This episode unpacks the real reasons women are often overlooked for leadership roles—and how to change that. You’ll learn the five key areas to focus on before pursuing a promotion, how to overcome self-sabotage, and how to confidently communicate your value and advocate for the role you deserve.

Blog Recap

In this powerful episode of Two Marketing Moms, we dive into why so many women are overlooked for leadership roles—and the practical steps to change that. Rosie Zilinskas shares a framework called the Promotion Readiness Roadmap, designed to help women prepare strategically and mentally for their next big leap.

One of the biggest takeaways? Preparation meets mindset. Before pursuing a promotion, women should assess both tactical elements—like resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and a “story vault” of professional wins—and internal ones, such as confidence, self-awareness, and readiness to advocate for themselves.

We also explore the four core blockers that often hold women back:

Worth blocker – believing you’re not ready or qualified.
Popularity blocker – thinking you’re not “likable enough.”
Skills blocker – over-preparing instead of applying.
Visibility blocker – doing great work but not being seen.

Another critical insight: only 20% of women negotiate at work—a habit that can cost up to $2 million over a career. The message is clear: self-advocacy isn’t optional—it’s essential.

Rosie’s five-phase roadmap encourages women to Aspire, Assess, Advise, Advertise, and Advocate—a structured way to define your goals, own your story, seek mentorship, and confidently ask for what you deserve.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your career, this episode is your blueprint for building both the strategy and self-belief to lead with confidence.

Episode Transcript

Kelly Callahan-Poe

If you want to step into leadership with confidence, this episode is your roadmap. Welcome to the Two Marketing Moms podcast. I’m Kelly Callahan-Poe and today’s episode is called The Leadership Leap with Rosie Zilinskas.

Rosie is a certified high performance career coach and former Fortune 500 executive who helps women step into leadership with confidence, earn the recognition they deserve, and close the corporate gender gap. Welcome, Rosie.

Rosie Zilinskas

Kelly, thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to chat with you about all thing’s leadership.

Kelly

You have a lot of tools that you’ve created to help women assess if they’re promotion ready. Can you walk us through what it measures and how it works?

Rosie

Yeah, absolutely. So, one of the tools that I have is a promotion readiness roadmap. And I do have assessment to match that roadmap, but it’s the tactical components of are you ready if that opportunity opens up tomorrow?

Do you have your resume and your LinkedIn and your Story Vault for the interview? All of those components are part of the promotion readiness roadmap. the assessment tells you how ready you are if that opportunity opens up tomorrow so that you’re not scrambling.

Kelly

So, what are the various elements of the assessment?

Rosie

So, the assessment is basically asking you if you actually have that resume ready. Do you have a vault of stories, a compilation of stories that you can start pulling from if you’re asked any questions? What type of wording are you going to be using? We always talk about crafting your script, creating a 90-day plan to bring into the interview. So, all of those are the tactical components.

And then there’s a couple of mindset ones like, how often do you speak up if there is a question? How often do you go and ask for feedback or advice? So those are some of the tactical things that are part of the roadmap and the assessment.

Kelly

What are the key areas that women need to address before becoming promotion ready?

Rosie

Yeah, so you know, interesting enough, I did a so I have a membership, and I did a training the other day on the hierarchy of needs, you know, by Maslow. And one of the things that is really important for women to understand is that if you’re in some kind of, I’m going to even call it like a crisis, it could be a mini crisis, it could be a major crisis, you kind of have to get yourself your house, your brain in order before you can start seeking that promotion because I’ve had several traumas throughout my life, you know, and when you’re in that, you know, what a lot of people refer to as the dark night of the soul where you’re just like not even yourself, you’re not there, that is not the time for you to start working on your career. The time for you to start working on your career is when you actually feel that you have, you the majority of your life, you know, your, your bills, your family, yourself, your, your kind of in a good spot. And then you’re seeking fulfillment. You’re seeking the next level up to grow. That’s the time to start seeking some personal and professional development for sure.

Kelly

And you had in essence five key areas that women need to address. Can you go through those five key areas?

Rosie

Yeah, so, well, there’s a couple things. So first, I think I’d like to talk about the four core wounds, if you don’t mind, because I think it’s kind of in line. So, and I have done energy healing before, I’m a meditator. So, and as I talk to more and more clients, it’s so interesting, because a lot of times, Kelly, we, you know, go through these like problems and situations in our life, and we try to push our emotions away or we stuff them down. And through the work that I’ve been doing, I realized that there’s kind of four different buckets that people in general fall into. But really, we need to take the time to feel our feelings so that you can identify these wounds. And so, the first core wound is, I’m not worthy. And it could be like; I just don’t feel that I’m going to get the job. I’m already the manager and I’m getting some imposter syndrome, you know, that kind of thing. So, a lot of people fall in that I’m not worthy and I’m just not going to do anything for myself. They either discount themselves, they defeat themselves or they disqualify themselves. So that’s kind of the first bucket. The second bucket is the I’m not lovable or I’m not likable. I call that the popularity blocker. So, a lot of times you’re not, you know, the golden boy or girl at work and then you’re well, if they’re always promoting like the popular people, so I’m not even going to bother. So that’s the popularity blocker. Then the one that is significant is the skills blocker because a lot of times we’re doing the work we’re doing really good work, but we don’t feel ready to advocate for ourselves, meaning going and asking for that promotion or what else can I do in my work? And so, you think that you need to do more work or get more certifications or more degrees before you’re ready to go out and start advocating for yourself.

And then the last one is the visibility blocker. And this is also one that holds women back significantly because you could be doing all of those things and you’re advocating for yourself, but you’re not putting yourself out there. You don’t want to do a presentation or a training, you don’t want to do, you know, commenting on social media, things like that. So, in order for you to understand how to elevate yourself,

You first need to understand yourself and figure out if you’re falling into one of these, you know, core wounds so that you can figure out how to work on yourself. And then one of the things I tell my clients all the time is the more you are able to know about yourself, who you are, what you actually think about some things, you know, because this happens to me all the time. You hear all this stuff in the world. And then I sit there and I’m like, OK, what do I really think about that? How do

I really feel about that. And then I can speak to it. So, a lot of it is like getting to know yourself so that you can show people how you can help them solve their problems through your knowledge and skills. And that’s when you’re starting to show your value. Because a lot of times, well, you got to show your value, you got to show your worth. Well, but how? How do you do that? And how you do that is, again, you tell people how you can help them solve their problems by using your knowledge and your skills. So, I’ll pause there.

Kelly

That’s great. There was a stat on your website, which I believe is one of the worth blockers. And I thought that stat was really powerful, and it talked about the fact that only 20% of adult women never negotiate at work. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, which is kind of surprising.

Rosie

And that is a horrifying step because yes, only about 20 % of women, but you know what that translates into all the women that are not negotiating lose about $2 million worth of income. know, and this is like investing it, you know, through an entire lifetime. So, if you’re like in your mid-20s and you don’t negotiate over your entire career that could translate up to having two million dollars less than your male counterparts just by not negotiating. And then the other one and actually I was trying to do some research on this statistic because everybody always talks about Hewlett Packard and how they did a study on their staff and 50 % or men apply for jobs having 50 % of the skills on the description and then women wait till they have 100%. And I can’t find any factual information, but it’s been a really good anecdotal story to talk about because it may not be factual from Hewlett-Packard, but it’s kind of true when you start seeing how men just go and apply and then women wait to have all the skills on the job description.

And then I do a lot of keynoting as well. And the two things that I tell them that’s a consequence of that is that number one, by the time you go and apply for the job, it’s gone. Because if people are applying at 50 % of the skills, then it’s gone. But most importantly, the second thing is that if you have all the skills on that job description, then you’re overqualified. Because if you know how to do every single thing on the job description, then what challenge are you going to have? You’re not going to have any growth. You’re not going to have any, you think to look forward and learn. you know, one of the things that I do in my keynotes is, okay, decide right now what percentage of, when you’re looking to apply for a job, what percentage of all of the descriptors on there are you going to apply? Is it going to be 50, 60, 70, whatever? So, I tell them, choose a percentage so that the next time that you see a job description, you’re not intimidated when you don’t have three or four of the requirements on there.

Kelly

Let’s chat a little bit about those five things that women need to address before getting promotion ready.

Rosie

I’m going to talk about them in phases. So, and actually with my membership, every quarter of the year, I talk about the phases that they need to work on. So, the very first phase of the promotion radius roadmap is that they need to aspire.

What is it that they aspire to do? And it really comes down to when you’re at work, what’s the one or two things that you kind of get lost in or that you’re looking forward to working on? And then we kind of go into, what are your core values? What is that that really lights you up? What is it that like, are you in the, in the right job currently? Are you in the right company? So do a little bit of personal assessment for yourself.

The second phase is basically those, all of those assessments, your skills, identifying all of your skills, your knowledge skills and your transferable skills. But then what is your personal value proposition? So, like for me, it’s like I empower women in the corporate world to advance their careers with intention and confidence. So, a statement like that, that you can easily tell people during networking events, during, you know, conversations.

That’s also when you need to work on your resume and your LinkedIn. And we also look at all of the accomplishments that you’ve done throughout your career and turn those into actionable stories that people can relate to and engage. And that’s when you can actually easily look at your Story Vault right before an interview and then pick one of those stories. The third phase is the advice space and this is where you go and seek feedback and a lot of times people are like oh my gosh there’s no way feedback is awful but I tell people feedback is fuel because that’s exactly where you want to go and solicit you know what do I do well and what can I do better and then talk to senior people you know and they don’t have to be like senior executives or managers it could be people that have been in the job for five or ten years longer than you and just ask them How did you get to where you are and what advice could you give me? So you’re kind of seeking that mentorship that advocacy and then the last phase is Advertised so this is when you actually start telling people, you know You need to go and tell people I’m interested in and that was kind of part of my story at 40 at 40 years old I’m sitting in my desk and I’m just waiting for something to happen and then nothing ever happened. And then the fifth area is advocacy, where you’re advocating for yourself, you’re asking for specific opportunities. And then the I, you know, we’re in the fourth quarter of the year right now, Kelly, and a lot of people take their foot off the pedal. But this is a time, especially after Thanksgiving, when things quiet down for you to start thinking about what you want, but start having those quiet conversations with people in the office that, you know, we have a little bit of downtime. Can we talk about this? that advocacy phase is such an important phase. So, with the advertising, you’re like telling people, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to do. With advocacy, you’re getting the ability to have people in your corner who can actually champion you. You champion yourself and then also you champion others. That’s another big piece too. So those are the different phases of the roadmap and people are like, wow, I don’t have time to do all that. Two hours a month. Two hours a month helps you move all of these things forward. And it may not be, they may not be perfect, but you at least have an idea of what you’re going to do and say throughout the year.

Kelly

That makes a lot of sense. And I’ve talked a lot about that in kind of personal branding podcasts that we’ve had in the past in terms of coming up with your brand statement. Ideally, it should be in 10 words or less, for example. And it’s easily rememberable, easily repeatable, and you should be able to say that statement, not just in an interview, but it’s on all of your social media channels, right? And it’s a core focus of how you represent yourself.

Rosie

Exactly.

Kelly

So, what is really holding women back from getting leadership roles? Kind of the obvious one, the known ones, and the not so obvious ones.

Rosie

You know, the very first thing is just getting to know themselves because if you don’t know yourself, you’re not going to be able to explain that to somebody else. So, the very first thing, what do you like? What are you good at? What do you want to do? What’s your big picture? What’s your why? Well, almost kind of like, what is your purpose for existing in the world? And not many people, I should say, not a ton of people know like their whole purpose, but you have a purpose in your career, in your life, like what do you want to do? And as you’re starting to very organically explain that to people, that’s when you can advocate. And that’s the second thing. So, the first one is you don’t know yourself well enough to explain how you help others. And then the second one is that you can’t tell others how you are helping them solve their problems.

And so those two things are so key when you’re going out there and advocating for yourself. So, I would say if there’s anything that you need to or that you want to start working on is those two things. It’s like, what are your skills? What is your knowledge? How can you help? And then how can you explain it to other people so that they perceive the value that you’re bringing to them?

Kelly

Do you have any other strategies to help women advocate for themselves at work?

Rosie

Yeah, so aside from the promotion rain is roadmap. I’m also a certified performance coach and now that’s very focused on mindset and I love doing this program and although the roadmap is awesome, it’s cool because we get all those tactical things. The mindset that’s where you really start unraveling the person and we do talk about clarity, energy, we talk about influence, that’s a big one, productivity. So, all of those things, every session that we have, I have a series of questions and it’s through Brendan Burchard. Brendan Burchard is a huge worldwide motivational speaker. you know, so he’s created this amazing framework and every session we get together, I have a set of questions that I ask my clients. And the coaching really comes in also a very easy example. The other day, one of my clients said my little job and I was like, well, hold up, hold up. I’m like, why did you say little? And she’s like, what? I’m like, you said my little job. She’s like, no, didn’t. I’m like, uh, yes, you did. And so, you know, those are the, the beliefs that you think about yourself, the bait that may not necessarily be true, that you’re making, we’re making ourselves small. We’re, we’re making ourselves feel that we’re that we’re not adding value. And through the certified health performance coaching that I do, that’s all mindset and we literally start unraveling all our thoughts and our ideas and people really, it’s incredible. It’s three months and we meet once a week. And at the end of the three months, the person is like transformed. It is a beautiful thing to see as a coach because every session that I see and it’s always funny because every session that we have it’s like It almost fits the perfect right time in the individual’s life. So, it’s, always feels really cool. when women, and I’ve coached women with this, when they’re done with the program, they’re like, this, I know I have a second client. She’s like, I want more. we’re now doing the safe, the second phase of the high-performance coaching, but every session they get an aha about themselves.

Rosie

And that’s the cool thing where they’re like, I didn’t realize that I wasn’t trusting my team as much, or I didn’t realize that I felt humiliated when I got laid off and all of those feelings and emotions are stored in your body. And then they can translate into all kinds of, you know, havoc for your body. So certified high-performance coaching is phenomenal.

Kelly

As you’ve gone through your coaching in the last, how many years have you been coaching?

Rosie

With this program I’ve only been certified for two years. So that’s two years yeah for CHPC.

Kelly

What is the number one challenge that you hear over and over again from women?

Rosie

Rosie, can you help me gain confidence so that I can advocate for myself? That’s what it boils down to. It’s that I want to advance in my career. I don’t know how to do it. I don’t have the confidence to do it. And through high performance coaching, it’s all about confidence building. I had a client that did both the tactical and the strategic, and it was incredible.

You know, so she got a job in HR. She loves her job. And it’s like, show up so much, with so much more confidence. And you know, when I have a problem, I kind of go through, you know, all of the lessons that we did. And so, it’s really amazing to see someone grow and evolve and feel like, hey, I can really hold my own because of this coaching.

Kelly

I think these tips are really helpful to help women advocate for themselves and make their own leadership leap. Thanks to Rosie for joining us. Find her contact information at TwoMarketingMoms.com and don’t forget to subscribe and share. Thanks for joining.

Rosie Zilinskas Contact Information