Hero Women at Victoria Hyde
Angeley Mullins
Founder & CEO @ Aetheris Ventures
What does New Work mean to you personally?
New Work is not a trend. It's a permission slip. Permission to build work around your life, not the other way around. For me, it means showing up fully, on my own terms. Not just showing up, but showing up as something real.
It means knowing the difference between being busy and being purposeful. Between filling a room and actually moving it. Between carrying everything, and knowing what truly belongs with you.
That kind of clarity doesn't arrive. You earn it. Through every season that tested you. Every moment you choose honesty over ease. Every time you listened to that quiet voice inside that knew… long before you were ready to admit it, what you were really here to do.
When you find that line, everything changes. You stop adding more and start choosing better. Not just showing up, but showing up as something real.
That's what New Work means to me. Not a style of working. A standard of living.
In high-performance environments, how do you protect clarity, focus, and strong decision-making?
I protect my mornings like they're sacred… and everyone who knows me will laugh at that, because I am absolutely not a morning person. No 5am alarms. No hustle culture wake-up calls. But sacred doesn't mean early. It means intentional.
No notifications. No emails. No noise before I've had the chance to remember who I am and what actually matters today. Just me, and the quiet before the world rushes in.
I've also learned to say no faster. Not because I care less, but because I care about the right things which means that I refuse to dilute them.
And when the pressure builds? I don't push harder. I go quieter. I've stopped believing that more effort is always the answer. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do in a high-performance environment is simply… pause.
What belief about women in leadership needs to evolve the most right now?
The belief that needs to go, once and for all, is that softness is a liability.
I have sat in enough rooms, led enough teams, and navigated enough crises to tell you with absolute certainty: empathy is not weakness. It is intelligence. The ability to truly hear someone, to feel the temperature of a room, to hold space for complexity without flinching…that is not soft. That is sophisticated.
Intuition? That's not guesswork. That's thousands of hours of lived experience speaking to you in real time. Learn to trust it.
The ability to hold nuance, to see all sides, to lead people through uncertainty without losing faith or resolve…these are not the consolation prizes of leadership. They are the pinnacle of it.
And yet so many women have spent years trying to sand down those edges. Trying to lead louder, harder, & colder. Trying to fit a shape that was never designed with them in mind. I will also say that for those of us that went through business school or leadership programs they taught us to “lead like men”, however we are not men. We are women. Strong and powerful in our own right and one of the major lessons for me is when I stopped trying to lead like a man and just be myself, that is when my true power started to arise. The lesson for me and so many women I speak with is this:
You were never too much. You were never too soft. You were never lacking.
You were already everything leadership needs. ❤️
Looking back, what's one belief or mindset that has been crucial to your success?
That discomfort is directional. Every time I've felt out of my depth, something real was about to happen. Fear became my compass, not a stop sign. When you are outside of your comfort zone you are growing. I always think back to the definition of courage. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have fears or doubts. It means that you have bravery and hope and inspiration in spite of the fears, in spite of what society tells you, in spite of the hill that we all must climb. The most successful people on the planet were the ones that kept going.. despite everything.
What inspired you to start your journey, and how has your vision evolved since then?
I started from a feeling…that something wasn't fitting. The work, the roles, the version of success I was chasing. I didn't have a plan. The vision has grown into something quieter and stronger. Less about arrival. More about integrity in motion.
Who are the women or role models that have influenced you the most — and why?
There are so many!! The most influential women are those who refused to choose. Who built careers and families and creative lives without apologizing for any of it. Maya Angelou, for showing that storytelling is power. My mother, for modeling resilience without ever naming it that. And the women in my own circles… the ones who tell me the truth at the right moment. Those are the ones who change you and those are the ones you hold onto.
What advice would you give to women who are still figuring out their purpose or next steps?
Stop waiting to feel ready.
I say that with love because I spent years waiting for it myself. Waiting until I knew enough. Had enough. Was enough. Waiting for the fear to disappear and the perfect conditions to finally arrive.
They didn't. They never do.
Purpose isn't something you find in a quiet moment of clarity. It's built through action, through trying, through paying fierce attention to what makes you feel alive and being honest enough to walk away from what slowly doesn't.
Your body keeps score. Your energy tells the truth. Listen to both.
Stop shrinking the vision.
Stop editing your dreams down to a size that feels safer to say out loud. Stop starting with the practical version when the real one is sitting right there, waiting for you to claim it.
You were built for the real version. It was always yours.
What has been one of your most challenging leadership moments — and how did it transform the way you lead?
I had to stop performing leadership and start actually doing it.
That meant getting radically honest about my own patterns. The people-pleasing. The conflict avoidance. The need to be liked that I had somehow convinced myself was just me being caring. It wasn't caring. It was comfortable.
Real growth for me didn't come from a course or a framework. It came from the confrontation with my own reflection. From asking myself the question I had been avoiding:
Am I making this decision for them or to protect myself from discomfort?
That question changed everything.
I am still learning. I still feel the pull towards ease over honesty. Some days I catch it early. Some days I don't catch it at all. But I catch it faster now and I choose differently.
The people who trust you to lead them deserve your honesty more than they need your approval.
That's the lesson I earned the hard way. And I wouldn't trade it for anything.
What do you carry in your bag every day?
My notebook…always. There is something about putting pen to paper that no app has ever replicated for me. It's where my thinking becomes real. Where the noise becomes a signal. Where I catch the ideas that would otherwise disappear somewhere between one meeting and the next. If I haven't written it down, it hasn't truly landed yet.
A good pen. Always a good pen. I know that sounds small but I've learned that how you show up in the details reflects how you show up in everything. The small things are never really small.
Lip balm and a backup charger because I spent too many years running on empty and calling it dedication. I've learned to stop underestimating what a long day genuinely asks of you. Taking care of yourself isn't indulgence. It's infrastructure. You cannot pour from an empty vessel and you cannot lead from a depleted one.
I always carry one thing that gives me inspiration: A nice note, a card, or even a crystal.
Everything in my bag, every single thing, is chosen. Intentional. Mine.
And I think that's the best thing you can do for yourself.
I carry what reminds me of who I am , so that no matter where the day takes me, I always know my way back. ❤️
