A CEO: chief executive officer of a company, corporation, or
something similar. Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Donald Trump; all
of who are powerful men in the CEO world. They run an empire that keeps America
and the rest of the world in check. It is rare that a woman is in the same
sentence as CEO. That’s when SheEO, Vicki Saunders, steps in and changes
everything.
During a visit to Rollins College, Saunders
talked about her journey into taking control of her own life and chasing after
her dreams. Based out of Canada, her company, SheEO, invests in women
entrepreneurs who are determined to step out of their shell and not be another
statistic. According to CNN, only 14.2% of women are in the top five leadership
positions at companies. “SheEO is here to wake women up and encourage them to
change the world,” Saunders explains to the student audience filled with women,
“I feel like, during this time of the 21st century, everything is
broken.” She elaborated and said that although everything might not be
physically broken, things are extremely out of place. “Take a look at Silicon
Valley, for example, places like Facebook and Apple are encouraging women to
freeze their eggs, so can to work harder and push their lives back,” said
Saunders.
According
to Apple and Facebook, both companies have benefits including offering women to
freeze their eggs. This suggests that women should put their careers first
instead of their own lives and families. “It is kind of funny that Silicon
Valley would have benefits like that, especially since there are apps being
produced that basically replace your parents,” laughs Saunders. Apps like Uber,
Grub Hub, and Alfred cater to tasks such as driving, food services and even
laundry. Saunders suggested that it was because since entrepreneurs no longer
have a helping hand, why not let an app do it for them!
“I wanted
to start SheEO to break away from the stereotypical CEO deal. I wanted
something that could impact women and encourage them to do what they want,”
said Saunders. SheEO was a company inspired by Saunders’ desire to create a
space for women to be great. The company allows women investors to donate
$1,000 in hopes of eventually raising one million dollars to loan out to women
entrepreneurs. “The idea is to make the money recycle within the company and by
giving women loans with 0% interest, it will allow these ladies to accomplish
great things.” In the arena of start-ups and incubators where companies are
desperate for investors, Saunders made it point only to have women invest in
her company. Many men have tried to invest, but she has been adamant about
saying no. “We’ve had to stick to our guns. We’ve had CEO fathers wanting to
donate to us, hoping their daughters could one day benefit from our
organization, but we had to say no,” said Saunders. Keeping the company in the
female arena insured that it was a company for women by women.
This is something that Saunders
wished she had when she first started out on her dreams when she was in Prague
during the fall of the Berlin wall. “It was so incredible to see, it was like
one day, there was a tank on the street limiting people from doing what they
wanted, and then one day…. A flip was switched and suddenly everyone was free,”
she sighed, “I realized that I was free too.” It encouraged Saunders to take
the initiative to then start her own English language school in Prague. Shortly
afterward, she went to India and bought her first store of clothing. She then
encouraged her other girlfriends to join her in her crusade. “It was so nice to
be free and do what I wanted; it started something in me… and now I can’t stop
running businesses!” she laughed to the audience, “it was also cool to get
people excited about the same things that I was excited about.”
The groups of students in the room
seemed to get a kick of Saunders’ presentation and were searching for guidance
to potentially run their very own companies in the future. “What is the most
beneficial thing you learned from SheEO?” asked student Mallory Gladman, “Oh
boy! Hmm… I’ve certainly learned a lot from SheEO and my time with building
businesses in general… what I have to say as the most beneficial thing that I
have learned is – It’s always harder than you think it is,” sighed Saunders, “I
had a 5-year lens, now, it has changed to a 20-year lens. Always be able to
adapt to new things, that is extremely important.” Saunders elaborated and
said, “I may have failed… hell! I fail every day. But I have crazy big dreams,
I stress about things, but I try not to let any of that steer me away from the
main goal.”
It took some of the most successful
women many tries to get where they are now, do not let fear get in the way of
your dreams… as many may say, “Rome was not built in a day.”
