Kate Isler CEO The WMarketplace Inc, an eCommerce Accelerator program and sale channel for women-owned businesses, and Co-Founder the non-profit of Be Bold Now. With over 20 years of international executive experience in Fortune 100 companies, Kate’s journey of leadership and breaking gender stereotypes motivates and inspires. Her experience as a CEO of a health startup and an executive at Microsoft, where she spent many years living and working overseas, provides a powerful platform of real-world expertise and examples hen addressing gender equity and balanced management practices. Her memoir, Breaking Borders (HarperCollins Leadership)March, 2021.
Learn more about Kate here:
Name of your business, website, social media handles
@Thewmarketplace.com, https://thewmarketplace.com/
What has been our greatest & favorite achievement so far and why?
Building a business to support women entrepreneurs and raising three very aware men.
If you are an entrepreneur, what motivated you to start your own business?
In the spring of 2020 as the COVID lock down set in and Women were being disproportionately affected I felt like I need to use my experience and resources to do something proactive to support women. I co-founded WMarketplace Accelerator and sales channel to capture to opportunity that was emerging in online shopping and support women to pivot or launch their business online.
This is an opportunity for women to redefine their working environment and make a living selling online setting their own terms. I am one of those women and am excited by the chance to remake work and close the economic gap.
What does success mean to you?
Having time. Having the time to dedicate to supporting the things and issues that are important to me, time to write, time to think.
What is your mantra or favorite saying? (If it's a known quote, please let us know who said it first!)
Women supporting women will change the world!d!
What failure taught you the most about life or business? What was the lesson?
Failure. I know this sounds like a very common response however failure has showed me what I don’t want to repeat and how I don’t want to feel. I am a risk taker by nature so it is not that I play it safe. In fact I fail often, but failure always demands that I stop and revaluate before moving forward. This is true in my professional and personal life.
What's your favorite book - fiction or non-fiction! - in the past year?
The Year of YES, Shonda Rhimes
If you could teach the world one five-minute lesson, what would it be?
Don’t be afraid to take a risk! So many people, especially women opt out of following their passions because we have family, kids, parents or partners that depend on us. Or we believe we are not good enough, have the right experience, or qualifications. This is rarely true and I always encourage women to take the chance and see what wonderful things can happen.
Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently when you were first starting out?
Believed in myself a bit more and stopped myself talk that raised doubt and stopped me from self advicating at times.
What does women's empowerment look like to you in action?
Women supporting one another, even when you don’t agree or have different values. Women need to lift one another ALL of the time.
What would you tell 19-year-old YOU?
“You are find, just keep moving foward” not a unique message. But one that is so simple it can be overlooked.
What will 86-year-old you want you to know TODAY?
That my children are happy and healthy and that my story and the work I am doing has inspired women to follow their passion and support one another.
What is your favorite place for our audience to reach you?
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateisler/
What is your favorite quote? (It can be yours or from someone that you look up to.)
“More and more women are realizing that only collective strength and action will allow us to be free to fight for the kind of society that meets basic human needs,” Roxanne Dunbar wrote in Female Liberation as the Basis for Social Revolution.
