Wednesday Wisdom: Not in a Million Years
Wednesday Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, and Small Businesses
As a Barry Manilow song serenaded my way to a special event, memories of hearing my cousin playing it on the piano flooded my mind. Unlike his older brothers, my cousin wasn’t moved by pick-up basketball, playing softball games, or doing construction. He was inspired by music, painting, and the arts like his older sister. I loved all my cousins but Tommy held a special place in my heart.
Unlike his father and brothers, he did not go to medical school to follow in the paternal profession of the males in his family but rather received a finance degree to help run his family’s real estate businesses, but his art bug wouldn’t leave him alone. Finally following his own heart, he ended up with a Master of Arts from a college in Savannah, Georgia, and began painting. His dream was to be known as a breathtaking painter of the sky.
Loving his photographs, I knew he would make it as a painter one day, but he didn’t believe in himself until this week when he was inducted into the Rome Arts Hall of Fame. He started by saying, “Never in a million years could I imagine getting this honor.” Words and thoughts most of us have when we are dreaming and chasing our own success. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way,” he said. An additional sentiment we can each claim in our own life story.
After the event was over, he showed me a beautiful yellow-hued painting someone purchased from his collection, he told me the buyer looked at his creation and said, “It speaks to me of hope so I must have it.” Isn’t it amazing that our work in most cases provides hope to others? It isn’t the reason we get into business or create what we offer, but if you think of most professions, they do offer hope of some kind.
So, today’s Wednesday Wisdom is meant to steady your course if you are wavering on whether what you do matters or if you will ever achieve your loftiest dream, just wait, be patient, keep up with your own form of “art”, and before you know it you will be saying the same thing my cousin said to me decades after he picked up a paintbrush, “I would have never guessed in a million years, I would be standing here being recognized for my work.”
Wednesday Wisdom: Be a Change Agent
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Anyone!
The older and wiser I get the more I realize every woman must believe they can make a difference in our world. “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift back to God,” is a framed quote on my desk that inspires me daily. Do you believe you have one or two unique contributions to make in your life?
After listening to more than 30 amazing speakers and activists at the Global Citizen Now event in Manhattan Friday, I walked away with that one thought – each of them is making a difference in their own unique way. Both collectively and collaboratively they are becoming change agents for our globe. They agree to the larger mission of saving our planet but use unique contributions to make it happen.
I went up to Elizabeth Vazquez, CEO and Co-Founder of WEConnect.org since she was reiterating my 30-year personal mission of getting more people to buy from women-owned companies. The difference between her and me was they are an International organization and I focus on local, regional, and state-wide connections. I told her my history and she said, “Thank you Tracy for contributing so long to this mission.”
Sometimes we don’t feel like we measure up to the successful people we see on stage, on television, or on global platforms but we do. Changing the world in our unique way is not about competition. It is about knowing what we want to do, getting up every day and doing it, and eventually working alongside others with the same mission. Nothing gets done quickly working by ourselves. We need each other to accomplish big goals.
The next time you judge yourself based on your own ego or station in life, think differently. You are more than enough to make a change in the world and across the globe if you want. Recognize your gifts, establish a strong mindset, take the steps to stay involved, and also put your hat in a larger ring. You can’t think small if you want to be a major contributor to a larger cause. Consider yourself equal and move forward.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that, you my friend, have all the talent you need to make major contributions in your area of expertise or passion. Instead of feeling less than a star or someone with a larger marketing platform, see how you can join them in working together or watch their steps which might lead you to be more creative in your own workload.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, jump on board and start steering your ship towards the fleet of others out ahead of you or on your side. Sail forward together making the ultimate difference you want to make in this world.
Monday Motivation, Inspirational Ideas to Change the Globe For the Better
Although “urgent” was the word of the day, the last person I heard speak at New York City’s premier conference, Daniel Humm of Rethink Food, reminded the audience filled with global change ambassadors that “progress is more important than perfection,” when it came to action.
The stunning Glasshouse venue on Manhattan’s Westside Highway overlooking the Hudson housed the most thought-provoking conference I’ve ever attended. Global Citizen Now, in its second year of existence, convened the brightest minds and leading voices across all spheres of society, from world leaders to grassroots activists, to create a powerful cross-sector collaboration to solve urgent issues facing humanity and our planet.
Even though I saw the lineup of speakers before going, I didn’t realize the audience size would be so intimate with awe-inspiring special guests, making me wonder how I got to be so lucky to be chosen to attend. I literally had a second-row seat to these leading minds, stars, and politicians talking about their area of passion, alongside a woman I gifted my second ticket
I’m trying to choose the proper descriptions to paint a picture and soundtrack of all the information that was shared so passionately by thirty speakers including the President of France Emmanuel Macron who appeared live on a screen from his country sharing with the audience goals on climate change, poverty, and support of less rich countries to help them make a difference in urgent global needs. He didn’t have to be in person to understand his commitment to the event and its purpose.
Following his speech, a majority of the conference was made up of mini-panels of experts, stars, and leading authorities in critical issues that Global Citizen has deemed necessary to support and solve including ending poverty, climate change, women and girls equality, voting rights, eating plant-based meals, buying from woman-owned businesses, supporting a woman’s right to choose, providing menstrual supplies to women globally, how the advancement of Artificial Intelligence will affect our future and more. My mind exploded with a thought during every panel.
Staying true to their word, the conference provided attendees with beautiful glass water bottles with bamboo tops to fill up with mint and cucumber-infused water, reuse, and take home to limit plastic use as well as offering delicious tasting plant-based breakfast and lunch options. The rooms were set up beautifully without too much décor and just enough artwork to line walls spreading the message of the conference.
If the goal of the event was to make every attendee an ambassador of global change so they communicate it back to their own marketing platforms and circles of influence, they succeeded. Each day I’ve committed to posting one simple action someone following me can make to become their own global citizen. My husband and I committed to these ten household/personal actions:
* Support more female farmers
* Eat only plant-based meals one day per week for the rest of the year
* Put our water in reusable glass bottles/steel containers instead of buying plastic bottles
* Stop using plastic K-Cups for coffee and buy a one-time reusable coffee filter for our K-Cup machine
* Expand our organic garden and continue to can/bottle food from it
* Continue to compost our vegetable and fruit extras
* Buy from women-owned companies 50% of the time
* Support plant-based restaurants once a month
* Donate to an organization that supports period products for global women/girls
* Continue to share this message and motivate more people to become Global Citizens
You can do your part by going to www.GlobalCitizen.org and signing up for free to get involved with them by sharing their news, issues, action plans, and more to help change our globe. The more actions you take, the more chances you have to win the rewards they offer.
One of the panelists Peter McGuiness, CEO of Impossible Foods (check out their website for recipes) said something that moved me, “Let me find a way to take action,” that is all it takes really. So, please take the pledge with me so we can progress our globe for a better future, maybe at times imperfectly, but with common interest and motion.
Wednesday Wisdom: Philanthropic Endeavors
Wednesday Wisdom, Wednesday Morning, Inspiration, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
In the coolness of my garage when I was ten years old, I gathered a community of neighbors for a real treat – a play produced by my sister, one other neighborhood friend, and me. My mother had theater sets we could use so we created a play from scratch and booked ourselves as the director and stars. We knocked on neighbors’ doors asking them to attend. We created a menu of Jell-O and milk, set up chairs on the driveway, and waited for our crowd to arrive.
Pleasantly surprised we were delighted when everyone showed up and we performed our play, handing out our snacks after the big round of applause. It was the first community activity I dreamed up and acted on. Somehow the gig landed me a permanent babysitting job four years later from a neighbor who attended.
I never became a director or actress but I did learn at that age how to envision, create, market, sell, perform, and thank others. Many of those people later wrote references for other jobs and college applications for me, mostly I believe from that one decision to produce a play for them one hot summer day. Giving back to people I knew, felt right.
My philanthropic spirit continued as I became a young businesswoman and entrepreneur. I was always willing to give back in some way with my time and talent to causes that moved me in my community, like participating in the first AIDS Committees at SUNY Oswego in 1987, becoming PR Co-Chair for the Junior League of Syracuse, and providing business advice numerous non-profit boards. I am sure you have a long list too.
As entrepreneurs, it is smart business to be generous in our dealings within our communities or industries. Giving back civically can enhance our reputation, raise brand awareness, create positive relationships, attract customers or staff, and intrinsically change a collective future.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is meant to motivate you to re-engage with your community or within your industry and give back. The pandemic isolated many of us and non-profits were dramatically affected. 2023 is the year to choose community service projects to get involved in. Incorporate your staff and customers for a larger impact. See what moves your heart and your purse strings and at least reach out to 1 or 2 organizations and gather information to get more involved.
If you need some inspiration join us in Rochester on May 9th to hear how one businesswoman (pictured above) went beyond her comfort zone traveling to another country to see exactly where her donations were being used, and in the end, building a house for a needy family in the heart of her industry’s country.
Remember our collective future relies on our generosity and example.
Surviving Serious Business Situations
Ten years ago today, this was the blog post I wrote. I thought it would be interesting to repost ten years later and the advice helps you today. XO Tracy
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses
As I drove back from Boston on Saturday, after living through the lock down that resulted from the Boston Marathon bombings, I was overwhelmed with relief, gratitude and exhaustion from the experience. The decision to visit my son after our Women TIES Albany event just made sense. Boston wasn’t too far away and I knew I would have peace of mind making sure he was okay. Little did I know we would be staying in a hotel 5 minutes from Watertown that went into lock down with the rest of the Greater Boston area.
After my return, it took the weekend to catch my breath and settle my thoughts. It’s amazing how tense situations grip our mind, spirit, and body so strongly. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck until Monday morning.
As soon as the work week…
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Wednesday Wisdom: Creating an Online Neighborhood
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Social Media for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Women in Sports
In a recent Huffington Post article, the author stated there are two kinds of digital communication: those that improve our lives, and those that harm us. The last presidential election proved the treacherous ways social media was used to stress our democracy. Many people I know left social media. Honestly, I have missed the women I knew that decided to leave Facebook and Twitter because I loved being connected to them from afar.
But I am on the side of the article that believes digital communication can improve our lives, especially if one is a woman entrepreneur with a small advertising, marketing, and networking budget. Facebook’s demographics are where I find my main business demographics, women aged 50+. This social platform allows for relationship growth much like living in a neighborhood sharing our family’s celebrations of joy or defeat, milestone moments, and inspiration. Where we can talk about similar interests, join others in liked activities, and even share recipes.
In particular with the use of Twitter, a platform under scrutiny and heat since Elon Musk bought it, still provides me the place to connect periodically with females who would otherwise be out of my reach like Billie Jean King, Sarah Spain, and now Susannah Scaroni, Monday’s Boston Marathon Women’s Wheelchair Medal Winner, who “hearted” my blog tweet on how she inspired me to write about para-athletes like her. Getting a heart from a celebrity is pretty cool on an average day.
Next week as I venture to the Big Apple to attend the Global Citizen NOW conference where they convene the brightest minds and leading voices across the spheres of society, from world leaders to grassroots activists to showcase the power of cross-sector collaboration to solve the most urgent issues facing humanity and our planet, I invited Flo Medjdoub, a woman I have never met but communicated with the past five years on Facebook.
Flo and I somehow met through running but aren’t exactly sure how or where. When I lost all my hair, Flo sent me two head wraps to comfort me. Now I get to meet her in person because we stayed connected sharing inspiration, moments, and communication regularly. We will meet in her neighborhood and spend the day together being inspired to change the world.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should motivate you to contemplate your social media connections. How active are you on specific platforms? Whom have you met? What relationships can you grow further? Whom should you stay in contact with more often? Can you deepen your friendships online? How can you develop the relationship into a win-win for both of you?
I promise to share some photos of Flo and me as well as share pivotal actions I hear at the Global Citizen NOW conference where women’s equality is one of their focuses. Until then, check out Global Citizen and connect with someone you know or don’t know on a social media platform today and strengthen your relationship with them. You never know if fate has you meeting them in a future neighborhood.
Let the Boston Marathon Para-Athletes Inspire You
Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Boston Marathon Monday
I transported myself back to the starting line of the Boston Marathon this morning as I turned on the live 2023 race, six years after I stood in the same place in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. My heart rate increased, feeling anxious and excited, and my palms sweating even though I’m hundreds of miles away. I won’t forget the exact moment I started to run in Hopkinton knowing there was no going back only forward 26.2 miles into Boston.
The first competitors of the marathon are wheelchair athletes who can complete the race in under 2 hours (I ran it in 5 hrs+). As their muscular arms pump with blood, spinning thin wheels on their chairs, I wonder what it is like to race in a wheelchair. I know what it feels like running for six hours from start to finish in Boston but my sports heart wonders what para-athletes experience.
As my friend Shawn Cheshire, a blind woman and one-time Rio Olympics para-athlete bicyclist attempts to climb Mount Everest today half a globe away, I decided I want to bike with her as blind as I can be one day to experience her life as an athlete. I know what the marathoners are feeling today because I’ve run in their shoes before, but never as a para-athlete in a wheelchair competing.
Climbing Heartbreak Hill around the 20-mile marker in Boston in 2017, I ran uphill with a blind woman running with her coach on my left, and a man with steel legs and his coach on my right. The moment running alongside them seared into my soul and arose again today watching the para-athletes competing.
If I am committed to trying every sport once in my lifetime, I owe it to myself and para-athletes to try competing in their style of sport. Whether it will be with Shawn on a bike or in a wheelchair playing basketball or something else, I want to experience and write about what it is like to do sports their way.
I think able-bodied people like me should “walk-in” or “bike in” the races of our fellow humans. If you know someone who will show me the ropes in their para-athletic sport, let me know. It will become another golden moment for me in my pursuit to try all sports.
I echo what Scaroni said today as the winner of the Boston Marathon Wheel Chair Division, “It is a privilege to just be here and compete.” I feel that way every time I attempt a new sport too.
Let’s Talk: Age, Beauty, Alopecia, and Self-Image
Thursday Thoughts on Self-Image, Beauty, and Age and Alopecia
As the wild wind blew small strands of my newly grown hair around like tumbleweeds in Nebraska, I was grateful for the feeling. At the turnaround point of my 9-mile bike ride, I took a selfie and noticed my hair was blown in the direction of the wind and stuck in place. I thought to myself, “Who needs a weathervane when one has alopecia?” Humor has always been one of my superpowers.
It was the first mid-seventy-degree, sunny morning in Syracuse, and I didn’t want to wear a hat to cover my freakish-looking hair which had large bald spots surrounded by a mix of grey, white, and black hair only a couple months old. Four years ago, when I went totally bald for the first time, I used to hide my condition under my hats when I biked. My appearance to strangers was that important and my self-image was too fragile. Now looking even more bizarre but more confident in some way, I rode hat free wondering what looks I’d receive.
I feel it is a test of humanity when I bike past strangers wondering what they will do. Some look at me straight on with no expression, some look down as if avoiding me, some give big smiles, most don’t notice, some look bewildered, and a few nice ones wave. I really love the ones who smile and wave at me the most. Who would think someone needs acceptance when they bike? I never knew I did until I became bald at age 54.
This thing called self-image is a delicate issue. It isn’t a popular topic among women who age, go through menopause, lose muscular tone, have hair falling out or greying, have eyesight worsening and have hips getting wider. None of my older female relatives said, “Hey Tracy, when you turn 40 you won’t be able to read the date on a penny,” or “Hey, Tracy your boobs will sag after you have children?” I think older women try to protect younger women from the truth that comes with age or they would talk about it more often.
Almost every woman I know has some self-image issue mostly due to societal norms. The identity we want to portray is found in glossy magazines that use Photoshop on their images or social media where everyone posts their best selfie. I admit I do that all the time posting the perfect image of myself with limited hair to boost my day. It’s sad really.
The main lesson I’ve learned in the past four years as a mostly bald woman is to be more kind to yourself than you are. To not look at anyone else’s beauty as a benchmark for your own. To acknowledge and love the parts of you that are built into your DNA that can’t be changed. Eat healthy, exercise often, take the right vitamins, laugh out loud, and do all you can do to be as beautiful as you can with what you are given.
I will continue my self-image journey with a lack of hair as best I can until the day I do, or don’t get my hair back while remaining healthy and grateful in every other way for what I do have in my life. It’s a choice. What will you choose?
Wednesday Wisdom: Choosing to See and Do
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Sports
What would you do if you woke up today not able to read this Wednesday Wisdom due to recent vision loss? What would you do if over the past year your hearing declined so much you couldn’t hear spring birds chirping? How about if you were diagnosed with a life-altering disease, what would you do?
Across the globe in Nepal, an ordinary woman, who was once an US Army Veteran who lost her sight in an ambulance accident, turned blind woman adventurer is preparing to climb Mount Everest as the first blind woman. Notching her ambition up a level after becoming a 13x Paracycling National Champion and setting 3x World Records in single biking and hiking, the past decade.
I had the privilege of meeting Shawn Cheshire, a Syracuse native, when I interviewed women in sports who weren’t top athletes but ascending athletes in their field. Shawn was from Syracuse and was introduced to me by another woman. Sometimes you are lucky to meet someone amazing if you just ask. Ever since talking to Shawn, I have followed her adventures crossing the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim–to-rim, cycling across the USA, and cycling from Canada to Mexico and now observing her attempt to climb Everest. She accomplishes these extraordinary feats with a team of fellow athletes.
I remember Shawn telling me that sport was what gave her purpose after losing her eyesight in her 30s. She was depressed, as you can imagine, raising two daughters in the Syracuse area, and trying to carve a future for herself. Opening up the door to sports is what saved her and propelled her even further to achieve what she has achieved, and will achieve when she summits Everest, because I know she will. Her motto is simply “Choosing to See” – what a profound thought.
So, today’s Wednesday Wisdom isn’t based on business inspiration but rather ordinary-turned-extraordinary instances when you, like Shawn, can turn a major heartbreaking loss into an awe-inspiring positive one. Our life is always rooted in our attitudes. We can choose to give-up and stay stuck, or we can make a small, and yet powerful, decision one day at a time to start moving forward. No, it isn’t easy to begin or begin again, but consider the pros and cons of stopping vs. starting.
As you contemplate your next steps, I hope you keep Shawn in mind as she climbs and summits Mount Everest, with her mighty team of supporters with her, and choose to see, just like she is. Look at Shawn’s Instagram handle at instagram.com/shawn_cheshire as she journeys and track her progress if you want. Please send her strength and tenacity to achieve her “highest” goal to date….and be motivated to start yours.
One Shining Moment Can Change Your Life
Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes, Boston Marathoners
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, running up Heartbreak Hill, around the 20-mile mark in the historic race. The sun was shining, my legs were still strong, and there was Boston College, my son’s beloved university, where I visited him numerous times over a four year period, beaming at the top. At the bottom of the hill someone handed me a construction letter “F” and told me to “Get the F Up the Hill!” – a small joke to keep my mind off the long hill and 6.2 miles to go.
As I was carrying the letter up the hill, a blind woman with her coach ran on my left and a man with running blades from his knees down and his coach on my right. That moment is a moment in the billions of moments of my lifetime that rises whenever I think of willpower and the human spirit. There I was an able-bodied woman with sight, running between them taking it all in. I thought to myself, “If they can do this, I can finish this race too.” And with that my human spirit got stronger helping me up that hill.
The last .2 miles of the Boston Marathon brings you along Boylston Street with people yelling and cheering so loudly that if your spirit and legs were going to give out, they couldn’t because they were lifted by the community there to do just that. It is a euphoric moment hearing them. My last push was saying the Hail Mary prayer as I touched my blessed rosary beads around my wrist. The camera caught my half-leaning posture, as if I was the Tower in Pisa, just trying to get across that blue and yellow victory line.
Under six hours to complete, which was my goal, someone hung the heavy medal around my neck. There it was, the moment – the moment that changed my life –because little did I know becoming a marathoner would ignite the sports spirit instilled in me by my parents who were both Physical Education teachers and coaches. A year later I crossed the pond to run in an all-woman’s marathon with three teammates from 3 different countries and in 2022 dedicated the rest of my life to trying every sport once and bring women along with me for the ride.
Who would have known my one shining moment traversing a colored line 26.2 miles from where I started my run, and meeting the one and only Kathrine Switzer and a team of amazing women, that my life would change for the better. I couldn’t run back, go back, take back running the marathon – only rejoice in the fact I did it proudly and with a team of fearless women who taught me that being undaunted in life is the best thing that can happen to you. Run on sisters, run on.
Women TIES 