When Gay Gaddis started T3, her mission was to “make kick-ass work for clients who want to kick ass.” Her book, Cowgirl Power, is for women who want to kick ass. A lot of women-empowerment literature focuses on what is wrong in our society. Cowgirl Power flips the narrative and focuses on what women can do right. By comparing female leaders to cowgirls, Gay sets standards higher for women. Historical cowgirls had way more societal obstacles than women today, and their success shows us that with the right approach, we too, can do anything we want.

Leadership is about the responsibility we have to pass on the values we’ve learned.

Cowgirls and the values they employ to achieve their goals enable women to see themselves as leaders. And leadership, as Gay describes in her book, is about the responsibility we have to pass on the values we’ve learned. Women have a special combination of natural abilities to lead and be successful because they are collaborative, innovative and have emotional intelligence. When these skills are understood and embraced, women succeed.

Gay Gaddis was blessed with an intuitive understanding of what it takes to be successful. The knowledge and grit she shares in this book are absolute gifts to those women who don’t share that intuition and are trapped in negative societal norms regarding women in leadership.

I read this book when I was taking a leap of faith to start my second business, and it gave me the tools to transform my fear into confidence. Now, the book is required reading for every new woman I hire.