You know that comment that really gets under your skin. That one that someone makes privately because they are just “that person”. The one you know you should ignore, yet what they say keeps playing in your head. I had one of those comments in response to my recent post sharing the video of my talk “Want To Increase The Number of Women in Tech, It is Time To Start Bragging“. This title sums up the essence of the comment. They asked more questions about my qualifications, education, research I had done, etc… but the bottom line was – why should anyone listen to me? And that comment has sat with me for hours.

Until the answers (because there are multiple) started poking themselves around the blob that the comment had formed in my brain and on my heart and started crowding out the self-doubt and self-questioning that I was allowing this inconsiderate person’s careless comment to create.

So in the spirit of my own talk about “bragging” and to answer the question about why should someone listen, here are just some of my “qualifications”

• 58 years of life experience – of all kinds, good and bad, easy and hard – but most importantly, a willingness to openly and honestly look at, own, and share the good, bad, easy, and hard.
• 18 years of social, cultural, organizational, and world travel experience as a military brat – there are lessons from those years that still play a vital role in every aspect of my life. Plus, the world-class education, in and out of the classroom, that I got as part of that military upbringing.
• 43 years of work experience – yes, I started working “real jobs” at 15 and that does not include the years of baby-sitting, bagging groceries, delivering newspapers, mowing lawns, and many other ways of earning money before that.
• Climbing the corporate ladder from the mailroom to senior executive levels, owning 3 successful side companies, then leaving corporate life to start 3 more companies and a non-profit, while also volunteering for a wide variety of organizations.
• Doing all of the above while many of you were sitting in a college classroom. No, I don’t have a college degree or an advanced degree. My “degree” was earned in industry certifications and on-the-job experience doing EVERY job on the rung of the ladder from the bottom up.
• A self-education born of being a voracious reader and innately curious. I average reading more books in a week than many people read in a year and am always consuming news and information of all types. The picture above is what is on my nightstand currently, and yes, I am usually reading 3-5 at a time.
• Knowing that even with my knowledge and experience I will never be an expert and will never know all there is to know, so it is incumbent on me to keep learning, keep listening, keep observing, and most of all to stay compassionate and empathetic.

So, how would you answer the question – why should someone listen to you? I encourage you to make your own list, do your own bragging, and be ready with your own answers for those moments when the self-doubt start creeping in. We all have something, usually many things, that make us worth listening to. Make sure yours are top of mind.