S2E8: How to Empower Women in Support
In this episode of 15 Minutes with Judi, Judi chats with Sandy Ko Fonseca, founder and principal of Customer Contact Women (CC Women). Sandy shares the inspiring story behind creating CC Women, a community aimed at empowering women in business through mentorship, career development, and networking. Highlighting success stories, Sandy discusses how the organization helps women navigate challenges like salary negotiations and job transitions, ultimately fostering a safe, supportive space for personal and professional growth.
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Sandy, how are you?
- I am well.
How are you doing, Judy?
- I'm doing well.
Thank you, Sandy, for asking.
Thank you for joining "15 Minutes with Judy."
Hi, everyone.
I'm Judy Platt, Chief Customer Officer here
at Support Logic.
And today I am blessed, honored, and thrilled
to be joined by one of my favorite people in our industry.
Sandy Kofenas, no.
Sandy Koe, I'm not used to saying your married name, Sandy.
- That's okay.
I mean, honestly, if we have to edit Fonseca,
oh, my husband is more than understanding.
- No, no, we're going with Sandy Koe Fonseca
because it's a beautiful, beautiful name.
I just send you Sandy Koe for so many years.
- Oh no.
- So Sandy, you are the founder and principal
of Customer Contact Women, CC Women.
- Mm-hmm.
- And it is an absolutely, absolutely amazing organization.
And you're an amazing person.
You're recognized now.
Women entrepreneurs are named to In-Sight Successes,
top 10 most ambitious women in business to follow.
That's a mouthful, but that's amazing.
- Yeah, thank you.
I want to talk about why CC Women.
Why did you feel the need to build this organization
from nothing?
- So first of all, I love Judy.
And the reason why she was our first class of inductees
for the CC Women Hall of Fame,
just the work that she's done to mentor
and support and advocate for other women,
that's incredible.
It's because of women like Judy that I created CC Women.
I went to our first Customer Contact Week advisory board meeting
and just met really successful women like yourself, Judy,
executive titles, working at big corporations,
like women like Cheryl China with Becky Plaker,
Colleen Beards, Dr. Hae Rookertis.
And the thing that really shocked and awed me
was the way that these women commanded the room,
full of men, by the way,
while also being very authentically themselves.
So my question was, how did these women do it?
How do they have these leadership roles
at these big corporations?
How do they speak their minds freely?
And for me, watching women like that,
watching women like Judy,
I needed to learn their secrets to success,
because at that time,
when I was thinking about my career
and starting at this company, I was 28 years old
and I was living at home with my parents
with absolutely no direction in life, by the way.
And I was just sick of having zero direction,
not feeling valued at a company.
And I certainly did not have a sense of belonging anywhere.
And I feel like that felt a lot worse.
That kind of just like added to the pile of,
"Oh man, what am I gonna do with my life?"
But seeing these women,
I just kind of took matters into my own hands.
I reached out to some of these women on the advisory board
and asked them for some of their time.
Eventually, some of these women became my mentors,
my coaches and my own advisory board.
And they helped me to go my career
and develop these skills,
these strengths that I have,
that I never knew they were my strengths.
So they came and they helped me,
they helped me develop,
they molded me into who I am today.
And then came CC Women,
where I wanted to provide that same kind of support
and network to other women,
women in customer contact, 'cause that's where I'm at.
Because Judy, to be honest with you,
my story about feeling lost,
that's not all that unique.
I feel like a lot of women, a lot of people in general,
maybe in their 20s,
my 20s were a lot of figuring things out,
but I just didn't know what to do.
And I feel like a lot of people have that kind of story as well too.
A lot of women in customer contact
might be going through the same thing.
So created CC Women,
because yes, we do live in a very male dominated world
and it will take us time to reach gender equality, equity,
pay equality as well to pay equity.
But right now, what I can do is the things that I learned
from these wonderful, smart, successful women,
I can give back to my community now
so that we can collectively work together
to progress and elevate the presence of women,
not only in customer contact,
but just women in business,
because this is a everyone issue
and not a customer contact issue.
If that all makes sense.
- It does, it makes perfect sense.
And Sandy, when I think about CC Women
and what it gives, not only to me,
but to the women that I'm connected with through CC Women,
I hope on the daily,
that you take that moment
and you really do realize what you built
and what you give to all of us,
because it is something special.
And there's a group of us in text,
that chatter with each other a little bit.
And I realize I owe that group a text sometime today.
I just need to share something that's going on in my world.
And you've built that,
like you're making it a safe place for us
to talk about these things.
So thank you.
- And for us.
Thank you.
- Yeah, and I think just off of that too, Judy.
I know I created this for others,
but it really started off from my own selfish needs, right?
It was my own desire,
my own selfish need to find women
that I can actually talk to.
And going back to that,
the sentiment about creating this network
and having the space for women,
I viewed networking as a very transactional thing,
but realizing with this community,
and especially for women,
like we need more than that.
We need that space
where we can have comfortable conversations
and a safe space to talk about things.
And I think that's the biggest thing here.
Women just might not have that space to do so.
Your company might be very women forward,
meaning you guys have ERGs for women
or women driven groups or flexible hours
or and and and,
but sometimes it's hard to talk to fellow coworkers
about what you're going through.
It's easier to talk to folks who are outside
of your company or your direct organization
where we can meet up with other women
from different verticals and different walks in life
and share call, text, FaceTime,
and just like do all of that outside
of like a networking situation
where we're always like whole to do
or make connections that way.
So I do love and very much appreciate
this community of women.
They are like you said,
they're just so welcoming and very kind
and they always have time for women like me.
So very much appreciative of women like you
as well to Judy who make the time
and who realize that mentorship
and this type of community is very, very important.
- Absolutely, without a doubt.
And I know we'll be together soon in person
and I'm looking forward to that with them.
- Yeah, it's always a good time when we're together.
So let's talk a little bit about,
you know, the services of CC Women,
it's mentorship, it's networking,
career development, things like that.
You know, and here we are glowing about the organization
but there has to be one story in there somewhere
that stands out to you about the impact
that women has had.
And for anybody listening and looking for what I would call
that safe place to land,
what's one example of a story that you're willing to share
about CC Women's impact on someone?
- Yeah, so I have a couple,
I think yes, we talked a lot about building relationships here,
just building this community,
but I think people forget that,
yes, CC Women is a place where we can vent, absolutely,
but we also have a lot of different solutions
and tools for people.
So when people take us up on that offer
and like they're actually using our tools or resources
and actually making value out of some of the things
that we do offer, it's great.
And one of the big things we found is connecting people
so that they can find new job opportunities.
That's a big one.
And then also sharing things about salary negotiations
or promotions, how to go about asking for those.
And we've heard from women that have directly come up to me
and said, because of this session
that you provided at a CC Women's Summit,
by the way was with way, Dr. Wei,
she did a session about salary negotiations
and how to ask for a promotion.
And it was very clear, very direct, very succinct
and she had a side deck about it.
But women in that session were able to have open conversations
about how do I go about doing this
and what do I need to prepare?
And one woman in that session asked the question,
this is what I'm going through,
this is what I would like and this is what I want it to look like
in terms of my salary and promotion.
So afterwards, her and Wei had a conversation
and a couple months down the road,
I get a message saying that she did exactly what Wei,
Dr. Wei, is set to do,
is she got that promotion and that salary raise.
So the fact that, yes, we have these wonderful sessions
and we talk about so many various topics
that pertain to women,
but the fact that people are actually very curious to learn
and actually apply those to their professional career
so that they can advance,
like at that moment, I was like, okay,
we are doing something right.
We are resonating with women,
it makes sense to them and it's actually helpful
and tangible that they can do this on their own
after this session and after this guidance from Dr. Wei.
So that moment was like, wow,
we're doing something, we're like making a difference.
So that felt really great for me,
knowing that they're doing the right thing here.
Another thing is job opportunities, it's hard.
I know the job market varies all the time,
but when you are looking for a new job
or you just need to leave to protect your mental health
or they're just not flexible with you,
you're current employer,
we've been a great network to help women
find their next opportunity or identify also
their strengths and help them
in finding their next opportunity.
So whether it is the process of building a resume
or fine tuning it or doing some practice interview questions
or just helping them find the next opportunity as well
to connecting people and introducing them
to the HR or the recruiter,
we've been able to do that as well too.
So the fact that women are saying like,
wow, you helped me or your network,
the CC women has helped me to find the next opportunity
because I was able to have these connections
and talk to other women in a very safe place.
I got my next job or I got my next gig lined up
and I'm able to do this because of this.
So that too, I think has been very, very impactful to hear
that we're not just a network that we're like,
okay, we meet once in a while, we have a great time,
we eat carbs and drink and have fun,
but like we're actually doing what we meant to do,
our mission and purpose to elevate women
and support women.
And I think those two moments,
when that woman told me her story that she found a job,
she or she seemed she was able to get that raise
and other women coming saying, I found a job
or I have all these opportunities lined up,
I'm talking to these people because of your people,
the people in your network,
that's been really, really cool
and just really touching to see that I'm doing the right thing
and I need to continue to do the right thing
to support other women here as well too.
- It is amazing.
I recall, I think it was our last conference together.
We had somebody there in the room.
She was anxious to give a presentation,
we all lifted her up and I remember,
she did a beautiful job and then she left
and when she returned, she was part of a reduction in force
and I'll never forget that when she told the community
about it, your community, everyone just rallied very quickly.
How can we help, what can we do, have you looked here
or et cetera?
And I'm so glad that she was so willing to share.
It was a big event and there was a lot of reasons
why that presentation was hard for her
and yet she did it and she nailed it
and to go from the highest of highs
to literally hours later, but it's meaningful.
Like you said, that you have a place to come
and talk about these things
and you don't feel judged.
- Yeah, because I mean, who are we to judge, right?
And also too, if I'm going through something,
you're going through something,
I know there's other women who has either gone through
the same thing or they're going through it currently
and like, yes, it takes a lot to be vulnerable.
Don't get me wrong, that is a task in itself.
But once you do open that door,
we do have a wonderful community that rallies around you
and I also wanna point out that, yes,
we do have women in our community who are just phenomenal,
but we have wonderful allies in our community as well too.
And I really do believe that, you know, yes,
women can do it.
We are so, so smart and so powerful,
but sometimes without the help of our male allies,
it's difficult.
And I think just to kind of progress a little bit quicker,
I do think we need male allies
and we have a wonderful group of male allies here
who do rally around and who support, celebrate,
just as much as the women in our community do as well too.
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