Devoted to women of color in business

Carol H Williams of Carol H Williams Advertising spoke at  a chamber breakfast I attended last week, and I wanted to share with you some of her story. She is a legend in the African-American business community, and she's currently listed as one of the Black Enterprise's 50 Most Powerful Black Women in Business.

She runs the largest African-American-owned and woman-owned advertising agency in the country, and she's a fabulous speaker, so there was absolute silence as she told us about her experiences as a black woman in this male-dominated industry. At this breakfast, the title was "Economic Forecasting: How to Stay Dry when the Tide Comes In" and she gave us a silly equation, "Carol's Secret Economic Forecasting Formula" which I'll reproduce for you here:

A + B - C ((D) + E - F) * G) / H - I (2) + J³ - K + (L-M) + N ((O+P)/Q) - R * S + T - U * (V-W) * X + Y + Z = NO GUARANTEES IN LIFE

Her point is that there is no way you can plan or prevent against outside, uncontrollable forces (the interest rate, the weather, the economy, the war, the embargo, the trade talks, etc.).

What you do plan for is:
    how you approach your business
    your response to overcoming challenges
    who you pull together to be your team

Carol H. Williams Advertising currently bills $350 million annually and Williams is the President, CEO, and Chief Creative Director, helping clients like Cingular Wireless, Allstate Insurance Co., Frito-Lay Inc., and The Proctor & Gamble Co.

"Success requires us to constantly chart new territory," she explained, and she wants all of us to look at problems as challenges, not as barriers.

Challenges you can problem-solve.
Barriers you back away from.

She said that whenever she came across a problem, she viewed it as an obstacle: she went over it, around it, under it, sometimes through it, but she always overcame that obstacle.

Her motto is "Whose Eyes Are You Looking Through When You View the World ^(TM)?" and her point is that we each have unique and valuable ways of looking at the world. We as women entrepreneurs and leaders need to get beyond fear. We have to be okay with making hard decisions. We have to be okay with the "B- word." We have to move through our fear, even a fear of success, and instead be comfortable with expressing who and what we are.

Also, in terms of why a business or career takes up so much of your time at first: she says that "A business is like a baby. You have to nourish it, and feed it... it will take everything you have to give, but if you put enough into it, it starts to stand on its own two feet, and then it will start to walk, and soon, it will turn around and bring you a plate. And it will never stop giving you that plate, if you put the right things into it."

Let me know if you have a current challenge you may be facing at work or on the job. Write out your values and keep them posted in a prominent space. Then, brainstorm a list of solutions and let's see if there's someone out here who can help you find an elegant, realistic, and worthwhile answer.

More quotes from Carol H. Williams: