Wealth Fitness: Golden Seeds Co-CEO Loretta McCarthy Funds Women Entrepreneurs' Dreams

“It’s like health fitness; it is wealth fitness. Many women know they will be fully responsible financially for themselves,” says Loretta McCarthy, co-ceo, and managing partner of Golden Seeds, LLC,  an investor consortium that invests in early-stage, women-led businesses.

Managing the nationwide network of nearly 300 angel investors, McCarthy has been with Golden Seeds for 20 years and in that time, “We have invested in 253 companies with $185 million from 1,100 investors,” she says.

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**Action Required: How to Turn Your Fear into Power**

As the dust settles after the November 5th election, many of you are deflated, while others are elated.

No matter where you stand, one thing is clear: Take The Lead’s mission for gender parity in leadership across all sectors has never been more essential. Our work transcends party lines and industries, grounded in the belief that advancing women’s economic power, parity, and reproductive freedom benefits us all.

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Read Up: Top 10 Books in 2024 On Women, Power, Justice, Equity, History, Culture & More

Every year Take The Lead dives into select and recommended nonfiction books that further the mission of Take The Lead for its 10 years of driving gender and racial equity. As this is the season of reading, giving and swapping books, here are 10 titles published in 2024 (in alphabetical order by author last name) we suggest and why.

These books cover history, popular culture, politics, sports, COVID, feminism, aging, health and memoir from a range of women authors across race, generations, identity, experiences and points of view. 

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Michele WeldonComment
Part 4 of my 3-part Series: How Kamala Harris Uses the 9 Power Tools (though she probably never heard of them)

When I started writing this series a few weeks ago, I planned on writing one post on each of the “buckets” of those 9 Leadership Power Tools: the self-definitional tools, the counterintuitive tools, and the change leadership tools.

Turned out there was more to say, so here’s part 4.

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Safe At Work: How To Lead During Election Season With Fairness and Civility

In this highly fractious and divisive political culture, as a leader, it is essential to create a workplace environment that is absent of negativity and hate that exist outside the organization surrounding the election.

Guaranteeing that the workplace culture is safe physically and emotionally not just on voting day, but in upcoming weeks and months over a possibly contested outcome is a top priority. And one that exists whether the workplace is virtual or in-person. Decreasing political anxiety at work is the goal.

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Scary, But Worth The Risk: 10 Leaders Share Why & How You Risk To Win

Some may find the scary business of Halloween entertaining, but in real life, entrepreneurship and business shifts are also scary and risky-- and maybe not so fun. Here 10 top leaders share how the discomfort of risk is worth it all and why.

For Take The Lead’s 10-year anniversary, we are offering a treasure chest of insights and strategies from Take The Lead’s co-founder, allies, colleagues, friends and business associates in an array of fields and disciplines. With the latest research and data on how women value risk and how that impacts financial behaviors, we can hopefully and helpfully deliver a path to turning risk into reality.   

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Many Possible Futures: 10 Ways To Use Your Power To Change The World Now

Change is going to come --not by itself but when you take action.

Looking to the upcoming close of the calendar year, the end of the quarter and what you have the capacity and intention to do now to make changes professionally and personally is worth your time.

As Take The Lead celebrates 10 years of successful and meaningful work toward the mission of achieving gender and racial parity across multiple sectors, through a wide variety of platforms, programs and events, it is appropriate to apply the finite measure of 10 to strategies you can use today for yourself.

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Be The Best Leader Following Disasters: Strategies To Rebuild Workplaces For Recovery

Hurricane Helene last month and Hurricane Milton this month serve as reminders to every American just how much climate change and natural disasters affect  lives—work lives as well as home lives. In many cases, everything must be rebuilt.

Beyond hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and earthquakes also disrupt and destroy businesses and workplaces forcing leaders to have a plan ready for emergencies that benefit employees hit by these disasters.

So how can you be a great leader following devastation so your employees, colleagues, managers, clients, suppliers and administrators can press restart?

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Beyond Bias: Women Journos Lead With Innovation, Inclusion And Storytelling

“There is a tension around the topic of the subjectivity of objectivity,” said Felicia Henderson, director of cultural competency at the Maynard Institute.

Speaking at the recent Journalism & Women Symposium annual CAMP (Conference and Mentoring Project) in New Orleans, with the theme, Resilience and Reinvention, Henderson joined a panel along with Jean Marie Brown, The Pivot Fund’s director of research, and Mary Irby-Jones, executive editor at  the Louisville Courier Journal.

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