Whoa, Man.

Growing up, I tended to have more guys as friends than girls. Fast forward 10,957 takeout coffees later, and here I am co-leading an agency with my fabulous female co-founder Liz Richardson that boasts a 100% female full-time employee roster. Nice one, Universe. Nice one. Captivate is wholly woman led and woman staffed. Not as part of a corporate girl power movement -- although I have spent plenty of time thinking about the additional barriers and difficulties women face in our work lives on so many levels including once children are a factor -- but purely as a result of skill and culture fit, and the fact that the CMA space does tend to skew female. Don’t believe me? Go to any CMA conference and do a quiet count. Women outnumber the men every time. But please, please, please don’t get me wrong: Many of the men I have met in our space are incredible. Smart and talented and supportive, working right alongside us to elevate and innovate. Many of them are in fact our allies. More on that last point in a moment.?

Being a woman-led and woman-staffed company informs every aspect of Captivate Collective. Our internal banter, our creativity, our values, our operating principles, policies and processes. Captivate is a manifestation of who WE are, what WE value. And we are Women. Something that Liz and I feel particularly strongly about is providing opportunities, when possible, to women with children who are seeking a more flexible and supportive alternative to The Grind. Too many women drop out of the workforce because it’s just too damn hard to continuously juggle things like immediate work demands and a demanding toddler. The toddler will eventually win. Or work travel versus school concerts. Or daycare expenses with 20% less pay than our male colleagues. Most of our CAP Consultants - our experienced and vetted CMA contractors - and administrative contractors are part-time working mums. It’s always a moment when their sweet babies or growing children make cameos at our team meetings. Each day, we actively embrace ways to do the work to support and elevate our female peers. Not just during the month of March, but 365 days each year. Not as a performative box-ticking exercise, but as foundational to how we run our business.?

The seven-person judging panel for our CAP Awards is an example of this all in practice. We are grateful and thrilled to have these two powerhouse women share their time, energy and expertise with us: Jeni Asaba, Head of Community at Jamf, and Allyson Havener, CMO at TrustRadius. Heavy hitters, right?! Yet, when the judging panel was announced, we did field criticism that the panel was not equally balanced along gender lines; that there should be more women represented. That we should have somehow done MORE to support women in our industry.

Us. Do more. Do more than be fully woman-founded, woman-led, woman-staffed, and woman-funded.

Do more than act with intention to actively, financially support talented women with children. Do more than actually be women who have the lived experience of being women in the workforce.

The truth is, we actually did do more. We reached out to several other high-profile CMA professionals whom we admire from across the various spectrums of diversity in our space, and who, for their various and totally valid reasons, weren’t able to make the commitment. (Even so, I recognize and acknowledge there is still much work to do in my own practice of active support and understanding). Yet since we at Captivate didn’t set out with any particular LinkedIn-facing agenda to showcase a perfectly gender-symmetrical panel of judges, we landed where we landed and are absolutely thrilled with all of our judges.

Now, back to that earlier point about allyship. Being an ally is incredibly important. Not just to us as women, but to all marginalized groups. Simply: The world needs more allies. And we are truly grateful for the support and mentorship of many men in our professional spaces. Too many to tag here, but I see you and I appreciate you. But real allyship isn’t about offering criticism on the gender balance of our judging panel. That’s kinda the opposite, IMO.

It’s “the daily, lifelong practice of empathizing with the experiences of systemically disadvantaged groups, looking out for biases, and actively using one’s voice and power to advance equity in all interactions.”

It’s about recognizing and supporting that as women, we are empowered and capable of making the best decisions for our business around the representation of women in our marketing and events, including the CAP Awards.?It's time to move beyond thinking that ticking boxes in marketing plans somehow changes things for women, and focus more on creating pathways that lead to meaningful opportunities for women in the workplace and elsewhere.