I asked her to mentor me in an elevator

Published about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Reader,

I want to share something a little different with you today.

I'm a founding member of G-Woman Media, a global digital multimedia company amplifying the voices of women who are (G)ifted, (G)enius, and (G)amechangers, and they recently published a piece I wrote for their magazine on Goodwill. It's more personal than most of what I put out into the world, because it's really the story of how I came to believe what I believe about business, and the people and experiences that shaped me along the way.

It all started in an elevator at the Boeing Leadership Center when I was 26.

I had two floors to ask Anne Roosevelt (Eleanor Roosevelt's granddaughter), who was leading Boeing's global corporate citizenship work at the time, to be my mentor. My heart was pounding. I delivered my entire pitch in less than thirty seconds, and holy moly, she said yes on one condition... that it would be a two-way mentorship.

That moment, and the years that followed, shaped how I understand the role business can play in the world. It's a big part of why I eventually walked away from the hustle-harder, profit-at-all-costs model that dominates so much of the online business space, and built something rooted in deep conviction-driven ideas instead.

Here's why I think it matters for you, too.

This piece is about more than the well-worn conversation about purpose versus profit, though that's part of it. It's really about giving yourself permission to evolve what you've built, especially when you can feel that you've outgrown it.

Most of the women I work with are standing at one of two defining moments:

The first is when a genuinely new chapter is calling and your business needs to become something different.

The second is when what you've built is good but you know it's capable of more, and so are you.

For reasons that range from personal to professional and everything in between, most people avoid admitting that the business they've built no longer reflects who they've become. That business is still yours... but it was built by a previous version of you, and she didn't know then what you know now.

That's the throughline of my story, and it might be where you are right now.

I'd love to know what shaped your own beliefs about the kind of business you really want to build. Hit reply and tell me.

xo, Jess

I work with female founders at professional inflection points, when the next decision feels weighty and hard to see clearly from the inside. In my weekly newsletter, I write for women navigating decisions that don’t have obvious answers. You can expect straightforward insights that challenge you to think about whether your business is actually built to last.