Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit Recap by Shayla Look
Hello and welcome! I’m Shayla, the Social Media Coordinator at MediaMandy Agency, and also the first recipient of the MediaMandy Conference Scholarship. This new scholarship program that sends students in Los Angeles to conferences, covering their ticket price, transportation and food for the day(s) of the conference. I was lucky enough to attend the Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit, run by the UCLA Anderson School of Management, after a day surrounded by insightful and inspiring women I felt as if, I too, could conquer the world.
The Conference
This one-day conference was held at the Skirball Cultural Center, a beautiful setting that is worthy of a day trip all on its own. We were served breakfast and and lunch, all while listening to numerous inspiring and successful women across a variety of industries. They spoke of how they achieved their successes, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they have learned through their lives.
The Speakers
While every speaker at this conference was inspiring in their own right, for the sake of time I’ll just be keeping it to my top 3. These were the speakers that left me feeling like the minute I stepped out of this conference I could and would be working my way to success.
Miss Val - “Don’t Fear Failure, Failure Doesn’t Exist”
I had only vaguely known of Miss Val, the famous UCLA gymnastics coach, before I heard her speak. However, the moment she walked in the room, she had everyone up out of their seats dancing, and her energy didn’t stop there. During her speech she shared her accomplishments, which were both impressive and inspiring, but she also shared the times in which she made the wrong decisions.
When she first became the Coach of the UCLA Gymnastics team she tried to be the type of coach you see on TV, with ruthlessly motivating mottos and no tolerance for losing. After a losing gymnastics season at the University of California, Los Angeles she was about to quit, thinking she wasn’t cut out for the job, when she saw John Wooden’s quote “Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best” If the most famous basketball coach in UCLA history didn’t define success as winning, then why was she focing herself to adopt that mentality? Miss Val turned her style around and starting bringing her own skills - her understanding of what it is like growing up as a girl in an appearance driven sport, the pressures of performance, body confidence, and that lead her to success. She left the audience with the words of wisdom “If you try to be somebody else, you will always be a second rate ‘Them’, rather than a first rate ‘You’”.
Amanda Williams - “Treat every career decision like you are testing a hypothesis”
As the Senior Program Manager of Apple, Ms. Williams knew all about the goals that drive us, both in our careers and in our lives. However, she took the time to expose how while goals may bring focus, our reliance on them entirely can be limiting. Her three pieces of advice to the audience were:
You are already successful (and your first job doesn’t define you!)
Beware of the control gremlin inside yourself, there will always be factors you cannot control
Bad decisions are actually very rare; meaning makes itself apparent over time.
Maya Shankar - “Create the opportunity you seek”
Just hearing Ms. Shankar’s career journey was fascinating - starting from a concert violinist that worked to get into Juilliard, to the founder of the White House Social and Behavioral Science team, to the head of Global Behavioral Science at Google. She proves her message that you can make your own opportunities. Ms. Shankar’s circumstances were not from luck. Whether it was seeking out a mentor at Julliard, learning to navigate politics to create a behavioral science department, or building her own job at Google, Ms. Shankar fearlessly went for what she loved and created the opportunities for herself.
Her message to the audience was that the sometimes the next steps won’t be readily available to you, and you will have to create your own opportunities. Rather than agonizing whether a woman could launch a department in the White House, ask yourself, “Why not me?”
Takeaways for Life
As cheesy as it sounds, this conference did change my perspective on life; each speech left me with a little motto and that has made it into my daily reminders. However, of all the brilliant things said throughout the conference, one thing Miss Val said has stuck with me the most:
“Be anxious for nothing, and grateful for all things.”
It has become a way for me to defeat my anxiety and worry through gratitude. I don’t have to study for a midterm, I get to study at one of the highest ranking universities in the nation.
I don’t have to write this blog, I get to write this blog, and remember and share all the amazing things I learned.
So, whether you choose to attend the Velocity Women’s Leadership Summit next year or not, I urge you to take the advice of these amazing women, and pave your own way to success! :)
