Bryant University’s annual Women’s Summit aims to “allow women a chance to take time to look at where they are and where they want to go and offer them the education enrichment to take that first step,” according to Kati Machtley, director of the summit.
This year, Machtley said, 975 women registered for the day-long event, which included 18 workshops and three keynote addresses: by Tory Johnson, founder and CEO of Women For Hire, a career advancement service for professional women; award-winning actress and civil right activist Alfre Woodard, and Liz Murray, who wrote a book about her path from homelessness to a degree from Harvard University.
Johnson, who gave the morning keynote speech, began by holding up a $100 bill and asking who wanted it. In the audience – made up of women professionals from more than 300 companies – a few raised their hands meekly.
Johnson asked who really wanted it, and several more hands went up.
She then asked who really, really wanted it, and as a few women stood and started making their way to the stage, another shot toward the stage from the back and claimed the prize.
Johnson then spoke of how she had taken what she wanted by forming Women for Hire.
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Johnson’s tale began when she was 23 years old and working in public relations at NBC News. She felt she was doing well in her job and was quite confident about her prospects.
But when a new president took over the news division, Johnson was abruptly fired and told she had one hour to leave. She tried to sell herself to the new president by telling him of her accomplishments, but to no avail.
“It’s a big world out there, Tory, and I suggest you go explore it,” she recalled him saying to her.
Johnson said she spent the next couple of weeks feeling embarrassed and sulking in her apartment, despite an e-mail from Maria Shriver telling her it was the best thing that could’ve happened to her.
“I thought, ‘What does Maria Shriver know?’ ” Johnson said.
She went on to become director of communications at Nickelodeon, and then moved on to Swing, a lifestyle magazine started by Ralph Lauren’s son. But something was still missing.
“I was working for the man – actually, the man’s son – when I wanted to be the man, or in my case the woman,” she said. “I decided if I was going to bust my butt as I was for this magazine, I wanted to do it for myself.”
So in 1999, after having twins, she started her own business, out of her apartment. It might not seem like an ideal time to make such a risky move, Johnson acknowledged, “but if something inside says it’s time to do it, then just do it.”
Johnson said she gave herself five months from when she quit to when she must hold her first career fair, and “I used my fear of failure as fuel.”
It worked. The first fair brought out more than 1,000 women, and now the company holds 22 events a year in 11 different markets and is a multimillion dollar venture with 1,500 clients, including IBM and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Drawing from her personal experiences and her work with businesses, Johnson offered several tips to the women in the audience. She urged them to develop a “likeability,” to never downplay their successes for fear of being seen as arrogant; to get to know and support other female colleagues, to leave jobs where they aren’t appreciated; and to negotiate for what they’re worth. That last tidbit is especially noteworthy considering it’s coming from a woman who was nicknamed the “raise fairy godmother” by Glamour magazine last year.
This was the 10th Women’s Summit that Bryant has hosted, and Machtley, wife of Bryant President Ronald K. Machtley, noted that attendance had doubled since the first event.
This year’s event was sold out – and despite a bad snowstorm, the women came and stayed. “At 3 o’clock, despite the bad weather, you could have heard a pin drop when Murray spoke,” Machtley said.
