Last week, I celebrated the one year anniversary of the job that I almost didn’t take. There were many reasons that I almost turned down the chance to lead social media at a Fortune 500 company, most of which were in my head. Many of which stemmed from the three quotes that I listed above.

The internet and digital media have profoundly changed the old ways of advertising and marketing, but while the Mad Men era of advertising strategies is a thing of the past, the fair and equal treatment of women remains far behind the progress of the industry as a whole.

I had a rough outline of my talk, the major points, but I had deliberately prepared very little. I knew the stories by heart, it was just a matter of finding the courage to say them all out loud. And it couldn’t be rehearsed. This had to be different.

If building my digital ad agency, Cement Marketing, was my first professional calling, I have found my second – inspiring, connecting and learning from other women in digital media and marketing.