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1 week ago | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Khera Alexander |Maricel Joy Dicion
By Khera Alexander“I always knew that I wanted to do my own thing, but I didn’t have the idea,” Emily Hosie says. “I had no idea that it would be a tech company.”As the founder of REBEL (formerly Rebelstork), a rapidly growing consumer tech company tackling the retail returns crisis, Emily has built her success on determination, passion, and a strong foundation in off-price retail — an industry that continues to energize her.
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3 weeks ago | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Sarah Walker |Maricel Joy Dicion
By Sarah WalkerWhen Nicola Ray Smith first entered the world of finance, it wasn’t part of a lifelong plan to work in corporate Canada. In fact, she refers to herself as an “accidental banker.”“I didn’t picture this when I was young,” she admits. “My first career was in forestry — I spent years working in sawmills and logging camps. Finance wasn’t even on my radar until I graduated from university.
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1 month ago | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Khera Alexander |Maricel Joy Dicion
By Khera Alexander“From the early age of eight, I told my mother that I was going to go abroad to work with children and youth.”That clarity shaped Stachen Lett-Frederick’s entire career. Growing up in Trinidad & Tobago, her passion for child and youth work only deepened as she got older. But after immigrating to Canada, she saw firsthand how many young people were underserved and vulnerable — and she wanted to be part of the solution.
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2 months ago | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Khera Alexander |Maricel Joy Dicion
By Khera Alexander“Why am I chasing when I could just be building?”That question changed everything for Nadine Bernard. As a Mi’kmaq woman from the We’koqma’q First Nation, Nadine spent nearly two decades in diversity, equity, and inclusion and Indigenous relations roles. She had built a career within established organizations, following what seemed like the natural trajectory. Then, an unexpected layoff forced her to re-evaluate everything.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
Artificial intelligence (AI) is often seen as a game-changer for hiring, offering the potential to eliminate human bias through data-driven decisions. However, while the goal of objectivity is commendable, AI tools can fall short due to the data and frameworks that inform them.
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Jan 12, 2025 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
By WOI+ Editorial TeamFor years, mentorship has been celebrated as the golden ticket to career advancement. Leaders guide, offer advice, and share their journeys, believing that preparation is the key to advancement. But preparation isn’t the same as opportunity. While mentorship teaches women how to lead, it rarely positions them to actually step into leadership roles.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
By WOI+ Editorial TeamHave you ever questioned why you procrastinate, overthink, or avoid confrontation, even when you know it’s holding you back? According to Shirzad Chamine, author of Positive Intelligence and lecturer at Stanford University, these behaviours aren’t random — they’re the result of “saboteurs.”Saboteurs are mental patterns developed as coping mechanisms in childhood but persist into adulthood, where they wreak havoc on our productivity, relationships, and well-being.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
By WOI+ Editorial TeamHave you ever found yourself typing an email while scrolling through your phone and half-listening to a colleague in the background? Then wondering — why does nothing seem to get done? This is the modern worker’s dilemma: the illusion of multitasking. But here’s the truth — it doesn’t work. Research from Dr. Gloria Mark at the University of California, Irvine, reveals that after an interruption, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to refocus on the original task.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
By WOI+ Editorial TeamPicture this:You’ve just presented a new project idea to your manager. Their response? “This isn’t going to work—you didn’t account for the timeline.”The statement might be factual, but it shuts down the conversation. The assumption? You didn’t think it through. Now imagine instead:“This is a good starting point—how do you see it fitting into our timeline?”The second response creates an entirely different dynamic.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
womenofinfluence.ca | Maricel Joy Dicion
By WOI+ Editorial TeamThe modern workplace celebrates productivity as a marker of success. But when the desire to do more comes at the expense of well-being and quality of life, it can spiral into toxic productivity. This harmful obsession with constant output creates burnout, strains relationships, and limits both individual and organizational potential. Toxic productivity stems from societal beliefs that equate hard work with virtue and rest with laziness.
