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As someone who has spent years building and nurturing communities for professional women, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative the right group can be. Community isn’t just about networking—it’s about belonging, growth, and finding the strength to tackle life’s biggest challenges. When you’re part of a supportive community, you realize that success is never a solo journey. And that’s why Community is the word I’ve chosen for 2025.
In the realm of business, sales, and leadership, the pursuit of excellence knows no gender. Yet, for women in leadership roles, the journey to the top often comes with its own unique set of challenges. In a world where glass ceilings still exist, daring to be number one requires resilience, determination, and a relentless pursuit of success. It’s about breaking barriers, shattering stereotypes, and carving out a path that not only challenges the status quo but redefines it.
Self-confidence can be a big differentiator between people who achieve their goals versus those who do not. You must know yourself, grow yourself, and believe in yourself to be an effective leader and businesswomen. Economies go up and down, technology is constantly changing, markets shift, and new competitors come along. While we all face challenges, an accurate yet healthy sense of self can help get you through the tough times.
Judy Hoberman is president of Selling In A Skirt, a company focused on empowering professional women. She’s an award-winning international speaker, best-selling author, trainer and leading authority on women in leadership and sales. With over 3 decades in business, she combines wisdom and humor with her behavior shaping strategies and is often described as "transformational." She was a TEDx speaker, as well as the author of four books, including "Selling in a Skirt" and "Walking on the Glass Floor."
We’ve all heard about love at first sight. It’s a feeling you get that is amazing and you just know you want to continue this forever. What about in business? Do you ever meet someone, and you just know they hear you, get you and you want to create amazing things together? While it may not be love at first sight, it could be connecting on another level that is powerful and authentic. We’ve all seen the inspirational posters that tell us to imagine success.
Sometimes your goals are so big, they don’t seem possible. Your most powerful tool is your mind … if you can visualize it, it can happen. The best way to predict your future is to create it. We’ve all seen the inspirational posters that tell us to imagine success. They may seem trite or overly simple, but the truth is that many of the top people in their fields use visualization techniques as part of their road map to success.
When you think of someone in the C-Suite or Executive level, what picture comes to mind? Most people see power, prestige, prosperity, and influence … right out of a scene from a movie. There is also another piece of this perfect puzzle that many do not see. There are many names for it, I’ll call it The Lonely Leader.
When a woman is asked what she brings to the table, the conversation can take many different directions, and the responses can be quite eye-opening. Let’s start out with a few facts that are pretty important to know, to understand and to be aware of … as you might be sitting in front of your next valuable leader.
Did you ever notice that when money, positioning or negotiating comes up in conversation, it almost always feels negative? Why is that? If you ask the “experts” they will tell you that it is probably some stories that you were told when you were younger…and that is partially true.
Are you an Executive Woman in Sales? You are my people! My goal is to empower professional women and give them the tools they need/want/deserve to be successful. Stop being ok with doing ok.
My business is based on my strategic triangle-speaking, coaching and training. I use this model so I stay focused. As entrepreneurs, we tend to be shiny object people. Knowing that I have 3 important services that I provide makes me stay laser-focused on what I do. When 2020 rolled in I was really excited. My calendar was already full and I had more speaking and training on the books for the year and it was just starting. I always have a word for the year and for 2020, it was “SHIFTING”. It originally meant I was shifting into high gear…and then March 13th hit and I realized how relevant that word was going to be.
ADDISON (CBSDFW.COM) – During the Recession, Judy Hoberman left her corporate job training sales people to start her own consulting firm. Hoberman says her friends thought she was “totally nuts.” “In this economy to leave a good job with benefits and a good paycheck, everything you wanted and to go to nothing, it was a little scary,” she said…more
As a sales professional, how can you put the real “you” forward in an increasingly digital environment that can feel impersonal? Where are the opportunities to stand out and distinguish yourself from the field? At a time where trust is — according to the State of Sales 2021 — the No. 1 quality that buyers value in sales professionals, authenticity has emerged as an essential quality. As author Marianne Williamson once wrote, “Trust is very hard if you don’t know what you’re trusting.”
Picture this, I am walking off the stage after my first speaking engagement with a company. I am feeling great and saw that what I shared made an impact as the audience laughed, nodded, and applauded. As I go back to my seat, I am met with a glare from the person in charge….with this comment…”The next time you are in front of the field, don’t tell any more of your stories. All you salespeople like to do is talk about yourselves …what kind of impact can there be in storytelling?” I thought it was both valuable and empowering…she had a different agenda. …more
Think about this … I was planning on putting on a telesummit with 25 other women. I had hand-selected them, had the email invitation to them, and was excited to be organizing and facilitating it, until those words creeped into my brain – I’m not big enough or famous enough or smart enough. I even threw in tall enough and told my husband I was cancelling it before I even got started. He asked me why and I gave him my spiel of the “enough” nonsense. He looked at me and said, very calmly and lovingly, “are you nuts?” He continued with “People want to be around you. They trust you and admire you. They respect who you are and how you are in it for them. Don’t let them down.” What do you say to that?...more
Judy Hoberman, the head honcho at Selling in a Skirt: “At the end of the year I go through a process I call the 3 Rs: REVIEW, READJUST and RELEASE. This will apply to your programs, your talks, your message, your brand and yes…sometimes your people. If it isn’t working try and fix it. If it isn’t fixable it’s time to release it.”
If you are old enough to remember floppy disks, syntax errors, bits and bytes and Dos, you will also remember thinking and wondering why you didn’t get every piece of information that you needed pouring out at your request. Unfortunately, we were reminded that what you put in, is what you get out. That is not any different with your mind. Your mind can be your best friend or your biggest critic. It depends on what you feed it every day. When you wake up in the morning do you think about everything you didn’t finish the day before or do you start the day feeling like you are excited about getting the day started? …more
Think about this…as a speaker, you have an event coming up. You talk to the organizer or meeting planner about who the audience is, what their expectations are and what the message is that they want you to share and are prepared to accomplish that. You review your talking points and are excited to really offer the attendees exactly what you were told they needed. You’re a bit nervous as you always are before a talk and then…you walk in and the audience is not who the planner told you they would be, the message you have is not relevant to them and you know that there is no way you will relate to them or them to you. All you wanted was to connect with them…more
As someone who has been the only woman in many of the industries I have been a part of, I often think back at why that was appealing to me. Sometimes I simply scratch my head and have no answer and other times I know it was more than the position or industry that brought me in … to me it was all about the culture. When I speak or train or am asked to help a company bring more women into their business, I go back and see if their invitation to invite women in is the message they are sharing. When I started out in my sales career, I was not hired for my intellect or sales ability … I was going to be the face of the company. more
Many years ago, I was a manufacturer’s rep in the gift industry, I remember how long the holiday season seemed to be. We started selling for the holidays in January, shipping in July, reordering in August and continuing the process. I remember one of my largest clients saying this to me, “ more
When we were kids playing outside, we would come up with all sorts of games. Some involved running, some involved flying through the air on swings, and some involved balls to hit, throw, or kick. We were on teams and figured out who would do what and where. There always seemed to be one person who directed or suggested or moved us along and we knew that was the leader … at least for that moment.. more
According to the American Institute of Stress-80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage stress. This past week I had numerous coaching calls with clients and while some things were going better than they had hoped for there were some things that were causing them to feel overwhelmed and not enjoying what they really loved to do. I listened and asked lots of questions and realized more
Recently I attended an event hosted by my business coach Tony Jeary. It was a great way to meet new people (and explore how we can support each other) and there was one request that Tony made that really made this event special: each guest was asked to bring three of their favorite books to the event, put them on the table next to the registration… more
When you imagine what generosity looks like, what images come to mind? Children sharing toys or snacks? People donating money to a cause? Groups coming together to support families in need? These are wonderful examples, and I have been fortunate to participate in all of these.more
Judy Hoberman has been excelling as a salesperson since she was a Girl Scout peddling cookies door-to-door. “People always told me I was a real people person, so I naturally assumed that if you’re a people person, you need to be around people…more
According to “Women in Leadership: Obstacles and Opportunities,” a report from the Filene Research Institute, 53 percent of all credit union CEOs are female and 70 percent of CU employees in the U.S. are women – numbers that far…more
“I ran out of time.” “I can’t do everything myself.” “I didn’t have enough information.” Excuses are the lies we tell ourselves to make us feel better for a lack of action that leads down the path to failure. As we fly past the midway point of 2017, think…more
Let me begin by making a profound statement… Men and Women are different. Why is that important? Studies show that women influence 85 percent of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care. Women account for…more
