Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the women—our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, and colleagues—who have influenced us and inspired us. It is a long list of incredible people. We deeply appreciate the support you have given us as we have followed our dream of creating a firm, coaching women, writing articles and books, and, best of all, working for our vision of moving women leaders forward faster.

To the thousands of exceptional women our firm has coached and trained over the past sixteen years: You have trusted us and shared your stories and your lives with us, and we will never forget you. Our hopes and dreams for you are the reasons we wrote this book.

To our families—husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and grandchildren—but especially to our grown children, Angie, Kate, Taylor, Heath, David, Catie, and Mary Cameron: you inspire us to work hard for a better future.

To our incredible consultants, who facilitate our many leadership programs, workshops, and coaching: Thank you for your dedication and superb representation of Flynn Heath Holt in your far-flung travels to serve our clientele. Your experiences, wisdom, and coaching insights shared with us over the years have helped to supplement our own in this book. Plus, you are great fun to work with!

To the many business leaders who filled out our surveys or agreed to be interviewed: Thank you for the time you gave so generously to teach us so that we could in turn teach others. Your wisdom is evident in the pages of this book. We cannot name all of you, but you know who you are.

To the staff of Flynn Heath Holt: Thank you for your amazing teamwork and the long hours you have spent to grow our firm and make this book a reality. Special kudos to Gary Applegate, Selene Butts, Kati Hollifield, Candy McCraven, Maggie Norris, Dahiana Pena, Wendy Pond, Tina Powell, Vicki Skipper, and Simone Williams. We couldn’t have completed this book without the talent and efforts of each one of you. You are the best!

Special thanks go to Molly Beckert and Brian Collin for helping us to analyze our research data.

We also would like to thank all the people who have helped us day to day and made it possible for us to have the career and work we love.

To Anna Leinberger, our editor at Berrett-Koehler Publishers: thank you for helping us flesh out ideas and make The Influence Effect even more impactful.

Last but not least, we wish to express our heartfelt thanks to Jacque Murphy, our tireless collaborator and good friend, who has helped us with two books now: Break Your Own Rules and The Influence Effect. You served as our agent, connecting us with Berrett-Koehler Publishers. You helped us shape and hone our ideas and find our collective voice as authors, and you guided us through the entire writing process. We would not be in print without your great talent, extensive knowledge, and influence.

We extend gratitude to all of you.