Michel Feaster, CPO at Ironclad, built her career by saying 'yes' to fear and reinventing her life on the other side of it.

A call from her SVP and a Hemingway biography pushed her to leave the familiar behind and move to San Francisco, launching a career-defining chapter in product leadership. She’s never looked back.

Her advice? Choose your boss as carefully as your job. Set unapologetic boundaries. And trust yourself, you belong in the room.

Read more from Michel here…

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What has been your career defining moment as a woman in business?

My belief is that there are some doors you walk through to find your whole life different on the other side. Professionally, I’ve had three of those moments but since the first led to all the rest, I will share that. I was in my early thirties, living on the East Coast and loving my job running Presales for NE Strategic accounts.

In that role, I led our solution engineering team working with our largest accounts to chart multi-year strategies for implementing our technologies to transform parts of their businesses (doing 8 figure deals along the way!)

In that role, we collaborated very closely with the Product organization as we were working to think years ahead. My customer and I ended up being critical voices in the largest acquisition our company did to date.

After that, my phone rang and my SVP of Product called me and asked if I wanted to join the product organization. I was initially torn since I loved my job. That weekend, I picked up a Hemingway biography and found my answer.

On page 3, Hemingway gets on a boat with no money or job prospects and sails to Paris where he becomes one of the greatest writers of our century. It made me realise that fear signals growth opportunity and running towards fear has become a theme of my life.

I said “yes”, moved to San Francisco and reinvented my life. What a gift that phone call turned out to be.

Were there any obstacles you had to overcome as a woman in business?

I think all of us face obstacles in both life and work as that is uniquely part of the human experience. No one gets through life unscathed. One of Lean In’s central themes is that as women become more assertive and powerful they are more disliked while as men become more powerful they are more liked.

As an aggressive assertive woman, I have definitely experienced that backlash and feedback. This has given me great appreciation for the importance of choosing the right, secure boss and identifying cultures where my authentic self is welcome.

What advice would you give to a younger woman looking to join your industry?

My biggest piece of advice for younger women is don’t just choose your company and role, choose your boss wisely.

The chapters in my career when I accelerated most dramatically were the ones when I had a manager who was very secure in their skills, who were conscious of their role in fostering a gender neutral environment and who were willing to take chances on me as a developing leader.

If you could do one thing to accelerate the pace of change for gender equality, what would it be?

I try to always be available for women and founders in earlier stages of their career to replicate the old boys network for women. This includes taking meets, sharing my network and making introductions and talking openly about my career and leadership journey.

What compelled you to attend a Panelle event?

We are all responsible for what we accept and what we don’t. I don't have children, but if I can contribute to more opportunities for the next generation of women leaders, I am all in.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

I would tell myself to trust myself more. Despite my hard work and successes, I struggled with imposter syndrome as a CEO and it held me back at times from taking the right risks and reaching my full potential. I would tell myself to start therapy earlier to quiet those voices and to become more comfortable in my own skin.

What’s your go-to advice for preventing burnout?

I am a big believer in unapologetically setting boundaries. I work extremely hard when I am working and I also give myself permission to unplug and be quiet and take time away from work.

One of my learnings is that when I don’t take time to recharge, I don't show up as my best self. For me, that looks like weekends largely unplugged from work but it can look different for each person.

Why do you think it’s important for women to help other women win?

I have been lucky enough to have both men and women open doors for me in my life - some of which I walked through and my whole life looked different on the other side. I have also been blessed to be a founder and CEO and receive the generous help of so many people in building my company from the ground up.

I am committed to pay forward both that generosity and those open doors to encourage and support and new generation of leaders on their journey.

Finally, please put the spotlight on another woman in business who either inspires you or has pulled out the seat for you.

Jen Tejada is the CEO of PagerDuty, a public company. She and I met when I was the CEO of Usermind and she opened the door to board work for me. She was sitting on the board of a $100M company called Puppet and had decided to roll off to focus on taking PagerDuty public.

She sought me out and encouraged me to think of doing board work and advocated for me to the CEO, Yvonne Wassenaar. I was offered the role and have enjoyed serving on multiple boards since. Thank you, Jen!

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