Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Anna Blood Of Blood Law On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Kelly Reeves

Treat every member of your team with equal respect and importance. I have found that no job is more important than the rest, and usually what seem to be the easiest jobs are the most important.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Anna Blood.

Anna N. Blood is the founding and managing attorney at Blood Law PLLC. She has been in the legal field for more than a decade. In a male-dominated profession, Anna has made a conscious effort to have a predominantly female team. Her firm focuses on family law and divorce, something that Anna is familiar with as a child of divorce herself. Anna wears many hats each day; she’s a fierce attorney in the office and/or the courtroom, as well as a busy wife and mother of four.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

Yes! I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. My parents got divorced when I was just 2 years old, and I spent a lot of my childhood in the middle of their custody dispute. I have three siblings that my parents had from their second marriages. Both of my brothers are actually the same age, which means that my mom and stepmom were pregnant at the same time, so you can imagine who was competing there! Growing up I lived primarily with my mom and saw my dad on the weekends. Both of my parents ended up getting divorced from their second marriages as well. I can honestly tell my clients that I have seen, felt, and understand a lot of what they are going through. My mother comes from a large Greek family and my dad’s family was a large catholic family, but I grew up fully immersed in the Greek culture. I did Greek dancing and even went to Greek school. Despite the issues my parents had, I am very thankful to them both for making me the person I am today. Specifically, my mother raised me to be a strong and independent woman. She spent most of my childhood as a single mother, and I saw the struggles she went through.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

Growing up as a child of divorce, I was always very interested in family law even in my law school days. My first job right out of law school was in family law and knew right away I was where I needed to be. I have been in family law ever since! Honestly, I love my job and it is very rewarding. I love helping clients through the challenges they are facing, helping them solve problems, and finding solutions that will work for their family. My childhood taught me valuable lessons and helped me to really understand and empathize with what my clients are going through. Most of what we do is helping clients come to their own solutions, and sometimes I have to be tough on my clients to help them see the right path. We are seeing the best people at their worst; I take pride in being the one to help guide them through that tough time.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Gosh, this is really hard to answer because I have had a lot of interesting, and some crazy times in this profession. I think the most interesting thing I have ever done was run for political office, which I did in 2018. I think that experience more than anything showed me the gaps women face in leadership roles. Most of the men did not take me seriously, and honestly saw me as a threat in my opinion.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I think there are lots of characteristics that account for my success, but I think one that is notable is adaptability. You have to be able to adapt, and that applies to all aspects of business. Not only is the market always changing, but so are the needs of the business, clients, marketing, and employees. What worked last year in business, might not work this year. You have to be willing to make adjustments, get creative, and be comfortable with change. You can never be complacent about your business, and think, “Well, we’re doing good, so I do not need to do anything right now.” Being self-employed is not for the faint of heart, and you need to always be looking for ways to improve your business.

I think you also have to be fearless. If your employees perceive that you have fear, or doubt about anything, especially in hard times, how can they respect and follow you? The truth is they won’t! That is what good leadership looks like: never showing your fear. When Covid first happened and the world shut down, our phones just all of a sudden stopped ringing and business came almost to a complete halt. We were determined to be “essential workers” and thus did continue to work remotely, but the business was slow. We all worked from home, rerouted the office phones to our cell phones, and I maintained a few admin staff in the office. We still had to do trials, but most of them went to Webex or Zoom. We continued to operate as seamlessly as we could. We still did consultations with clients, but moved to phone and eventually to Zoom. Now, I can say that Covid actually helped our business in a lot of ways because people now often want to use Zoom, which saves time for everyone. I always assure my team during slow times that all will be well because inevitably in every business there will be ebbs and flows and slower times.

Another character trait that I think is important to have is compassion, and I do not mean in the sense you need to roll over for anyone but you need to have a certain level of understanding for people. At the end of the day any business owner, especially a service industry like mine, we are in the business of people. Inevitably in business, I have had to let people go, either because they were not a good fit for the firm, they could not meet performance goals, or because of discipline issues. I also try to treat the opposing counsel with some level of compassion when it comes to interacting with them. One of my associates in the firm had a case with this attorney who had a reputation for just being awful to deal with, and he was particularly disrespectful to her. I emailed him directly and let him know that his behavior would not be tolerated and he would need to treat my staff with respect. And most importantly, I have the most compassion for my clients!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

Yes, I think when I was first opening my practice I struggled with being respected, by both men and women in my profession. Also, family law is a very competitive field overall, mostly because it can be a very profitable business. I will never forget when I sat down with someone from the Chambers of Commerce and asked for her support. I inquired about how I could get my business out there, and she was very negative and asked me, “Is there really enough business in family law?” In hindsight, one of my competitors was a friend of hers so I feel that she was purposely trying to put me down. I have also found that a lot of organizations that have sponsorship opportunities give opposition to the same businesses over and over and do not allow others to sponsor them, citing that they want to give “first option” to those that have sponsored previously. This mindset makes no sense to me. These organizations are supposed to support all businesses and all people but in reality, they do not. It is very akin to politics in my opinion. But that was only the beginning of the pushback, I found that very few attorneys were willing to help me with questions I had or just anything at all, and I was treated poorly by some as well. But I never let any of that stop me; honestly, it gave me more motivation to prove them wrong! I was going to succeed and people’s negativity just fueled my fire.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

I think you just have to prove yourself and not care what others think. I know I am capable and I have always had confidence in myself, and when I did not, again you have to be fearless. Do NOT let others see your fear. Honestly, I think people seeing the success and growth of my firm is how I have gained success from my peers, male and female.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

Show that they are an accepting organization, ready and willing to listen to and embrace new ideas, make changes to policies that are flexible to the needs of a working parent, and offer paid parental leave for ALL employees. These few things are not just attractive to women in the workforce, but also to working fathers who are increasingly playing a bigger role in family home life compared to only a few decades ago.

Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?”

1. Grit, Grit, Grit! If you don’t succeed, try and try again!
2. Treat every member of your team with equal respect and importance. I have found that no job is more important than the rest, and usually what seem to be the easiest jobs are the most important.
3. Commit to your goals every day, and something each day that puts you closer to your goal.
4. Treat every failure as an opportunity to learn and grow!
5. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Especially in my business when attorneys are paired against each other, I always treat the opposing attorney with respect and kindness. I love killing people with kindness. You would be surprised how people respond, they do not know what to do!

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

I would advise her to pursue whatever career would be the most fulfilling for her. I don’t think it matters if a field is male or female-dominated, especially in this day and age. I think that’s the whole point; we all can and should pursue whatever field of work we want to, without limitations or barriers based on our gender, or any other factors.

However, I would advise a friend, based on my own experience, that she quickly develops a “thick skin” if she wants to pursue an industry that has been traditionally male-dominated. Even with all the progress we’ve made as a society, there are still obstacles to overcome and people who are going to say inappropriate or unkind things or make things purposely difficult for you. It’s important to remain strong and remember why you entered the field in the first place. Remain anchored to your “why” and you will be successful.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

Yes, now there are actually more women than men attending law school. But the difference is not as many women stay in the profession because they have children so they often leave the field for a number of years to raise their children. I think women are much more respected overall, but I think especially when the older men in the business continue to treat women as beneath them. We see that a lot with the older male populations, especially towards new female attorneys. I just remind my team to continue to show their professionalism and work ethic, and if they need to stand up for themselves they have my permission to do that! I think this younger generation of lawyers have a completely different mindset; they all treat each other as equals from what I see. So I think in years to come, that will not be as much of an issue.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

I am very lucky to have already worked with some prominent figures in the sports industry, but someone I haven’t met and would love to is… Jason Momoa! All the girls at my firm are big fans of Aquaman, plus he seems like a genuine person in the industry.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.