A Network For Women Entrepreneurs

The Ewomen Network is designed to help entrepreneur women grow into their greatness for the explicit purpose of changing the world. When good women make good money, they do good things. And its true. Earning money isn’t about greed, its about opportunities. This is exactly that money mindset shift I spoke of a few weeks ago. Don’t work for money, but work to serve, and watch the resources flow in, as you become a conduit for change.

The People

I didn’t know anyone who would be at the event when I flew into Dallas but my plan to network smarter worked and I enjoyed every minute of it. Thursday morning I met Ronda from Memphis at the hotel breakfast bar. At the registration table I met Tamara from Wisconsin. I had a free coaching session with Nikkea from Canada. I danced with Andrea and Mary from New York and Jersey. Ewomen were everywhere.

I made it rain with all of the Reno chapter, then I had lunch with the MD of Minneapolis St. Paul. I chit chatted with Mary from DC, and sipped wine in the jacuzzi with Rachel from Chicago. In 3 days, I gave out over three dozen business cards and each time it was to someone who truly inspired me and who I wanted to be in relationship with to change the world and make it better.

Because the conference is designed for entrepreneur women, everyone there is open to new ideas to build a business, work smarter and improve their personal brand. And everyone there is also the decision maker for their company. It was boss central. When you met someone who needed your product or service, you could take the next step immediately. Already, for myself I have scheduled a call with

• a business coach,
• a virtual bookkeeper,
• a personal assistant and
• a woman who is going to plan my husband’s 40th birthday.

And for High Tides, I met 3 new ewomen who are ready to start coaching programs with me. One called to set up her consultation Sunday morning while I was checking out of my hotel. This is networking on steroids for business owners and a wonderland for the solopreneur.

The Content

The content at the ewomen event was phenomenal.

• Concrete strategies email and video marketing
• Accelerated networking and hot seats
• How to leverage video, books, social media, and advertising to grow your brand and increase your authority in your field

And mixed in with all the book learning there was the tough internal work too. Mindfulness and themes of self care permeated every session.

• We journaled about our dreams,
• We coached ourselves
• Inner goddess reflection cards helped to connect us with our internal source and
• We looked deeply at what was keeping one foot on the brake when we also desperately know that what is required is to floor the gas pedal.

Entrepreneur: noun. Someone who would rather work 100 hours a week for themselves than 40 hours a week for someone else.

The Speakers

The speaker list included Sandra and Kym Yancey. Sandra runs masterminds and in person small business intensives to coach women in small groups, turning your business inside out to help you build solid infrastructure and scalable systems. Her keynote style trainings in plenary were tightly woven tapestries of real life storytelling and concrete business advice, and action steps to get you to the next level based on your current stage of business development. She also dedicated time in every session to do live laser coaching; taking questions from women in the audience to help them on a business or personal challenge.

Without SOPs, You don’t have a business. You have a job and you’re working for a lunatic

– Sandra Yancey

Kym is a marketing and branding expert and runs a production studio out of the Dallas ewomen office. A former musician, he incorporates musical metaphors to help business owners unlock their brand and craft their public image. Watching Sandra and Kym together, we all benefitted in seeing what a supportive relationship looks like in and out of business.

Workshop breakouts included Craig Duswalt of Rockstar Marketing Bootcamp, Angelique Rewers of the Corporate Agent, experts from Google and Infusionsoft, trademarking and IP attorney Andrei Mincov, and surprise guest and peak performance expert, Wayne Lee hypnotized 2 dozen women on the last day as we dug into working on our subconscious mind.

We also witnessed a live interview with Marie Moody, Founder and Chairwoman for Stella and Chewy’s raw dog food company. A woman who went from 0 to multi millions in revenue in a male dominated industry.

And that was only Thursday through Saturday. There were bonus workshops on Wednesday for those who came in early and 2 full days of training for chapter leaders and lifetime members on Monday and Tuesday.

The Environment

You have to be a little different to choose this path. When I left corporate it was hard to explain to people what I did, what my life looked like. The mix of ownership of time that attracts so many also comes with unlimited responsibility. Only an entrepreneur can understood that that giddy nausea that comes with being solely and ultimately responsible for your success and well being.

• The struggle of trying to grow big without overshadowing those who care about you.
• The dilemma of doing what you know verses doing what you love.
• The weight of expectation from those who think they know what you should be, without knowing concretely who you are.
• The constant work of reintroducing yourself to who you are.

It is a strange and roller coaster life to build a business. And all of the 700 women who attended the ewomen conference know that. We didn’t have to explain ourselves to each other. The fears, the tears, the doubts, the laughter, the weight of it all was so familiar to everyone that we could get past that and get to the root of why we were all there, and communicate and learn on a whole new level.

Great leaders don’t have all the answers. They have the questions and a vision. You grow faster when you share responsibility.

-Sandra Yancey

This is what psychological safety looks like; what community looks like; what the power of finding 699 other people who get you and are relentlessly rooting for your success looks like. I was in awe.

The NY Metro EWomen

The New York City chapter of ewomen is looking for leadership. The Brooklyn ewomen chapter doesn’t exist. And on the last night of the conference in an intimate pajama party, my name was pulled out of a hat to ask Sandra Yancey one question. Nothing is by accident. Networking is about putting yourself out there so you can receive what you need. Not what you want. The universe is conspiring for your success if you would only step out and ask for it.

The theme of the 2018 conference was “Time to Rise”. And when Sandra pulled out my card at the PJ party she pulled out Maya Angelou. It was kismet. And I asked her if stepping into leadership with her was right for me. The room erupted in cheers, egging me on to take my geographic community into the powerful place each of them had found. And Sandra encouraged me to connect with the ewomen community manager to find out if it was right.

You don’t have to do it all yourself. And when you are plugged into your tribe and telling them what you want, the universe will conspire to give you what you need.

If you think you want to start a chapter here in Brooklyn or revive the NY metro one, I encourage you to email me so we can connect and change the world together. Or if you want to come to a few Central New Jersey chapter meetings with me this summer, please reach out!

We get so focused on what we want, we miss opportunities to receive what we need.

-Sandra Yancey

But more importantly, I encourage you to stay curious and open. Serve first. Relentlessly give of yourself and your talents and worry about the money later. Because when you focus on your impact (the what), the how will rise up to meet you.