WOMEN@WORK: WINDSOR HANGER WESTERN

Windsor Hanger Western is the Co-Founder, Publisher & President of Her Campus Media. She founded Her Campus alongside Stephanie Kaplan Lewis and Annie Wang during their time at Harvard University and they have since led the team for the last 11 years.  Windsor sat down with Holdette to talk about all things business development, starting a Media Company, and self care.

Harper Wayne: Can you tell me a little bit about your role leading business development? 

Windsor: I started the company out of my dorm room at Harvard and was not familiar with all of the different parts of the business world and business development sales was not something that I had thought about or considered. I used to think of a “used car salesman” vibe when I thought about [being a] salesperson. It is, however, I think one of the best career options for women interested in business who are good communicators, storytellers, and relationship builders. So if you're an extrovert, if you are someone who is the life of the party, if you're someone who has lots of friendships, and is friends with lots of different types of people, or someone who likes to communicate and tell stories, you would probably be really good at sales. At Her Campus, sales and business development is essentially bringing in new partners who want to buy advertising and marketing packages with us. I have a 10 person sales and business development team working for me at Her Campus and I absolutely love what I do.

Harper Wayne : You went to Harvard and then you started a huge college media outlet. When you were a little girl, did you always dream big?

Windsor : Yeah, so when I was a little girl, I definitely dreamed big. I did not think I was going to be an entrepreneur. I certainly did not think I was going to be a media entrepreneur. I thought I was going to be a doctor. I love babies and children and I thought I was going to be a pediatrician. Then by high school, I wanted to be a pediatric surgeon. I actually was pre-med when I started at Harvard but, once I actually dug in I realized it wasn’t the right path for me. I worked at a genetics lab one summer in college and realized I did not like that because I was by myself pipetting all day long running DNA sequences and I thought the results were interesting, but the actual work was so isolating and lonely. I realized this is not what I wanted to do every day. I pivoted and that’s okay! It's okay to change your mind a million times. The lesson there is that you should do whatever you want, because you can always change your mind and that's perfectly okay. 

Harper Wayne: Working with freeze and through just Harvard overall, what did you learn there that has helped you create your media empire?

Windsor: I think extracurriculars are one of the most valuable parts of your college experience because you obviously learn a lot in your coursework and in your internships, but you have a really amazing opportunity to learn and grow and to explore in the extracurriculars that you're involved in. I was working for this student publication at Harvard, and it actually was that student publication that really took off and inspired us to run and to launch what became Her Campus Media. We realized through running this publication for women on Harvard's campus that most colleges did not have a women's publication on campus. Most colleges have a school newspaper, but very, very few had a women's media outlet. We wanted to fix that, so we decided to build this platform. The rest is history.

Harper Wayne: What was your biggest roadblock?

Windsor: I had a lot of friends who thought it was silly and didn't see the vision and didn't understand why I would graduate from Harvard and do this. We won the business plan competition at Harvard and got office space as part of it. We have this very sweet, but very tiny little office. Our friends are going off to New York and San Francisco and taking these big jobs and wearing these fancy work clothes and here I am in jean shorts and a t-shirt, in this little office in Harvard Square. They didn't understand it, and they thought I was wasting an opportunity and I was gonna get my career off on the wrong foot. It was really hard. I doubted myself a lot at the beginning. Because if you step back, it can seem impossible or it can seem like "Why am I trying to do this? Who am I to get this started?" Overcoming my own internal doubts and also the doubts of my friends was a big challenge to overcome.

Harper Wayne: You have two lovely daughters. Has becoming a mom shaped how you see the media landscape and how you interact with Her Campus? 

Windsor: Becoming a mom myself really helped reinforce that the right way to run a company is to support people in every role they serve in both in and out of the office and respect the entire person who is coming to work. We've always been really focused on female empowerment at Her Campus and the big gap that still persists between opportunities for men and women. I am really motivated to continue to create opportunities and space for women to shine and to show my little girls what is possible as a woman and as a mom. I want them to grow up not understanding that there's any difference between boys and girls. You know, that girls can do anything boys can do and vice versa. That's the world that I feel even more passionate about creating for them. 

Harper Wayne: I read in an interview that you named one of your daughters Eleanor because you love Eleanor Roosevelt. What do you find so inspiring about her?

Windsor: Elenor Roosevelt was a rule breaker. She was someone who was not just the First Lady of the United States, but she was a political figure herself. She was a diplomat, she was an activist, and she really did a lot for human rights. I find her really inspiring as someone who broke unwritten rules and pushed the limits. This is something that I hope my daughters do as well.

Harper Wayne: How has self care played a role in your life as a founder, entrepreneur, and mom?

Windsor: One thing that's been really consistent for me is exercise as self care. Endorphins are the real deal. I feel better, happier, more clear headed after I exercise. In my office I actually have a yoga mat and weights and I pull them out in the morning. It’s really helpful for me to keep myself centered. I am also an extrovert and so I need close friendships with people. I'm very close with my co-founders, but also people that I’m not working with every single day. For me as an extrovert it is going out for a cocktail with a friend and I consider that self care because I feel so built up after that -  I just feel energized. For me self-care is figuring out who I am and what gives me energy and what makes me feel good.

Harper Wayne: Where do you see Her Campus going in the next 5 to 10 years?

Windsor: We have big goals for the future. COVID and the economic recession that we're in the middle of has been very challenging for all business owners, ourselves included and it kind of made us reevaluate what's most important and what we need to do next. Last year we acquired The Lala which we turned into Her 20s, Spoon University, and College Fashionista, A lot of the growth that we expected to take place this year has had to be put on ice because of everything that’s happening with COVID. So we are going to grow those in the future, once the economy's in a better place, kind of relight the fire under each one of those businesses and continue to grow them. So that's something I'm very excited about. But another thing that I really see as a big direction for us as a company is doing things like this Aussie Business Plan competition, that Holdette is a part of. Her Campus got its start in a business plan competition in the middle of the economic recession in 2009. We have wanted to do a business plan competition for such a long time, and Aussie haircare came in and I pitched this idea and they just latched on to it. I'm so grateful because they're funding this big business plan competition with very real prize money for all of the winners and it's no strings attached prize money, which is so rare in business plan competitions and really impactful. I'm loving it, honestly, and so one of my goals for Her Campus is how do we continue to grow as a media company, but how do we also expand as a platform that helps other women launch their businesses, especially other young women? How do we help other young women follow in our footsteps and launch their own companies in their college dorm rooms and really give them a playbook for how to do that. 

Harper Wayne: What would you fit in your pocket if it could fit literally anything? 

Windsor: My huge cell phone. I always get the biggest iPhone that they make, basically I want an iPad in my pocket, and a big case because I'm clumsy. I also always need a chapstick in my pocket. 100% right now, hand sanitizer. Two masks, I do a cloth mask over a N-95, so dystopian, but I would fit those. So hand sanitizer, two masks, my phone and a little credit card holder for my ID and my credit card and debit card.