- [Narrator] Live from your public media studios WVIA presents "Keystone Edition Business" a public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is "Keystone Edition Business."

And now moderator, Steve Stumbris.

- Hi, I'm Steve Stumbris.

Women are on the rise when it comes to business.

In Northeastern and central Pennsylvania, most women run businesses are in the healthcare, education and manufacturing industries.

So what does it take to be a successful woman in business?

What are the challenges?

We have experts here to answer these questions and share their stories.

If you have questions, you can email us at keystonewvi.org or tag us on social with the #keystonebusiness.

But first, Paul Lazar has more on women in the business community.

- [Paul] The number of women starting and leading their own businesses has surged in recent years.

The number of businesses owned by women grew by almost 17% from 2012 to 2019.

Despite the growth women still face barriers to entrepreneurship.

Access to capital is just one of those barriers.

The Harvard Business Review reported that women led startups receive less than 3% of all venture capital investments.

And it's even harder if all the money they raise comes from other women because the perception is that the investors contributed based on gender not ability.

Gender bias and lack of a support system are also problems for many women who are entrepreneurs.

One way women can build a support system is by joining a networking group, either online or in person.

Many of these networking groups hold workshops and conferences that help build support systems and help get access to other resources like funding, loans and other professional development.

For more information, head to WVIA.org.

For Keystone Edition Business, I'm Paul Lazar.

- Hi, I'd like to introduce our panelists here to share their stories.

First, we have Dr. Katie Leonard, the president and CEO of Johnson College in Scranton.

Next Ayana Ife is a modest fashion designer based in Danville.

And finally, Paula Mackarey is joining us.

She's the publisher of "Happenings Magazine."

Thank you very much for joining us.

I'm really looking forward to this conversation about female foundation, about women in business.

Now, to start off the conversation I'd like to ask each of you, Katie, starting with you, what were the steps that you took to get to the position where you're at now?

- Sure, so when I was younger I really had no idea what I wanted to do.

It's one of the things I admire so much about our students at Johnson College.

They're so focused, not me, not so much.

I really wanted to just manage rock bands.

So my parents said that wasn't a game plan.

So when I went to college, I did the next best thing and I majored in English in my undergraduate and still just wanted to get out there and work.

So I gained experience after I graduated and I just kept saying yes to as many opportunities that were thrown my way.

And while I was in York, my last position there before I moved up to Northeastern Pennsylvania was as the executive director of Downtown Inc.

Which was our Main Street program.

So focused on small business, economic development, community development.

And then I came up here and I started at the college in marketing and development and fundraising and just grew from there.

And again, I had a wonderful mentor in my predecessor, Dr. Ann Pipinski, who was the president at the time.

And she just kept giving me opportunities and I just kept saying yes.

And eventually when she retired, I put my my name forward for the president and CEO position through a search committee, and I was selected.

- That's an amazing trajectory from engaging with small businesses that we've, and we've talked about that a lot on Keystone Edition to saying yes ultimately to be the president of Johnson College.

What was it like saying yes to that step, to that role, right now?

- Yeah, I think I cried a little bit.

I'm not gonna lie.

It was a big moment in my life and for my daughter to see that that was very important.

But it was something that ultimately I was striving for.

I just maybe didn't know it along the way.

- Being a role model for your daughter and for other women to see you in this role, how important is that?

- It's very important, especially as our female population of students grow at Johnson College.

We tend to have more what's still considered unfortunately, non-traditional careers.

So when you think about construction and transportation and the trades, I think it's still traditionally thought of as more men go into those trades.

And while we still see that I'm very happy to report that we are still seeing, we're starting to see more women enroll in those programs.

So it's very important to me for them to see me and be visible and to encourage them and all that they do.

- I sense that's a theme that we're going to touch on this evening, is women being underrepresented in a particular industry or type of company.

So thank you for sharing that.

- [Katie] Of course.

- Ayana, I'd like to ask you the same question.

Tell us about where you are now, what and what steps you took to become a fashion designer, the founder of your own company.

- Absolutely, so actually I knew what I wanted to do for when I was really young.

Yeah, my mom taught me how to sew when I was six.

And I was always getting these hand-me-downs from my older sisters.

I have five older sisters.

And so I would make adjustments to them.

I would change them, I would add bows, what have you.

And my friends noticed that and would ask me, "Well, where'd you get that?

Can you make me one?"

And so, even though I was such a quiet child, it was those recognitions from my friends and from people in my community that wanted what I was doing that saw greatness in my work.

And so, it really brought me out of my shell.

And I kept designing and I kept selling my work.

And I knew even from a very young age, actually that I wanted to be a fashion designer.

I didn't know all the steps to get there.

But once I graduated with my bachelor's degree in apparel design, I said, you know what?

I wanna make this brand for women.

And so I kept sewing, I kept attending shows.

I would travel, I would ask questions.

I would always be looking for what is my next step.

I did, I got a lot of recognition from my work.

I did a TV show called Project Runway where I was a runner up in the very end I showed my collection at New York Fashion Week.

I specialize in modest apparel.

And modest fashion is a category of clothing where women wear less skin revealing clothing for reasons of personal preference, age, protection from the sunlight, religion, faith, there're a number of reasons why women want to cover more than average.

And I offer them the opportunity to dress in a modest way that represents their values but to do it fashionably.

And so now, once I got my master's degree in business I'm now creating Ayana Active which is a sustainable sportswear brand that's actually made in the United States for underserved modest consumers to be able to have that representation to be able to exercise in comfortable textiles with the perfect fit and to have their modesty represented in a chic way.

- And the attention that you received early on for your work through Project Runway how did that build into going back for more education and then coupling that together with the aspiration to be a business owner to do this under your own agency than perhaps being employed by someone else and developing within their ecosystem?

- Yes, I think that's a great question.

So when I got off of Project Runway, when I finished the show, I was getting a lot of inquiries online.

So I was making a little of this and a little of that.

I had my own studio.

I had three interns that were working with me and we were cranking out designs.

One day, it was a woven shirt.

The next day it was a sportswear piece.

It was a lot of different things that I had shown on the show, and it was specific pieces from my portfolio that people were interested in.

So it was great that I was getting traction but as a designer, I know my strength is in creation.

My strength is in making beautiful garments but my strength was not in business.

And I knew that there, if this is something I wanna do for the rest of my life I need to take the next step.

And I thought to myself, well, what could that be?

And so I'm like, you know what?

I need a business degree.

So I decided to go back to school for business.

And it was a really big step.

And I enlisted help from my followers on social media to help raise funds so that I could go to school.

It was my own little campaign, you could say.

And so my followers, we raised over $11,000 in a month.

And I used that money to live in Italy for the year that I was studying, 'cause I had paid my own way.

And then I also, I had a scholarship because I had really good grades.

And so my followers helped me live in Europe essentially for almost a year while I was studying.

So when I came back from Italy, I was interning in New York City with Zach Posen in Manhattan.

And then after that I said, okay, it's time.

So I started putting together in my business plan and COVID came and kind of changed a few things.

And now I'm bouncing back.

I'm out here in Danville, Pennsylvania.

I've established my design studio inside of the Drive Business Incubator which has also helped me get a lot of resources for perfecting my business plan for even doing my product pitches, and even getting my first investor.

So it's been quite a road.

- That's an amazing path from the awareness that you gained from having that exposure, but how you built on that education and then the work of founding your own business.

- [Ayana] Absolutely.

- So Paula, I'd like to ask you similarly you've been the publisher of "Happenings Magazine" and you've seen that grow you've seen that diversify including into online platforms and more expanded the reach of that as a media happening itself.

Can you tell us about the steps you took through your career?

What led you to that and what led you to the role that you have now as publisher?

- Well, I graduated from Marywood University in 1993 with a communications degree.

And that was probably a good fit for me because I enjoyed the writing, but I also enjoyed the creativity.

And I don't know that my parents would've thought fondly of something that was just in the arts at the time.

So when I graduated I really wasn't sure what I was going to do with a communications degree because you could either do a little or a lot.

And I did not really know what I was going to do.

But I had done a lot of internships including one where I think I came to this building in about 1994.

I was working on a newsletter for the American Advertising Federation and also at Mary Wood, I had worked on the newspaper.

So through the internships, I got a call.

The couple who had previously produced "Happenings" the wife was ill, and although he had six children not one of the children wanted to take it over.

I believe they saw the hard work that was involved and the slim profitability ratio that it produced.

So the owners went to one of their largest advertisers and they were involved with the Visitors Bureau.

And so I had done a lot of work with the commissioners at the time and the internships and so forth.

So it was presented to me and I realized that it was a perfect fit and it was probably something I had waited my entire life for.

As a child, I loved to write letters.

We had a lot of the country relatives where I would communicate a lot with letter writing.

And so I suppose it was a natural fit to produce something that the recipient would be excited to receive and read.

- Well, thank you.

So the next question I have, Paula, actually for you on the topic of women in leadership, as Sheryl Sandberg a notable technology executive has developed into an advocate nationwide throughout the world for women in leadership roles, she has coined the phrase Lean In.

And some of the things that she advocates for are women finding a seat at the table and making their voices heard.

But some hear that as making a voice louder.

I gather that's not entirely how you interpret that.

Can you expand on your perspective on that?

- Right, for sure.

Well, I am a fan of Sheryl Sandberg and many of the things that she says, including that if you're going to be a woman in business and have a partner, you need to have a partner's very supportive of what you do.

And she certainly talked about that with her late husband, but the one quote that I kind of think is misinterpreted a little bit is about little girls.

I see a lot of quotes going around don't call a little girl bossy, call her a leader.

And I always took a second look at that because when I interview people I've been lately asking them whether they are more more an introvert or an extrovert.

And I think that there's a bias against introverts for a misconception of what people think they are.

They think that they're quiet people that hide in the back.

And so when schools are taught to say, oh, well, that bossy child on the playground is a leader, I kind of disagree with that or just ask you to take another look at that.

Because leaders I think sometimes need to listen more than they do speak.

And while having a strong voice is necessary there's a little example of something that happened to me in about 2011, 2011, I was on the board of the Scranton Chamber, and it was kind of a new experience for me because I was a small business owner and I was seated in between big corporate people.

It was a wonderful, wonderful learning experience.

And one day I was asked to a separate office, and I thought that they were going to talk to me and say, "You really need to speak up a little bit more.

You need to contribute a little bit more."

Because I found myself listening more than I was speaking because I was learning.

And it turned out they were asking me to be the chairperson of the board.

And so that kind of gave me insight that you don't have to talk just to say something to make your voice heard as a female, I think that feminism can look like many different things and we should not stereotype it as having one look or one sound or one voice.

- Oh, Katie, I saw your head nodding.

You're seeking to engage in this as a leader yourself, reflecting on your role and how you approach leadership?

- Sure, well, I think, Apollo made a really important point, and that's like just the importance of listening and being able to really listen to different viewpoints.

And not just to listen, but to understand and to synthesize be able to synthesize those points and then come up with an idea that's even stronger from where it started.

I think if you're gonna be a leader, that's a critical skill in understanding that you're there to help each other and make each other better.

And it's not a competition.

It's really to, again, listen to understand and to be empathetic.

I think that's something that is lost on a lot of people today.

- Do you think women bring that empathy, the listening the synthesizing across people as a strength?

- I do.

I sometimes think we lack the confidence to maybe speak up but I think where we shine is some of those skills that are just, I find so inherent in women they just come so naturally to us, to listen to care, to nurture, to encourage, and then that breeds leadership, confidence, and leadership.

- Well, before we continue this conversation I wanna share the stories of a few local business leaders who are women in downtown Pittston where the business community is booming right now and there are a number of these new businesses cropping up alongside well established businesses.

What makes Pittston unique, however is the number of businesses with women leaders.

WVIA caught up with some of them, and here are their stories.

(upbeat music) - The mission of the Chamber is to essentially make sure that we've got a strong business community within the greater Pittston area.

We've been seeing a lot more engagement from women.

- We have a lot of support from the community of Pittston.

- Starting your own business is really scary.

- Constantly having to put yourself out there.

- It's hard, finding your voice.

- It's super empowering to be my own boss.

It's really cool.

It's like being the architect of the glass ceilings that I'm eventually gonna shatter.

- The barrier to entry into a fitness business is always hard because the industry was so dominated by males.

- That I must not like whiskey because I'm a girl.

I probably prefer vodka.

Little do they know, I like brandy.

- I used to work for manufacturer and we were at a trade show the one time literally on my hands and knees demonstrating a product.

How about 10, 15 customers around me watching me do this?

And one of the other sales reps comes in tasks me on the shoulders like, honey, honey I need someone to make a dinner reservation for me.

Poor guy never had dinner reservations because I just looked at him like he was crazy.

- We women wear a ton of hats, and I am a mom.

- Sometimes you feel like you're failing your family.

- These women are living and breathing what they do.

- Realizing that you can't do it all yourself.

- You have to find females that you can be vulnerable with.

There is a staff of 10 of us here at Broadway on the Boulevard, and nine of them are women.

- And recite fitness factory houses five different women owned businesses.

- Being a woman in general is so magical and powerful that we wanna make strong women here at Broadway on the Boulevard.

- Building each other up is really important to us but we find that people build us up too.

- And it's just great to empower other women.

- There's no perfect time to do anything in life.

- You just have to go for it.

- The reward on the other side of those obstacles being able to say, this is mine.

I own this.

I created this has been worth it every single time.

- So if you believe in you and you believe in your purpose and your why, you will be successful.

- You can do it all if you just put your mind to it.

- It's never too late to do what it is that you want to do.

- When I think about being a woman in business, I don't often form that distinction for myself.

I'm just doing my thing in business.

- We heard from these women business owners, some of whom remarked on being new to an industry or being a leader of being a woman in that industry.

Ayana, I wanted to ask you about that about the role of bringing a new innovation to a market.

Can you talk about the perhaps responsibilities or pressure and well the inspiration that that can bring by being first?

- Sure, it's really interesting because I think that you might be the first to do something.

This could be to attend college.

This could be to pursue a degree that's different from other members of your family.

So you could be the first to do something in your family.

You could be the first to do something in your community, in your town.

You could be the first two trail blaze in your industry.

And it's really important to step into your power and to bring out the confidence that you can with you along the way.

So you could also be the first to be, you could also be the first to, or the only person in the room doing a specific thing.

So this is what I'm trying to say is, and it's okay it can be very nerve-wracking at times to be the only person.

Say for example, for me, I enter into rooms where many times I'm the only person that looks the way I look.

I'm the only person that dresses the way I dress.

And many years ago that would scare me, that would make me feel like I didn't belong.

That would make me feel like, like I didn't deserve a a seat at that table.

And I had certain doubts about that.

Now that I've traveled, that I've grown, that I ask questions that I have continued to step into who I am.

I understand that that uniqueness uniquenesses that we all bring as individuals we should wear those as a badge of honor.

And we should be proud to be something that's a little bit different.

And that's really how I feel about that.

- I appreciate the innovations that you are bringing and any table that I've been at with you or any room that I've been at with you, you are the best dressed person.

- Why, thank you.

- So continuing on this, we also heard in that video about seeking out a network, seeking out supporters.

Katie, can you speak to that, the role of finding your community.

- [Katie] Sure.

- And even mentors and the importance of well, offering yourself as a mentor to others.

- Absolutely, yeah.

I think it's really, I think mentorship is really important.

Even talking to employers where our graduates are paired with someone more seasoned when they start at a company, that student, that graduate then tends to stay longer and has more satisfaction in their job.

So it's critically important to connect with people that share a little bit of what you wanna do or you're aspiring to do.

And to really, again, help kind of quell that self-doubt that I feel as women just sometimes comes more naturally to us than it should.

So it's kind of those types of things that I think mentors can help individuals with.

- That self-doubt, overcoming that.

- [Katie] Yes.

- Could I ask others to jump into that conversation about that, about that mindset?

- [Ayana] Sure.

- About what you need to have in yourself to to overcome those doubts that may occur.

- Definitely.

I think that positive thinking is really important.

And if you can bolster your thought process.

And one thing that you can do to help with positive thinking is routines.

You can establish certain routines, for example reading certain books, self-help books, you can read that will kind of train your mind to think in a way that is more positive.

Also, what I like to do in the morning is write down three things that I'm grateful for.

I find that physical activity helps boost a sense of positivity.

So if I'm waking up with gratitude, writing down those things, and then I'm going out and I'm doing physical activity, and then I head into my work day and I keep my routine going, it helps me to have that positive outlook on life because your thoughts are gonna influence your actions and they're gonna influence whether you're gonna be more outgoing or if you're gonna be more negative about the things that you could or couldn't have and the things that you could or couldn't even achieve as a woman who is either an entrepreneur or doing something in various aspects of business.

- As we come to the close of our program.

Paula, one thing, one piece of advice or one resource out there that you hope that women who see themselves as business leaders could pursue?

What should they know about?

- Well, I think taking advantage of every opportunity, even if you approach an opportunity and it tells you that that is something that you don't want to do every opportunity is just continuing.

As someone said once, you're paying tuition every day.

And when you're asking about confidence, I think that experience certainly brings confidence, but knowing that you will never know enough, but you're comfortable in a realm of, this is a new experience for me.

I didn't know about it before, but there's always going to be something that I'm not going to know so I'm just going to learn.

- Keep learning.

Well, thank you.

I'd like to thank each of our guests, Katie, Ayana, Paula, thank you so much for participating in our program tonight.

For more information on this topic please visit WVIA.org Keystone Business.

And remember, you can watch this episode on demand online anytime, or on the WVIA app.

For Keystone Edition, I'm Steve Stumbris, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)