We recently connected with Tiffany Anton and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tiffany thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I started working in the world of entrepreneurship in May 2017. At that time, I had just started dabbling in the world of social media. I got a job as the marketing manager at The Biz Foundry, a regional entrepreneur center, as the marketing manager and felt like a deer caught in the headlights.

I started to notice that we didn’t connect well with our female audience. We ran coding camps, and youth programs. We had happy hour networking events but nothing specific to bring female founders together. We needed a way to inspire women to celebrate their role in entrepreneurship and bring them together as a community.

Powered By Her was started in March of 2019 as a podcast and monthly lunches. We gained support from our local radio station and our regional entrepreneur center so it was a low cost high reward venture. Since then we have released over 65 podcast episodes and over 40 free lunches.

Tiffany, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When you think of “women’s brands” you often think of beautiful, soft, light colors. When I saw a need for female founders to be supported in our region, I knew I wanted to be something different. I wanted to make sure that Powered By Her would be able to provide valuable support, meeting emotional needs in a no nonsense way. We started PBH with both a free monthly luncheon ( thanks to a local bank’s sponsorship) and a podcast featuring the stories of female founder’s. It was really important to be able to have an inspiring and connected community, while leaving out drama.

When we started looking at branding, the idea was suggested to have a Rosie the Riveter type character as the logo. We loved that idea! We liked having bold colors of blue and yellow, bold fonts. We wanted to tap into how strong women are, despite the fact that they are pulled in a million directions.

Over the last three years, we have created a strong female brand, with the support of both men and women, that inspires our community by providing stories of others who are doing it, and educational opportunities to help our entrepreneurs grow.

We are in the process of reaching out to women founders outside of our region to grow our community even larger!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2016, I was starting to see the reality that I would be a single mother. I had two young children and hadn’t been in the workforce in 6 years. I had skills but knew that my career was really important to my ultimate happiness. It was important for me to find something that I felt was impactful, where I could be in a leadership role but still help those around me. Being a single mom, I knew it would be important for me to feel like I could be a good mom while killing it in the office. I got a part time job at The Biz Foundry in May 2017. I started as the marketing manager and thought I was going to be hired to help their marketing director. Turns out, the marketing person was leaving and I was it! To say immediately it clicked would be a lie. I had many days where I showed up to work, had no clue what I was doing and just tried to look busy. Within a couple months, I was starting to feel comfortable. I asked A LOT of questions and began to feel passionate about what this organization was doing. I saw needs and decided to take the reins and meet the needs. I was offered the freedom to start Powered By Her. I stepped up to help steer the direction. I stepped into the role of Vice President in January 2021 and have loved the opportunity to lead and have an impact.

After starting Powered By Her, we had great feedback and a decent amount of success. I was loving what I was doing at The Biz Foundry, and with Powered By Her. Then I met a local videographer. We knew that we could create something really special by taking Powered By Her up a notch. We created a set in order to start a video podcast. With the connections of the video component we were able to have an even bigger impact and reach more women.

I’m not sure if I would say I pivoted but I think of life as steps. I don’t think I change directions but I take steps up or forward to make changes for the better. I keep moving in order to not get stuck.

Any advice for managing a team?

Managing a team is just as important as the work you are doing. When I stepped into a leadership position at my job, I wasn’tt sure how to best manage others. After reading the book Spark by Angie Morgan, Courtney Lynch and Sean Lynch, I realized how to really make a team work with greatness. Understanding team members’ strength and drawing those out is key in success. If you spend your time being closed minded and set in your ways, you will never have the opportunities to grow when you bring new team members on. A key factor that I try to focus on is making sure that team members know their value. Of course people should do their job and do what is expected of them but it never hurts to let people know that you see the good things you are doing.

It is also important to have some sort of reviews. These do not need to be negative, scary or even weigh heavy on either party, it is just important to take time to communicate what is going well and what can be improved upon.

Another key factor in creating high morale is to never think that a leadership position means you are higher or “too good” for a particular task. I am the one who picks up cupcakes for birthdays, plans parties, empties the dishwasher. It is important to pitch in at certain times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.poweredbyhercommunity.com/
• Instagram: @poweredbyhercommunity
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/poweredbyherproductions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-anton-27a882149/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUKkO5swPEP_jLTmsAMhfWNPhjp_s7_GD

Image Credits
Matthew Lewis Casey Lemons