Ris Higgins

Ris

HIGGINS

It’s those little stories that inspire other women to do more and to feel more confident. ”

As those close to her will tell you, Ris Higgins is the ultimate cheerleader for women. “What gets me up in the morning is that I love working with my clients. My husband and I have run this business together for 30 years. 32, I guess.” Higgins and her husband Joe moved to Bozeman from Milwaukee in 1994, after working together at the Miller Brewing Company. In Bozeman they lead a women’s leadership community. Growing up, Higgins and her three siblings were treated as equals. Her brothers and sisters split chores evenly, no matter the task. She says having grown up in an equitable house, she took for granted the fairness of it all. At Miller she was the only woman in upper management who had kids. She recalls a meeting where she voiced to her colleagues that she was going to attend her son’s football game, anticipating that the meeting would still be going when she needed to leave. When the time came she got up and walked out, instructing someone to pass along the notes and fill her in on what she missed. She was worried she’d lose her job. Despite the countless hours of overtime and weekends spent working, she feared that leaving a meeting an hour early would cost her her job. “My heart, I remember, was pounding in my chest,” says Higgins. She never got fired, no one even mentioned after that day that she prioritized her family. Higgins explains, “I know I felt inside that my family was a priority, your feet do the telling though. Where do you walk to spend your time?” Despite her fear that leaving an hour early would mean losing her job, when Higgins left the Miller Brewing Company, they hired three people to replace her, each of whom was paid more money than she had been. It’s those little stories, Higgins says, that inspire other women to do more and to feel more confident. What coaching is really about, Higgins says, “is to help them tap into the best version of them and to realize how much they have to offer and how much they bring.” In addition to her own leadership community, Higgins has worked closely with the Prospera Business Network, a local non-profit that aims to advance and support “communitycentered” economic development in southwest Montana. She was their mentor of the year in 2011, and served on the Women’s Advisory Board for the Montana Women’s Business Center for ten years. “I call women in business the canaries of the mines. Because if an organization isn’t healthy, women will know right away.”