Why Risks Pay: WMarketplace Co-Founder, CEO, Power Up Conference Speaker on Women Creating Wealth
Kate Isler, co-founder, CEO of TheWMarketplace, and author of Breaking Borders, will be featured at the 2022 Power Up Conference.
“I weigh fear against, ‘What if I didn’t try that?’”
Being what she calls risk-tolerant has worked well for Kate Isler, co-founder and CEO of TheWMarketplace, who also calls herself an “activist, wife, mother, partner, friend, businessperson and sister.”
“I never want anyone to think I go into this blindly, especially when you are the breadwinner and have responsibility for five people,” says the married mother of three sons, 31, 27 and 23.
“@IslerKate, co-founder, CEO of @Thewmarketplace, and author of Breaking Borders, will be featured at the @Takeleadwomen 2022 #PowerUpConference. #womanowned #femaleCEO”
With every business and career decision that has taken her—and her family—around the globe in top positions at Microsoft and other companies and organizations she founded, Isler says she asks, “What is the best that could happen to us?”
Launching her latest venture not quite a year into the pandemic in September 2020, Isler’s mission for TheWMarketplace, what she calls “an economic engine for women” is to “focus on harnessing the purchasing power of women to buy from women-owned businesses, professional services, and gender-balanced national brands to change the culture and promote gender equality.”
Now with 500 sellers, 3,500 products and services and a new wave of training for sellers, TheWMarketplace is offering a Pop Up Shop for Take The Lead’s Power Up Concert & Conference August 25-26, where Isler is a featured speaker and panelist.
See the Big RE Conference Agenda here
On the conference agenda is the session, “WOMEN AND WEALTH: Building Women’s Economic Equality.” Isler’s career and latest enterprise aligns with the Take The Lead mission of reaching gender parity in leadership across all sectors by 2025. (Photo: Microsoft, Inc.) Panelists include Suzanne Lerner, Cofounder and CEO of Michael Stars and Jorgi Paul, founder of Lady of Record real estate investments.
“On the @Takeleadwomen #PowerUp conference agenda is the session, “Building Women’s Economic Equality,” where @IslerKate will offer insights.. #genderequality”
Isler’s career and latest enterprise aligns with the Take The Lead mission of reaching gender parity in leadership across all sectors by 2025. Committed to economic equality and value-driven commerce, Isler’s company offers products and services from women-owned companies selling accessories, clothing, beauty and personal care products, books, food and beverage items, home products and more.
In her latest push to enhance ecommerce for women entrepreneurs, or what she calls, “Her Commerce,” Isler says TheWMarketplace is offering educational services and trainings for women entrepreneurs selling online, including help in sales, shipping, taxes, customer base and cross-channel marketing.
Read more on Take The Lead Power Up Conference here
The author of the 2021 book, Breaking Borders: A Remarkable Story of Adventure, Family, and Career Success That Defied All Expectations, Isler explains how her life beginning in Columbus, Mississippi, where her father ran hotels, got her to where she is today after a series of calculated risks.
Because her father’s job had their family moving every few years, Isler says she lived in several cities, including Albuquerque and Colorado Springs, before she decided in 1984 to move to Seattle. It is a city she picked randomly because “it had skiing and the ocean and was far away from my family.”
“@IslerKate ‘s career and latest enterprise @Thewmarketplace aligns with the @Takeleadwomen mission of reaching #genderparity in #leadership across all sectors by 2025. ”
After a few years of college, Isler moved to Dubai with her husband and oldest son, convincing her husband to quit his job and be a stay-at-home dad. They lived in six international cities—in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, India, Central Asia—including as a Principal Consultant for International Marketing Solutions from 1999 to 2003.
“When you hear about successful women, you usually hear about their trajectory forward and up,” says Isler. That is not always the case, and sometimes the path involves mistakes and missteps.
“What I did was be very intentional about learning and understanding and taking risks on what I was ready to do, to make that step,” she says.
Her steps—even her admitted missteps—worked.
In 2006, she began her 11-year career working at Microsoft, Inc., first as chief of staff in Seattle, then two years later beginning as Senior Director Global Integrated Marketing, Windows Business Group.
““What I did was be very intentional about learning and understanding and taking risks on what I was ready to do, to make that step.” —@IslerKate, CEO of @Thewmarketplace. #intentioning #careersuccess”
One of her biggest learning lessons happened in her early years at Microsoft. “I announced Windows 3.0 six weeks before Microsoft did,” Isler says. “The fallout wasn’t going to be good, because I couldn’t pull the insertion.” Fearing she would be fired, she spent the weekend prepping for the reaction.
Isler says her boss came to her Monday morning and said, “Never let that happen again.” Isler adds, “Her reaction was so great: feel the pain, manage it and we’re not going to torture you over it.”
After leaving Microsoft nearly a dozen years later, Isler co-founded Be Bold Now, Inc., a nonprofit in 2015 “to build an intersectional community of women and their allies who share the philosophy to inspire, empower and support each other.”
Isler’s leadership positions at Microsoft were at a time when that was even more rare than has become more recently. A 2020 study shows only 5% of tech startups are owned by women. “Women in tech jobs at Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft average at 23%. And women in leadership roles at Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft average at 27.5%.”
That same year in 2015 she became CEO of Daysaver, a digital health startup she ran for more than three years. 2018 was also the year she completed her college degree from Seattle Pacific University, a delayed move she says was very important to her and also informs her mentorship of younger women and girls, including college students.
Read more in Take The Lead on supporting women in tech
Her path in the tech industry has been at a time of major cultural and business shifts.
“I was very hopeful, I have seen progress with women speaking with their voices, more opportunity for women and less cultural stigmatism. I also see opportunities for younger women.” Isler adds, “There is room for all of us.”
““I have seen progress with women speaking with their voices, more opportunity for women and less cultural stigmatism. I also see opportunities for younger women.” @IslerKate adds, “There is room for all of us.” #genderequality #womenleaders”
Read more in Take The Lead on tech pipeline gap
Yet the recent cultural and political moves limiting the rights of women is alarming, she says.
“I think this is important now more than ever as there is a new wave of pressure to restrict women’s rights, not just limited to healthcare,” Isler says. “We are not going back and we now have an opportunity to support one another.”
Read more in Take The Lead on leading post-Roe
This is why Isler says that networking, mentorship and learning new skills at conferences like the upcoming Power Up Conference: The Big RE are critical, and why she is taking a key role.
“@IslerKate says that #networking, #mentorship and learning new skills at conferences like the upcoming @Takeleadwomen #PowerUpConference: The Big RE are critical given the recent rollbacks on women’s rights, and why she is taking a key role.”
Read more on need for the Big Re in Take The Lead
“When women talk to one another, they immediately find the common ground. Then they think, ‘If she can do that, I can do that.’” She adds, “We need to feel empowered by one another, not intimidated. We hear it and we can do it if we see it done.”
She is unequivocal in her belief in the future that features gender equity. “Women supporting women will change the world.”
“@IslerKate is unequivocal in her belief in the future that features #genderequity. “Women supporting women will change the world.” #womensupportingwomen #femaleempowerment”
