Fresh Perspective: 5 Qs for Two of our Favorite Female Pioneers in Business, Sisterhood and Joy
Posted: October 8th, 2019
This week we were fortunate to sit down with Gina Pell and Amy Parker, two OGs of the dot com era, who’ve been in the business of sharing their best finds since 1999. In 2011 they sold their company, Splendora, and decided to embark on a new labor of love they call THE WHAT. With Gina at the creative helm and Amy navigating the executive duties, they’re the perfect pair to serve up a creative cocktail for your inbox. After we whet your appetite we know you’ll be ready for another round so don’t worry, you can unwind with these ladies every Wednesday when they shake, stir, and serve up an ever rotating list of their latest reads, flicks, travels, eats, and other tasty digital concoctions.
Welcome to Garden Society Gina and Amy and thanks for chatting. We’re all about bringing joy to women’s lives but we’d love to know what brings you joy?
We derive real happiness from bringing women together and watching the myriad ways they help each other through struggles and celebrate successes. Being the humble catalysts of this generosity and being able to pay it forward is, as Whitney Houston once sang, the greatest gift of all.
Wait a minute, did you pull that from our website? I don’t think we could have said it better ourselves! Speaking of success, we’re excited to see more and more women in positions of leadership. It seems like every year there are more women entrepreneurs, politicians, and CEOs. What’s it like to be a female leader in today’s climate?
We have always done our own thing and run teams of women. We never worked for “the man” and have spent the past few decades working with female led companies so for us it’s amazing. But for our friends in more traditional industries and companies we know things are far from awesome.
It’s unfortunate that some work environments haven’t caught up yet and we’d love to see that change. We’ve always believed that powerful women empower other women, whether that’s at work or in the home; what lessons did you learn from your mother or other important women in your life?
Actually, our mothers are friends who adore each other despite their ten year age difference and the fact that one is from the South and the other is from the South Pacific. They met through our first venture 20 years ago and we have a tradition of mother daughter lunch every year. Our mothers are both tough, resilient, optimistic women who because of their consistent way of always showing up as themselves (neither ever try to be people they are not) have a natural sense of confidence and devil may care attitude that may or may not have been passed down to us.
They sound like passionate pioneers as well and great role models. What about outside your home? We’re sure that you’ve also learned your share of valuable lessons from other influential women. What’s the best intangible gift you’ve gotten from a girlfriend, feel free to give them a shout out!
Zem Joaquin is the girlfriend who brought us together when she hired Amy at Splendora, our first company, many years ago. And Zem continues to fuel everything we do at The What and vice versa with her world changing conference called Near Future Summit. She taught us the most important lesson in friendship that when relationships start to deplete you and are toxic you don’t need to burn bridges and cut them off, but rather turn your attention towards the people who fill you up. Her advice reduced a lot of drama in our 30s when the first wave of friend Spring Cleaning happened. It also made us invest more time in the people who fill us up and vice versa.
Such great advice. There’s a power that comes with positivity and surrounding yourself with people that share a spark. So tell us, after all your business and leadership success, at the end of the day, what matters most to you?
Our families and our friends.
Great answer. After all, where would we be without our friends and family? Gina and Amy, thanks again for taking the time to chat with us, it’s been a treat. And, since we’re sure our audience will want to keep up with the latest from from you two, they can follow along via your social media handles: @thewhathq @gpgram @huddyparker or cozy their curser on up to thewhatlist.com and set the inbox to autopilot.
