Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cecilia Zapata-Harms. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cecilia, appreciate you joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
I’d say I had an entrepreneurial mindset. As a child, I recall, creating little things I can sell to others. Not sure how successful it was, but I’ve always enjoyed creating something that makes another happy or feel joyful. Throughout the years as an executive, I have thought of creating a community of women whose sole purpose is to develop programs that support whatever endeavor another woman wishes to embark on and to help ensure they are successful. My professional career has been in the life science/biotechnology and health care space and it made sense to build this community in the industry.
It has taken awhile, to be perfectly honest, for me to understand what I wanted to create. I still needed to take the road less traveled and gain experience before the vision and purpose for this women community started to form. So here’s the story of how Women, Life and Science Inc. started.
About early fall of 2022, while I was getting ready to head to a meeting downtown, I thought to myself that wouldn’t it be great to have a radio/podcast forum for women – to hear stories from women (not the celebrities or influencer stories) but stories from women leaders, entrepreneurs, seasoned women leaders, etc on topics of leadership, career transitions, life transitions, nutrition, mental health, etc. We hear from high-profile people all the time, but what about from women, like me.
As I was driving, I receive a call from a number I didn’t recognize. I sent it to voicemail and listened to the message after my meeting ended. The call came from an executive producer of Voice America, asking me if I was ever interested in having my own podcast – and that they are piloting a new ‘channel” – the empowerment channel. How synchronistic right? Literally just that morning I was thinking about a podcast and within a couple of hours, I receive this voicemail.
I returned the call and spoke to the executive producer. I didn’t think twice about agreeing to pilot a show for 13 weeks. It came with a bit of a financial commitment, but I was willing to take the risk and signed up. The podcast started on October 13, 2022.
Did I know anything about doing a radio program or podcast show? Absolutely not! Was I anxious and nervous that I will sound absolutely ridiculous? Of course! Did I know how to create content for a weekly show? Uhmmm…..no. All these things had me in knots, but excitement kicked in as well! VoiceAmerica provided technical training and partnered with the executive producer some ideas on topics and format.
I realized that I needed to learn and teach myself how to do these things, so immediately set out to do so. One thing I did do to kickstart my education is to listen to many podcasts – and took note on styles and type of interviews. From there, I created my own content planner and actually leveraged my professional network and friends to be my guests on the initial 13-week pilot.
After the pilot, I committed for a year of podcasting, but I also knew that this was just the first stepping stone. After a couple of months, I decided to plan a Women, Life and Science conference and 2 weeks after making that decision turn Women, Life and Science as a non-profit organization, developed our governing board and we are now in the final stages of the conference to be held on April 30, 2024.
What’s next? The board is embarking on developing programs and initiatives that are important to the community and strengthening the think-tank.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’m an only child. My Dad is retired Navy and my Mom, in addition to keeping our household organized, worked as a data-entry clerk and eventually, retired from Boeing as one of their “engineer librarian”. She actually is my hero – who showed me that as a woman, I can do and learn anything.
My Dad’s last station before retiring was Bremerton, WA. We lived in Seattle where I finished high school and earned two of my graduate degrees in social-cultural anthropology and health administration from the University of WA – thinking early on that I was going to be a junior and high school social science teacher, but sadly, at that time, there were no jobs available.
I ended up, after working for other physician clinics and the residency program at one of the hospital systems, landing a position at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Started my twenty-seven year journey as a project manager for the President and evolved holding many leadership positions including as division administrator and director of the affiliate partnerships nationally and globally. I was also part of the team that spun out biotechnology startups that eventually were acquired or went IPO.
After twenty-seven years, I decided to start my own company with other partners called 3rdEyeBio – a management and accelerator working with biotech startups; often becoming the interim C-suite and funders until the company can move to commercialization. Through the creation of 3rdEyeBio, I met the CEO of SyncMD, a digital health platform. Eugene (CEO) and I have become very good friends and continue, to this day, to embark on new ventures.
The word “impossible” is not in my dictionary or vocabulary because I believe that there is always a way to make something happen; to create and be successful. The outcome may not be what was originally envisioned but in most cases, it is exactly what was needed.
People ask me where my energy comes from. I learned a long time ago to listen to my higher self and listen to what I’m passionate about at that moment in time. When it resonates within your being, you’re on the right track. The energy to do these follows and I often find, that creativity kicks in full force.
Do I get tired? Of course! I have also learned through the years to listen to my body – it tells me when it’s time to just be still. I make it a point to always have time with my family and do the things that bring me joy – and that includes creating.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Co-founders with 3rdEyeBio were scientists and colleagues who also were transitioning out of their life science roles from other organizations. The whole concept for the company started from a cocktail-hour get together; drawn up behind a cocktail napkin. The company is still active maturing now to scale up further. With SyncMD, the CEO and I was introduced by a mutual colleague.
With Women, Life and Science, Inc. a non-profit organization, I met our board members through networking meetings; over coffee or lunch. I think being genuine with what I was envisioning and having a common purpose created the kind of synergy needed. Once I filed to form the non-profit, it was really easy to have the board developed.
Have you ever had to pivot?
Being an entrepreneur is not glamorous – even though some think it is. Don’t get me wrong – there is a sense of freedom to be an entrepreneur, but not many are cut out for it. There are many failures before success can be acknowledged. Ask any entrepreneur how many businesses they have started and many will respond with a multitude.
Personally, I’ve had several that didn’t succeed. Without proper planning, mentoring and experience, the first endeavor often fail. I’ve gotten myself in financial trouble with my first business – thinking that I can do it all myself. This first business was a gardening/plant business. I love gardening and even received a master gardener certification. I had a fancy greenhouse built; and even got into adding some garden art to the business. Spent lots of money on inventory and plants that I started myself. I was a landscape/garden consultant too. It was doing okay for a bit, but it took lots of time – and I was only doing this business on weekends while working full time. I didn’t factor in the amount of brain power, the marketing and the physical aspect of the business. Sales revenue was dependent on ongoing landscape work and having a store (I was selling my inventory out of my backyard). Eventually, I started to lose interest and closed up shop but not without some significant financial impact. I had debt to pay off and my savings was down to zero.
Hard lesson to learn. It took a couple of years to have everything built up to where it felt good to have money in the savings account again and paid off debt. It took over twenty years before I started another company independently. But during the time that I was working, I took the time to learn the ins and outs of running a business (lessons from the biotech startup we spun out) and gained experience from higher education.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://wlscience.com
- Instagram: womenlifescience_22
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/womenlifeandscience
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-life-and-science/
- Youtube: @WomenLifeandScience-to8iw