Atlanta Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting: People, Passion and Perseverance!
Stephanie Clausen of Kimberly-Clark discusses ideas and strategies for people, passion and perseverance at the Atlanta Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting.
Transcript
well now we are going to go to our next presentation so Stephanie can you say hello hi can you guys hear me yes you sound fantastic thank you wonderful um well Shantal that was uh I actually didn't know if I could join for this as I'm actually um with my kids traveling right now uh my mom has them outside on the lawn so that they're not in this hotel room with me um but I am so glad we can make it work and I'm so glad that uh I hopped on because seantal that really spoke to me so much I felt like you were speaking directly to me um and I'm so sorry for your loss but it is uh amazing to hear from how you be how you can be vulnerable um and also kind of uh grow such a team that you could be gone for six weeks I always think about um whether that is you know the team that I'm building or not and right now I'm not quite there but I you know I have something to strive for uh but thank you so much to this group for inviting me I am um humbled and honored and also um a little bit in a different mode as we are kind of at a lake on vacation and um I've been in kid mode for the last two days which is so nice because like Shantel my company is also going through a lot right now and so I needed the vacation as much as you can call vacation with uh two kids uh who are three and six um but I uh really needed some time away from work and cherishing this last day but a little bit about me um you know I will go into the chin restaurant bit that's probably got some of you questioning things a little bit uh but uh Ginger if you could go to the next
line um I you know as you may be able to tell um I have come from a Chinese Korean background I won't go into it it's a little complicated um but I am from Atlanta I was born in Atlanta um and I have two kids who are three and six I currently live in Buckhead um my husband in my 15 or not 15 um 8y year wedding anniversary is actually today um and he is traveling right now for his work um I left Atlanta to get a degree in architecture and civil engineering at Colombia because I always had dreams of being in New York and I knew I couldn't uh I knew I probably wouldn't do that into adulthood so I took the opportunity to go to undergrad there um um went to Duke law and found my way back to Atlanta excuse me uh my son did give me a cold um where I joined the um law firm of Alon and bird in the IP group um doing specifically patent and litigation uh for seven years and I don't know how many attorneys are in this group but to be very candid I normally am speaking to mostly attorneys and mostly IP attorneys in this kind of group but so glad to be a little Diversified um but so in the attorney corporate job World there are you know Law Firm jobs and then there are in-house Council jobs um and I happened to stay at a law firm for about seven years before I found an in-house job which uh was a big leap for me I always thought I'd be a law firm attorney forever but it really kind of solidified a passion that I'll talk about in a bit um joined new Brands which you know owns Graco Sharpie um uh Marmet um and a bunch of other consumer products um for about six years um where I started as patent council at a junior level position and then through a series of um Acquisitions divestures mergers everything a hostile takeover um I somehow ended up as Chief IP counsil um you know a bit of of it was luck a bit of it was the people piece that I'll talk about in a bit but uh really you know had an accelerated career there that I am super grateful for and then um in 2020 I was called by a recruiter uh and offered a slightly bigger job at Kimberly Clark um slightly more global company a little bigger team and I've been there for the last four years uh AS Global head of Ip uh I have a team of 22 IP uh and for those who aren't aware IP is intellectual property we cover patents trademarks um essentially I do the legal support for Innovation uh Trade Secrets brand protection copyright and so for instance if we have a new invention on a Huggies diaper which is a Kimberly Clark brand um you know my team patents it and if someone is trying to sell other Huggies diapers uh that are not ours then my team attacks those so wonderful Team all around the world and uh could not be more grateful to have them but a little bit about me that uh puts you know uh ties in the theme of this presentation that I thought was an interesting way to spin things and I've never done this before I've never had a um presentation around my childhood but as I sat and thought about you know how did I get to where I W I am and what really fuels me and how do I um how do I think about how I show up for people and my team and my stakeholders the thing is um next slide please think beyond that the most important thing is that I grew up in a Chinese restaurant and when I say in a Chinese restaurant I mean I was that kid at the back of that restaurant uh you know making stuff out of menus I was trying to fold the napkins they always got refolded because not really a good skill of mine um but you know I was there mixing daies uh behind the bar and pretty much just you know that is where I spent a lot of my time because my mom um came from Asia in 1979 and my grandfather at that point opened up a uh she came with her whole family she was in college he kind of plucked her away um and my grandfather asked her to help him run this rest because she was the best English speaker in the family and her younger siblings were still in school so she managed the restaurant and eventually took it over when he retired and you know I was born into restaurant life and growing up it's really all I ever knew I um you know it was completely normal to me to um you know take my Mongolian beef and go next door to the Mexican restaurant and barter for some queso because I was so sick of Chinese food at at that point uh but you know the the lessons I learned from the restaurant were ingrained in me at a young age and they actually as I reflect back um continue to guide me today as I lead my team next slide
please so um you know a big part of this is people and when and on the left is me and my mom uh at the restaurant I think this is probably one of the last pictures I have of us it's very dark um but you can kind of see it's a there's semblance of a Chinese restaurant um and you know when I watch my mom do her job at the restaurant as Hostess manager and everything if there was anything she excelled at it was people she made every single person who walked in those doors feel valued she knew every person's name if they had ever been before their favorite meal you know where they had just gone on vacation their F their preferred drink um she'd bring it to you without you even asking um kids would I would watch kids go off to college and come back just to visit her uh and that's a lesson I carry with me today um in any business the relationships you build with people are everything and I know right now I'm remote so it is harder to build those relationships now more than than ever um I I say I'm remote I do have an office it's not a great place to connect because most people are kind of in and out but my stakeholders are all around the world and for a while I was um you know like I said my kids are three and six and when I was in heavy mom mode um one thing that I had to cut out was that small talk right when I joined a zoom meeting I was trying to get the job done because I knew that I had only this limited time and I you know my work and my uh my own satisfaction with work and also my ability to get things done um within a pretty big company suffered because I could not connect with people on a personal level I felt like everything was such a challenge you know I had to put so much more data behind things instead of just the trust that I built and when I started to spend a little more time just saying look part of my job is actually to get to know my co-workers and to you know know them on a level where if I need a favor from them they can trust me or if I just need them to trust that you know the decision that I'm making is the right one that they will support me if we need to go to our manager for one thing together you know I've done something for them that that gives them some reason to work with me it's made things so much better and I will say that's one thing that as much as I enjoy the the time at home um with my kids during uh the completely remote part now that we're kind of back um to inperson meetings from time to time it's really helped me get things done it's also helped my job satisfaction to know that I'm working with people that I actually like um and it's okay not to like everyone uh but you know for the most part I gravitate towards those colleagues that um you know I have something in common with or I can relate to in some way or that helped before or they've helped me before and it really helps uh things overall um but yet it I also share this picture to the right because as I talk about people when I was a child I used to think my mom was an actual celebrity because when we went to the local mall and her restaurant for those of you asking um was at North Lake Tower Festival so it was near North Lake Mall I actually don't know if that exists anymore I I haven't uh been by that area in while but we could not go to the mall without her being stopped five plus times I you know it was impossible to get in and out uh everyone knew her and had such um fun times chatting with her that uh you know to me she was the most famous person in the world but I share this on the right because I uh a couple months ago was at a bar association Gathering and Dean F frier who is now the dean of emry Law School uh was one of my mom's uh good customers his whole family was and I connected with him I was like Dean F do you remember me I mean so funny that we're here you know together as uh Association members now because he still remembers me as being three or four years old and I texted this picture to my mother and she remembered his wife's name and all of his children's name off the bat I mean probably hasn't seen him for 25 years um or 20 years but really remarkable and I stried to have uh you know that kind of connection uh but next step
please so as I watched my mom at the restaurant I realized you know she had a passion for bringing joy to her customers and having that meal that they came for be the highlight of their day it was amazing to see um you know she do little things like put an umbrella like the the one you see on the left in a drink for a child and it would just light their face up and you know if you listen to them they'd say mom she remembered that my favorite color is yellow uh it was the little things and sometimes it was just taking a moment to listen to No matter how busy it was she made time for you you know there was eye contact there was uh you know she was always going to ask about someone even if the phone was ringing and it got pretty busy there uh and I tried my best has to help but you know I there's a reason why I didn't go into the restaurant industry um overall you know as much as I say this is her passion I know she was doing this to support our family and so that I could actually live out my own passion um but you know I realized what my mom was trying to do was making lives better and creating a better world through that you know you have happy people leaving a meal and doing great things for the community in whatever you know it was that they're headed to I do it a different way um I have always had kind of an engineering tick and I you know was at the back of the restaurant kind of engineering whatever I could with whatever I could get my hands on I mentioned menus I used to stack them up and do all kinds of things with them um I would you know break down boxes and make doll houses out of them and you know make my own dolls as well uh um but you know I'm so fortunate I found a career where I can actually help to make lives better I am like I said an intellectual proper property attorney and I started in the patent space which means I work with inventors and I've always worked in consumer products both new brands and Kimberly Clark I guarantee you have one of um our products from one of the companies in your house I believe Casey stat is globally we're in one out of three households and that's you know whether you go to you know the middle of Africa or um southeast Asia you'll find our products and I put a couple of the um very popular ones below our G our Global profile is a little bit different andrex is probably one of our bigger um product offerings in Europe but you know really proud to have joined my company because we actually invented so many spaces um that we operate in now but you know in the 1800s um or early 1900s we invented the first bath tissue product or the first rolled bath tissue product um the first feminine hygiene product I can't even believe it took as long as 1920 but we still have those CeX pads now um for spcial tissue product in Kleenex and first hand towels um that were cellulose based which is most now and then most importantly to me having two little ones um is we invented youth training pants so you may know them as Huggies uh as pull-ups um first branded by Huggies but you know I know those have helped our family out quite a bit um and so you know when I was called about this opportunity to join Kimberly Clark this was so compelling to me as someone who uh has always thought about you know product that make your life easier better how do we create a better world I can't imagine life without these products in fact as someone with chronic allergies um I don't know what I would do without Kleenex I'd probably um um have a lot of laundry to do but it was uh really inspiring to me to work for a company that you know not only had all these products to make lives better but also so many of them are um female oriented and parent Focus foced or kid focused that um for me as a um as a you know new mom it really spoke to me and I thought um you know I'd take this chance and I'm so glad I did if you can uh go to the next
slide so one thing I um I feel like I've painted a very Rosy picture and so I've actually left perseverance for the end um it's actually part of the whole story so far um the rosie story would be that my mom came to the US to build a business with her father the true story is she was forced to leave um a trajectory in finance she had a college accounting degree that she loved she um desired to work an office job but her her father my grandfather who um his 80th birthday picture he's now deceased uh but is on the right here um you know applied the Asian guilt and made her basically support um support his family um by helping him at the restaurant and I she did it uh because she was the oldest daughter she um had the best uh Mastery of English out of all her family she was the oldest of six and the the thing is I put this picture on the left because that's the image I usually saw um I was usually at the restaurant with my mom until 11:00 p.m.
and she worked every night until 11: um even when I was very young even when you know I Grew Older by the time I was a little older um she had found a babysitter for me so that I could actually get some rest and you know do my homework but I had a Jewish babysitter and I spent so much time at that babysitter's house that for a while I told my teachers that I was Jewish um I still love Lois and mo of ball suit uh but I was fully convinced that I I'm fully Jewish I've participated in their whole Hanukkah traditions and you know this is who I am now um she sold my mom thankfully sold the restaurant as soon as I graduated college and could kind of you know support myself but you know she had no choice to persevere through these challenges um that came her way she made the most of it and I think the passion for the people really drove her through through um I watched her face every obstacle headon and it it truly made me feel like I could do anything which is why I probably even had the ambition um to go to New York to go to law school no one in my family did these things um and then to you know apply for a job at a a firm that you know I felt very out of place with at first um where there's no lawyers in my family and so next slide please
so this is a little bit of a you know I shared the rosie about me slide and that was the one that I would share with stakeholders this is the one that I will share with this women's group um and it is as you see uncensored now marked up in red um and kind of the story of my perseverance um my first week of school in New York was the 911 attack I wanted to quit scho so bad I called my mom I said I'm coming home you know this is too much for me it was um such an emotional um strain on me thinking that there that that could happen again um and just to live in that atmosphere where we were um first new to New York I had only ever lived in Atlanta so you can imagine that this was something that I didn't uh I didn't handle very well um our phones didn't work that whole day and so I had to live with the feeling that my my family did not know if I was um okay or not the reality is Columbia's pretty far from the World Trade Center but you know um I think from the outside you you're not sure our skies were black um you know the smoke came and it was kind of dreary again it was our first week at school and so we had no idea is this normal or is this part of the attack um and you know to be honest there was very little counseling or any kind of trauma therapy available for for us freshman year it was kind of just you know no one can go home even if you wanted to unless you're very local and can drive because the um airports were shut down and so we've all just got to get through it might as well just go to class um um but yes I for about for a few months my first year in college I was looking at plans to transfer back home um but you know so thankful that I stayed um and uh toughed it out and it honestly was a very um it was a humbling New York afterwards and probably very different from what it was like before but it'll always hold a very special place in my heart how the community all came together um nothing crazy happened in law school thankfully uh you know that was a pretty normal three years but I did start my first um job out of Law School in the 2008 recession so for about three four years I was watching friends get laid off um I watch my own numbers you can kind of see what you're bringing in to the firm and what you're costing and I was watching myself just be a drain on the firm and so I tried to learn as much as I could pitch in to any you know work that there was the reality was there was not much work for at least two to three years which is not great because um you know those are your years for training so you know that's where the people piece really came in it became a lot about um Making Connections in The Firm taking that time to internally Network so that when work did come in you know you'd have folks who um knew that you were available and wanted to call on you um and then my um you know he talked about me accelerating at my first in-house job at newal Brands um and I I think I got four promotions over six years and the reality was the first three they were kind of minor um the last one was huge but it also happened when I was on maternity Le and I you know I haven't been keeping up with the chat and how much wor supposed to reveal but I had major postpartum depression with my first um who's now on the right here it's not a great picture of her but I did want to keep it real she's the one in the yellow shirt um love her to death but I was not the same after I had her and I it I struggled so much getting back to work I also my first week back to work I was tasked with having to lay off several friends who used to be my colleagues I came back to work with a child and as their boss and many people I'm sure would have um jumped at that uh opportunity for me it was the most miserable Time of My Life um I would have given anything to not have that promotion at that time I also didn't know how to say no and I didn't know if I did say no um if I would have had a job to come back to at all and so I toted this this girl on the right here around the world um while uh she she refused to take a bottle so I and I didn't know what to do as my first kid was determined to breastfeed I brought her all around the world laying people off um trying to pump crying while pumping a lot of times um trying to see you know does this office I have to go to have a facility that's even private at all nope okay well I've got to set up a curtain then um um you know lactation laws and uh rules and regulations in offices are different everywhere around the world but um it was a struggle I would never want to go back there again uh but we made it through uh perseverance and um you know I'm so fortunate to have had a nanny and uh my own mom who could travel with me around the world during that time I wish I didn't have to do it though and I probably would have done it a little differently now um with a little more confidence but you know the thing is I did not learn my lesson I received a call from a recruiter in 2020 um and through the recruiting process I became pregnant and I took the job anyway I did disclose this to them but you know for me I thought hey how hard could it be I've done it one time turns out it was very hard um I had my son a couple months after I joined the company and then there was a Global crisis and I you know again um came back from work a little earlier than I wanted and not necessarily in the U best capacity and I trud through and I'm through it now uh but it makes things that I'm going through now now we are going through a big restructuring I do have layoffs on my team um we're treating our employees very well I believe but we are going through a lot of inflation um and with margins like ours you know our business is not sustainable without a little reduction in force and I've been called to execute some of that now that I've gone through it with uh with two small children um one in covid and one um in a very high travel uh Arrangement it it's not icing on the cake but it makes anything feel possible um um it also makes me reflect a little as I'm talking to you guys that uh you know boundaries are also necessary so Shantal I took a couple notes from you on um you know how to situate a team while having those boundaries and um kind of preparing in advance to make sure that you know anyone on my team including myself can take a break when you need um and that it won't be the end of the world and we're not caring the world on our shoulders uh I think what Shantel was saying about you know forcing herself to come back from grief the day after or you know in this moment of stress um immediately thereafter and kind of forcing yourself to do it sometimes you just reach a block where you can't do it anymore uh but that is all the reason why you build a really strong team you Empower people um you create these opportunities for those who are under you you you trust that you hired the right person or you've retained the right person or they could do your job for a bit or they could just do your job um and you know that everyone has a place and I hope that everyone is in an environment where they're e where they're able to contribute on one of those accounts um or that this gives you something to think about but uh next slide please and then I see there are a couple questions if we have time I'm not sure if I've gone over um but yeah so you know we're 150 years at my company now of innovation and care and I truly believe we're making the world a better place part of me is me drinking the Kool-Aid um but I am so proud to tell my kids you know mom makes diapers and we make them better every year and we're also looking at sustainability building a better future for my children um 90% of the innovations that I'm working on now have a sustainability Focus so whether it's less materials less plastic um you know a recycling component that's a above what we do now it uh it it really fuels me to be able to do these things um while juggling life uh outside of work so um thank you so much guys for having me and listening to my story um Ginger I'm not sure if we have time for questions but I'm happy to answer them if we do yeah we'll go through maybe a few questions that come in through the U that came in through the chat oh and by the way Stephanie I live in kind of the Emory area like I know North Lake Festival is still there I don't remember the restaurant I only go over there because that's where my petmart is yes I think it was near a PetSmart um I'm trying to think the Cornerstone someone said Toys R Us and it is kind of near there uh but it was next next to a Michaels at one point I think that changed it's been many years but my aunt still has a restaurant near there fortune cookie um and my aunt looks exactly like my mother so she often um is you know recognized there um even when it's okay then you know exactly where I live everyone I live right next to the fortune cookie okay so but fun questions um Dar says what is your best travel tip on traveling for work with an infant it is in my future okay well I would say if you can avoid doing it avoid doing it uh but if you have to do it I mean hopefully you have help I also think that um you know a travel stroller is really helpful U you obviously need one but one that they can nap in is so nice so that you can um you know kind of have it easy but also um not deal with all of the um lugging things around I uh I personally like the Mountain Buggy but you know um I did work for a stroller company before so probably shouldn't advertise this um also um let me think uh uh microwave if you are pumping or um you know needing to sanitize any bottles get a uh microwave in your room and just deal with the the plastic exposure um because it'll be worth it um I remember going down to the lobby to get you know the kitchen to like boil pump parts and it's a it's a stress no one needs um so yes so last question and then we'll ask you for final thoughts before we go to sema's presentation Cara says as a young mom versus a young attorney how have you changed your workload or your work so a young attorney I will be so honest with you and car I'm not sure if you're an attorney I worked around the clock that's probably um partially due to me being in the recession so we either had no work or we had too much work and when you had a lot of work I mean we had a expectation to Bill a certain number of hours um annually and you know when you're looking at several days of z0000 and you get some work you do it uh because if you don't do it someone else might it was pretty competitive but I put in my time then I learned a lot um I once the work started coming I took it all um I didn't date I didn't do anything until I moved um out of my Law Firm law firms are very different now I think work was steady but um as a Young attorney I would say you know you have to have those periods where you can work a lot and ones where you are going to decompress but it is unfortunately definitely not a nine-to-five job in most cases well as we wrap and move to our next speaker any final words of wisdom for all of our viewers today I just thank you so much this is such a great Community um I feel very fortunate that I ended up here today um and yes I I can't wait to hear from the others as well I'm going to try to stay on until my kids run into the room well thank you so much for your time today thank you so much
line um I you know as you may be able to tell um I have come from a Chinese Korean background I won't go into it it's a little complicated um but I am from Atlanta I was born in Atlanta um and I have two kids who are three and six I currently live in Buckhead um my husband in my 15 or not 15 um 8y year wedding anniversary is actually today um and he is traveling right now for his work um I left Atlanta to get a degree in architecture and civil engineering at Colombia because I always had dreams of being in New York and I knew I couldn't uh I knew I probably wouldn't do that into adulthood so I took the opportunity to go to undergrad there um um went to Duke law and found my way back to Atlanta excuse me uh my son did give me a cold um where I joined the um law firm of Alon and bird in the IP group um doing specifically patent and litigation uh for seven years and I don't know how many attorneys are in this group but to be very candid I normally am speaking to mostly attorneys and mostly IP attorneys in this kind of group but so glad to be a little Diversified um but so in the attorney corporate job World there are you know Law Firm jobs and then there are in-house Council jobs um and I happened to stay at a law firm for about seven years before I found an in-house job which uh was a big leap for me I always thought I'd be a law firm attorney forever but it really kind of solidified a passion that I'll talk about in a bit um joined new Brands which you know owns Graco Sharpie um uh Marmet um and a bunch of other consumer products um for about six years um where I started as patent council at a junior level position and then through a series of um Acquisitions divestures mergers everything a hostile takeover um I somehow ended up as Chief IP counsil um you know a bit of of it was luck a bit of it was the people piece that I'll talk about in a bit but uh really you know had an accelerated career there that I am super grateful for and then um in 2020 I was called by a recruiter uh and offered a slightly bigger job at Kimberly Clark um slightly more global company a little bigger team and I've been there for the last four years uh AS Global head of Ip uh I have a team of 22 IP uh and for those who aren't aware IP is intellectual property we cover patents trademarks um essentially I do the legal support for Innovation uh Trade Secrets brand protection copyright and so for instance if we have a new invention on a Huggies diaper which is a Kimberly Clark brand um you know my team patents it and if someone is trying to sell other Huggies diapers uh that are not ours then my team attacks those so wonderful Team all around the world and uh could not be more grateful to have them but a little bit about me that uh puts you know uh ties in the theme of this presentation that I thought was an interesting way to spin things and I've never done this before I've never had a um presentation around my childhood but as I sat and thought about you know how did I get to where I W I am and what really fuels me and how do I um how do I think about how I show up for people and my team and my stakeholders the thing is um next slide please think beyond that the most important thing is that I grew up in a Chinese restaurant and when I say in a Chinese restaurant I mean I was that kid at the back of that restaurant uh you know making stuff out of menus I was trying to fold the napkins they always got refolded because not really a good skill of mine um but you know I was there mixing daies uh behind the bar and pretty much just you know that is where I spent a lot of my time because my mom um came from Asia in 1979 and my grandfather at that point opened up a uh she came with her whole family she was in college he kind of plucked her away um and my grandfather asked her to help him run this rest because she was the best English speaker in the family and her younger siblings were still in school so she managed the restaurant and eventually took it over when he retired and you know I was born into restaurant life and growing up it's really all I ever knew I um you know it was completely normal to me to um you know take my Mongolian beef and go next door to the Mexican restaurant and barter for some queso because I was so sick of Chinese food at at that point uh but you know the the lessons I learned from the restaurant were ingrained in me at a young age and they actually as I reflect back um continue to guide me today as I lead my team next slide
please so um you know a big part of this is people and when and on the left is me and my mom uh at the restaurant I think this is probably one of the last pictures I have of us it's very dark um but you can kind of see it's a there's semblance of a Chinese restaurant um and you know when I watch my mom do her job at the restaurant as Hostess manager and everything if there was anything she excelled at it was people she made every single person who walked in those doors feel valued she knew every person's name if they had ever been before their favorite meal you know where they had just gone on vacation their F their preferred drink um she'd bring it to you without you even asking um kids would I would watch kids go off to college and come back just to visit her uh and that's a lesson I carry with me today um in any business the relationships you build with people are everything and I know right now I'm remote so it is harder to build those relationships now more than than ever um I I say I'm remote I do have an office it's not a great place to connect because most people are kind of in and out but my stakeholders are all around the world and for a while I was um you know like I said my kids are three and six and when I was in heavy mom mode um one thing that I had to cut out was that small talk right when I joined a zoom meeting I was trying to get the job done because I knew that I had only this limited time and I you know my work and my uh my own satisfaction with work and also my ability to get things done um within a pretty big company suffered because I could not connect with people on a personal level I felt like everything was such a challenge you know I had to put so much more data behind things instead of just the trust that I built and when I started to spend a little more time just saying look part of my job is actually to get to know my co-workers and to you know know them on a level where if I need a favor from them they can trust me or if I just need them to trust that you know the decision that I'm making is the right one that they will support me if we need to go to our manager for one thing together you know I've done something for them that that gives them some reason to work with me it's made things so much better and I will say that's one thing that as much as I enjoy the the time at home um with my kids during uh the completely remote part now that we're kind of back um to inperson meetings from time to time it's really helped me get things done it's also helped my job satisfaction to know that I'm working with people that I actually like um and it's okay not to like everyone uh but you know for the most part I gravitate towards those colleagues that um you know I have something in common with or I can relate to in some way or that helped before or they've helped me before and it really helps uh things overall um but yet it I also share this picture to the right because as I talk about people when I was a child I used to think my mom was an actual celebrity because when we went to the local mall and her restaurant for those of you asking um was at North Lake Tower Festival so it was near North Lake Mall I actually don't know if that exists anymore I I haven't uh been by that area in while but we could not go to the mall without her being stopped five plus times I you know it was impossible to get in and out uh everyone knew her and had such um fun times chatting with her that uh you know to me she was the most famous person in the world but I share this on the right because I uh a couple months ago was at a bar association Gathering and Dean F frier who is now the dean of emry Law School uh was one of my mom's uh good customers his whole family was and I connected with him I was like Dean F do you remember me I mean so funny that we're here you know together as uh Association members now because he still remembers me as being three or four years old and I texted this picture to my mother and she remembered his wife's name and all of his children's name off the bat I mean probably hasn't seen him for 25 years um or 20 years but really remarkable and I stried to have uh you know that kind of connection uh but next step
please so as I watched my mom at the restaurant I realized you know she had a passion for bringing joy to her customers and having that meal that they came for be the highlight of their day it was amazing to see um you know she do little things like put an umbrella like the the one you see on the left in a drink for a child and it would just light their face up and you know if you listen to them they'd say mom she remembered that my favorite color is yellow uh it was the little things and sometimes it was just taking a moment to listen to No matter how busy it was she made time for you you know there was eye contact there was uh you know she was always going to ask about someone even if the phone was ringing and it got pretty busy there uh and I tried my best has to help but you know I there's a reason why I didn't go into the restaurant industry um overall you know as much as I say this is her passion I know she was doing this to support our family and so that I could actually live out my own passion um but you know I realized what my mom was trying to do was making lives better and creating a better world through that you know you have happy people leaving a meal and doing great things for the community in whatever you know it was that they're headed to I do it a different way um I have always had kind of an engineering tick and I you know was at the back of the restaurant kind of engineering whatever I could with whatever I could get my hands on I mentioned menus I used to stack them up and do all kinds of things with them um I would you know break down boxes and make doll houses out of them and you know make my own dolls as well uh um but you know I'm so fortunate I found a career where I can actually help to make lives better I am like I said an intellectual proper property attorney and I started in the patent space which means I work with inventors and I've always worked in consumer products both new brands and Kimberly Clark I guarantee you have one of um our products from one of the companies in your house I believe Casey stat is globally we're in one out of three households and that's you know whether you go to you know the middle of Africa or um southeast Asia you'll find our products and I put a couple of the um very popular ones below our G our Global profile is a little bit different andrex is probably one of our bigger um product offerings in Europe but you know really proud to have joined my company because we actually invented so many spaces um that we operate in now but you know in the 1800s um or early 1900s we invented the first bath tissue product or the first rolled bath tissue product um the first feminine hygiene product I can't even believe it took as long as 1920 but we still have those CeX pads now um for spcial tissue product in Kleenex and first hand towels um that were cellulose based which is most now and then most importantly to me having two little ones um is we invented youth training pants so you may know them as Huggies uh as pull-ups um first branded by Huggies but you know I know those have helped our family out quite a bit um and so you know when I was called about this opportunity to join Kimberly Clark this was so compelling to me as someone who uh has always thought about you know product that make your life easier better how do we create a better world I can't imagine life without these products in fact as someone with chronic allergies um I don't know what I would do without Kleenex I'd probably um um have a lot of laundry to do but it was uh really inspiring to me to work for a company that you know not only had all these products to make lives better but also so many of them are um female oriented and parent Focus foced or kid focused that um for me as a um as a you know new mom it really spoke to me and I thought um you know I'd take this chance and I'm so glad I did if you can uh go to the next
slide so one thing I um I feel like I've painted a very Rosy picture and so I've actually left perseverance for the end um it's actually part of the whole story so far um the rosie story would be that my mom came to the US to build a business with her father the true story is she was forced to leave um a trajectory in finance she had a college accounting degree that she loved she um desired to work an office job but her her father my grandfather who um his 80th birthday picture he's now deceased uh but is on the right here um you know applied the Asian guilt and made her basically support um support his family um by helping him at the restaurant and I she did it uh because she was the oldest daughter she um had the best uh Mastery of English out of all her family she was the oldest of six and the the thing is I put this picture on the left because that's the image I usually saw um I was usually at the restaurant with my mom until 11:00 p.m.
and she worked every night until 11: um even when I was very young even when you know I Grew Older by the time I was a little older um she had found a babysitter for me so that I could actually get some rest and you know do my homework but I had a Jewish babysitter and I spent so much time at that babysitter's house that for a while I told my teachers that I was Jewish um I still love Lois and mo of ball suit uh but I was fully convinced that I I'm fully Jewish I've participated in their whole Hanukkah traditions and you know this is who I am now um she sold my mom thankfully sold the restaurant as soon as I graduated college and could kind of you know support myself but you know she had no choice to persevere through these challenges um that came her way she made the most of it and I think the passion for the people really drove her through through um I watched her face every obstacle headon and it it truly made me feel like I could do anything which is why I probably even had the ambition um to go to New York to go to law school no one in my family did these things um and then to you know apply for a job at a a firm that you know I felt very out of place with at first um where there's no lawyers in my family and so next slide please
so this is a little bit of a you know I shared the rosie about me slide and that was the one that I would share with stakeholders this is the one that I will share with this women's group um and it is as you see uncensored now marked up in red um and kind of the story of my perseverance um my first week of school in New York was the 911 attack I wanted to quit scho so bad I called my mom I said I'm coming home you know this is too much for me it was um such an emotional um strain on me thinking that there that that could happen again um and just to live in that atmosphere where we were um first new to New York I had only ever lived in Atlanta so you can imagine that this was something that I didn't uh I didn't handle very well um our phones didn't work that whole day and so I had to live with the feeling that my my family did not know if I was um okay or not the reality is Columbia's pretty far from the World Trade Center but you know um I think from the outside you you're not sure our skies were black um you know the smoke came and it was kind of dreary again it was our first week at school and so we had no idea is this normal or is this part of the attack um and you know to be honest there was very little counseling or any kind of trauma therapy available for for us freshman year it was kind of just you know no one can go home even if you wanted to unless you're very local and can drive because the um airports were shut down and so we've all just got to get through it might as well just go to class um um but yes I for about for a few months my first year in college I was looking at plans to transfer back home um but you know so thankful that I stayed um and uh toughed it out and it honestly was a very um it was a humbling New York afterwards and probably very different from what it was like before but it'll always hold a very special place in my heart how the community all came together um nothing crazy happened in law school thankfully uh you know that was a pretty normal three years but I did start my first um job out of Law School in the 2008 recession so for about three four years I was watching friends get laid off um I watch my own numbers you can kind of see what you're bringing in to the firm and what you're costing and I was watching myself just be a drain on the firm and so I tried to learn as much as I could pitch in to any you know work that there was the reality was there was not much work for at least two to three years which is not great because um you know those are your years for training so you know that's where the people piece really came in it became a lot about um Making Connections in The Firm taking that time to internally Network so that when work did come in you know you'd have folks who um knew that you were available and wanted to call on you um and then my um you know he talked about me accelerating at my first in-house job at newal Brands um and I I think I got four promotions over six years and the reality was the first three they were kind of minor um the last one was huge but it also happened when I was on maternity Le and I you know I haven't been keeping up with the chat and how much wor supposed to reveal but I had major postpartum depression with my first um who's now on the right here it's not a great picture of her but I did want to keep it real she's the one in the yellow shirt um love her to death but I was not the same after I had her and I it I struggled so much getting back to work I also my first week back to work I was tasked with having to lay off several friends who used to be my colleagues I came back to work with a child and as their boss and many people I'm sure would have um jumped at that uh opportunity for me it was the most miserable Time of My Life um I would have given anything to not have that promotion at that time I also didn't know how to say no and I didn't know if I did say no um if I would have had a job to come back to at all and so I toted this this girl on the right here around the world um while uh she she refused to take a bottle so I and I didn't know what to do as my first kid was determined to breastfeed I brought her all around the world laying people off um trying to pump crying while pumping a lot of times um trying to see you know does this office I have to go to have a facility that's even private at all nope okay well I've got to set up a curtain then um um you know lactation laws and uh rules and regulations in offices are different everywhere around the world but um it was a struggle I would never want to go back there again uh but we made it through uh perseverance and um you know I'm so fortunate to have had a nanny and uh my own mom who could travel with me around the world during that time I wish I didn't have to do it though and I probably would have done it a little differently now um with a little more confidence but you know the thing is I did not learn my lesson I received a call from a recruiter in 2020 um and through the recruiting process I became pregnant and I took the job anyway I did disclose this to them but you know for me I thought hey how hard could it be I've done it one time turns out it was very hard um I had my son a couple months after I joined the company and then there was a Global crisis and I you know again um came back from work a little earlier than I wanted and not necessarily in the U best capacity and I trud through and I'm through it now uh but it makes things that I'm going through now now we are going through a big restructuring I do have layoffs on my team um we're treating our employees very well I believe but we are going through a lot of inflation um and with margins like ours you know our business is not sustainable without a little reduction in force and I've been called to execute some of that now that I've gone through it with uh with two small children um one in covid and one um in a very high travel uh Arrangement it it's not icing on the cake but it makes anything feel possible um um it also makes me reflect a little as I'm talking to you guys that uh you know boundaries are also necessary so Shantal I took a couple notes from you on um you know how to situate a team while having those boundaries and um kind of preparing in advance to make sure that you know anyone on my team including myself can take a break when you need um and that it won't be the end of the world and we're not caring the world on our shoulders uh I think what Shantel was saying about you know forcing herself to come back from grief the day after or you know in this moment of stress um immediately thereafter and kind of forcing yourself to do it sometimes you just reach a block where you can't do it anymore uh but that is all the reason why you build a really strong team you Empower people um you create these opportunities for those who are under you you you trust that you hired the right person or you've retained the right person or they could do your job for a bit or they could just do your job um and you know that everyone has a place and I hope that everyone is in an environment where they're e where they're able to contribute on one of those accounts um or that this gives you something to think about but uh next slide please and then I see there are a couple questions if we have time I'm not sure if I've gone over um but yeah so you know we're 150 years at my company now of innovation and care and I truly believe we're making the world a better place part of me is me drinking the Kool-Aid um but I am so proud to tell my kids you know mom makes diapers and we make them better every year and we're also looking at sustainability building a better future for my children um 90% of the innovations that I'm working on now have a sustainability Focus so whether it's less materials less plastic um you know a recycling component that's a above what we do now it uh it it really fuels me to be able to do these things um while juggling life uh outside of work so um thank you so much guys for having me and listening to my story um Ginger I'm not sure if we have time for questions but I'm happy to answer them if we do yeah we'll go through maybe a few questions that come in through the U that came in through the chat oh and by the way Stephanie I live in kind of the Emory area like I know North Lake Festival is still there I don't remember the restaurant I only go over there because that's where my petmart is yes I think it was near a PetSmart um I'm trying to think the Cornerstone someone said Toys R Us and it is kind of near there uh but it was next next to a Michaels at one point I think that changed it's been many years but my aunt still has a restaurant near there fortune cookie um and my aunt looks exactly like my mother so she often um is you know recognized there um even when it's okay then you know exactly where I live everyone I live right next to the fortune cookie okay so but fun questions um Dar says what is your best travel tip on traveling for work with an infant it is in my future okay well I would say if you can avoid doing it avoid doing it uh but if you have to do it I mean hopefully you have help I also think that um you know a travel stroller is really helpful U you obviously need one but one that they can nap in is so nice so that you can um you know kind of have it easy but also um not deal with all of the um lugging things around I uh I personally like the Mountain Buggy but you know um I did work for a stroller company before so probably shouldn't advertise this um also um let me think uh uh microwave if you are pumping or um you know needing to sanitize any bottles get a uh microwave in your room and just deal with the the plastic exposure um because it'll be worth it um I remember going down to the lobby to get you know the kitchen to like boil pump parts and it's a it's a stress no one needs um so yes so last question and then we'll ask you for final thoughts before we go to sema's presentation Cara says as a young mom versus a young attorney how have you changed your workload or your work so a young attorney I will be so honest with you and car I'm not sure if you're an attorney I worked around the clock that's probably um partially due to me being in the recession so we either had no work or we had too much work and when you had a lot of work I mean we had a expectation to Bill a certain number of hours um annually and you know when you're looking at several days of z0000 and you get some work you do it uh because if you don't do it someone else might it was pretty competitive but I put in my time then I learned a lot um I once the work started coming I took it all um I didn't date I didn't do anything until I moved um out of my Law Firm law firms are very different now I think work was steady but um as a Young attorney I would say you know you have to have those periods where you can work a lot and ones where you are going to decompress but it is unfortunately definitely not a nine-to-five job in most cases well as we wrap and move to our next speaker any final words of wisdom for all of our viewers today I just thank you so much this is such a great Community um I feel very fortunate that I ended up here today um and yes I I can't wait to hear from the others as well I'm going to try to stay on until my kids run into the room well thank you so much for your time today thank you so much