http://www.climbingtreesconsulting.com/

Climbing Trees Consulting, Birmingham, AL (2026)

08/16/2023

I think this deserves a permanent place on my feed 🌿

Thank you for choosing my story to feature on your blog. Empowering Women in Industry is a platform for women in male-dominated industries to network, share experiences & expertise, and they help women become empowered leaders. And, they are right here in Alabama!! We share a goal of supporting women in industry so that they can succeed to leadership positions. From there, they can drive change for the next generation of women. 👷‍♀️

Thank you for all y’all do 👏

08/07/2023

The ultimate goal of Climbing Trees is to see women progress to leadership positions in manufacturing & STEM organizations. But in order for this to happen, we have to get young girls interested in STEM!

There are some main reasons why currently they’re not:

🌿Stereotypes - Most people associate boys with being better at STEM subjects than girls, but that’s actually not true. When parents & teachers tell girls and boys that they are equally capable at math, their scores are essentially equal (AAUW). But when girls aren’t encouraged, they do score lower.

🌿Confidence - We’ve talked before about how women don’t apply for jobs they’re not 100% qualified for - and this same idea translates to girls choosing their majors. They aren’t confident they’ll succeed in STEM, so they choose majors they are confident about.

🌿Support - Interest in STEM diminishes once girls reach high school, even though it’s about equal to boys through middle school. This is due to socialization, but also a lack of STEM programs past middle school that encourage girls to participate.

🌿Lack of Role Models - If a girl is already questioning her readiness for a STEM major, then realizes that an overwhelming majority of the faculty is male, she is more likely to choose something else where she’s more represented. This reality signals to girls that STEM professionals aren’t female.

What can we do about it?

✨FIRST & FOREMOST - TELL GIRLS THAT THEY ARE CAPABLE!! This has an enormous impact on a girl being able to overcome stereotypes and to build confidence that they can succeed in STEM. This is the answer to #1 & #2.

✨As for #3 & #4, programs like have STEM programs for HS girls & (Auburn University) exist to support/retain girls in engineering. When your girls are looking at colleges, research programs like this & also the demographics of faculty in certain majors.

07/26/2023

We’re talking 🎙️MOM PODCASTS🎙️ today on !! 🌿

While I haven’t listened to the full catalogue of each of these podcasts, what I have listened to, I have LOVED and am so excited to share with you. Here we go mamas! ✨

1️⃣ Good Inside with Dr. Becky - A “weekly parenting podcast to hear real parents’ questions answered directly by Dr. Becky.” Standout episode: “When Talking to Kids About Hard Things, Choose Truth over Comfort”

2️⃣ No One is Coming to Save Us - Host “hears from local leaders, policy makers, parents, providers, and more about the childcare crisis in their communities.” Standout episode: “What Will the Fight for Child Care Look Like in 2023?” Or “You’re Not Crazy. Childcare Is.”

3️⃣ Mom Group Chat - “We’re tired, we’re covered in yogurt, we’re obsessed with our baby’s chubby cheeks, we’re happiest alone in the car, and we’re trying to make sense of it all in our group chat.” Standout episode: “Feeling empowered as a stay at home mom.”

4️⃣ What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood - “A comedy podcast about the never-ending ‘fresh hells’ of parenting.” Standout episode: “Let’s Stop Caring What People Think.”

5️⃣ The Carpool with Kelly and Lizz - “Entertaining and lighthearted conversation, games, and auto-industry news while they navigate life as business partners, best friends, and sister.” Standout episode: “The Genius of the Bike Short Mom Fit.”

6️⃣ Stay at Home Mom? Yeah Right! - “Join me as we connect and converse about the highs and lows of being a parent, or (as the case may be) for whatever reason having never been a parent.” Standout episode: “From Stay at Home Mom to Working From Home Mom.”

Comment your own recommendations below & let me know which of these you’ll be listening to! 🎙️

07/24/2023

🌿Let’s talk about the glass ceiling. Is it daunting? Yes. Is it insurmountable? NO.🕺🏻

You can read all about the reasons why the glass ceiling exists & why it’s important in the post, but here in the caption, I want to focus on real actions you can take to overcome it. The glass ceiling may traditionally refer to breaking down barriers to get to the very top, but this could in actuality just be getting your next promotion, getting paid equally, or not losing your career momentum when you take maternity leave. So what can you do?

1️⃣ Apply for the damn job, y’all! Women are less likely to apply for jobs unless they think they are 100% qualified. Men don’t let that hold them back. So go for it!! 🏁

2️⃣ Find & be a mentor/advocate. You need someone in your corner who has a job that you want one day. You need their support, advocacy & mentorship. This doesn’t have to be a female, and there may not always be a woman available to you. But GET ONE ANYWAY. And be this person to others as your career advances! 💪

3️⃣ Unconscious bias training - recommend it to your HR. Unconscious bias is all about a lack of awareness that your socialization affects how you see others. Queen Sheryl Sandberg said, “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.”

4️⃣ Know your rights - check out my reel on parental & pregnancy rights! And ASK YOUR HR for DETAILS on what you are entitled to as a pregnant/nursing worker & as a parent.

5️⃣Talk about pay💰- I know it’s taboo, but do it anyway. I made a practice of letting other women know my current & past salaries for every job position I held, and men… you should be doing this too.

Send this post to someone who wants to shatter the glass ceiling & save it for yourself when you do ✨

07/17/2023

In 1900, 81% of all bachelor’s degree graduates were male. A study done in 2020 shows that women make up a majority of associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, master’s & PHD degrees - over 55% in every category 👑

So even though women are graduating and entering the workforce at ever-increasing rates, pay equity just isn’t keeping up. In 1900, women were making 46% of what a man would make as opposed to today’s 75-85%. (And these numbers are significantly worse for women of color and women with children).

Women are losing out on an estimated ❗️$1.6 TRILLION❗️every year because of the wage gap - or the equivalent of 15 months of childcare, 11 months of rent or 74 weeks of food per person. See how this disparity in pay affects a woman’s ability to save, provide for & thrive?!

🌿 As part of our site planning services, Climbing Trees performs compensation reviews for companies looking to close the gap. We do a comprehensive look at employee benefits with the goal of eliminating the 50% of the pay gap not attributed to education, experience or abilities. 🌿

Sources: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1521&context=cmc_theses &https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf

07/15/2023

Earlier this week, I posted a reel about workplace burnout & symptoms you can be on the lookout for. I also talked about some things you can do to reverse feeling burned out. Today, I want to dive into the data behind each of these.

It seems so cliche to tell someone to “prioritize self care,” and I TOTALLY get it if you read that and rolled your eyes. When I was burned out at work a few years back, I absolutely would have kept scrolling. But the field of I/O Psychology has done a lot of research on workplace burnout and I want to share some of the findings.

🌿 Social Relationships - A study published this year found that positive social relationships led to better stress coping - which can include workplace stressors. Also, supportive workplace relationships are correlated to lower levels of burnout.

🌿 Self Care - the reason why self-care works is because it has the ability to take your focus off stressors, which is really important when you’re feeling burned out - because stress is often all you can focus on. Taking time for yourself gives you perspective and positively affects nearly every aspect of your physiology.

🌿 Values - If your core values aren’t aligning with your career or your purpose, you may be more likely to experience burnout. Don’t know what your values are? I’ll share a great exercise I use with coaching clients next week to figure it out!

🌿 Gratitude & reflection - “Meditation pauses the story in your mind…” , and you can replace “meditation” with gratitude or reflection. Gratitude also reduces repetitive negative thinking & self talk.

07/14/2023

❗️If you ever plan on having a baby/didn’t know this info the first time around: Listen up❗️

We may not be as far along in maternal protections as some countries, but there are four major acts that you are legally entitled to as a mom who works outside the home & when you’re growing that little hunnie!

1️⃣ The Pregnancy Discrimination Act - simply put, employers can’t treat a pregnant worker differently than a non-pregnant one by discriminating against them, firing them, or compelling them to take medical leave. If you are able to do your job, then you have a right to DO IT!
2️⃣ FMLA - Provides *job-protected* (unpaid😒) leave for prenatal care (like dr’s appointments!) and typically about 12 weeks of birth and bonding time once the baby is born (again, unpaid🖕). This also extends to adoptions & foster care! *Your company may have policies through short/long term disability insurance that allow you to take more time, usually at a percentage of your full pay. - TALK TO YOUR HR ABOUT THIS!!! KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!*
3️⃣ Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ✨NEW✨- Just went into effect in June, and requires companies to provide “reasonable accommodations” to a pregnant worker’s job based on limitations that exist because of the pregnancy, birth, or related medical conditions. *for example - my employer allowed me to start working from home at 36 weeks pregnant bc of the extreme working conditions!*
4️⃣ Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act) 🍼- This requires employers to provide nursing workers a private place to pump (bathrooms don’t count!🚽) and adequate time to express milk when they need to, for a year after the child’s birth.

PLEASE make sure you save this information or send it to a pregnant/nursing friend! This information is your RIGHT and it kills me to think that there are moms being discriminated against because they don’t have this knowledge. 🤰🤍

07/12/2023

It’s here! Our second ! This week we’re talking about books FILLED with information about inclusion & practical ways to close the gender equity gap, and one aimed at personal development. I learned SO much from each of these and I’m excited to share!

❗️PSA before I list them - SAVE your money for important things like childcare and rosé.. find these books at your local library! You can reserve them online and pick them up at the front of most libraries (also you don’t have to search the stacks! Double win!), or read/listen to them for free on apps like Libby/Hoopla with your library card!❗️

OK here’s the line-up this week:

🌿 The Authority Gap: Why Women are Still Taken Less Seriously Than Men, and What We Can Do About It by Mary Ann Sieghart ✨(I can’t say enough good things about this book. It’s filled with interviews from the world’s most powerful women & data that proves closing this gap is good for men & women, workplaces & the global economy)✨
🌿 Did That Just Happen?! Beyond “Diversity” - Creating Sustainable and Inclusive Organizations by Dr. Stephanie Pinder-Amaker & Dr. Lauren Wadsworth
🌿 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
🌿 I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame by Brené Brown (can a book list like this exist without something from Brené?! No? Ok great)

Save this post for your next trip to the Library or local bookstore! You’ll never be disappointed by a book that educates & empowers you and these four will do just that. Happy everyone!

07/09/2023

A Sunday reminder that it’s okay to make yourself a priority 🌿 and that it’s important to start today!

We wear so many hats as women - I don’t need to list them for you to know 10 different ones you’re juggling right now. It’s easy to run on autopilot, but autopilot quickly turns into survival mode. Our bodies aren’t designed to stay in fight or flight, but excess stress & a lack of adequate self care does exactly that. The NIH did a cross-sectional study on stress and productivity which found, no surprise here, that high levels of stress are strongly correlated with low productivity scores.

SO, today I encourage you to ask for what you need, be proud of what you’ve accomplished this week, and know that when you make yourself a priority today, you’re creating more energy & joy for tomorrow.

I’m excited to share more this week about how stress and burnout affect women at home & in the workplace. The more you know, the faster you will notice the warning signs & be able to make a change!

Climbing Trees Consulting

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