How to Conquer that Meeting as the Only Girl in the Room.

Do you ever feel like you're ignored and interrupted more than your male colleagues or customers?

You're not alone. In fact, all women are more likely than their male counterparts to be interrupted in meetings. To make matters more complicated, men tend to talk 75 percent of the time in meetings, giving women just 25 percent of available airtime to contribute. As a woman in any field, particularly a male-dominated one, you might notice that when you're pitching or selling people look to your male colleagues for answers instead of to you.

It's frustrating!

So, how can you build credibility and start getting your due respect?

Use these tips to start creating a reputation as an authority and conquer any meeting as the only woman in the room.

Establish Credibility Online and In Person

Building out your LinkedIn profile is one of the easiest ways to build your professional credibility. Clients, customers and potential partners are bound to do a little online stalking before your meeting.

Filling out your LinkedIn page with recommendations, links to your projects and articles, and a strong social media network helps build your reputation. Create a digital marketing strategy for yourself. (Here are some really great recommendations from Larry Kim.)

Similarly, you can build credibility and respect with your internal team by establishing your authority on a particular topic before the meeting.

Let them know how you plan to contribute and show off your expertise. Decide where your voice will be a part of the conversation, even if you are not the presenter.

Discuss Your Role in Team Leadership

Acknowledging your role in a team is another way to build credibility in a meeting. Not only does noting your role as the head of a team let people know you're in charge, but giving due credit to teammates also reflects well on your ability to remain reasonable and humble as a leader.

You should also recognize the accomplishments of other colleagues and partners in the room. If you need to offer a critique later as the authority on a certain topic, they are more likely to trust you as a leader or credible source if you've built a positive rapport.

Establish Yourself as a Mentor

Become a mentor to others on your team and within the organization. This builds a reputation as a credible professional and gives you allies in every meeting. As you teach others how to problem solve, create and delve deeply into the important topics at hand -- you inherently build your own credibility on the topics. Your reputation will precede you into a meeting when you're known as the go-to mentor on vital subject matter.

Remain Confident and Personable

Most importantly, go into every meeting knowing that you have the right to be there and important contributions to make. Being ignored or overlooked in meetings can be deflating, but it's important to build yourself up with reminders about what you bring to the table.

Write a list for yourself about why you are a meaningful contributor to this meeting and if not, the company, use it as a reminder. Show your confidence with a smile and speak in a personable yet assertive way that invites conversation.

Being the only woman in the room often leads to her being drowned out. When you build credibility before the meeting, arrive prepared and feeling confidant, and contribute important information, you begin to send the winds of change in the right direction.

Before you know it, you'll be conquering the meeting and leaving the room feeling empowered. Only girl in the room, or not!

Lysa Miller is a partner at the award-winning digital agency, 3 Media Web in Hudson, MA. She is the original founder of ladybugz.com now a 3 Media Web company. She has been a source on Entrepreneur.com, Fortune.com, Business Insider, CIO, Daily Worth and Business Insider and blogger for MassVacation.com, along with a regular content contributor to various other online publications. Lysa is a the Founder of the MetroWest Women's Network, a professional network empowering women in MetroWest Massachusetts, and a co-founder of the collaborative workspace Cowork Hudson. She is also a mom of four, historic homeowner, vintage collector and Bikram Yoga enthusiast.