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The podcast focuses on fiercely empowering women in business, as entrepreneurs and women in male-dominated industries, featuring guests who embody strength, resilience, competence, and a touch of sass as they navigate business and life.
Looking for guests who are willing to bring a wealth of experience and knowledge but also possess the strength, resilience, and sass that align with the tone of my podcast.
I want their stories and insights to provide immense value to my audience, helping me to establish a powerful podcast as a must-listen for women looking to empower themselves in business. The goal is to build competence and discover how brave women can be in business.
Welcome to Superheroes in Heels, the podcast where powerful women rise, lead, and own the room. I'm Kimberley Borgens, your host, fellow trailblazer, and unapologetic advocate for women in the world of business. With over thirty years of experience building success in a male dominant industry, I'm here to empower you to do the same. Each week, you'll hear bold conversations with inspiring guests who embody strength, resilience, a little dash of sass, and a little bit of grace. Together, we'll challenge the status quo, break through barriers, unlock your confidence, and unleash your inner superhero.
Kimberley Borgens:You ready? Let's go. Welcome. Welcome to superheroes in heels with Kimberley Borgens. Another empowering episode here today.
Kimberley Borgens:Today, we're diving into the conversation that bridges generations and unlocks new possibilities for women in business. This is part three of my series on wisdom across generations. You know, whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, there's huge value in looking at how younger women are reshaping the business landscape and how older women can tap into that wisdom to stay vibrant, relevant, and impactful. In previous episodes, I talked about how, women in their sixties can mentor women in their fifties and how the women in their forties can learn a lot from the women in their fifties. Today, I'm flipping that around.
Kimberley Borgens:I'm sharing how women in their thirties and forties can guide the women who have helped pave the path for them. Look. We all have a lot to offer. And when we stop and learn from each other, we all can grow and we can gain new superhero powers with new perspectives and and new ways to drive the ever changing business market. So thank you for joining me today as I I wrap up this series of wisdom across generations.
Kimberley Borgens:But let's talk about you know, we we really need to face the fact that business is changing at a lightning speed. Okay? Women in their thirties and forties, they're diving headfirst into new technologies, social platforms, and nontraditional business models. For those of us who have been in the game for decades, this is a vital reminder to not get too comfortable. Adaptation is not just an option.
Kimberley Borgens:It's the secret to staying relevant these days. So think about for yourself, in the older generation, the fifties and sixties, how can you step out of your comfort zone, step out of what you know, what the past has created for us in business, and embrace the next wave of innovation in the ever changing business environment? Well, one of the ways that we can do that is by watching those that are coming up now. The the women who are are building businesses in their thirties and forties because they're helping to reshape how business is now. And we have to adapt in order to continue to make ourself relevant in that space.
Kimberley Borgens:And here's the thing. Visibility is currency. We can no longer hide behind perfection or, let your product speak for itself. That's not an option anymore. Younger women know that brand and presence are just as valuable as what you're selling.
Kimberley Borgens:They're showing up on video. They're starting podcasts and embracing imperfection to build genuine connections. So think about that. If you've ever felt nervous about putting yourself out there, take a cue from our younger generation. Authenticity trumps polish these days.
Kimberley Borgens:It truly does. There's more raw, you know, videos. There's more, know, raw information out there. You have to have a persona and a personality. It's more important than getting the getting getting it all perfect before you launch.
Kimberley Borgens:I mean, think about it. We we worked and we worked and we worked until it was perfect before we would launch something. Well, that's long gone. Look at me starting a podcast this year. I mean, people have been telling me to do this for years, and I just wasn't listening.
Kimberley Borgens:I mean, I heard the words. I just wasn't internally going, this would be valuable for my business. But I'm paying attention now. Are you? Maybe it's not the podcast.
Kimberley Borgens:Maybe it's just more visibility. Maybe it's, you know, rebranding. Maybe it's updating your website so that it it's more generationally loving, right, that we're bringing everybody into the table. For decades, many women felt they had to work twice as hard to prove their worth. Right?
Kimberley Borgens:Knocked down over and over and over again. And to be able to then stand up and show their value, we had to prove ourselves over
Kimberley Borgens:and
Kimberley Borgens:over. But the new generation, they're rewriting the rules. They are rewriting the rules of business. And the question is, are you gonna come along with it? They've learned that they need to protect their energy, and they refuse to feel guilty about self care.
Kimberley Borgens:I mean, imagine if we'd learned that lesson sooner. Right? I think there's a gap between those of us learning about the importance of self care and not paying attention, and having the consequences of all of that. I mean, think about it. Boomers and Gen Xers, like, we had to learn the hard way.
Kimberley Borgens:Gen X has taken on self care, like or let me repeat. Let me rephrase that. The gen z's I'm so used to saying gen x. The gen z's are they've taken on self care. You know, like, we we did the get it done era.
Kimberley Borgens:Like, we took on we gotta get it done. We gotta hustle, right, as Gen Xers. But as the Gen Zs, they're like, we need to not hustle so much, but we need to take care of ourselves so that we can do the hustle when we need to. Like, millennials are somewhere in the middle. They understand the importance of self care, but they're feeling the hustle mode too.
Kimberley Borgens:So it's time that we see the boundaries that take of taking care of ourselves without guilt. I wanna put that in there because I know the Gen Xers had way, a lot of guilt. We would hear guilt with, you know, in day care centers. I remember one time the day care center said, I'm raising your daughter. You're not.
Kimberley Borgens:And I'm like, what? You had them a week, and you're telling me I'm not raising my kid. I was like, they wanted to put the guilt on me because I was a working woman. Right? And I was like, yeah.
Kimberley Borgens:No. That's that's not true. When I was home with my kids, I was home with my kids. Not every single time. I admit it.
Kimberley Borgens:There was some business in the middle, but I I wasn't letting somebody else try to make me feel guilty. But we man, as Gen Xers, the guilt was hard. Where the Gen Zs and the millennials, they're really working around that no more guilt about taking care of ourselves and no more guilt, about, you know, what we can and can't do. The younger generation can help us guide or help guide us, I should say, into setting up the right boundaries for ourselves. We can learn a lot from this generation.
Kimberley Borgens:Yeah. We have our scars. We've been knocked down, and we've we had to, you know, deal with the guilt stuff and all of that. But imagine if we just let that guilt stuff go now, and we start looking at it like, what can I do now? What are they doing that I can also do?
Kimberley Borgens:Right? Shifting those boundaries and looking at them as power and not guilt can be a huge asset. I know that I'm here to embrace it. How about you? Remember the, old go it alone mentality?
Kimberley Borgens:As young women in business, we had to just go and get it done. We couldn't there wasn't somebody to hold our hand or walk us through it or, you know, share anything. It was about competition. We were competing against each other. As women, we were taught to compete against each other because if we don't do it, then she's gonna take it from us.
Kimberley Borgens:Come on. Let me tell you. Younger businesswomen are flipping that script. Right? They're choosing collaboration over competition.
Kimberley Borgens:Yay. It's about time. Right? They're building partnerships. They're cocreating.
Kimberley Borgens:They're investing in their communities. Right? They're having fan experiences. I mean, come on. Taylor Swift.
Kimberley Borgens:She's truly leading the way with this. Right? She led the way full on with fan experience. Right? The lesson here is really simple.
Kimberley Borgens:Rising together accelerates growth. Imagine what would happen if we focused less on competing and more on supporting each other across generations, building collaborations that lift communities, and businesses become more sustainable, and families have people that they can rely on. Look. There are young entrepreneurs out there that were sequestered in their homes, stuck on computers, and had the fear put into them to stay home and stay away from people. It was shoved down their throats.
Kimberley Borgens:They need us to guide them through the sludge of a tough time, but we also need to recognize the resiliency that they have had after the important time of the big c in their life. We can learn a lot from them, and we can be a sounding board for them. Do not underestimate the power of multigenerational entrepreneurs coming together and collaborating. And if you found yourself stuck waiting for the perfect five year plan, you're not alone. Everybody says it.
Kimberley Borgens:Oh, create a plan. Get that five year plan out there. But younger entrepreneurs, they're teaching us that done is better than perfect. They try. They fail.
Kimberley Borgens:They pivot. They try again, and they do it quickly. What's the takeaway in that? Movement creates momentum. Actions beat hesitation every time.
Kimberley Borgens:They're not waiting for perfection or finding the correct one process that might work. They execute. Right? And they re execute again and again and again. They're not afraid of failing, but more afraid of being irrelevant.
Kimberley Borgens:They are teaching us how to execute quickly in a quick changing digital world of business that we're now living in. And if you're not willing to step up the speed and the speed of execution, the speed of, you know, going to the next thing, the next thing, the next thing in business, you then you have to understand you're going to be left behind. Look. I'll be the first person to tell you, oh, change was has never been my strong suit. I like things a certain way.
Kimberley Borgens:I like the comfort of knowing that this is how things are, but the reality is that's not the reality. Change is happening at a very fast pace. And as businesswomen, we have to stay on top of that. And the best people that are showing us the way to do that are the people in their twenties, thirties, and forties. One of the most beautiful lessons from younger women in business is their ability to blend life and work.
Kimberley Borgens:Look. They're traveling while building companies, raising kids, leading teams, all you know, mixing their passions into profits no matter where they are. They could be hanging out at the restaurant with some friends. They can be at home. They can be in other countries, but they are getting it done at at a huge space of looking at integration and creating separation from a office space.
Kimberley Borgens:I mean, come on. We were put in these rigid boxes, and we've gotta forget that. Our business can flex and evolve alongside our life. The freedom of being anywhere in the world and running a business from a laptop, cell phone has truly changed the business environment. Heck.
Kimberley Borgens:I know for me look. Over the past, I don't know, several, several years, I have processed payroll from Thailand, Japan, Bali, Singapore, Africa, Spain, Italy. I can't there's so many spaces. I can't even name them all now. Because of that freedom of being able to have that digitalness wherever I go.
Kimberley Borgens:Look. There was no way I was gonna be able to do that easily twenty years ago. But watch how they expand because they use integration tools quickly and easily. Right? Like, how is it they don't even have nearly enough experience to be doing the things that they're doing, and they're running us over because they have speed of integration, and we have to get better at it.
Kimberley Borgens:I was talking with my HR manager recently, and she was sharing with me that it's very difficult to hire people right now with computer skills. I let her finish telling me, you know, why she felt that was in a difficult thing right now, that people aren't learning the the, the word, the you know, all the major computer pieces, the computer, programs necessary in business. And I just let her talk, and I let her tell me all about it. And then when she was finished, I said, they have computer skills. They have cell phone computers that they are all learning on.
Kimberley Borgens:It's a different platform. It's a different integration system. It makes it harder to find the right people for an office environment, but do not underestimate the younger generation. We had to look at how can we pivot and still use people in our office, still hire the right employees because they're not getting trained the same way in schools. They're not.
Kimberley Borgens:And we have to adapt. We have to bring them in. We get to teach, and we get to learn. Perfection is out. Have you noticed that?
Kimberley Borgens:Authenticity is in. The younger generations are dropping the mask, and they're sharing their struggles alongside their wins. They're building brands based on who they are, not just what they do. As older women in business, we were taught to keep stuff at home. Keep our personal personal.
Kimberley Borgens:Don't bring it to work, and don't talk about home stuff when we're at work. And if you're struggling with something, nobody wants to hear about it. Right? Come on. You know.
Kimberley Borgens:That's what we were taught. But as older women, we can learn that showing showing that vulnerability makes us magnetic, not weak. It lets our superpowers out. We have to be willing to share the wins, the setbacks, and the things that make us be seen as humans. We need to find the middle ground, and the younger generation is learning the path.
Kimberley Borgens:They're leading that path for us. They are learning how to do it. They are showing us, and they are leading us to that next space. So authenticity sells. The real exchange of power shifts.
Kimberley Borgens:Because here's the magic. Women in their fifties and sixties, we bring wisdom. We bring experience. We bring sustainability. Women in their thirties and forties, they bring innovation and boldness.
Kimberley Borgens:When we listen and learn from one another, we stop competing across generations and start accelerating each other's impact. We become more like the Incredibles. Right? A whole family that makes, a room for each other's superpowers. Right?
Kimberley Borgens:Everybody had their own little distinct superpower, And that's how we can be as women in business with all the generations involved. No more like the lone ranger with a sidekick. Now we can be a family, a community, a collaborative effort that shows all of our powers, that embraces the different powers of women, and brings us all together. Imagine that kind of environment for women in business. The dynamics are shifting.
Kimberley Borgens:So superheroes, think about one lesson today. One lesson you're willing to borrow from a younger woman in business this week. What could that one lesson that you can learn from somebody younger than you? What could that be? What's one insight that you're ready to share with her, with that with that young woman, with that young entrepreneur.
Kimberley Borgens:Look. Together, we can rewrite the rules. Let's build a future where every woman of every age is a force for good. I see that in the future, but it's not gonna happen if we stay in our generational spots. We have to open up the generational gaps, embrace each other, and build businesses that support each other, that support sustainability, creates greater impacts for our compute communities, for our our families, and and generations to come.
Kimberley Borgens:Thank you so much for tuning in with me here with Superheroes and Heels with Kimberley Borgens. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and keep the conversation going. Visit Kimberleyborgens.com and join us in the hive hangout. So until next time, keep shining, keep learning, and keep lifting each other up. Most importantly, be blessed.
Kimberley Borgens:Thanks for tuning in to Superheroes in Heels with Kimberley Borgens. If you're walking away feeling a little braver, a little bolder, and a whole lot more powerful, mission accomplished. Be sure to subscribe to the show and leave a review. It helps us to reach more women who are ready to unleash their power and lead with confidence. And if you do leave a review, you might just hear your name in an upcoming episode.
Kimberley Borgens:If today's conversation lit a fire in you, share it with your network and join us inside the hive society at Kimberleyborgens.com, where powerful women gather to break barriers and rise together. Until next time, keep showing up, standing strong, and heels or not, keep embracing your inner superhero.