For Women Who Are Unapologetically Ambitious and Fiercely Informed

When I started out in business, I was, like many of you, (unless you were in fashion), the only woman in the room. I did not fit in merely due to my gender. So what did I do? I tried to fit in. And it was fucking horrible. I was miserable because I wasn't bringing what made me unique to my job. I emulated my bosses. And by no surprise, it didn't work. I was performing a version of myself that wasn't me and everyone could feel it, including me. Then one day I had a revelation. I was in a meeting with a client — a very well-known artist — after my boss, a man 15 years older than me, had already met with him. And something shifted. When I was honest and vulnerable about what I knew and what I didn't know, when I leaned into my empathy and compassion instead of hiding it, something changed. We connected differently. I was able to understand his needs as an artist in a way my boss simply hadn't. Not because I was smarter. Because I was myself. That was the moment I stopped trying to fit the room and started figuring out how to own it. When I met Susie Wolff, I recognized that spirit immediately. Someone who had been through her own version of that reckoning. Someone who spent twenty years in rooms that weren't built for her and made a deliberate choice: to never become someone she wasn't in order to belong. That conversation is this week's episode. Hope you are as inspired as me! 

With Love & Lady Business,
JJ

In today’s edition:
1. Being Driven in a World Not Built for You
2. No Plan B
3. Let’s Talk About Advice

1. Being Driven in a World Not Built for You

This week on Takin' Care of Lady Business, Susie and I talked about what two decades inside one of the world's most male-dominated industries actually taught her — not just how to keep going, but how to find the right people to go with you. We talked about when gender bias became impossible to ignore, the constant balancing act between femininity and being taken seriously, and how much harder it is to hold onto your identity over a 20-year career than it is to win one negotiation.

One of the most powerful parts of the conversation was around asking for more — and knowing who is actually worth asking. Persistence without the right relationships only gets you so far. She also opened up about motherhood, mom guilt, and what it means to make time count when you are building something bigger than yourself.

And what she has built is extraordinary. Since F1 Academy's founding in 2023, Susie has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in subsidies for young female drivers across the globe, with the mission of developing the first female Formula 1 World Champion. F1 Academy is now the second-most followed racing series in the world after Formula 1 itself — and Susie's vision goes far beyond getting one woman onto the F1 grid. As she puts it: the goal is structural change, ensuring the most talented young female drivers have a genuine chance.

That is what it looks like to get into a position of power and use it for something bigger than yourself. This episode is not really about racing. It is about leadership. It is about identity. It is about deciding you belong before anyone else confirms it. It is about deciding what you do with the success when you have it.  

👉Listen to the full episode here

2. No Plan B

One of my favorite things Susie said was that the worst advice she ever got was: have a Plan B. Because if you have a Plan B, part of you is already preparing to leave Plan A. For me, coming from a single teenage mother who never graduated from high school, my Plan A was laughable to most people. How would I ever achieve my dreams?  And I am not alone. 

Women are constantly taught to protect ourselves by playing it safe. Do what is expected of you.  Keep the backup job. Stay in the secure role. Do not ask for too much. Do not risk too much. Do not want too much.

And here is the data to back that up. According to the latest McKinsey and Lean In Women in the Workplace report, only 69% of early-career women want a promotion versus 80% of their male peers. But here is the part that rarely gets reported: when women receive the same career support, sponsorship, and stretch opportunities as men, that ambition gap disappears entirely.
👉 Read the full McKinsey report here

Read that again. The gap is not about ambition. It is about what women have been told — implicitly and explicitly — about how much they are allowed to want. And that starts with the backup plan. But the truth is, sometimes Plan B is the very thing keeping you from fully committing to Plan A. I am not saying be reckless. I am saying stop building exits from the thing you actually want. Instead of asking what if this doesn't work — ask what would happen if I actually gave this everything? Instead of hedging the ask — make the real ask. Instead of keeping one foot out the door — decide to stay in the room and fight for it.

Real talk: most breakthroughs do not happen because someone had a perfect backup plan. They happen because someone committed so fully that quitting stopped being the easiest option. Your career. Your business. Your next move. At some point you have to decide: am I building this, or am I just keeping myself comfortable? Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is burn the backup plan.  Burn it all down.  Plan A or bust.  

Susie's memoir DRIVEN — already an instant Sunday Times bestseller in the UK — is out tomorrow, April 28th. It is the book version of everything she talked about in this episode, and I cannot recommend it enough.
👉 Pre-order or order DRIVEN here

3. Let’s Talk About Advice

Women get advice thrown at us constantly. Be softer. Be tougher. Be more likable. Be less emotional. Speak up. Don't be too aggressive. Lean in. Sit back. Ask for more. Be grateful for what you have. It is endless. And most of it has very little to do with your success and everything to do with your compliance.

Here is what that advice almost never includes: the full picture of how they got there. Because success doesn't exist in a vacuum. It exists in a context. And when someone leaves that context out, when they hand you a playbook without telling you what table they were already sitting at when they wrote it, you are not getting advice. You are getting a highlight reel.

Before you internalize someone's formula by comparing your journey and think you have failed, ask yourself: does her story actually look like mine? Was she bootstrapping from zero or was the foundation already poured? Did she start on chapter 1 or chapter 10? It's great either way but chapter 10 advice isn't for you.  

And once she made it, did she turn around and change the game for the women coming behind her like Susie Wolff or did she just tell you about how to play it better? A University of Kansas study found that women who traded their emotional authenticity for career success still reported not feeling fairly compensated or satisfied. You give up who you are. And you still don't get what you were promised.  Read the study

Look to the women showing you how to grow, not how to conform. The ones who, once they got into the room, used that seat to open the door wider — not pull the ladder up behind them. The first ask isn't the raise. It isn't the title. It isn't the seat at the table. The first ask is of yourself. Who are you willing to be?

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Hi, I’m JJ

Since starting the Justice Dept, we have increased women's wealth by over $100MM in just over 5 years. Want to know what inspires me to do this work, other than making women money? My clients' surprised reaction when we manage to get them much better terms for themselves and their companies, whether via talent agreements, employment, severance, partnerships, asset sales or investments. They often admit that they never thought they could get that result. Not even hoped. This blows my mind. As we know at The Justice Dept. you are all worth everything you ask for and more. Reach out and we’ll show you how!
x TJD