Feel like there’s an invisible barrier holding you back, preventing you from reaching your full potential? Perhaps it’s that nagging feeling of not being “enough” or the fear of failure that keeps you from pursuing your dreams. In a world where self-doubt and uncertainty can often overshadow our capabilities, it’s easy to lose sight of our inherent worthiness. But what if the key to unlocking your true potential lies within, waiting to be embraced? 

No one expected Jane Boulware, the scrappy girl from the cornfields of Iowa, who paid for college selling used carpet and her mom’s prayers. She is a proud small-town girl who is unwilling to let circumstances, fear, or others define her. Jane was penniless and married at 20, earned an MBA at 24, saw the ocean at 25, commuted to South America each week at 31, brought two sons into the world by 35, was a millionaire at 37, and one of the top 10 women at Microsoft at 40. By 52, Jane had launched three billion-dollar businesses, been VP of the largest merger in the history of the US, forged global alliances, won many awards, and left a legacy of strong leaders in her wake.

Join us in this episode with Jane, where we delve into the transformative power of recognizing our own worth. Through captivating stories and invaluable insights, Jane shares her journey of overcoming the “uns” – those limiting beliefs that once held her back – and embracing her inherent worthiness. From her humble beginnings in the cornfields to her remarkable career at Microsoft, Jane’s journey is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Discover how she navigated obstacles, pursued her passions, and ultimately found success by challenging the notion of unworthiness.

What you will learn from this episode:

  • Uncover what’s underneath the book title ‘Worthy’ with the ‘un’ crossed off
  • Discover the essence of ‘Worthy’ and the profound relevance of the stories it holds
  • Learn about the three criteria you need to ask for a job

“You are worthy as you are. Whether you got that promotion, whether you got that title, that degree, that bank statement, doesn’t matter.”

– Jane Boulware

Valuable Free Resource: 

Topics Covered:

00:35 – What is so special about the cornfields and how it strongly relates to her upbringing

03:39 – How she ended up going to college and finally work at Microsoft 

05:31 – What got her to pursue forestry and how she got a job that didn’t exist from a university that didn’t hire 

08:47 – Sharing her incredible journey of success from Kimberly Clark to Microsoft

12:08 – What’s the book all about and how she came up with ‘Worthy’ as the title with the ‘un’ striked out

13:44 – Whose stories are featured in the book

14:24 – One story of overcoming struggles highlighted in the book

16:38 – Three key questions she asked herself about any job she has

16:50 – The ultimate reason for writing a book and who this is for

19:49 – What to her is success and what’s her ultimate belief

20:29 – The value of mentorship and how she pays it forward

23:45 – Articulating the core message of her book

Key Takeaways:

“The book is called Worthy because it reflects the emotions and it reflects the experiences that I had, not just in terms of the successes, but the struggles that I had.” – Jane Boulware 

“The ‘Un’ is crossed off as a reflection of, folks, if we don’t ‘un’ our own ‘uns,’ we’ll never get to the able, the worthy, the capable, the powerful, all of those things that we actually are but don’t give ourselves credit for.” – Jane Boulware 

“I didn’t want to be the person that said no before I tried.” – Jane Boulware 

“I would rather have failed trying than regretted not doing it.” – Jane Boulware 

“I firmly believe it’s important for us to change the people in the corner office and if we don’t get women or people that think differently in those roles, nothing will change.” – Jane Boulware 

“If you believe that you don’t have something to offer, so you’re afraid to ask; you do. If you think you don’t have the time to mentor or that it’s a gift. It’s not. You’re getting what you give and it’s very important.” – Jane Boulware 

“One of my favorite words is, YET. I didn’t get it yet. I haven’t achieved it yet. I’m going to begin again and again and again because I will get it and I will get it yet.” – Jane Boulware

Ways to Connect with Jane Boulware:

Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:

 

Full Episode Transcript:

Jane Boulware 00:00

I hope everybody’s able to look in the mirror in the morning and say, you are worthy as you are. Whether you got that promotion, whether you got that title, that degree, that bank statement, doesn’t matter. You are worthy as you are.

Sarah E. Brown 00:16

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women where we talk about challenges senior female leaders face in being happy and successful at work. I’m your host, Dr. Sarah E. Brown.

From the cornfields of Iowa, my guest today, Jane Boulware, defied expectations to lead billion-dollar businesses and rise as a top Microsoft executive. By 52, she’d launched three major ventures, navigated the US’ largest merger, and left a trail of influential leaders behind her. Passionate about empowering others to recognize their worth, Jane now dedicates herself to mentoring, board service and cherishing outdoor moments with her family. All the proceeds from her book WORTHY: From Cornfields to Corner Office of Microsoft, which we’re going to be talking about today, are committed to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s Youth of the Year scholarships. She lives in Bellevue, Washington. Welcome, Jane.

Jane Boulware 01:30

Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having me on your show.

Sarah E. Brown 01:33

So let’s start with that part of the title about the cornfields. Tell me about your upbringing and why that’s such a prominent part of your title.

Jane Boulware 01:42

It is actually, and it’s a prominent part of my journey because it’s really the roots from which I grew, right? I was born in rural Iowa, the fourth kid in a one-bedroom house, to a family that didn’t have a lot of aspirations. Our family didn’t go to college, and we were very blue collar and didn’t have a lot of means. And as a result of that, I started working very, very early in my life and was expected to contribute to the family in all ways, financially and otherwise as I grew up and so on. So what that taught me was, obviously besides hard work and resiliency, it taught me that I had so many different jobs, so many things that were probably untraditional for young girls or untraditional in terms of, working in the fields for many, many kids in my generation.

But what it taught me is that I didn’t have expectations, which I took as I didn’t have limitations. If there was something that I wanted to do and people told me I couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t do it because that’s not how it was done, that wasn’t my experience. I always found a way to figure out how to make that work. Mostly because I had to, mostly because I was in a situation where if I didn’t get things done or I didn’t make the money, I didn’t have the clothes to, to wear, I didn’t get to go to school. I didn’t get to do a lot of those things. So growing up in a community, though, that was very rural and very hardworking and very agricultural driven, really has fueled in many ways the approach that I take to others, which is, I’m not into titles, I’m not into a lot of material things. I don’t judge you based on how many zeros you have in your bank account. Because when I grew up, that wasn’t the measure by which wealth was determined. It was about what you did, who you were. And I try to hold onto that.

Sarah E. Brown 03:30

Well, the title gives it away. We know you made it to the corner office of Microsoft, but that usually requires getting a college education. How’d you pull that off?

Jane Boulware 03:39

Well, the title is Worthy. So it’s really about me getting out of my own way, overcoming the circumstances, the limitations, and the people that got in the way. And in some cases, it was the people who opened the doors for me. So when I was in high school, there was a gnarly old nun who was like four foot nothing. She had lightning bolts that came out of her eyes. I swear to God, when she spoke, she had so much passion, so much conviction that when she pulled me aside after class one day and said, Jane, what are you doing when you graduate? And I didn’t really have an answer for her because I didn’t have a line of sight to college. I knew I didn’t want the life that I’d had, but I didn’t know what a new life looked like.

And she listened to me, and she did two things that were remarkable. The first thing is she listened to me and said, you know what? You should go to college and get a degree in forestry because you like the outdoors. You’re good with chemistry and science that would work well for you. And then she went the extra step and she said, there’s a scholarship. You should apply for it. I’ll help you. And she helped me apply for a scholarship. It was $320. I got it. Not much money. It was the most important $320 I’ve ever earned because it validated that I was college material. It gave me something that no one else or nothing else had, which was, it basically said I could be and do something that I had not set as a line of sight for myself. And Sister FX did that for me. And that was a life changer. And that’s how I ended up going to college.

Sarah E. Brown 05:14

Wow. And did you actually study forestry?

Jane Boulware 05:16

That’s why I’m donating the proceeds for this book to Boys and Girls Clubs scholarships because someone did that for me and I want to pay it forward.

Sarah E. Brown 05:24

And I’m going to ask you later about why the Boys and Girls Clubs. But hold that question right now. Did you actually study forestry?

Jane Boulware 05:31

I did. I got my degree in Iowa from Iowa State University in Forestry. And you know, Iowa’s not known for forests. I had never seen a forest when I got my degree, but I loved the study of the environment and forestry and all of those things. But by the time I was a junior, I knew I could make more money working at McDonald’s than working in forestry, honest to gosh, in Iowa. So I ended up getting an advanced degree after having gone to the dean of the forestry department explaining the challenge I had, which is that I had no money. I wanted to do something besides forestry. And he opened doors for me, got a hold of some of his friends, and I had the opportunity to go to Cornell University to study Environmental Law, University of Oregon to get a master’s of business or Purdue University to get a master’s of business with a specialization in industrial forestry. Well, my car would only go as far as Indiana, so that’s where I went. I went to Purdue.

Sarah E. Brown 06:32

Wow. That’s a great story. But there’s an even better story in your book about how you got the interview for your job in Wisconsin. And I want you to recount that story because if it ever tells the story about you can do it no matter what, that story tells it.

Jane Boulware 06:53

Oh my gosh. So yes, I got a job at Kimberly Clark. I got a job in a role they said wasn’t available in a position that they said they didn’t recruit from. And the way I did it is I had this degree in forestry and a master’s of business, and I put the two of them together and said, I’d love to work for Kimberly Clark. It’s a consumer package powerhouse marketing company that has forest resources, manages hundreds of thousands of acres of timber. It seemed like the perfect fit. There’s just one little problem. They did an interview for MBAs at Purdue University. They interviewed for engineers. And so I could not get an interview. So what I did is I pretended to be an engineer, and I went to the engineering career fair. And when they came and talked, and it was my turn to go to talk to the recruiter, I said, well, I’m not actually an engineer.

I’m an MBA student looking for a degree in marketing or for a job in marketing. And they said, honey, all the jobs are filled. We don’t even recruit here. No, I talked to them for a while and persuaded them to have coffee with me the next morning, which they did. I persuaded them and they agreed to give me a phone interview with the right people in Kimberly Clark, which led to an onsite interview, which led to a job offer, which I gladly said yes to. And that’s how I began my career in a job that didn’t exist from a university they didn’t hire from. And that was the beginning of my Kimberly Clark job.

Sarah E. Brown 08:20

I think that is just an incredible story. I love that.

Jane Boulware 08:23

I was such a great… I don’t regret the job at all with great people, great career.

Sarah E. Brown 08:28

And Neenah Wisconsin is a lovely place.

Jane Boulware 08:30

Cold, very cold. Yeah.

Sarah E. Brown 08:34

So I do want to talk about the book and why you wrote it and all of that, but let’s just bring full circle to your career a bit. How did you get to Microsoft from that great career in Kimberly Clark?

Jane Boulware 08:47

I worked my way up through the ranks at Kimberly Clark by taking a number of jobs that other people that were stretches for me and probably other people said no to. So for example, I worked in South America when I had a one and a half year-old, and I commuted to and from South America, which was pretty unconventional. I took over this job at the Scott Paper Company after the merger. So a number of unconventional roles. And I was fortunate enough to be launching Pull-Ups, Training Pants and be the instigator behind Goodnights, both of which became billion dollar businesses. So I had created a track record of success at Kimberly Clark to the point where I had received a number of awards, not only by KC, but in the industry. So I was considered and regarded as a high performer and a good marketer. Microsoft identified me as someone they thought could come in and help them with consumer marketing within Microsoft.

So they, through recruiters, pursued me for a number of months. And I mean, I’m from Iowa and I’m living in Wisconsin. I don’t know anything about technology. I didn’t want to move to the West Coast. I was fat, dumb, and happy in my job, which is why ultimately I said yes to interviewing. Two things happened. One is they sent my kids an Xbox where my husband said, Jane, come on. They’re sending our kids Xbox. You need to talk to them or tell them to pound salt. And number two, my husband and I got married very young and we’re still married. And we always agreed that we never wanted to become that dumb and happy. So I said yes to interviewing with Microsoft and it was a whirlwind. And within less than a month of my first interview, we were living in Seattle. I had started a job and my kids had started school. That’s how fast it went.

Sarah E. Brown 10:34

Good grief.

Jane Boulware 10:35

It was rip and replace.

Sarah E. Brown 10:37

Wow!

Jane Boulware 10:38

And it was a massive culture shock.

Sarah E. Brown 10:40

I bet. That is a big change. So you have, since some departed from Microsoft and you’ve written a book. So tell me a bit about… I want to get the full title here. Again, it’s WORTHY: From Cornfields to Corner Office of Microsoft. But if you look at the cover, it says Unworthy and the Un is crossed off. So tell me a little bit about what is behind the Un and the worthy part of the title.

Advertisement 11:14

Hi, this is Sarah Brown again, the host of the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. I hope you are enjoying this episode and gaining some tips and inspiration on how you can be happier, more successful, and experience less stress at work. If you would like to learn more about how you can take control of your career and do it your way, visit sarahebrown.com. There you will be able to download a free chapter from my book, Let Your Personality Be Your Career Guide. It contains information and exercises on how you can identify your unique interests, strengths, and needs, and translate that into career goals that are just right for you. Now, back to this informative episode.

Jane Boulware 12:08

Such a good question, Sarah. So what it doesn’t say is Jane Boulware, look what she’s done. She’s rags to riches. It’s not that kind of book. It’s not a how-to book to be successful. It’s not, cover these three easy steps to get to the corner office of Microsoft. I went through a lot of title names and ultimately landed on Worthy with the ‘un’ crossed off because of a couple of reasons. Number one, I wanted the book to reflect stories about how I felt and the learning that I had and how I overcame many of the obstacles that were sometimes myself. And the uns that limited me in my life — unworthy, unable, unpowerful, unsure — all of those uns limited my success as much as any circumstances or poverty or people ever did. And I wanted to tell the stories of overcoming the ‘uns’ and getting to the worthy. And so that’s why the story, the book is called Worthy because it reflects the emotions and it reflects the experiences that I had, not just in terms of the successes, but the struggles that I had. And the ‘un’ is crossed off as a reflection of, folks, if we don’t ‘un’ our own ‘uns’, we’ll never get to the able, the worthy, the capable, the powerful, all of those things that we actually are but don’t give ourselves credit for. So that’s what the book is about.

Sarah E. Brown 13:36

So the book is, the format is a whole lot of stories. Is it mostly you, all you or what?

Jane Boulware 13:44

So it’s a collection of stories from my youth in Iowa all the way till really today in the experiences that I’ve had today, and they are my stories of my life, but they incorporate the people I worked with, the people I grew up with, boys and girls club kids. They are experiences that I had from being a child, a small child in Iowa, all the way till what I am now, a 60-year-old person that’s retired, but seeking to, to give back.

Sarah E. Brown 14:16

So give me an example of a story in the book about overcoming one of the ‘uns’ in your book.

Jane Boulware 14:24

Okay, let’s talk about, so, I had been the product manager working on Pull-ups and then Good Nights. And so we had incredible success. We had so much success launching those products. We got lots of new products of the year. And I had a conversation with my mentor at the time and I said, look, I’m having a great time, but I have three criteria for a job: Am I making a contribution? Am I learning something? And do I like and respect the people that I’m working with? And I like all of those things, but I’m not learning a lot. So maybe in the next year we could think about my next role. Couple days later, I came back and said, we want you to be leading the marketing and operations for our Latin American businesses. The 16 countries south of Mexico. I was 30 years old with a one and a half year old child. I was a woman, White, and didn’t speak Spanish. The obvious answer, and I lived in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Sarah E. Brown 15:18

I was just going to say, it’s not easy to fly from Neenah, Wisconsin to South America.

Jane Boulware 15:22

You got to remember, I didn’t see the ocean till I was 25. I was a small town kid without … my world was very small. I told myself all the reasons I couldn’t do it. All the reasons you can think of, it doesn’t take you long to think about them. And that was on a, I think it was on like a Tuesday when I got offered the opportunity. And on Sunday I was on a flight to Buenos Aires because I did not want to become the person that said no because of my fear. I didn’t want to be the person that said no before I tried. And fortunately had a husband who would support me. doing this, which is a whole other conversation. But I wanted to, I would rather have failed trying than regretted not doing it. And so I overcame all the scary, legitimate reasons why I couldn’t do it and did it anyway. And then I put a number of stories in the book about what happened when I was in Latin America.

Sarah E. Brown 16:25

Well I’m sure there’s some great stories there, but go back to the three questions. I think these are very instructive, three questions you asked yourself about any job: am I making a contribution, was one, am I learning something? What was the third one?

Jane Boulware 16:38

Do I like and respect the people I’m working with? And making them better and getting better, as a result. And my learning and growing and helping others learn to grow.

Sarah E. Brown 16:46

Got it. So why did you want to write a book about this?

Jane Boulware 16:50

I didn’t intend to write a book. I promised the people when I left Microsoft that I would write down my stories because I am a storyteller and I have told them stories, some of which are amazing stories of my life. An unusual, to say the least, career path in many respects. But also one of great resilience and grit. And I wanted to be honest because the year that I left Microsoft, I looked at my calendar and I counted 27 people, mostly women that I was mentoring. Some of them were entry-level and some of them were very senior level executives. But almost all of them, when I mentored them, thought or were seeking something they didn’t have in themselves. They were seeking the secret sauce that made me successful. They were seeking what I had that they didn’t have that would help them advance. And the concept of imposter syndrome was so spectacularly high.

And research supports this. Harvard business studies will tell you that most women do not self-promote and that men do. And as a result of that, women are promoted at 14% less rate than men, despite often having higher performance ratings. There’s all kinds of research on this. And the reason I believe is because many women wait until they’re comfortable before they go after a role, or they wait until they feel like they can be successful because they think they doubt themselves. They have imposter syndrome or they’re afraid and they think they’re the only one that feels that way. I wrote the book so that I could be honest about it. I turned myself inside out. I wanted to be honest about my journey, my struggles, my fears, my overcoming those things that held me back in the hopes that others wouldn’t feel so alone and that others would take risks and claim their worth. I firmly believe it’s important for us to change the people in the corner office and if we don’t get women or people that think differently in those roles, nothing will change.

Sarah E. Brown 18:59

So is the book primarily targeted for women?

Jane Boulware 19:02

That’s a great question. I have quotes on the cover of my book by John Gottman and Robbie Bach. And there’s a number of quotes, testimonials for the book. Each one of them made me promise not to say the book was written for women because as men they loved it and they felt it was very important for men to read and that they would want to read. The book is for anyone that strives to advance but feels insecure, unsure or unconfident in their ability to do that. To show up. This gets people to feel confident in showing up.

Sarah E. Brown 19:39

As you think back on your career and also the summary message of your book. How would you define success now?

Jane Boulware 19:49

Am I using all the gifts that I’ve been given to the best of my ability so that there’s nothing I’m leaving behind? And in the process of doing that, am I contributing and lifting other people up and making a difference that matters? That’s my definition.

Sarah E. Brown 20:04

That’s a pretty succinct definition.

Jane Boulware 20:08

I believe in: stand up, show up, lift up.

Sarah E. Brown 20:12

Okay. And that’s a good segue into the topic of mentorship. So tell me a little bit about your beliefs in mentorship, and particularly how mid-career professional women can go get mentorship that they need.

Jane Boulware 20:29

Yeah. First of all, you need to find someone who has what you want in terms of learning or aspiring to excel. You have to be comfortable and you need to ask them, frankly, don’t wait to be asked. Ask for help. And most people will do that. If nothing else, just say, will you have a cup of coffee with me? I think mentorship is so important. I don’t think there’s any one person that has what everyone else needs, but you take what you need and you take what you can get from different folks. And I’ll tell you Sarah, very egotistical of me. I used to think that being a mentor was a gift I was giving to someone else. And I’ve come to appreciate that it’s a give-get and that I have gotten more from my mentees often than what I feel like I’ve given. The cover of my book is an example of that.

Sarah E. Brown 21:16

Alright.

Jane Boulware 21:16

I got a picture of a little girl in a cornfield. I went to dinner with my mentee and some other women and we drank some wine. And my mentee finally said, Jane, I love your book, but I hate the cover. And I was like, thanks Sarah. You could have kind of told me, but thanks. Go home, get an Uber, go home. And I was kind of upset because she hadn’t said anything. I just thought it was kind of not a great thing to have said. And at 8:00 AM the next morning I went to my inbox and she had designed a cover for my book that she thought it should be. And it is the cover that’s on there today. That’s from a mentee. So if you believe that you don’t have something to offer. So you’re afraid to ask; you do. If you think you don’t have the time to mentor or that it’s a gift. It’s not. You’re getting what you give and it’s very important.

Sarah E. Brown 22:07

All right. So let’s circle back to the Boys and Girls Club and how that became so front and center in your life.

Jane Boulware 22:15

I did not grow up with the Boys and Girls Club. I did not grow up with anyone that really lifted my gaze outside of my very small world until I got to college and had the gnarly nun that helped me get to college. The Boys and Girls Club is a safe place where kids can come together and get help with their schoolwork. They can be surrounded by positive people that make a difference in their life. And if you are at a boys’, and not everybody at a Boys and Girls Club has challenging circumstances, but many of the kids do. And there are youth of the year competitions that talk about where they’re coming from and where they want to go. And most of the kids don’t have the resources necessary to go to college. And so they need someone to help open a door for them just like I did. Just like I needed that person. And so I’m the chairman of the board for the Boys and Girls Club. I’m serving on the trustees because I believe that every kid deserves a bright future. Every kid deserves to have the opportunity to walk through the door. What they do with that opportunity is up to them, but they deserve that opportunity. And so by contributing all the proceeds to the book, to scholarships to help open the door for those kids, that’s how I give back and how I pay forward what I’ve been given.

Sarah E. Brown 23:32

That’s a great story. So Jane, what’s one question that I should have asked you that I didn’t that will help our listeners understand the key message of your career and your book?

Jane Boulware 23:45

Well, I would say, I’m not my career. My career is the means by which I did achieve these things so people will read the book, but I would say the key messages are: you are worthy as you are. I hope everybody’s able to look in the mirror in the morning and say, you are worthy as you are. Whether you got that promotion, whether you got that title, that degree, that bank statement, doesn’t matter. You are worthy as you are. And the second thing is, one of my favorite words is, YET, I didn’t get it yet. I haven’t achieved it yet. I’m going to begin again and again and again because I will get it and I will get it yet. Because it seems to me the difference between those who do and those that do not believe that it’s a matter of time and you’ll get there yet. So don’t give up here yet and don’t let someone else tell you what you can, should or won’t do. Just go about the business and do it.

Sarah E. Brown 24:37

Great closing message. Jane, thank you so much for being with me today.

Jane Boulware 24:42

Thanks so much for having me. I really have enjoyed talking with you, Sarah. Thank you.

Sarah E. Brown 24:47

Thanks for listening to the KTS Success Factor Podcast for Women. If you like what you are hearing, please go to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave a review. And if you would like more information on how we can help women in your organization to thrive, then go to www.sarahebrown.com. You can sign up for our newsletter, read show notes, and learn more about our podcast guests. Read my blog, browse through the books, or contact us for a chat. Goodbye for now!

Sarah E. Brown
Sarah E. Brown

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