This Mother's Day edition of Charm Growth is dedicated to every woman building something great a career, a team, or a business from the ground up.

Over the past few weeks, the majority of women leaders in my subscriber base reached out with the same question: "How do I succeed as a founder?"

That question led me to one of the most valuable resources I've come across for women in business The Assist newsletter.

Before I dive in, a quick intro:

I'm Bill, founder of Charm Growth a newsletter helping early-stage startup founders generate revenue through strategic hiring and retention.

My community includes both male and female founders, but today's edition is specifically for the women.

Don't worry, men Father's Day is coming 😄.

1. Promotions don't happen by accident: The newsletter teaches women to approach career advancement with intention, documentation, and a clear strategy rather than waiting to be noticed.

2. AI is a powerful equalizer for women in business: Leaders like Elena Verna and Lara Acosta prove that women who adopt AI tools early gain a measurable productivity and revenue advantage.

3. Pay rise conversations require evidence, not emotion: Women who back salary discussions with KPI-linked results consistently achieve better outcomes than those who don't.

4. Community accelerates career growth: Whether it's The Assist newsletter's 300k reader community or an internal women's growth circle, peer support and structured coaching produce real, promotable results.

5. A focused mission scales: Joanna Ercita built one of the most-read women's career newsletters in the world by staying laser-focused on one audience and consistently solving their most pressing problems.

The Assist newsletter is a weekly publication co-founded and led by Joanna Ercita, designed specifically for ambitious women who want to win at work and grow as leaders.

With over 300K readers globally, The Assist has become one of the most trusted career growth resources for women professionals and founders.

Joanna built The Assist around four core pillars:

If you're a woman startup founder operating in a fast-growing business, subscribing to the newsletter is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make for your career and your company.

One of the most powerful lessons from Joanna newsletter is how women are using AI tools to work smarter.

A common misconception is that AI is primarily a tool for men that narrative is simply wrong.

Elena Verna, growth advisor and product-led growth leader at Lovable, is a prime example.

She is widely regarded as a driving force behind Lovable's success, an AI-powered platform that enables anyone to build apps or websites without coding.

Her results speak for themselves.

Similarly, Lara Acosta.

… has built a six-figure business by using AI to automate her workflows.

With over 300K LinkedIn followers, she has become a leading voice on digital entrepreneurship and AI-powered business growth.

Joanna newsletter equips women with specific AI prompts and strategies to replicate this kind of success saving hours weekly and producing better output.

The Assist newsletter addresses one of the most common challenges women face in the workplace: initiating the promotion conversation.

Here's the framework that works:

This approach removes the emotional weight from the conversation and replaces it with data.

At my own organization, a team member who used this exact strategy received a significant salary increase the following month.

Beyond promotions, the newsletter also tackles the pay rise conversation which statistically remains harder for women to initiate than for their male counterparts.

The strategy is the same: preparation + evidence + intention.

Women who approach salary reviews with documented performance data consistently report better outcomes than those who rely on tenure or informal conversations alone.

Inspired by the principles in the newsletter, here's what we run at my workplace internally:

The results have been tangible: several participants have since been promoted into managerial roles.

If you're a founder, building this kind of internal infrastructure signals to your team that growth is available to everyone.

Joanna Ercita didn't just build a newsletter, she built a movement. Her newsletter now reaches over 300K ambitious women every week.

That kind of scale came from consistent value delivery, deep understanding of her audience's needs, and a clear, focused mission.

For women founders thinking about building their own platform or personal brand, Joanna's journey is a masterclass in audience-led growth.

As we continue celebrating Mother's Day, I hope this post extends well beyond today.

Whether you're building a career or building a company, the tools, strategies, and communities exist to help you get there.

I'm still receiving tips from The Assist and will continue sharing the best of what I learn.

And to the men on my list, I haven't forgotten you.

Come Father's Day, I'll have something special lined up. 😄

If you're an ambitious woman, The Assist is one of the best newsletters you can subscribe to.

Go check it out and as always, drop your comments and thoughts below.

Its is a weekly career and leadership publication created for ambitious women who want to grow professionally and succeed in business. It was co-founded by Joanna Ercita and is read by over 300K women globally.

According to insights shared in The Assist newsletter, women can use AI tools to save time on repetitive tasks, automate business workflows, and increase their overall productivity and output.

Joanna Ercita is the co-founder and CEO of The Assist newsletter, one of the most widely read career growth publications for women, with over 300K subscribers worldwide.

She launched The Assist to address the specific challenges women face in the workplace including getting promoted, finding career purpose, developing leadership skills, and navigating salary conversations.

What sets the newsletter apart is its highly focused mission it exists specifically to help women win at work and build successful careers and businesses.

Unlike general business newsletters, The Assist covers women-specific challenges like promotion negotiation, pay equity conversations, and leadership development in environments where women are often underrepresented.