, honesty, being there when you're needed to be there, whether it be personally or professionally. You need to be trustworthy, you need to be honest, you need to be respectful, and kind. We're all in this together, whether you're looking at it personally or professionally. We're going through life together. I think the values, for me at least, transcend between personal and professional. The core values are kind of the same. Obviously, there's other things as a mom that you're gonna value versus as a CEO, but the core values are kind of the same: honesty, trust, integrity, respect, and kindness. They're all essential for whether you're looking at life or looking at work.