A Night Out With Cosmo’s Kate White

30Apr10

As a member New York Women and Communications (NYWICI) I get to meet incredible women from all walks of the communications industry including Kate White, editor-in-chief of Cosmo magazine.  On April 13, NYWICI held an event at the  Diane von Furstenberg Studio with guest speaker Cosmo Editor-in-Chief Kate White.

White shared the “4 Best Things I Learned at Cosmo” –  ladies take note:

The first thing is “Go Big or Go Home,” which means don’t do something unless you intend to go all out.  White suggests that women not go out on a Saturday night unless we’re ready to “deck out to the nines,” insisting that when you dress the part you will naturally exude more confidence and want to put yourself out there more.

“Don’t always believe what you think,” is the second lesson White lives by.  When Kate was asked by her boss Kathy Black to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief for Cosmo, she didn’t think the job was right for her.  But when she took over she realized the magazine is a true expression of her authentic self. “When we drop our five-year plans and open ourselves to new experiences, that’s when we’ll often have our eureka moments,” White said. “Sometimes you have to be on the bus to Cairo to know.”  To emphasize her point White told an anecdote of a stylist she once worked with at Glamour magazine.  White was surprised to hear that when the stylist graduated from college didn’t have a job so she followed her boyfriend on a trip to Egypt.  During a bus tour of Cairo they stopped in front of a film shoot.  When the woman assisted the stylist on set she felt that’s what she was meant to do.

The third lesson White says is “You’ve got to learn to drain the swamp before you slay the alligators.”  She explained that in life, we become so caught up in our efforts to survive which is akin to the alligator slaying that we often forget about the big picture or the draining of the swamp.  Achieving big things is met by setting smaller, more manageable goals such as White setting 15 minutes each day to write rather than trying to devote an entire weekend to the overwhelming task and not getting it done.

“You have to ask for what you want, even if you’re 100% sure they know you want it,” is the final lesson White learned at Cosmo.  “If you don’t ask for what you want than people think you’re not serious about it,” White says. “The squeaky wheel always gets the grease.”

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Tags: Professional Networking, Social Networking