I lost my executive job while pregnant. I built a multimillion-dollar business instead.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelly Ehlers , the founder and CEO of The Evoke Agency. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m the founder of a social media agency that brings in millions of dollars a year. I have a team of 45, and we work with incredible brands, from G.E. appliances to Henkel to KraftHeinz. We’ve had a lot of these brands as clients for 15 or 16 years.

Early in my career, I was working an executive corporate job in a male-dominated industry. I had to hide that I was pregnant for five months, and when I told them, they fired me.

That was in 2010 during the recession, and it was hard to get…