NEW Date: Digital Media Veteran and Women’s Advocate at Mark Twain Library

"Nice Is Your Superpower”

How did a “nice girl” get to be President of Time Inc. Digital Media? How did kindness help her build PEOPLE.com and other popular websites and businesses? On Thursday, October 25 at 7:30 pm at The Mark Twain Library, longtime media executive, startup investor and author of The Myth of the Nice Girl, Fran Hauser will share her stories and reveal how kindness can be the key to success for women in the workplace.

Some strategies and advice Ms. Hauser shares:

You Can Be Both Ambitious and Likeable – Studies show that the more ambitious a woman is, the less likeable she becomes. To sidestep this double standard, take credit for your accomplishments while elevating others and create opportunities for yourself without alienating colleagues or falling into the trap of being a people pleaser.

How to Speak Up Assertively and Nicely – Many of the women Ms. Hauser surveyed felt that if they spoke up assertively they would be perceived as rude, pushy, or even angry. She offers strategies that will empower women to speak up, share opinions, and even disagree nicely but firmly. It’s all about improving your nonverbal skills, speaking up to impropriety, and finding ways to disagree nicely.

How to Give Feedback Directly and Kindly – Like many “nice girls”, early on in her career, Ms. Hauser struggled to give constructive feedback to her team members. But she soon learned that natural empathy could be an advantage. She believes feedback is best received when it is framed positively, contextualized, and given in person.

How to Negotiate with Strategy and Empathy – Women don’t tend to negotiate for themselves as much as men do, but Ms. Hauser believes that empathy is actually an asset when negotiating. She urges women to ask for what they deserve and shares tactics to make it less intimidating.

Best known for her role building PEOPLE.com – one of the biggest media brands online – Ms. Hauser made the leap to early stage investing in 2014, funding and advising consumer-focused companies such as HelloGiggles, Mogul, The Wing and Gem&Bolt. Of the 20 companies in her portfolio, 18 are founded by women, highlighting her broader commitment to increasing the representation of female founders and investors.

Ms. Hauser spent 15 years in digital media, holding president and general manager positions at Time Inc., AOL and Moviefone. She speaks frequently about topics such as career building, digital media and investing in and by women. She recently received the Fairy Godmother Award from Girl Be Heard and the W Award from the YWCA of the City of New York, both of which honor change makers who advocate for women and girls around the world. She was named one of Business Insider's "30 Women In Venture Capital to Watch in 2018" and one of the "Six Most Powerful Women in New York City's Tech Scene" by Refinery29. In 2014, Ms. Hauser was honored as a Global Champion of Women on International Women's Day and was selected as a Forty Over 40 Women to Watch, a distinction that honors women who are reinventing, disrupting and making an impact. She writes a regular career advice column for Refinery29.

A passionate advocate of women around the globe, Ms. Hauser is Special Advisor to Girl Be Heard; an advisory board member of 92Y Women inPower and Rent the Runway's Project Entrepreneur; on the board of directors of GlobalGiving; and a mentor to hundreds of young women. A summa cum laude graduate of Pace University, Hauser lives in Bedford, New York with her husband and two sons.

The Mark Twain Library is owned by the Mark Twain Library Association.  It was founded in 1908 by Samuel Clemens – Mark Twain himself – one of Redding’s most celebrated residents. Visit www.marktwainlibrary.org, for more information.

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Submitted by Redding, CT

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