Hi! Our names are Sterling and Ilana, and we are the co-founders of The SHE Mark. If you’re reading this, it likely means you value equality for all, especially in the business world. Thank you for stopping by!
We started The SHE Mark to empower all of us, because we know that small, individual, daily actions have a major impact on the collective and greater good. Through these actions, we can impact representation of women at all levels of the workplace and, ultimately, reach global economic gender parity. That may seem like a tall order, but here at The SHE Mark, we understand the connection between your day-to-day choices and how they can effect overall, global equality. YOU are the change!
It has been quite the first year in business for The SHE Mark. After launching in September 2020, we spent our first year in business adapting to the changing world and business landscape. We’ve seen a shift occur, through which more attention and passion has been given to issues we all face in the workplace, especially women. We saw a rise in consumers holding companies accountable for doing more than just prioritizing profits, leading to what we see as a newfound awakening of the conversation around race, gender, and broader diversity and inclusion in business. This groundswell of attention towards and information about corporate social responsibility and stakeholder consideration has made us proud and excited, and really helped us form a solid foundation at The SHE Mark; one deeply rooted in values that are aligned with conscious capitalism and the future of work. These conversations also called attention to many of the problems we care deeply about here at The SHE Mark, paving the way for us to come in and help be the solution.
Adapting and learning is extremely important to us as founders, and is critical in building a functioning company capable of impacting the world. In this past year, we learned a lot as founders. We’ve certified businesses that believe in our mission and are proud to be women-led, bringing the idea of The SHE Mark into a reality. We worked out operational kinks for our MVP (minimum viable product), adjusting and improving the application and certification process over time. We have also spent a lot of time ideating and planning the release of many initiatives that we cannot wait to reveal to you.
We have also learned to lean into the notion of “good enough for now is better than perfect later” and created and maintained an online presence and social media profiles that we knew had room for improvement. As entrepreneurs, we made the decision to focus on other areas of the business and to wait to approach marketing when we felt we were ready and with the advice of marketing specialists.
If you have been following us from the beginning, you may have noticed that we’ve been quieter these last few months, posting only when necessary and teasing that there’s more to come. That is because we have been working diligently behind the scenes planning an upgrade and re-launch for our social media and digital presence! In doing so, we’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing experts and enthusiasts in this area (My Dearest Co., Bark Media, and our intern, Joanna) to bring our marketing to the next level.
We are so excited and proud to share our new visual identity with you - it’s eye-catching and bold with a clean and organic feel to it. It’s like nothing you’ve seen from us before, yet it’s bound to make you feel right at home. We also have developed renewed focus and strategy for the type of content we will be posting, which will include teaching you a lot more about what we do, and how and why we do it. We’ll be covering common workplace happenings and providing more insights into the awesome companies that have been SHE Certified. You’ll also be learning more about us, the founders, and what motivates us to make The SHE Mark the most well-known and most used certification suite in the world. (Hint: it’s to help reach global economic gender parity)
We hope you enjoy this new version of us - The SHE Mark 2.0. You can show us some love by commenting on and interacting with our media, signing up for our mailing list to stay apprised of new releases, or sharing with your friends/family/boss/co-worker/neighbor/roommate/dog walker...you get the point.
Before we go, we want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way and to our followers for sticking in there - we’re excited to finally share with you all what we’ve been working on behind the scenes, and we look forward to sharing more exciting developments in the near future.
Here’s to changing the world, together, one SHE Certified company at a time.
With gratitude,