Coco Brown was only 24 years old when she was hired as advisor to the vice president at a tech company, where she played an essential role in seeing important projects to the finish line. Four years later, she became a vice president herself, leading the operations of a highly technical infrastructure development firm. Despite her remarkable success at such a young age, she spent many evenings crying in the front seat of her car, wracked with self-doubt.
“You have to break out of whatever tower it is you built your career around. Sales, marketing, engineering, product, human capital, manufacturing… think about how this incredible career you've built translates into you as an overarching steward of the business,” Brown said. That, she emphasizes, is the key to creating a larger and more meaningful impact.
The organization utilizes three integral components to help their members secure positions where they can advance their careers as well as their impact: learning, connection and community.Brown encourages any woman wanting to grow professionally to thoroughly and exhaustively understand the playing field, and then to change the way they envision themselves fitting into it. When you know how the game works, it’s far easier to develop a strategy for success.
“So much of came to her because she thought about herself really big,” Brown said. “Olympic athletes have all sorts of teams around them. They have a psychologist and a masseuse and a sports medicine person, and they have their coach. Well, top leaders need that too. You need an ecosystem around you that coaches you, that writes your bio for you, that helps you figure out your next stage strategy, that networks you to those right roles. She invested in those things.