Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• Kate Isler talks about building an e-commerce platform for empowering women-owned companies
• How to create a successful environment for supporting women’s businesses
• Kate explains “she-session” and “she-covery” — and her unlikely background in facilitating a start-up
• Why the creation of gender parity does not equal the exclusion of others
• The geographical and cultural differences of women in business
• Kate shares the importance of evolving with digital strategies for success
• Why is taking time for yourself and staying healthy essential for success?
• Carl J. Cox and Kate discuss their book recommendations

In this episode…

How can a gender-balanced business learn to grow, no matter the industry? What can you do to optimize your strategies in the e-commerce market? During the pandemic, Kate Isler noticed a disproportionate effect on women’s businesses. On a mission to change the outcome, she began a course to empower women-owned businesses and equip them with the tools and services to scale their brand.

Kate is building success at The WMarketplace. By collaborating with and building awareness for gender-balanced brands, she’s attracting and retaining customers, sellers, and service providers. To Kate, business is more than just numbers: it is an opportunity for women to scale to new heights and achieve success.

In this episode of the Measure Success Podcast, Carl J. Cox is joined by Kate Isler, Co-founder and CEO of The WMarketplace, to discuss the disproportionate roles of women in entrepreneurship. Kate talks about creating the opportunity for women-owned e-commerce businesses to scale, evolving digital strategies for success, and developing a growth mindset to develop a fulfilling life.

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Kate Isler on LinkedIn
• TheWMarketplace
• Breaking Borders: A Remarkable Story of Adventure, Family and Career Success by Kate Isler
• Terry Sidford on Measure Success Podcast
• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
• The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Business Relationships by Susan McPherson
• 40 Strategy
• Contact 40 Strategy
• Carl J. Cox on LinkedIn
• Measure Success Group on Facebook

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is sponsored by 40 Strategy.

40 Strategy provides strategic planning and consulting to help organizations realize and achieve their dreams by creating and measuring KPIs for success.

Unfortunately, most organizations only spend 2% of their time — or about 40 hours per year — on building an effective strategy.

Increasing the success of those 40 hours is what 40 Strategy does because your success is their passion — and that’s why organizations look to them for guidance.

Not only does 40 Strategy help you craft and implement an effective strategy, but they’ll also work to facilitate teams with proven practices and help with your scenario planning.

Harvard research shows that you can triple your success when you use the right Key Performance Indicators. Who doesn’t want that?

If you have questions, you can reach out through their website or email them at catch@40strategy.com.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Measure Success Podcast where we feature top leaders on how they measure success in their business and life. Now, let’s learn from their experiences.

Carl J. Cox 0:18

Carl J. Cox here and I’m the host of the Measure Success Podcast where we talk with top leaders about how they measure success. This episode is brought to you by 40 Strategy at 40 Strategy, we pride strategic planning and consulting to help organizations realize and achieve their dreams key basically, we help companies come up with their strategic plans and measure the right KPIs for success. This is the crazy part only 10% of organizations actually get two thirds of their strategic objectives done. Not about you, but I think that’s, it’s pretty awful. And is that about what you see when you see the business about 10%? getting it done? 

Kate Isler  0:58

I think that might even be high. 

Carl J. Cox 1:04

It might be it might be that that’s awesome. But thanks for saying that. And I’ve heard people say it’s like, does anybody get their strategic plan done so said 40 Strategy, your success is our passion. That’s why organizations call on us to help. However, research shows that if you actually focus on the right KPIs, you could triple the likelihood of your success, you want to contact us literally just catch a catch a ball at 40strategies.com to get more information. So from there, I also like to do a shout out and to You nearly all of our guests are through referral. And with that this referral this is Terry Sidford. Terry Sidford is a great friend of the Measure Success show, and motivational TEDx speaker, and you could also find her at terrysidford.com I highly encourage you to that. Thank you, Terry for recommending Kate. Kate Isler is an activist, wife, author, partner, friend, business person, sister, and risk taker. And you’ll definitely hear that when you listen to this today. She’s passionate about gender parity, human rights and equity. And if you get here, if you aren’t watching on YouTube, she’s just gushing with smiles. She’s one of the best smiling people I’ve ever seen life. She’s the co-founder and CEO of The WMarketplace, and also co founder and executive director for Be Bold Now. She’s board director for Girl Rising. She recently released a book just this past March called Breaking Borders, where you cut your teeth quite a bit was at Microsoft as an executive there for over a decade. You worked in Dubai, London, Munich, but you also live live in Africa. That’s an amazing story, which we’ll definitely talk about more. You have your bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific. Kate, welcome to the Measure Success podcast.

Kate Isler  2:50

Thank you. It’s great to be here.

Carl J. Cox 2:52

Absolutely. And so we had, we usually with our guests, we do a pre talk. And I almost wish I wish I just recorded that. Because Kate is like full of energy and has done so many amazing things. And so first of all, let’s just start with the business side, briefly. Tell it tell the audience more about The WMarketplace.

Kate Isler  3:15

So The WMarketplace, you know why I smile is because every day is really fun, I have to say because I am working on something that I am so passionate about that it doesn’t feel like. And so you know when 2020 happened, and we shut down and I started to read about the way in which women were so impacted economically and knowing that, you know, we are far behind on the economic like platform, we are nowhere near parity, it’s over 200 years that, you know, I thought there has to be something and so everyone was online shopping. So I thought well, you know, here we go, let’s online shop through women owned businesses. And so a very longtime friend of mine was being laid off and we started this business. And it is it is really our mission to support other women owned businesses. We started a year ago this week, we have almost 500 businesses and offer about 3000 products on the site. And we offer products and professional services. So it is you know a little bit of a hybrid. And I think it provides a choice these days in terms of where you want to spend your dollars and where you want to shop. And I will say one other thing about it that I’m so excited. You know I love the marketplace, because every day is different. But we are actually the only e-commerce platform advertising or social platform where all of the money you invest stays with women owned businesses. Wow. So let that sink in for a minute. Because when You sell on other marketplaces and other e-commerce sites 25 to 60% of that goes to the corporations generally owned by men.

Carl J. Cox 5:13

So you’re saying I can’t list my products on your website?

Kate Isler  5:17

I am saying that if you will have a gender balance will talk to you, but probably not because you have plenty of options.

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