In this concise 7‑minute interview, Professor Pete Alexander hosts Beate Schillett, a growth architect and founder of The Women’s Code. Beate explains her role in business and leadership development, emphasizing that great businesses require great leaders. She highlights the most rewarding aspect of her industry as the vibrant, change‑driven people she meets who push for diversity, inclusion, and equality. When asked which chapter of a hypothetical business book companies should read, she points to “Diversity of Thought,” arguing that curiosity fuels empathy and that listening more than speaking unlocks multiple viewpoints and better outcomes. Beate advises leaders to abandon the myth of a fixed playbook and adopt situational or “balanced” leadership—flexibly shifting between strategist, collaborator, empath, or cheerleader based on current needs. She stresses the importance of asking questions, being open to missing perspectives, and juggling professional and personal roles with grace. Beate recommends fellow leader Tavana, organizer of the Derby Diversity Summit, for her work on addressing racism in leadership. She shares a personal anecdote about her first job selling and distributing posters as a child, illustrating early entrepreneurial instincts. The episode closes with a call‑to‑action directing listeners to her free‑gift site for resources like an airtight avatar and her 5‑Star Success Blueprint, and a reminder to follow the podcast on various platforms.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hey, nice to have me. I appreciate being here. My name is Beate Schillett. I'm the growth architect, founder of The Women's Code, and I do business and leadership development because I believe that you can't do one without the other. Great businesses are run by great leaders, and unless you're a great leader, you can't run a business. So that's what I do.
Beate, it's great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
It is the colorful people that I meet and really hanging out with a lot of people that want to make changes to how we look at leadership, that want to bring more diversity, inclusion, equality to it. And how do we get all viewpoints heard? How do we make sure people are engaged? And how do we make the workplace better and more fun for everybody?
Mm, I love all those things. That's so great. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Diversity of Thought. It's actually chapter number 3, because without diversity of thought, we really can never get to achieve the full potential of a business or our own potential. So I think right now what we see a lot is that people have obviously a tendency to listen to stuff that enforces their opinion. Now, if I were to look at this to be helpful, then I would end up with all people in the entire world having the exact same opinion. But that obviously is not the case. And that seems to be a good thing. So that way when we go travel, when we go meet different people, work with different companies, our experience is significantly different. So the, you know, I heard something really fabulous, Pete Alexander, and it said curiosity is the foundation of empathy. So when we bring this curiosity to our workplace, our lives, and instead of telling people, if instead of that we would ask questions and ask ourselves, is it actually my turn to say something or should I be listening? We would be getting many, many more viewpoints. We get more accomplished and we'd be probably a little bit happier.
Mm-hmm. I couldn't agree with you more. It reminds me of that old adage that they say it's always best to listen 80% of the time and talk 20% of the time. And the best way to do that, I assume, as you're describing, is to ask questions.
Yes, ask. When in doubt, ask.
Exactly, I love it. Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, going back to my theme, so one of the things I think the most important thing we're recognizing right now that leadership as we know it or, or how we run business is the great big fat question mark. So nobody really knows this. There's no new normal. There's no playbook. There's no— it's this week and then it's next week and then it's the other week. So a certain number of flex— so a certain amount of flexibility and openness is required for anyone to master the challenges. And so if we look at who we admire in difficult times, we see that situational leadership where the answer is, what should I do? It depends what will work right now. So that's what I would tell all the leaders listening to your fabulous podcast, to say, stop thinking about that you have all the answers or that people come to you for your answers or that you even have to have all the answers. But think about what are you missing in your viewpoints that you could, learn right now. So when the situation requires for you to be a winner, competitive, a strategist, empathetic, a collaborator, a team leader, a cheerleader, that you know based on the situation what you need to bring in and you somehow have all the skills already ready and mastered to apply. That would be my biggest advice right now.
It's so insightful. And you have so much there that talking about the flexibility of having, playing a particular role when the situation requires it. Is that, am I understanding you correctly?
Yes, I think that leadership is often mistaken for somebody being put in a position of leadership because they're so great. They're being put in that position because they have great potential. So if I look at myself as a work in progress, and instead of saying, well, you know, they put me in that position, therefore, you know, what I say is the word of God. But saying like, they put me here because they believe that I have the ability to react to any situation appropriately, or if I don't know that I can acquire the knowledge. Now suddenly that is a much more aligned leadership position for today's time. And I call it balanced leadership because you've got to be able to, you know, direct my, my, my Top Gun planes at the same time as I got to be able to to play with my daughter and to homeschool and to run a remote team and to get back to work and to instill safety. So there's so many elements we didn't know existed before. Right now, flexibility and just that sort of juggling all of it, but with grace and ease, is kind of what's called for.
Very, very, very insightful. Thank you so much. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself, would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
I did speak to a really fabulous woman who has put on a diversity summit, the Derby Diversity Summit. Her name is Tavana, and she has a lot, a lot to say on how leaders can address especially racism right now, which I think is a very timely topic.
I like that. Thank you for that referral. I'll reach out to her. And our final question, question number 6: Please tell me about your first job.
My first job was when I was a child and I was selling posters back in the days when these like poster walls were like all the rage and I didn't have any money. So I had to figure out how was I gonna get these posters without having to pay for them. So I became the poster distributor and not just the matter, you know, when I sold a certain number of posters, I got some for free for myself, but every so often they made a mistake and they gave me extra posters. So I came out financially on top because I could resell these posters that I didn't think I could sell for more money for like $5. I thought I was the queen of the world.
I love it. And it just brings me back to all the days of seeing all those posters all over the wall. How did those posters get there? And now, now you've told me, I love that story.
I was the distributor. I made sure you got it. And if I was lucky, I got two of them and I sold the other one too. Wonderful.
Beate, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
So the best way to find me is go to beate-schelet.com/free-gifts because I brought a whole bunch of insights to your podcast listeners. So if you want to know how to find an airtight avatar or get some insights into my 5-Star Success Blueprint, how to grow, build, and scale your business, go to beate-schlaedt.com/free-gifts and help yourself to whatever, you know, rocks your fancy.
Wow. Thank you very much for that. And this is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. For more insights and ideas, please go to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or iTunes and search for the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
