Explode The Glass Ceiling

Alex Charfen: There's no question that men and women are treated differently in the workplace. I've watched it for the last 25 years, and it's been challenging and frustrating and annoying like crazy. The numbers for the history of all time prove that women get paid on average about 80% of what men do. Ladies, it's time you shatter and explode the glass ceiling.

I'm Alex Charfen and this is The Momentum Podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to.

We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future. Instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real.

We are the evolutionary hunters. Clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent positive human evolution and we always will be. You can't argue with numbers. The gender pay equity gap is massive in the world. One of the countries where it's actually the best is the United States. We still have a gap where women on average get paid about 80% of what men do. However, you have to go a little further into these numbers to understand just how bad this really is because if you look at Fortune 500 CEOs, only 4.8% are women. If you look at executive teams in those same companies, in the United States, 22% of executives are women.

In Europe, it's only 15% of executives are women. There's no question that women are treated differently in the workplace, but let's be really honest. Women are treated differently by their doctors. Women are treated differently in the workplace. Women are treated differently just about everywhere. In fact, I've watched it with my wife. I've watched it for the entire time we've been married. A few years ago, we've been pretty public about this, a few years ago or a couple years ago, Cadey had what's called explant surgery. She had implants that she had put in after we had Kennedy removed.

The reason she had them removed is she was suffering from breast implant illness where the chemicals leeching out of her implants were literally going into her system and causing all types of physiological and psychological issues. They were crazy. We went to doctor after doctor and I watch them pat her on the back of the hand and say, "Oh, honey. It's because you guys have a business and you have kids. You need to breathe more," I don't think one of them ever said breathe more, "But you need to be calmer. Maybe you take some time off. Look, you guys are doing well. You don't really have to work."

None of them ever for a minute thought there could be actually legitimately wrong with her until she met Dr. Melmed in Dallas, until we went and saw him. He explained breast implant illness and how he stopped putting implants in 1993. He has been fighting against them ever since because they made so many women sick, but I watched how Cadey was all given the same lines. I guarantee you, 80% of entrepreneurial women have gone to the doctor with a legitimate issue or a complaint or a challenge and have been told they are fine. That's just how women are treated, and it's in the workplace. I've watched how when I said something, it was taken completely different than how Cadey did.

We've actually have vendors that Cadey would cut a deal with and they would call me just to make sure it was okay she cut the deal. I think like do we really want to have this vendor? I can't believe they're double checking on Cadey, but that's just how it is. That's with Cadey running her own business. If you're in the workplace, you are pretty much ... To say that there's a glass ceiling is really it's kind of unfair. It makes it sound too easy. When you look at the fact that only 22% of the executives in the United States are women and 15% in Europe, it just shows you and the gender gap, the pay equity gap, 80%, that's at white collar positions. That's not at executive positions.

It's even greater at the executive positions. Here's how you shatter the glass ceiling. You become an entrepreneur. You exploded by becoming an entrepreneur. Oprah Winfrey shattered the glass ceiling. She completely changed the game for what being a TV personality ever has meant in the history of TV personalities. She turned her brand into something that means so much. It means something one way, Oprah, the TV show, and of the entire brand, and then the other way, Harpo, the production studio, that has its own channel, that has done incredible things with different thought leaders, and I mean now is directing, producing, doing all kinds of stuff that doesn't even have anything to do with her show.

You look at it and she crushed the glass ceiling. She exploded it. I mean Oprah had superpowers. She could say your name and you are a bestselling author. Mention your product, it sells out across the country. She crushed the glass ceiling because she was willing to say enough is enough and she just did her own thing. Here's the way you shatter the glass ceiling is you take on the huntress and you remember who you are because you always, you know you have always been on the hunt. What is a huntress? A huntress is a woman who has given up on waiting around for equal rights and has decided to dominate instead. I have two daughters, nine and 11 years old, Regan and Kennedy. They absolutely love Taylor Swift.

A couple times we have taken the kids to a Taylor Swift concert. Taylor Swift blew up the glass ceiling in her industry. Not only does she fill stadiums and yank iTunes around ... iTunes was going to give music away for free for a few days and just have the artists lose the money and they were basically just saying, "This is what we're going to do to all the artists on iTunes," and Taylor Swift threatened to pull her entire collection of music off of iTunes if they didn't turn that around and changed the decision because they were basically going to take all of the other artist's money. iTunes, she pulled Apple back away from their promotion with one message.

Taylor Swift changed everything. The last time we took the kids to her concert, it was at the record setting concert of all time. The previous record was set by U2. It took four guys to do what one woman with two single person female artist underneath her, so not bands, she had Charli XCX and Camila Cabello, so three women did what U2 and two full bands did. On a person-to-person basis, they're about one to four and they crushed them. Taylor Swift shattered the glass ceiling. I have clients that are doing the same. Emily Hirsh, who recently just move here to Austin, runs the Emily Hirsh Agency and she does Facebook Ads for some of the most well-known people in the industry, in the information products industry.

Some of the biggest thought leaders out there. In the past two years, Emily has gone from having four people on her team to having I think today 24 or 26. She's gone from under a million dollars in revenue and in about the last year, she's got to over two ... Like now headed towards two and half million dollars in revenue. She's 24 years old, 24, and only works from 9:00 to 3:00 because she has two kids. Emily is absolutely knocking it out of the park. She does really well. Really well. She drives a Model X, the Tesla with the going doors, the mini van style Tesla or cargo or like small SUV style Tesla. She has a white one. It's a really nice car. She was at the grocery store a few days ago or last week I think.

A guy walked by and said, "Nice car. Your husband must do really well." Emily turned around and said, "No. I run a multimillion dollar company. I paid for this myself." She said that the guy almost fell down. One, probably because she was talking back to him, and two, because he probably couldn't even fathom that she had paid for that herself, but that just shows you what a level of prejudice there is against women. Emily, she could care less about any glass ceiling in place. I know she's going to have one of the biggest advertising agencies for online properties. Then if she decides to, she could one of the biggest advertising agencies of all time.

She's that type of entrepreneur. She's not the only one. I have other clients. Marley Baird, who is ... She runs Marley Baird Media, and she has helped us, our company, with our YouTube video. She just helped us with how to shoot them and how to make them better and how to make them so that people will watch them over and over again. In the time that we've been working together, she's more than doubled her business and that's less than six months. She flies around the country and helps people understand how to use the social media that's out there today to actually get the right type of attention, not just make noise. She's an incredible human being and is so good at what she does.

She's not looking at any glass ceiling. If you're in a place where you're working in a corporation, you're working at a place where you don't feel like you're getting the attention you need, I've got a suggestion to you. One, either become an entrepreneur. Two, go work for an entrepreneur. Because in our world, there is very little glass ceiling. In the entrepreneurial world, you can go as high as you possibly want. If you've always known you were meant for more and meant to do more and meant to be more and you've always had that crazy little voice in the back of your head that said, "Hey, you can do more. You should do this. You should take this risk. You should try this," I want you to know something.

That isn't the crazy part of you. That is the most rational part of you. That's not the risk taking part. That's the part of you that knows not doing this is an even bigger risk. If you're listening to me, you know you identify with huntress. Stop waiting for anyone to give you anything and just go out and dominate because that's what you're capable of. The Dalai Lama said that when the world is in the control of the Western women, things will get much better. Go ahead and just go crush it and take over because that's who you are and that's what you should be doing and that's what you are meant to do.

If you are running your own business and you're interested in getting some help building a team and growing your business and really taking things to the next level and understanding how to plan strategically with your team, take that strategic plan and communicate it to your team in a way that gets things done and then understand exactly how to build the infrastructure of people and process around you so that you can create absolute intense momentum with your team. Go to alexcharfen.com/apply. That's alexcharfen.com/apply and my team will follow up with you and we look forward to talking to you because if you're ready to grow the business you've always known you should have, alexcharfen.com/apply.