{"id":23638,"date":"2016-10-06T18:07:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T22:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=23638"},"modified":"2020-04-03T16:08:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T20:08:35","slug":"40-40-jan-mercer-dahms-ditches-corporate-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/community-stories\/member-spotlight\/40-40-jan-mercer-dahms-ditches-corporate-life","title":{"rendered":"40 over 40: Jan Mercer Dahms ditches the corporate life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>For more than 20 years, Jan Mercer Dahms held top-level positions at organizations like Teach for America, the Girl Scouts, and Planned Parenthood. But the 47-year-old entrepreneur left all that three years ago to strike out on her own. She wouldn\u2019t go on to start one business\u2014she is running two of them at the same time. One, called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.6-figures.com\/\">6-Figures<\/a>, started after 35 women got together for \u201cfancy food and cocktails\u201d in 2013. More than 60 live events later, Dahms says she is proud to be \u201ccreating even more opportunities for accomplished women to engage in person and digitally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/ideas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/06\/Jan-Mercer-Dahms-0f-6-Figures-800x571.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23627\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>You don&#8217;t have to be connected to money or status or privilege to be successful. But you do need to believe in yourself. And yes, you will need to work harder. But the payoff will be far bigger in ways that can&#8217;t be measured by money.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Her other company is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swigco.co\/\">SWIG<\/a>\u2014short for Sealed With Intentional Goodness\u2014and it launched last year to help customers \u201ccreate positive, joyful, and rewarding relationships with their clients, consumers, and communities.\u201d Throughout her career, Dahms discovered the secret to running a successful business is putting people first. \u201cI grew up in retail apparel, and my family owned a chain of clothing stores in the Midwest,\u201d says the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/locations\/new-york-city\/bryant-park\">WeWork Bryant Park<\/a> member. \u201cI sold Est\u00e9e Lauder in college, was the business manager for a radio station, and moved to health care software, pharmaceuticals, and\u2014oh, yeah\u2014I worked on a Ph.D. in sociology for a couple of years.\u201d It all led to where she is today, in a position where she can enjoy \u201cmaking change happen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than 20 years, Jan Mercer Dahms held top-level positions at organizations like Teach for America, the Girl Scouts, and Planned Parenthood. But the 47-year-old entrepreneur left all that three years ago to strike out on her own. She wouldn\u2019t go on to start one business\u2014she is running two of them at the same [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":917,"featured_media":23642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43903,43911],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-stories","category-member-spotlight"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>40 over 40: Jan Mercer Dahms ditches the corporate life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For more than 20 years, Jan Mercer Dahms held top-level positions at organizations like Teach for America, the Girl Scouts, and P\u2026\" \/>\n<meta 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