Jeri Childers, PhD, is the Founder of Accelerate You! They are a career, leadership, and business development company offering coaching, training, and business services to female founders, business owners, and leaders seeking to startup and scale up big changes in their life, career, and business.
She says that, “While I serve women in all sectors, the last 10 years I have focused on helping women in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math launch their careers, scale up their leadership capabilities, and commercialize their ideas.”
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your professional journey/venture/initiative and what inspired you to choose this career.
As a girl I loved science and technology. I played with microscopes and pretended to be a teacher and these passions led me to become an university academic. I have had the honor of working at the finest universities in the world. Along the way I recognized my passion for equity, diversity, and inclusion and helping women achieve their academic, career and business goals that are having a positive impact on society, technology, and economically in communities locally and globally. In the last 15 years I have focused on helping women take their ideas and startup new companies, create new products and services, and become social and commercial entrepreneurs. For the last 5 years I have helped researchers across the disciplines commercialize and socialize their inventions, research, and technology to have a positive impact.
Was there any turning point in your life that changed your journey? If so, what was it? Please tell us the backstory behind it.
At the university I was interested in how leaders and individuals change and how we get our governments, civic organizations, and local institutions to change and grow. This led me to study mindsets and the power of mindsets for personal, organizational, and societal transformation. I became a mindset researcher and now use the power of mindsets in developing leaders.
Tell us about your goals, interests, and role models.
My goal in the next few months is to complete a book for female leaders focused on my research and how women can use the power of their mindsets and their leadership to create positive change in the world. I will continue to teach in the MBA program and offer my own training and coaching programs for female leaders. I would like to continue to help young female leaders advance and accelerate their careers and leadership capabilities. Part of my work will always include helping female entrepreneurs–this is my passion. I will continue to serve on boards of non-profit organizations. My role models have been Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Everyone has their own set of challenges when starting an entrepreneurial journey. Still, the most essential part for others to learn is how you deal with those. Would you like to share with us your challenges and your coping mechanisms?
I have dealt with many challenges over the years, inequities in the workplace, environments that aren’t flexible or supportive of women, workplace bullying, sexual harassment, and gender bias. I face these challenges by being curious about what I can learn from the situations and how I can use my strengths, confidence, courage, and creativity to navigate around barriers or solve the problem that I am facing. These experiences have led to me writing a book about how women can use growth mindsets, know their strengths, surround themselves with supportive allies, and leverage their power within to solve life’s problems and challenges. Women are so much more powerful than they know. I share with women the 5 steps to leverage their personal power to achieve their goals despite life’s challenges.
What impact do you feel you have been able to create with your work so far and how would you want to grow in the next few years?
My research has uncovered that there are 5 damaging power gaps that women experience that limit their leadership and impact. Women can assess and close their power gaps in just 5 steps and with 5 shifts in mindsets. I want to bring my research and training programs to more women and organizations. I have been working with universities, corporations, and nonprofits that are advancing and accelerating women in their lives, careers, and business. I want to increase the number of women going to school, graduating, and taking on jobs that are aligned to their passions. I want there to be more women leaders at every level and for women to feel supported at each stage of their careers and when they want to start their own organizations. I will continue to work with Angel investors and Venture Capitalists who want to fund female-led startups.
While the global pandemic of COVID-19 is associated primarily with adversities, it has also brought about a true boom in startups, with successful entrepreneurship in many countries. The pandemic has impacted all of us in one way or another. Would you like to share your experience on a personal and professional level?
COVID disrupted us but also taught us the power of innovation, entrepreneurship, and how to re-invent ourselves and our pathways. It has given me a chance to take stock of my values and vision and re-focus on projects that are aligned to my passion and purpose. I think that we grow from these kinds of challenges. It is too soon to see all the positives that will come from COVID.
Your journey and your vision are very inspiring, but are there any achievements or accomplishments you would like to mention?
I have achieved so much but what I am most happy with is to watch the women I work with go on to achieve their goals, startup new enterprises that are making the world a better place. Their inventions, innovations, and ideas are changing our schools, universities, healthcare, and marketplaces. These women are helping with infertility, skin cancer, autism, stroke victims, better access for the blind, safer food supplies, solutions for pollution, global warming, and so much more.
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
Nurture your vision and be inspired by your vision. When you are bored, it could be that you need to make your vision bigger. Don’t let your fear hold you back from acting and communicating with strength. Every day, take action toward your vision and your goals. Surround yourself with positive, creative people who support your vision. Celebrate every achievement until you reach your goal.
What’s the most important thing you have learned in your personal life and professional journey? What is your personal motto in life?
Believe in yourself and your power to create a better world.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. There are cracks in glass ceilings everywhere, with many women breaking through to carve out a space right at the top of the pyramid. What are your thoughts about women’s leadership today?
This is a great time for female leaders. It has never been more important or apparent that we need new leadership styles and models. The traits that women bring to the workplace are needed. Increasingly, organizations are seeing that female leaders bring more productive and profitable workplaces. I see and hear those glass ceilings cracking. Watch out!
With your grit and determination, you are making a considerable impact, breaking through, and serving as role models for many budding entrepreneurs. What would you want to say to our young women leaders/audience reading this?
Know yourself to be the creator of your life, career, or business. Consciously choose to believe in yourself and give yourself permission to lead your life, career, and business. You own your stories about who you are. You decide if you are worthy, able, and enough. Trust yourself, your opinions, and your choices. You know what you need and want. You can set priorities, boundaries, and ask for assistance. When you stand in your authority as a leader, others around you are influenced by your clarity, confidence, courage, and creativity. You have the power to change your mindset and change the world.
