It’s hard to think of someone more plugged into the cause of advancing women in technology than Caitlin Sellers Castevens. 

Castevens is one of three co-founders of Carolina Women in Tech, a non-profit membership group that “embraces the role that technology plays in [any woman’s] career, business, and life.” She’s also the co-host of the podcast Lady Tech Charmers and recently partnered with a non-profit called She Flew the Coop, rolling out a podcast series about “Waking the flock up,” getting out of your comfort zone, and going after your dreams. 

“I think the flexibility of the tech industry and the fact that it is ever-changing — it brings the playground to an even more even playing field regardless of your age,” says Castevens. “If you’re willing to put in the work, get the education, learn the skills, and keep up with the industry, it allows a variety of generations to be able to gain success in the tech industry.”

We talked more with Castevens about her start in technology and her journey to becoming an impassioned community leader. 

When did you become interested in technology? 

I’ve always loved technology. I worked in IT staffing right out of school for a little bit, and I always thought it was weird that there weren’t a lot of women, there weren’t a lot of BIPOC or openly LGBTQ people. Even people who identify with the fact that they were in technology had to have this really finite skill set.  For example, if they were a coder or they were doing quality assurance for tech specific product development then they considered themselves technical but people in education, health care, and blue collar workers didn’t (and still don’t) often identify with being in tech. 

It was and still is a very very technical, male-dominated field, and I was like, wait a second, I’m in marketing. I work with a lot of women who use a lot of technology tools. Why aren’t we identifying with being in technology? And so I started asking those questions like, “What does it actually mean to be in the technology field?” And that’s when the [Lady Tech Charmers] podcast and the [Carolina Women in Tech] non-profit as well as other diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging  community initiatives started to form.

Why do you think there aren’t more women in technology in the Carolinas?

I think there are a lot of women who don’t realize they’re in technology. Even if you look at teachers. Teaching is a very female-dominated field. They’re using technology every day. Think about this pandemic. [Think about] Zoom, and email, and slack, and videos, pre-recorded videos, audio, online homework assignments — this is all technology. It’s become a table stake in careers across the spectrum. We use technology with everything. So if you’re a female and you are in the workforce, there’s a very good chance that you’re embracing tech in your career. 

So it sounds like the definition of what it means to be in technology is a much broader definition than simply being a technical coder or big data analyst, for example. 

If you embrace technology in your career, and you specialize in a particular field of technology, then you become a facilitator of technology within your organization. 

Say you have this office administrator [in the construction industry] who is implementing BuilderTrend, which is an industry-specific project management tool. She is not technically a woman in tech, but she’s using QuickBooks Online, she’s activating BuilderTrend and setting it up, integrating the bookkeeping tool with a project management tool. She’s doing all the invoices using this technology. She’s helping the superintendent and the project managers get [data] on their phones and learn how to input information on their phones when they’re out in the field. That’s a woman in tech. Even if she’s not technically a programmer, that doesn’t make her any less valuable as a facilitator and user of technology.

Community seems to be a central cornerstone of your mission to advance women in technology. Do you have a personal story in which the value of community was really solidified for you and points to why you continue to be involved in so many communities? 

hen I was trying to network and build my business as I was getting started as an entrepreneur in 2013, I got involved with the Plaza Midwood Merchants Association, because I live in the neighborhood and I wanted to get involved with the local business owners. So they brought me in to help them update their website and simple things like Facebook groups. And that was all fine, well, and good, but where I saw the biggest need was being able to serve the schools that were in our area. 

I thought, “How can I make a difference with some of our neighborhood schools?” I decided to plug in with one of the leadership teachers at Garinger High School, and we brought some business owners together and created a speed mentoring event. We had 30 students, 10 volunteers at Advent Coworking. Common Market provided lunch. And it was a huge success. We started out simple and organic.

And then we got incredible feedback from students, teachers, and community members. We agreed that, “This is awesome. We should do one better next year.” So we turned this small group networking event into [the Charlotte Student Entrepreneur Summit], which, over the course of three years turned into this huge conference with 150 plus people, five Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, tons of businesses, nonprofits, leaders, city council — a lot of big people showing up for these students at these at-risk high schools. 

And we were able to bring the technology field to the forefront. We were able to show [students] different opportunities and connect students to specific people for mentoring and intern opportunities and looking at their resumes and helping them upskill in different areas. 

Wow. That’s incredible. Growing a small networking group into a large summit takes vision. It also seems like it takes a willingness to build and serve a community. 

It was a lot of little things, you know, and that really is what community is all about. It’s a million little things. A million connections, a million touchpoints, a million opportunities and connections, a lifetime of resources and relationships. 

A lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake of networking for personal gain. And I think if they switch their mentality from this sort of armored leadership approach to this daring leadership approach — with an open heart and an open mind — and just looking to share their gifts with the world, and look to connect other people with their connections, or in so many words- seeing the greater good and taking action to make a positive impact on the world. Having that mindset of seeing the greater good and helping people see what’s possible. 

That’s really what we’ve done with Carolina Women in Tech. We’ve had conversations with women in all different types of industries, and at the end of the day they have a light bulb moment and often end up responding, “Oh! I am a woman in tech.” It’s cool to see our members and sponsors own that and lean into that more. 

What are you especially proud of? 

The student Charlotte Student Entrepreneur Summit is pretty high up there and something that I’m proud of. It was purely volunteer work, I made no money but the reward is priceless! It is a repeatable, scalable project that we’re actually exploring being able to implement in more urban and rural areas across the Carolinas as well as in other regions for other school districts. So it was, it was a hard project and a labor of love that is actually kind of evolving into other opportunities for making change and doing good. 

What’s next for you?

My husband just started his construction business Midwood Homes, LLC, so we have a new business adventure. I’m also a big gardener and plant lover, so I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate my love of plants and gardening into my entrepreneurial endeavors.

I’m also looking for ways to use technology to create a better customer experience for our construction business because construction is kind of an old school, good old boy kind of industry and so the way that they do business is kind of like that. I feel like with my experience, my background, being able to change the game of how homeowners experience a contractor, wrapping my head around that. That’s cool and exciting.

Megan Orrell opened her clothing boutique, Boem, in 2008 — the same year as the recession. She opened her second location in 2020 — the year of the coronavirus pandemic. 

“Apparently, I like to open in recessions,” she jokes. But all joking aside, Orrell has built a successful brand that’s continued to thrive.   

Ask Orrell and she’ll tell you that the secret to her success isn’t a secret. It’s a simple equation of working hard, being willing to evolve, and never fearing failure. She talked more about these practices in a conversion we had with her. 

What year did you open your second store location?

Twenty-twenty.  

So very recently?

Yes. 

I opened the first location in 2008. Apparently, I like to open in recessions. In 2008, when I opened, I was young and naive and really had no idea how bad the economics were at the time. 

But I’ve always said that it just made me a better, smarter business owner. It made me tougher. It made me realize that everything isn’t going to be easy. 

My dad is a real estate agent and has always told me “That’s the one thing you can count on — there will be ups and downs.” Some years you make money, some years you might not make money and that’s what you should expect if you’re going to be an entrepreneur.

So when 2020 hit, my reaction was “Well, yea okay, [a down moment] was bound to happen at some point. Maybe not how it happened, but I knew we would have a downturn. I signed the lease [for the second location] in 2019 so I kind of had no choice but to open. 

You’ve talked about how thankful you are that you were a little naive when you started your business. Otherwise, you might not have taken the leap. Do you still believe that kind of fearlessness is essential? 

I do. I think that if you want to go into business for yourself, you have to take a leap of faith. You have to be fearless in a sense. You have to be unafraid to fail. I’ve done things that haven’t worked out, and I look at those things as the greatest learning opportunities. 

I tell people that opening the second location was almost harder than opening the first location because I had so much more information. I knew what [opening a business] looked like. Even though I had an established business, I knew the first few years [for the second location] were going to be tough. 

What are some other leaps of faith you’ve had to take as an established business woman? 

I think people have this idea that you just open [a business] and then that’s it — it’s running and it’s great. I can specifically speak to my industry and say that it is ever-evolving. When I opened my first store, I advertised my grand opening in the newspaper. That is where we were at the time. That is what you did. You would not hear of doing that now. 

[In 2008], Instagram wasn’t a business platform. It was just a personal sharing photos platform. So even in the beginning, it was like, “Is [Instagram] a thing businesses should be doing?” 

We also launched online in 2015, which was a little late to the game. It was something that I didn’t want to do because it’s like opening a whole new business, but you have to do it. 

The biggest takeaway is that things are ever-evolving, especially in fashion, but also in any industry you’re in. And you have to pay attention and keep up. 

I think what sets people who don’t ultimately make it apart from successful people is they’re just on autopilot and not willing to evolve. You always have to pay attention, make the changes, and stay on top of it. 

One of my favorite things I say is “You don’t have to be the first, you just have to be the best.” I think a lot of people are like, “Oh, well they’re already doing that so I’m not going to do it.” No, just do it and do it better. 

You are very self-aware in that you know what you’re good at, you know you’re creative. Did that self-awareness refine itself over time or have you always known what your strengths are? 

It’s funny, I was literally thinking about that this morning. It’s something I think about a lot because we are asked as soon as kindergarten what we want to be when we grow up.  I’ve always thought that’s an interesting question. It puts a lot of pressure on a child. 

I was not the smartest kid, I got okay grades. And when I was growing up, that was a detriment. It was like [you’re either] book smart or dumb and not going to amount to anything. [It felt like] to be successful, you had to be smart. And I don’t think that true. 

I think to be successful you have to be very good at something, and a very hard worker. 

Personally, I think the thing that sets me apart and has made me successful over the years is that I’m willing to put in the work. And this ties back to the whole [evolving thing too] and staying on top of things. My brand is creative. That is what I bring to the table. 

Where did your worth ethic come from? 

My dad has an incredible work ethic. He still works — and he’s almost 80 — by choice. He enjoys working. And he made me get a job at 15. I’ve always had a job, and I think learning that work ethic from an early age and seeing how hard my dad works, and how hard he still works, that is just who I am as a person. 

So when people ask how I [started and grew my business], it’s hard work. That’s the bottom line for me. 

When moms ask what would [I’d] recommend [for their kids], I’m like “Make your daughter work.”  

I feel like a lot of times people see what I do and they say, “I want to do this. I want this life.” And I’m like, “Okay, well, I’ve got to take you back 13 years [to where it started]. Let’s talk about those [years of hard work] first.” It’s a long hard road, you know? It’s not that some people don’t become overnight successes, but for the most part, they don’t. You have to be prepared to put the work in.

What’s next for you and Boem?

Well, for the past year it’s been “How do we survive [the pandemic]?” It [has been] about surviving, not about thriving. But now that we’re coming out of [the pandemic], things are normalizing some. My biggest question now is, “What next?” 

I opened one store and, honestly, that’s all I ever wanted. I didn’t have these big grand ideas of opening all over the country. But then [the business] grew and grew — and this is such a lucky problem to have, but it kept growing. The Atherton shopping center came to me [about opening a second location]. And I felt like it was a great idea. So I did it, and here I am: Two stores and a 4,000 square foot warehouse and my question is: Is it more stores?  Growing our online presence? Is it going into a franchising situation? I don’t know that answer, but that’s the biggest question that I have right now.

When Kelley Michalski decided to leave her long-time corporate career to open barre3 Fort Mill, a boutique fitness studio, she expected to flex different muscles as a small business owner. But what she didn’t expect was a complete change in mindset. 

Her mindset changed in waves. 

The first change was accepting that she was creating a business from the ground up without the safety nets of a corporate setting. This led to the next realization: Instead of siloing and shelving her corporate experience, she needed to harness and utilize it as a small business owner. 

The last change in mindset was the most significant. Michalski decided to join the financial management company Lavoie CPA while continuing to run Barre3 Fort Mill. 

“At Lavoie, I enjoyed helping small businesses. Being a small business owner myself, I wanted to provide value to small businesses. I no longer wanted to be in the C suite of a large corporate organization,” says Michalski. 

“It’s just interesting how your whole career changes and your mindset changes as well. I’ve always been a career-driven person. And then when you step back, you realize what’s truly important and valuable to you.” 

We sat down with Michalski and asked her more about her experience. 

You are the Vice President of Operations at Lavoie, but you’re also the owner of a fitness studio, correct?  

Yes. The last position that I had when I was in corporate was CFO for a division of a Fortune 15 company, and I left about four years ago to exercise my entrepreneurial spirit. I opened up my own business, which is a boutique fitness studio. I went from corporate CFO to a fitness studio owner. So it was a complete 180. 

But I always wanted to own my own business. I’ve always wanted to exercise that entrepreneurial spirit and drive something for community, a place where people have a sense of belonging and feel welcomed. That’s what I have worked to create within my fitness studio. 

So then fast forward. As strange as it probably sounds, I really missed exercising the strategic accounting and finance side of my brain. Sharai, [ CEO of Lavoie CPA], and I have known each other for a few years and I started reaching out to her to say “Hey if you ever have an overflow need, let me know and I can jump in and help with some projects.” And that has now led to having a bigger role within the [Lavoie] organization. And this January, I became a partner of the organization and I am now responsible for our client operations group.

What was it like to start your small business?  

The reality was that it was, I will say, a hard transition. I mean, you leave a corporate environment where you have structure, you have your paycheck — let’s just put it that way — you have a team, and you have all of these support mechanisms around you. And then you move into creating something on your own and you’re building it. 

Some people can jump right into that. For me, it was a bit of a hard transition in the sense that I had to switch the way I was thinking. I had to remember that I’m building and starting and that [all of those support mechanisms] were not coming with [me]. 

After opening your studio, was getting your foot back into the corporate world a way to make things less scary and provide a little more stability? 

Possibly. And I’m sure that’s one reason why. It was a comfort zone. It was “This is something that I feel confident about, I’m good at it. So let me bring that back in and kind of reduce the scary that comes with starting your own business.” 

But I don’t want that to sound like I couldn’t handle starting my own business. I have enjoyed every bit of the journey and continue to look forward to growing my business.

If I had to do it over again, the advice I would give is you really have to change your mindset. Changing your mindset to “How can you pour that [large corporate] experience into your own business and your own structure to build [your business] from the ground up?”

Often, I thought that [my corporate experience] didn’t translate. [I] built balanced scorecards, [I] built lean strategic objectives for large organizations, and then I was like, “I’m not even using this skill set.” 

Later, I had a tough conversation with myself asking “Why are you not translating [your skills]?” Even though it’s a small business you can still create a balanced scorecard, you can still create strategic objectives, you can bring that skill set with you.

Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from? 

In my first class [at business school], we had to create our own company and the financials for our company. I still to this day — and I’ve been out of college for many years — I still remember that project. And I think that set the seed a little bit for [me] having my own company. 

I think the other part of it is I’ve been a very career-oriented individual. So I’ve been very passionate. I’ve been very hard working. That’s how I grew up. 

My generation grew up with the sense that you work hard and you get a payoff for it. It was never like, “Well I’m just going to wait for a promotion to be given to me.” No. I’m going to work for it and earn it. And [starting my own business], I think it’s just almost a natural next step in this. I’m going to create something and I’m going to work for it.

Are there any mentors or role models that helped shape your work ethic? 

There was one individual. He said to me once “You’ve got potential. I want to mentor you.” And the biggest thing that I learned from him is you have to seek out the mentoring. 

I always say this when people ask me if I will mentor them — and they would literally wait for me to schedule the meeting. Or, let’s say we would schedule a meeting, they would think I would bring this amazing advice. No. You have to seek out the mentor. You need to think about, “Here are the areas I want to focus on, here’s where my opportunities are. I’m going to schedule the meeting with my mentor.” 

And that kind of relates to something else that I learned throughout my career is, you cannot wait for the opportunities to come to you. You have to create your path of where you want to go. 

There was a point in my career where I felt stuck and I was like “Everyone else is getting these opportunities. Why am I not getting these opportunities? Everyone else is getting picked to be part of the project, why am I getting to be part of the project?” 

And one day it just flipped and I realized, “They may not know that I want to be part of that project.” I had to say “I want to grow here. The next time you have a project that comes up related to this, can I be part of it?” 

Once that flipped, my career actually went boom. 

How do you continue to practice asking for what you want? 

That’s where you create a network to run ideas by people. I don’t have to ask anymore to be in the next position, I can just go for it. But it’s having the resources of a network to be able to say “What do you think about this? Is this a crazy idea?” 

What do you think is next in your future? 

Retire early. Ha. Ideally, I would love to have different business offerings, operate more businesses that I’ve created and be that strategic visionary component. That is what I have my eye on right now. As an entrepreneur, you don’t really focus on one thing. You focus on multiple avenues and I’m trying to decide what my next avenue is going to be while keeping my current avenue. Those are not going anywhere!

Although Sharai Lavoie doesn’t like talking about herself, there certainly is a lot to keep the conversation going. 

Lavoie is the founder and CEO of Lavoie CPA, a professional services and technology firm that provides strategic advice to its roster of clients. Since starting her own company in 2009, Lavoie was awarded the Woman in Business award in 2017 by the Charlotte Business Journal. 

“I never wanted [my business] to be a typical partner structure,” Lavoie says. “The passion in what we do is around knowing that you’re making a difference in the company that you’re working with.”

We sat down with Lavoie, who graciously answered a few questions about her experience in business and finance. 

What were you able to do as the founder of your own company that you couldn’t working for someone else? 

When you’re working for someone else, you can see that something needs to be done but you don’t necessarily have the power to act upon it, making it happen. In having your own business, if I see that, okay, I think we’re going down the right path or we need to go in a different direction, I don’t have anybody to argue with about it other than myself. And what does that mean for the employees and planning for that side of things, versus, you know, having to convince somebody that we really need to be going in this direction or we really need to pay more attention to this part of what’s going on in the world. I don’t have to convince somebody of that.

Because you don’t have to convince anyone, are you able to do your job better? Are you able to maximize your skills in the ways they’re meant to be maximized?

Some days. Some days I am; some days I’m not. It’s just because we are a smaller company, so I do have to wear a lot of hats. But as we grow, I do get to say “This is where I’m best suited, so I’m going to focus my time here and I’m going to backfill for anything that I may be doing that I’m not suited for.” And so from that perspective, yes. 

Tell us about the process of opening your own business. 

[Opening my own business] is just something I’ve always wanted to do. I was working on it at the place that I’d left to start my own business. I was kind of doing what I’m doing now on a much smaller scale and the owner, he gave me the confidence to do it if I wanted to do it. He saw in me what I knew I had in myself. He saw it and he acknowledged it. I wasn’t like “Oh, in two years, I’m going to [start a firm] and that’s what’s gonna happen.” It was just kind of one of those things. I know I can do it, I just need to figure out how to make it happen and do it. And he was like “Yeah, go for it,” and that’s what I did.

You sound so cool, calm and collected when talking about the experience. 

It’s the scariest thing you’ll ever do. Yeah. It’s the scariest thing you’ll ever do. And I think having your first couple of employees is really scary because then you realize that you’re responsible for someone’s livelihood. 

In those scary moments, what did you do to keep moving forward? 

Honestly, I would just pray and say “Look, you’ve gotten this far. You can just keep going.” 

You can believe in yourself, but you doubt yourself every step of the way. There was no book that I read [on how to start a firm] or any of that. It was just “I’m gonna do this. If this messes up, there are other things that I know I can do because I’ve gotten this experience to do this.” I just would pray about it and say “Okay. Get over yourself and get going.”

Why is advancing women in business important to you? 

From the woman’s perspective, you know, you spend so much time with people, so to speak, putting you in your place: “This is your place; those are your boundaries.” And I love to see women take up roles in a man’s space because it says “Screw you; you missed out.” That’s the part about women in business that I love. 

When you spend time hearing people tell you can’t do things because that’s not what women are supposed to do, or this is as far as you’ll probably get, or you’ll probably drop out of the workforce and have kids — and if you do that, that’s great, that’s your decision. I mean, a year into starting the business I found out that I was pregnant. I could have easily said, “Well, no one’s gonna want to work for me. After they see I’m pregnant, they’re gonna be like, ‘Well is she really going to be around or serious about this?’” But luckily, we had great clients and they got it. 

So for me, I guess it’s more of, [as a woman] you’ve kind of been looked over for so long. And there are so many women doing so many things that they fly under the radar, why not celebrate them?

What barriers existed at the start of your career that have since changed? 

One thing I experienced, not directly from my bosses but inadvertently—and over time I have seen it change—is being viewed as more of a helper versus someone that could lead. You’re viewed as more of an assistant, like, “You can help me with some of these projects but don’t think you’re going to present anything.” So it’s more of that. But I think over time it’s been more of, “Oh, she can take that and run with it and lead with it.” 

What do you hope the future of finance looks like? 

I hope that the future is more diverse. And I think that the future of accounting and finance is going to be a different landscape where the people that are in it are there more for the strategic side of things. Because I think a lot of things will end up being automated. And so I’m hoping that it will be more diverse in the sense that people aren’t just looking at you as these are the few things that you do, they realize that it’s a much broader scope.

You may have been in positions where you were the only woman, so there were no senior women to mentor you. Now that you’re in this executive position, how do you feel about mentoring others? 

I actually mentor with Innovate Charlotte. I’ll do it in a heartbeat. If you have something that you can tell someone or a resource you can provide to them, you should. It shouldn’t feel like a space where you feel like “Oh I can’t tell this person this because of XYZ.” 

If you don’t ask, you don’t get, and if you don’t speak about it you don’t learn. Nobody can read your mind. You have to be willing to pay it forward. And I guess for me, with mentoring and trying to mentor, it’s more about paying forward. Helping someone else so that maybe they don’t have to have as hard of a road as I have had. 

What are you most proud of? 

I think I’m probably most proud of the fact that I made it this far as a mom and my son still thinks I’m cool. It just gives me the courage to do this.

Really, how so?

Because [my son] gets to see that a woman in this position is how it’s supposed to be. He thinks I can do anything.