Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Jennifer Stewart, Senior Vice President for Finance at Southwestern Energy. Jennifer, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Jennifer: Thank you, Leisa. I’m very happy to be here.

Leisa: You are so successful. I know that there must be some tricks to your trade. Would you share with the next generation what best advice you have for them?

Jennifer: Leisa, I can narrow it down to three very elemental concepts. The first one is, just ask. Ask for what you want, and all that you can be told is no, and if you’re told no then ask what do I need to do to get to the next step. The second one is don’t apologize. Women as a rule tend to apologize. You’ll find yourself in an email starting out, ‘I’m sorry, but.’ Don’t do that; don’t apologize. And the last one is, own it. Whatever you’re doing, no matter if it’s at a very entry level role or a senior role: own it. Make it your own, and wherever you work, treat it like you were the owner of the company, and we kind of translate that in, at Southwestern Energy, into what’s called, our formula; which is the right people, doing the right things, wisely investing our cashflow and our assets that’ll create value plus for our shareholders. And you do that by owning what you do.

Leisa: Thank you very much. That was fabulous.

Jennifer: You’re welcome.

Leisa: There you have it, extraordinary advice from an extraordinary woman. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile app development company. You can find me at contentactive.com or follow me on Twitter @lhnelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.