Nicole Stephenson, IOM

I attribute my success to not being afraid to ask for help. So many people don't ask for help because they're afraid to hear the word no, they're afraid that people will judge them, or they're afraid that means they're not qualified because they didn't do it on their own. But for me, I've always leaned on people. I'm a huge people person, and collaboration and networking have been central to everything I do. I truly believe that the more we can give to others, the more we receive unintentionally, and that has really been a pinnacle in my career - the amount of help I've given others, and they've given me in return without even asking, because it's just a natural thing that occurs. When I need something, I have no shame in going to my network and saying I need this, I need X, Y, and Z. When I started out, I didn't know anything about corporate America. I remember sitting with a 50-year-old man when I got to KYW News Radio and being like, what the hell is a 401K? My dad's a cop with a pension. I wasn't embarrassed - I was curious. I want to take away the stigma around asking for help and this idea that we have to struggle to prove ourselves. We don't have to struggle, and we shouldn't have to struggle to feel like we're better. I never understood the negative hype of every generation bashing the generation after them. When Gen Z started demanding money for their internships, I was like good for them - I wish I was that smart. I was paying $200 a month to park in the city and spending $300 a month on gas, basically paying to work for free. Asking for help has never been a sign of weakness for me. I'm a big fan of the rising tide lifts all boats philosophy - we're all better together. Being able to know that I don't know everything is also important to my success. I'm a lifelong learner and a perpetual student. I love taking classes, courses, professional development talks - I eat them up. I go to all the different chamber events, I just love hearing different people's perspectives and keeping an open mind.

I would say to follow your heart and your intuition. It's really hard, especially for young women, to not drown out all the noise that they're going to hear. There's a lot of noise out there, especially for young professionals and especially women, where you feel like you have to act a certain way. So I would just say to not give up and to continually go and ask for help. Don't be afraid to ask for mentorship - I think mentorship is one of the most important things that a young woman can do for themselves. When I say mentorship, I don't mean just going to someone older than you or someone in your industry. I almost look at it like a board of directors. When you have board of directors, you have someone in marketing, someone in sales, someone in accounting - you really fill it with different people so that you're covering all the bases in business. You should be doing that for yourself as a person as well. I even have mentors that are younger than me. Most people would say that's weird to have a mentor that's younger, because how could they mentor you if they haven't been there yet? But their perspective is newer and can give me something that I don't know, because challenges of the workplace change and they might be dealing with something that I didn't know existed yet. My advice would be to start building a board of directors that you can have counsel for in your career - different industries, different ages, different cultural backgrounds. Really diversify a board for yourself so that as you're navigating your career and even your personal life, you can call on those people to help you.

I think the biggest opportunities is almost one of the greatest challenges. There are so many support groups out there, associations, chambers - there's so many places you can invest your time and money that sometimes it becomes overwhelming. I've had people call me to literally ask me, I'm an entrepreneur, should I join your chamber or this chamber, or should I join NAWBO, which is National Association for Women Business Owners, or this or that? You really have to decide, especially as someone who's an entrepreneur or a small business, where you're going to get the most for your money, and sometimes that's hard to evaluate. It's really competing for people's time. Can you take 3 hours of your day to go to a lunch? Would it be worth the investment? Is it the networking, is it the content? Evaluating those things can be very challenging, especially for someone that's kind of on their own. The challenge and the opportunity are the same thing - it's the amount of support you can receive, but knowing where to receive it. Even for me as a new business owner, because I'm involved in so many different organizations, it's equally hard for me to choose because I know the value of them all. I always ask people, what are your goals? What are you trying to achieve? Because if you're an entrepreneur, NAWBO would be better because they have very specific content related to entrepreneurship. Whereas once you're already in and successful, then you might want to join a chamber because you actually have everything in the foundation and you just want to literally network and do B2B. The challenge in our industry is the competition to have the best content or the most to offer. Having yourself set apart to say we are making the impact or we are making the change - sometimes it was very difficult in the chamber world because there were so many of them. Being able to find where people are spending their time and being able to pull them in was always difficult for me, even with the amazing program. I can't tell you how disappointed I'd be when I had one of the first female astronauts come and only like 100 people come, and you're like oh my god, the whole freaking city should have been here. When the numbers aren't there, you get really disappointed, not just because you're not meeting budget or quota, but more for me the ability to have that content and to share it with others and inspire others.

My book is called Unapologetic, and it really is just about remaining true to yourself and not compromising your values. For a long time, because I'm so forward and blunt and honest, some of my past supervisors who were older men would constantly tell me I'm too loud, too much, share too much, tell too much - just too much of my personality involved in business. After writing the book and seeing the success that I was having, I realized that's actually my greatest strength. People know that I'm authentic, and they know who I am, and they know I wouldn't lie to them and I wouldn't sell them something. I was actually afraid that made me a bad salesperson because I would tell people, you know what, you shouldn't join us right now, you should go join so-and-so. But there's no point in having someone join and then leave because they're unhappy - there's no retention in that. I would rather them come to me when they're ready and then really commit and be supported. My values are just remaining truthful and honest and having integrity in everything I do, both personally and professionally. I've been told that I should run for politics quite frequently because I have a way of really having empathy and understanding, not necessarily agreeing with everyone, but understanding where people come from. Everyone's experiences and differences are their own, so you can't argue with someone on particular positions if they've experienced a traumatic thing or something that has influenced their decision that you don't understand at all because you've never experienced it. I've always had really uncharged dialogue because when people give me their position, I never argue from the perspective of defense. I just go, wow, tell me how you came to that conclusion. And then when they say it, I can actually empathize with them and say, oh, that's why you feel that way, I understand. For people to hear you say I see you, I hear you, I understand - that is so important in life. My greatest value is to see people and really see them.