Her Story
About Elizabeth
I have been working in people operations and organizational development for 15 years, specializing in startups and small businesses. My journey has been shaped by being a person with learning disabilities, which has always made my grit stay alive and kept me hungry for more. On any given day, I work with several different startups simultaneously, starting my day with one company and ending with another. I could have 4 calls that cover everything from HR leadership, coaching, and employee relationships, to setting up payroll and doing payroll. One of my biggest achievements has been getting to work with startups and seeing them go from pre-revenue to Series A, including helping one raise $11 million. I've niched myself into startups and small businesses because it's an untapped industry, though it's often an overlooked area since everybody wants HR or organizational development when they're a big company, but they don't think about it as a need when they're a small company. This does make it tougher to get a full-time job because they don't always have the budget for it. However, the ability to hold multiples, because they're all fractional or consulting or part-time, allows me to have flexibility and be able to take on new clients when some are slightly going out the door, versus a full-time job where if you lose it, you have to fill just that one solid thing.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elizabeth
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm a people person. I make friends in an elevator. That's how you know I'm not a Gen Z.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice I've ever received is that it's okay to quit. Which goes against the saying of grit, but grit is, you know, you can keep going, but you also need to know when something isn't working, and to stop it, and then reposition yourself.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
It's really critical to identify the audience you want to work with and align yourself where they live. So, if they live on Slack and in message boards, you've got to live there. If they live at events, you've got to live there. You know, you don't want to go to big networking events that have big corporations if that's not your audience. If your audience is small businesses and startups, then you've got to live somewhere else.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is the unknowns. When you're a startup or you're a small business, there's a lot of things that can constantly change, like any company, but when you're a small business, those are far more detrimental. So, the constant unknown and instability of the company and your employment with them. However, the biggest opportunity is that because it's an untapped industry, and the ability to hold multiples, because they're all fractional, or all consulting, or all part-time, it allows me to have flexibility, and be able to take on new clients when some are slightly going out the door, versus a full-time job, if you lose it, then you have to fill just that one solid thing.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Transparency and autonomy.
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