By all accounts, Anne Devereux-Mills had it all. She was a CEO, with an impressive career in advertising that spanned 25 years. But something was missing: meaningful relationships based on deeper connections rather than transactions. From her San Francisco living room, she decided to change that by inviting a few women into her home to start a conversation. That conversation turned into Parlay House (parlayhouse.com), an inclusive community that helps thousands of women around the world find belonging. With locations from San Francisco to Paris, the organization celebrates 10 years this fall with new outposts, including Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston. We caught up with Devereux-Mills, the author of the bestselling book The Parlay Effect: How Female Connection Can Change the World (Parlay House Books).
Anne Devereux-Mills is the author of The Parlay Effect: How Female Connection Can Change the World.
The biggest secret for women’s personal and professional success? Find places where you feel you belong and can develop meaningful relationships that lift and support you. Professionally, [finding] alignment between your superpowers and your employer’s needs is a career accelerator. And, in the words of Cindy Gallop, a Parlay House speaker and advocate for women, ask for the highest number you can utter without actually bursting out laughing.
Best business advice you ever received? Never have an important conversation when you’re still angry.
Favorite book you always recommend? Sue Monk Kidd’s The Book of Longings. It’s a brilliant and relatable piece of literature that follows one woman’s struggle to realize her potential when living in a time, place and culture devised to keep her invisible.
Women you’d love to have dinner with right now? I’d invite women who are shaping the next generation of female leaders, and women who are capturing the stories of those who came before us: Wanda Holland Green, head of school at the Hamlin School in San Francisco; Tina Knowles Lawson, mother of Beyoncé and Solange; Anna Malaika Tubbs, author of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation; Amanda Gorman, poet and activist; and Gretta Thunberg, environmental activist.
What would you say to your 21-year-old self? I’d tell her that she should spend the first years of her adulthood trying all of the things that excite her rather than following an expected and linear path. I’d tell her that her mistakes and missteps during that time are proof that she’s stretching herself, not that she has failed. I’d tell her that spending time looking deep within herself to understand who she really is without the prescription and expectation of society is not self-indulgent but rather a part of self-knowledge that will help her find the right friendships, partners, associates and passions in her long and beautiful life ahead.
Photography by: JAMIE NEASE
