Lisa Michelle Mcgivery is not only representing & empowering the 4% of women in aviation, but she has become an incredible role model within her career inspiring many to believe in themselves and to take the leap of faith. Episode #36 on The Red Bra Project belongs to our beautifully talented, bold, goal & dream driven guest, Lisa Michelle also known in the Instagram world as @lipstick_aviation where her page is dedicated to promoting all women in aviation. It is ah – mazingly inspiring, but don’t just take our word for it, check her page out and interview out for yourself!
Lisa is based out of Ontario, Canada, is currently an Aircraft Mechanical Engineer and has been in the airline industry for over 8 years. Lisa actually started her career off as a flight attendant and shared with us her journey of not just how, but also why she made the career transition from a flight attendant to an Aircraft Mechanical Engineer.
As often as life plays out, we may think we have a plan, but then doors open we may have never seen coming and with an open mind, walking through can lead to destinations and experiences we could have never predicted. One day Lisa was on a flight full of mechanics who work for the same company as who she was a flight attendant for. As they got to chatting, they invited her to come and job shadow what exactly a day in an Aircraft Mechanical Engineer’s life may look like. Lisa fell in LOVE. She knew immediately that she was setting a new goal for herself and wasn’t going to let anything stop her. She jumped in and put in the work to become an AME. She is truly grateful for starting out as a flight attendant, experiencing the travel that came with it and becoming familiar with the industry. Becoming a flight attendant was the first step that lead to her second step and dream career, it was the perfect stepping stone for her.
Lisa shares the schooling required behind the scenes and the time dedication it took to get her to where she knew knew she wanted to go in our chat. There were no questions, she was fully committed to making it happen.
One of our favorite questions to ask our guests is who inspires you? Who has really made a difference in your life or who is someone that just rocks your world in a positive way. Lisa’s answer is so great as it was the man on that flight, who is is an aircraft mechanic who initially took the time to talk with her and he didn’t know her at all, until that day.
“From that moment, I got that spark, and that bug and as I carried on throughout my career I had soooo many people helping and pushing me along the way. In the industry itself, I think that it’s about 4% of women, so needless to say it wasn’t women empowering me because they weren’t just there. Now to be in a position where I can kind of push the women and give them whatever they need, or advice or just to talk to, it’s just awesome. When I started my IG page, I wasn’t really sure which direction I was going with it, I kinda wanted something aviation, something fun. Then, it all started to fall into place with women reaching out to me, “hey how do I do this kind of job” “where do I go from here” then everything just clicked, I put it all together and thought this could be a great platform to reach these women and help support them, like someone did for me,” Lisa passionately shared.
Lisa shares an incredible outlook about increasing the 4% of women in aviation as well as how she pushes through her fear of walking into a male dominated career field and what has worked for her. There is SO much positivity behind the scenes, men & women – hearing her share about this truly plants a seed of hope and a belief that YOU. CAN. DO. IT. We discuss how fear for everyone looks different, but it is there for everyone and a choice has to be made, the world is going to go on with or without you.
Lisa shares, “The thing that women need to understand is that it’s great to have someone take you under their wing, but you don’t need to. You can SOAR on your own and it’s perfectly ok. There are many, many women who are fully capable of doing it on their own and they’re some who like being under other’s wing. Either was it totally fine. Each path can take you to the same end result and there is nothing wrong with whichever path you decide to take.” Ohhhhh M Geee….how much do you LOVE this? We do!!
A few fun, inside scoops that Lisa shares with us:
Scoop #1: when you check out & scroll down on @lipstick_aviation’s IG feed, the very first pic of the man holding the “We support women in aviation” is the male mechanic who helped to inspire opening the door to an AME career path in Lisa Michelle’s world of aviation.
Double Scoop#2: cheers to Lisa Michelle’s father (one of her BIGGEST supporters) standing by her every step of the way telling her “you can do this” “you got this” “anything you need” Yeah, Go, Dad!! (Lisa shares the sweetest memory of her & her Dad with planes, the journey & his support. So touching, listen in – here).
Triple Scoop #3: Lisa met her significant other along her AME path. He has been a huge supporter in her journey.
Then, collectively people literally from across the globe began coming to her showing their support with holding a sign up saying, “we support women in aviation” and it has taken off from there. It is such a NEAT and positive ripple effect the wonderful world of SM is bringing men & women together for!
Lisa is always looking to contribute back to society and give. A personal huge goal & vision of Lisa’s is to start a scholarship fund to be able to help some women achieve their goals. “Sometimes that’s all someone needs is just that liiiiitle push or bit of effort or someone to talk to. It’s the simplest things and it can change their whole life, right, she said.” Absolutely, Lisa, we totally agree with you!
From dreams, goals, the hard stuff, the cheerleaders and real life stuff we covered so much with Lisa in episode #36. At the Red Bra Project we always LOVE firsts and we had a helluva fun first with Lisa Michelle. We took a trip down memory lane to when Lisa was a flight attendant and the fact that fun makes the world ‘round – so with a little gentle persuasion, Lisa gave us a glance into her rap skills and gave us FIVE lines from her safety debriefing that she used to rap for her passengers. She is SO multifaceted talented, it was SO, SO good.
Lisa’s Red Bra Moment: Lisa shares a very intimate time of her life when she suffered two miscarriages while in the aviation industry, the second being more difficult as an ectopic pregancy. “It is in those moments that you really find out what kind of person you really are and what kind of people are around you because the amount of strength that it takes you to get back up from those moments and realize that everything is going to be OK is
Lisa chose to share her vulnerable experience with her following and the world because as she was going through the process of trying to figure out how to deal with the loss of a child and how to possibly pick herself back up and feel normal again she had many women she knew come out and tell her, “this happened to me” or to my my mom or cousin. “I discovered there were so many other women who had similar stories and no one was talking about it. It was so inspiring to me to have these women come to me and share that I felt it necessary to bring my story forward and share it. It is in those moments that you do find your inner strength and the courage to get back up and move forward,” Lisa shared.
Lisa, thank you so much for sharing such a vulnerable and delicate time of your life with us. Your perspective is truly empowering and it gives HOPE. Hope. That is something huge, for both men & women. We absolutely love you and are always cheering you on!
Guyyyys, you HAVE to check the full live episode out, right here.
Connect with Lisa @lipstick_aviation for both some inspiration and as a powerful resource.
Thank you for stopping by, always wear that red bra underneath it all and make sure to join the party over @theredbraproject! We hope this story inspired you or someone you know on some level, we know it did, us!
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Xx,
Renee & Shawna
