Women Of Influence

Renee Cacchillo is willing to take a risk, even when she thinks she might fail.

That's what Cacchillo pointed to when asked about the best decision she's made in her carer, a career that's led her to her relatively new position, chief experience officer at Safelite AutoGlass.

"The thing that I did to be successful is I just took a piece at a time," Cacchillo said. "I didn't try to swallow it all or be all that the next day. It was: Where can I start … and incrementally make a difference?"

Cacchillo talked about her approach to risk-taking during a recent taping of our Women of Influence podcast. We'll share our full conversation next week, but you can hear more from Cacchillo on how she approaches risk-taking in our biweekly mini-episode. You can also hear her advice to people just getting started in their careers, advice that dovetails closely with her willingness to take on projects she hadn't necessarily planned to.

"Don't try and plan it all out from day one," Cachillo said. "Some of us get so linear in our path and set so many timeframes that it actually puts pressure on ourselves."

On the subject of timeframes, my contribution to this week's episode is all about a personal marker that many people (self included) use to measure if they're keeping up with the plans they've laid for themselves: turning 30. I recently hit that particular milestone, and was aided in my introspection about it by a feature in The Lily, a Washington Post publication, titled "The Jessicas are turning 30."

For more on the rationale behind that headline (if you were in grade school in the 1990s you will certainly understand it) and why I think the piece is worth reading regardless of your relationship to the big 3-0, check out our podcast preview.