As Women’s History Month wraps up, it’s made me think more about all the inspiring females I get the honor to work with on a daily basis. I’ve learned so much from so many of them during my past 3+ years at Recharge. The caliber of women I work with is no coincidence, Recharge really strives to make sure quality women leaders represent all parts of our organizations, from our CFO to our COO and some of our leaders I wrote about last week.
While I’d love to give each and every female at Recharge their own well-deserved shout out, this week I’ve narrowed it down to two inspiring women.
Mansi Parikh, Director of Product Analytics
As the Director of Product Analytics, Mansi understands empathy is everything to be successful in her role. Before joining Recharge, Mansi took an internship in Bolivia where she was tasked with understanding when and why people default on their loans:
“Part of that role was to actually go visit the people that were applying for these loans. This experience allowed me to know some of the most remote communities and especially how data affects those communities. This experience helped actually understand the people behind the metrics they were measured on, how they lived, their hopes and dreams. This experience allowed me to develop strong empathy that I carried with me through every project as an analyst.“
Empathy is one of Recharge’s four core values, so naturally, Mansi was a great culture fit when applying at Recharge. Mansi also says she decided to join Recharge mainly because of our Founders, Oisin O’Connor and Mike Flynn:
“They seemed humble, down to earth, and genuinely cared about their employees and believed in their mission. Every member I met from the team during the interview felt that way about them. I really respect the way they have built this company from the ground up, and grew it to be a successful business with the best remote first culture I have ever experienced in my career.”
Mansi says she draws a lot of her inspiration from “entrepreneurial women like Sarah Blakely, Founder of Spanx, and Angie Hicks, Founder of Angie’s List. Their story of how they came from nothing, took risks and went out of their comfort zone without compromising their beliefs is both humbling and empowering.”
One of the biggest challenges she faces as a woman is being a mom while also trying to juggle a career:
“I am very excited about the prospects of both. Working at Recharge with such an amazing team and a very understanding boss has given me the hope that I can achieve and enjoy both aspects of my life without compromising the other.”
She says the best piece of advice she has for future women leaders is:
“Don’t be afraid to take up space in the world. Take the time and space to learn about yourself and don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself if your boundaries are crossed. In order to learn more about yourself and who you are, sometimes you have to take up space in the world and that’s okay. It’s okay to plunge into the unknown, it’s okay to take risks and fail because without those experiences, you will never get to realize your true potential.”
Kayla Turpin, Manager of Knowledge & Quality
As one of our veteran female employees at Recharge, Kayla started as an Account Manager, assisting in some of our largest merchant launches on Recharge. Kayla has worked her way up into managing a team of her own:
“My team is responsible for managing our technical and support documentation. This includes everything from merchant and developer-facing content to internal resources and training for our Customer Success team.
The role requires me to wear a lot of hats: part-Editor, part-Librarian, part-Project Manager, part-Teacher, and part-Trivia Host (alright, this is just a fun, extracurricular hat).”
When asked what her favorite thing about working at Recharge is, Kayla says:
“It might sound cliche, but definitely the people! I work alongside people with a strong work ethic and growth mindset who are always willing to collaborate. Also, the flexibility of remote work – I love that Recharge is a remote-forward company that has allowed me to travel all over North America, and meet up with colleagues in fun cities.”
Kayla says one of the achievements she is most proud of is getting her Master’s Degree:
“I was the first person in my family to graduate university, so to see the culmination of hard work — from myself but also my parents investing in me and my education —- result in my MA was extremely rewarding.”
She says that three women in her life have been most inspiring to her:
“Recharge’s own Chathri Ali! When I joined Recharge, she was such an indelible influence on my early growth at Recharge and a force to be reckoned with. She is effortless in her leadership and always tenacious in doing right by the merchant, her team, and the company as a whole. I often ask myself, ‘WWCD?’
Jennifer Hollett, the Executive Director at The Walrus. I had the pleasure of working on her 2015 federal election campaign and was inspired by her passion and hard work on what turned out to be a pretty grueling campaign! She has taught me that no matter what role or industry you are in, social and political action can remain threaded in the work that you do.
This may be cheesy — but my mom. My parents founded their own company from scratch and I grew up watching my mom learn and teach herself how to run a small business (while also raising two mostly-good-but-sometimes-a-handful children).”
She says trying to balance her personal and professional life is always a work in progress:
“Being able to work remotely has made it easier to achieve that balance. I am able to have this amazing career while living close to family and friends, which affords me the social time and support system I need to be the best version of myself at work.”
Kayla’s advice for future female leaders is:
“Be mindful of the language you use at work. Women are socialized early on to sound less confident, even when they are actually brimming with confidence. Breaking the linguistic rituals of downplaying and undermining yourself is difficult, but people deserve to hear your thoughts and ideas.
However, there is no amount of Leaning In that’s a fix-all for the influence of societal structures in the workplace. So the other piece of advice is to never stop asking the questions that highlight the structural change that needs to happen. Support other women in the workplace and bring them along in your success. Promote other conceptions of leadership at work. Be inclusive.”
