A SPECIAL EDITION OF CHARM GROWTH
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 😄.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. The newsletter teaches women to approach career advancement with intention, documentation, and a clear strategy rather than waiting to be noticed.
2. Leaders like Elena Verna and Lara Acosta prove that women who adopt AI tools early gain a measurable productivity and revenue advantage.
3. Women who back salary discussions with KPI-linked results consistently achieve better outcomes than those who don't.
4. 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.
WHAT IS THE ASSIST NEWSLETTER?
It’s 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:
Negotiating promotions - teaching women how to be intentional about moving up in the workplace.
Finding purpose and clarity - helping women define what they want and build a roadmap to achieve it.
Developing stronger leadership skills - both inside organizations and within their own businesses.
Leveraging AI tools for productivity - saving time on repetitive tasks to drive bigger, faster results.
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.
What women leaders are learning from Joanna newsletter
1. How to use AI to become more productive
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.
2. How to negotiate a promotion with confidence
The newsletter addresses one of the most common challenges women face in the workplace: initiating the promotion conversation.
Here's the framework that works:
Document your output - compile clear, measurable evidence of results tied to your KPIs
Request a formal meeting - don't have the conversation in passing; schedule it deliberately
Let your results lead - walk in with proof, not just aspiration
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.
3. How to ask for a pay rise as a woman
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.
4. How to build a supportive environment for women in your organization
Inspired by the principles in the newsletter, here's what we run at my workplace internally:
Weekly Women's Growth Circle. Every Friday at 3:00 PM, female employees gather for a one-hour career support session
Monthly External Coaching. A professional women's career coach delivers targeted development sessions once per month
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.
5. How to build an audience and a movement as a woman leader
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.
My final take
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.