MarTech

Wonder Woman in Business, Cynthia McCollough

Cynthia McCollough

Cyndy McCollough is the founder of McCollough Consulting, a digital marketing agency specifically focused on professional services organizations. On a project basis, Cyndy manages rebrands, leads website redesigns, produces corporate video, and offers soup-to-nuts martech strategy and implementation.

Cyndy's understanding of the importance of customer journeys and user experience was forged early in her career in enterprise software sales, and she spent the next 20 years applying these best practices in-house for law firms. Now she is a leading voice in the legal marketing industry, a prolific marketing technology blogger, and a member of University of Richmond’s Customer Experience (CX) Advisory Board.

Cyndy lives with her husband, pup, and cats in Great Falls, VA.


Cynthia McCollough


A Couple of Cyndy’s Favorite Books

Bird by Bird

From the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author: An essential volume for generations of writers young and old. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this modern classic will continue to spark creative minds for years to come.

For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title:

“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”


How We Fight for Our Lives

From award-winning poet Saeed Jones, How We Fight for Our Lives—winner of the Kirkus Prize and the Stonewall Book Award—is a “moving, bracingly honest memoir” (The New York Times Book Review) written at the crossroads of sex, race, and power.

One of the best books of the year as selected by The New York Times; The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; Elle; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; and many more.

“People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’”

Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.


Connect with Cyndy

Blog: mccollough.consulting/digitalmarketingblog/

 Mobile: 202.569.1675

Email: cyndy@mccollough.consulting



Wonder Woman in Business, Meenakshi Iyer

MI_Headshot.jpg

Meenakshi Iyer

Meenakshi Iyer is a global citizen, an inclusive and collaborative servant leader, and a professional thinker and doer.  "Stop. Breathe. Think. Act." is her motto.

Born and raised in India, she has been in the US for over a decade now. She is fluent in four languages; and has lived and worked in 10+ cities in India and the US. She is passionate about democratizing access to, and opportunity for, people development across the world.

Meenakshi founded NorthStar Solutions and Services in August 2019 – as a 100% virtual business - to partner with mid-career IT/Agile professionals and leaders, and small to medium-sized businesses, globally, in designing successful outcomes for their transformation journeys, especially in this digital, VUCA economy. She partners with them to help them learn and adopt ‘Future of Work’ skills and behaviors such as: agile, collaborative, and inclusive ways of working; remote leadership; and impactful change communication.

A T-shaped servant leader with a 22-year international and interdisciplinary career in IT, Agile/Business Process Transformation, international healthcare, HR, and Training, she is a champion of cross-cultural and cross-functional leadership. Having started off in the non-profit healthcare sector in India where, among other things, she learned the inner workings of a regional eye bank, the breadth and depth of her professional experience span cultures, geographies, industries, and hierarchies.

Meenakshi is an IC Agile certified Agile Coach (ICP-ACC), and her Agile experience is in B2B product development and client implementation in the healthcare space in the US. She excels in the application of Lean and Human-centered Design in organizational and agile transformations. ​

As a professionally trained and an experienced ESL Trainer, she has helped hundreds of aspiring and working professionals become proficient in their use of business English. She is particularly empathetic towards the challenges faced by non-native speakers of English in the workplace; and has consistently worked towards making culturally competent communication central to creating inclusive work environments.

Meenakshi holds an Executive MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA; a BS in Physics from Bharathiar University, India, and an Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering also from India. She has an Executive Master's Certificate from MIT Sloan School of Management in Business Process Design for Strategic Management; and is a Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster®. She is currently on her path to earning an ICF-PCC credential as a Professional Coach.

An active member of the Lean In Agile community – a professional networking group for women professionals in the Lean/Agile space - Meenakshi is on the Catalyst team for the Washington DC area Spiral group. She lives in Ashburn, Virginia in the US, with her husband. In their free time, they enjoy going on road trips to the countryside, and visiting local wineries and breweries.

Meenakshi Iyer

Contact Meenakshi

Website: https://www.northstaratwork.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-iyer-northstar/

Twitter: @NorthStar_Nova

YouTube: NorthStar Solutions and Services - YouTube

Facebook: @northstaratwork



Wonder Woman in Business, Jory Des Jardins

jorysq Headshot.jpg

Jory Des Jardins

Jory Des Jardins is CMO of the @ Company, builder of an internet protocol designed to put control over online data and user experiences back into the hands of People. She is passionate about making capital funding and business-building resources available to talented, underrepresented founders. She is VC in Residence at the W Fund. Jory pioneered social marketing as Co-Founder and President of BlogHer, a media marketplace representing thousands of digital influencers, which reached 100 million monthly unique viewers at the time of its acquisition. Jory has advised dozens of scaling startups, focusing on companies that are evolving digital influence, social content, media models, consumer marketplaces, eCommerce, Blockchain/token-based economies, and AR/VR/MR. Among the companies she has formally advised are PracticalXR, Lifescape, AIKON, and the entrepreneur network SheWorx.

Jory Des Jardins

Connect with Jory

Company’s Website: https://atsign.com/

This tells the story of The @ Company and how @signs work.

LinkedIn newsletter:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/observations-from-week-work-tech-august-31-4-jory-des-jardins/

Social: @jory

Phone: 415.786.6126

Email: jory@atsign.com



Wonder Woman in Business, Heidi Turner

Heidi Turner Headshot.jpg

Heidi Turner

Heidi Turner is a Communications Consultant | Public Speaker | Instructor | Writer | Advocate

Heidi Turner is the founder and owner of Corporate Writers, and is passionate about helping women magnify their messages.

Heidi has written for clients in numerous sectors, including legal, technology, healthcare and finance. She has helped law firms establish their authority and build their clientele, and assisted local immigration organizations in increasing awareness of their services. She helps her clients find their authentic voices to engage their audiences and build their brand.

Heidi has a bachelor's degree in general studies from Simon Fraser University and currently instructs students enrolled in SFU's editing program. She frequently gives presentations to organizations about freelance writing, networking, starting and running a business and other writing-related topics. She has presented or spoken on panels for the Professional Writers Association of Canada, Editors Canada, Editors BC, MagNet, University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, University of the Fraser Valley, Magazines BC, and local arts and immigration organizations.

In 2013, Heidi was honoured with the Abbotsford Arts Council's Arty Award for Outstanding Artist in the Literary Arts. She spends her free time advising and mentoring fellow freelance writers on starting their business and networking. She previously founded a group for local business women to meet and discuss their career and business issues while supporting each other.

For four years, Heidi served on the national board of directors for the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC, now the Freelance Media Guild) as the BC Regional Director.

She is passionate about advocating for women's rights, diversity, and inclusion, and is especially interested in changing policies and language that are unnecessarily complex and exclusionary.

Heidi is based near Vancouver, British Columbia.

Heidi Turner

Connect with Heidi on LinkedIn or email at Heidi@Freemanmeansbusiness.com



 

Wonder Woman in Business, Anne Post

ANNE POST.png

Anne Post

Anne Post is an experienced lawyer and entrepreneur, with a celebrated litigation career spanning more than 20 years. Anne received her BA in Political Science – International Relations at the University of California at Berkeley and her JD from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She began her career in a large Kansas City law firm before launching her own practice which she maintained for 17 years. During her legal career Anne was repeatedly recognized by her peers as Best of the Bar.

In 2017, Anne made the jump into legal tech joining Xakia Technologies as Senior Vice President, North America. Anne brings to Xakia her passion for organization and efficiency, which translates to her heightened understanding of the needs of clients to achieve greater visibility and control over their legal function.

In 2018 Anne was appointed by then-Mayor Sly James to the board of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and now serves as board Secretary. In her “spare” time Anne is the co-owner and Director of an elite boys soccer club serving the Kansas City metro area. Anne lives in Kansas City Missouri with her husband and two sons ages 16 and 13.

Connect with Anne

Anne Post

Sr. VP, North America

Xakia Technologies

+1 816-729-6535

LinkedIn: in/anne-post-08a90010/




 

Wonder Woman in Business, Rae Ritter

Ritter_Rae_3.5x2.5.jpg

Rae Ritter

Rae Ritter is the Director of Client Service and Marketing at LISI, a boutique digital marketing agency that primarily serves law firms and lawyers. Rae provides digital marketing strategy and guidance and manages all aspects of the website design and development process from start to finish. With elevated client service as a core principle, she ensures that the websites are fully optimized and draws on more than 15 years of experience in the legal marketing industry.

Previously, Rae was the Senior Marketing Technology Manager at Ballard Spahr LLP, a national firm with 15 offices and more than 500 attorneys. During her tenure, she successfully led a new website build and the complete rebranding of all marketing collateral. Additionally, she was responsible for the firm’s external website, blogs, client relationship management (CRM) database, email marketing, and social media strategy. Prior to Ballard Spahr, Rae was Marketing Technology Project Manager at Dechert LLP, an international firm with nearly 1,000 attorneys. She managed the firm’s CRM database and spent a year seconded to the firm’s European offices deploying the CRM solution using techniques that were tailored to the cultures and languages of those offices.

Rae has been an active member of Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group and Legal Marketing Association for many years. Currently, she serves as the Communications Co-Chair for the Metropolitan Philadelphia Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association. Rae is a frequent speaker in these groups, plus the Philadelphia Bar Association and the Association of Legal Administrators. She presents training and educational sessions for lawyers and legal marketers on the following topics:

• LinkedIn Training for Lawyers and Marketers, both in group and one-on-one formats

• Project Management Essentials

• Social Media Check-up – What’s Missing From Your Law Firm Social Media Strategy?

• Other topics on website best practices on the LISI blog

Connect with Rae

Rae Ritter

Director of Client Service and Marketing

Legal Internet Solutions Incorporated
1500 Walnut Street, Suite 1500
Philadelphia, PA 19102
215-523-8580 x122
Rae@LegaLisi.com
www.LegaLisi.com

LinkedIn: in/raeritter/

We are digital artisans.TM