Kristy Wallace: Investing To Networking

In episode #16 of My 2.0, guest Kristy Wallance, CEO of the Ellevate Network, shares her transition from a career in finance and investing to running a networking platform. 

Ellevate network is the largest coalition of professional women in all career stages committed to succeeding in the workplace and the world and in lifting communities around us. They have experienced many changes due to COVID. They had hyper local communities and squads which were online peer mentoring groups, with a large opportunity in the middle of both these types of groups. So they introduced weekly executive round tables talking about relevant topics and taking it back to homes and workplaces. 

Networking is traditionally a dirty word, and people use it transactionally only when they need to. Women, in particular, don’t invest enough in it. But what we miss out on is timely and intentional relationships. Just like we value our personal networks, we need to value our professional relationships to create that bench of thought partners who can help solve not just the business partners of today, but become a part of our life-long career journeys. 

Kristy also hosts the  Ellevate podcast. She loved internalizing and learning from other experiences, and improving her own listening skills. 

Krist graduated as an English and Sociology major and went into investment banking. But soon realized that Corporate was not the right place. She quickly moved on to startups, in sales eventually leading revenue operations. She was eventually asked to grow her business globally but was pregnant with her first child and felt overwhelmed. She was working long hours and didn’t see a way forward. She took a break to travel and connect with different people, cultures and places, looking for inspiration and creativity. She did a listening tour and eventually moved into a health and wellness startup. Soon after, she met Allie MacDonald who was the founder of 85 Broads, and who introduced Kristy to the Ellevate Network. Kristy’s interest was piqued and within a couple of days, she moved on to her new position at the Ellevate Network. 

She believes that we need to explore, to connect with our community to help us realize our vision.  

Her advice to those who want to explore stepping back to explore career transitions is to ensure financial stability and to make space to explore options for the next transition. She personally regrets the fact she did not make that time and space for herself. And seemed in a rush to get back to the comfort of a professional identity. She asks us to not be embarrassed but instead to be curious and patient.

Kristy’s rituals and habits for not feeling stuck are to determine our key activities and do them in the most productive time in the day, and to make that a bit. She also likes to keep a list of people that she likes to keep in touch with, and to check in with periodically. 

Her pre-transition advice to herself is to not be hard on ourselves, and to identify the things we want to do/enjoy that are separate from our professional lives. .

And in order to embrace our career transitions, she does a quarterly check with herself to see if she is happy in all her roles and is fulfilling her expectations. She also is curious and aware of all the opportunities that are being presented to her.