Wednesday Wisdom: Social Media Quandary
Wednesday Wisdom, Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
| There used to be a time before social media in my early entrepreneurial career when the only way to advertise an event was through the press, pinning flyers at stores and libraries, calling and verbally inviting people, or mailing out letters with stamps. That was the way to do business in 2004—twenty years ago. |
| To succeed, I had longer timelines for marketing events. I used traditional media, like buying ad time and writing press releases, which garnered free calendar listings, interviews by local reporters, and additional time collecting answers by phone, not email, text, or social media. |
| It felt like there was more guessing back then. We didn’t have visual thumbs up or the ability for our friends to share events and programs. We needed ingenuity to garner attendees, clients, and fans. We had to be out at events, shaking hands, making eye contact, and physically putting invitations in another person’s hand. We had to directly ask if someone was attending for catering counts, room size, and event materials. |
| Social media has made the event industry easier – especially regarding event marketing and promotion. Suddenly, our invitations went viral without cost, and friends of friends were invited to attend, creating a reach that was impossible through traditional marketing methods. Social media felt like a gift to anyone using it. |
| As we know, nothing good remains free forever. Although we weren’t paying to have a Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn page, we paid the price of losing our information to corporate giants selling it to others so they could get richer. We gained as long as we didn’t think about it and kept using it. |
| Without giving in or up to a tool that has aided us, we must seek newer, more transparent, more intentional, good-willed platforms like BlueSky or Substack to keep connected and communicating. It is never easy to shut down what has worked for so long. |
| Today’s Wednesday Wisdom suggests quantifying how social media has aided you and your business. Is it worth the price of giving vital information in a new era of power to the tech brothers? How did you communicate, sell, and find prospects and community in its absence? Can you integrate some of these methods back into your marketing plans? |
| If you aren’t part of the big bro, big tech, and new administration, you might have to go back and try old ways of communication and marketing to exist in today’s “brave new world.” Let me know what you’ll do. I’m interested. |
Wednesday Wisdom: Who Were You in 6th Grade?
Inspiration, Motivation, Wisdom
As the Alka Seltzer cold medicine fizzed in the clear cup, a statement from my 6th-grade teacher rose as well. “Tracy is very effervescent,” my report card said. Always one to be sent out in the hall, my twelfth-grade mindset thought, “Oh, effervescent must be a bad word! Darn it, I’m going to be in trouble.”
Walking home, I wondered if I should throw my report card out, hiding it from my parents. It was summer break, after all, and the lake and my aunt’s pool called my free spirit. Sixth grade was over. I passed elementary school, and in September, I was headed to middle school. Yahoo!
Once in the house, I sheepishly asked my mom, “What does effervescent mean?” She responded, “It means bubbly, spirited, full of energy.” I liked it! Mrs. Gardner was right. I was full of spirit and energy, constantly raising my hand to answer questions, becoming our grade’s commencement speaker, and leading others down the hall to gym class.
What I learned in 1976 was the essence of who I was and would continue to be. I’ve never backed down from a challenge or opportunity to lead, raise my hand, and boldly state my mind. It has led me to great opportunities.
On Saturday, I helped promote, gather, and co-lead 550 women, men, and children in the Women’s March in Syracuse. It was a joyful, peaceful, and empowering event as Women TIES teamed with New Feminists for Justice. Not only was I effervescent on the one-mile journey from the gathering place to the United Methodist Church, but so were others.
Standing before the crowd to photograph the audience, I saw the microphone ready for four speakers. I secretly yearned to say something uplifting in it. Just as I thought it, a neighborhood woman who saw me grow up in Rome, New York, yelled my name and hugged me. “I knew you had to be here helping with this cause based on knowing who you are,” she said. I drifted back in time, silently thanking Mrs. Gardner, my sixth-grade teacher, for helping me know who I would be.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should inspire you to recall a description or two from your childhood or teenage years that still resonates with who you are today. Even if your external self-image doesn’t reflect your 12-year-old one, does the glint in your eye or throbbing of your heart mirror it? Is there a way to remind yourself of your internal self-image as you approach life and business this year? How can you use it for your benefit? How can you change your community or world?
Don’t back down from your strongest internal strengths and core beliefs. If you must, raise your hand, join others, and lead the way only you know how to do!
Word of the Day: March
Dedication to the history of Peaceful Protest Marches
I will be marching for Ivy Rose, my beautiful, 5-month-old granddaughter, at my fourth Women’s March this Saturday in Syracuse, NY.
I dedicated the first Women’s March on Washington in 2017 to my nieces’ futures.
March #2 was in Central New York called “CNY Women Rising,” which I co-hosted and dedicated to members of my feminist business organization.
In 2019, I traveled to NYC to march there with one of my daughters-in-law.
According to www.visionsofhumanity.org, peaceful protests are powerful. “From the Salt Marches to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, history is littered with peaceful protests having a powerful and lasting impact, shaping the world to become a fairer, freer, and more peaceful place.”
Entering my third decade of uniting, inspiring, and marketing women entrepreneurs and female athletes, I strongly believe in joining my sisters in peaceful marches to remind men and people in power that women make up 51% of the US population, which gives us instrumental voices.
I strongly believe in my motto: “The future won’t change for women unless women change the world for women.” I will not stop marching while my daughters, sisters, granddaughters, mothers, nieces, and friends live with inequality. Why would I?
Today, I want to ask you: What do you march for? What inequality are you trying to change in our world? Let me know.
Wednesday Wisdom: Women Rise Up Again
Wednesday Vibes, Feminism, Women’s March, People’s March, Syracuse, NY
In January 2017, I asked my husband, “What happens if I lose one of the 120 women coming to the Women’s March on Washington with me once we start marching?” He said, “Tracy, they are adult women; you don’t have to worry about that!”
I was nervous about losing someone, not knowing what the crowds and atmosphere would be like after Trump’s first election. Who knew? Nobody, so we took the chance to travel on two buses to DC in unity to remind the government that women comprised 51% of the population. It is one of the top 20 moments of my life—women in unison.
It’s hard to believe that nothing has changed or improved women’s equality in our country eight years later. According to a career blog online, women working full-time in the US today make 83 cents on a man’s dollar. Shockingly, it will take about 132 more years to reach equality. The article states, “The consequences of the gender wage gap will continue to impact women in all fields and industries, impairing the quality of their lives to retirement.”
I started Women TIES 20 years ago, this March 3rd, to help women promote their companies to increase their revenue across New York State. I’m not sure it worked as well as I wanted it to in terms of dollars shared and gained between the women in our organization, but I know the concept was welcomed and carried out by many. Change takes a very long time.
When I wonder if my voice, mission statement, or actions, like taking 120 women to the Women’s March on Washington, made a difference, I think of Susan B. Anthony, who died before she had the right to vote. She and other foremothers went through much more to accomplish our rights. They marched, protested, testified, gathered, got jailed, and didn’t quit until finally; progress gave women the right to vote. Like Susan, I will probably die before women finally get equal pay, but I won’t regret the efforts, events, and marketing to help its advancement.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to encourage you to join the Syracuse Women’s March this Saturday, January 18, the same day as the National People’s March, to walk forward, arms linked in unity, with an even more tenacious spirit to resist inequality as the next four years progress. Click this link for the Syracuse, NY, Women’s March details.
Thank you to Donna Moore of New Feminists for Justice for her leadership of this special event. If you want to join me personally in Syracuse, let me know you are coming at this link, and we’ll meet in unison again, arm in arm, pink spirits blazing.
The Lasting Memories of Fire & Smoke
#LAFires
Watching the Los Angeles fires takes me back to November 7, 1973. It was the night of my 9th birthday. My parents, sister, dog, and one boy, the son of my parents’ physical education friends, sat near the hearth of our 1762 colonial fireplace to play a game with a fire roaring in our old fireplace. Our house had four of them, and the living room one was back-to-back with another one on the other side of the room.
“Time to go to bed,” my parents said as my sister and I moaned but obeyed, running one of the two stairs leading to the second floor. After celebrating my birthday, I was glowing as bright as the fire downstairs.
But in the dead of night, my father and mother rushed into our room, scooped us up in their arms, and headed down our staircase and out the back door. All I remember is a house full of smoke and fire spreading in the living room. My father dropped us off outside and ran back into the house, where he got the boy staying with us and our dog. Little did I know, our dog woke the boy, who ran up their staircase and woke my parents. If it wasn’t for him, we might have perished.
I remember being scared to death that my father would die in the fire going back inside. I yelled for him. He didn’t stop. A few minutes later, he returned. I remember the fire engine’s screaming horns and neighbors gathering outside with us. My sister and I stayed the night at one of their houses while our parents watched our house engulfed in smoke and fire.
The next day, I remember going to my 3rd-grade class and my teacher hugging me ever so tightly, trying to calm me down from the event. My school was across the street from our house, so everyone knew what happened. I will never forget her hug or the smell of smoke. I’ve hated the smell of it ever since.
After marrying my husband, we talked about how smoke evoked different emotions in us. He had fond memories of smoke from family campfires, outdoor hunting expeditions, and good times with his friends in the woods. I hate the smell. Instead, my smokey memories bring back the fear I felt that day of losing my father, my house, and my life. To this date, the smell stirs up horrible feelings.
As I watch the Los Angeles fires rage on, I can only think of how terrifying it is for all the adults and children who have lost their homes and who now might hate the smell of smoke and be scared of fire. It doesn’t fade away quickly, and with the magnitude of this horrendous tragedy, it never will leave their minds, hearts, or noses. I pray the families and especially the children are not traumatized by fire and smoke in the future, but I’m afraid they will.
So, anyone who knows of someone in LA who has experienced this devastation, remember their friend’s future sensitivity to something that pleases you. Be diligent in what they need to heal going forward – and maybe, just maybe, a candle, campfire, or burnt food on the stove might harm them more than you know.
Thursday Thoughts: Use Test, Not Resolution
Thursday Thoughts, New Year’s Goals, Resolutions for Women Entrepreneurs
I like the word test better than the word resolution.
As I tried to formulate 2025 resolutions, I kept saying, “I want to test myself” instead.
I envisioned five new skills, events, or activities I have in the wings to try. They aren’t resolutions. I am testing myself on them and then determining if they are right for me to continue resolutely into the rest of 2025.
I have one “test” a month:
January – Acting
February – Women’s Lacrosse Refereeing (actual test on the field and off)
March – Getting more works in print (I’m in many books already)
April – Running a second full marathon (this time at the age of 60)
May – Rock climbing at Yosemite National Park
June – Substitute Teaching (I started in January and said I’d try it to June)
So, how can you turn your resolutions into something more concrete, like a test of something you are interested in maintaining or trying? I bet just the thought of it challenges you a bit more. Let me know what you decide to do.
Wednesday Wisdom: Recycle for Business, Nature, and Life
Wednesday Morning, Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Motivation
| Snowflakes drift by the window. Tiny birds eat seeds from the feeder. A beautiful evergreen stands erect and dignified, collecting snowflakes and tiny birds on and within its branches. Our Christmas tree has a new purpose after decorating our house with pine odor and beauty during the holidays. Instead of throwing this graceful entity to the curb, we set it up on the edge of our property, recycling it for nature’s purposes until it turns brown from warming spring temperatures. Allowing it to breathe more life with a new meaning feels so right. |
| As a writer, I don’t often recycle old written work, but sometimes, on rushed or non-inspirational days, I look through my 2008 – 2025 blog under the monthly categories to find some wisdom to recycle. Writing all the time can produce monochromatic periods like today’s all-white landscape void of color and words like a blank slate. |
| If you’ve been an entrepreneur for a while, you most likely recycle business agreements for new customers, reuse press releases, and repost social media. It doesn’t make you a fraud or lazy, but rather a wise one to recycle a good piece you spent time creating before. |
| Today’s Wednesday Wisdom will hopefully encourage you to look back at some marketing pieces, social media posts, written works of art, and communication documents in this new year and edit or reframe them for the latest use. Just like the winter weather sometimes keeps us inside and idle, so does our creative mind when it isn’t inspired. |
| It’s okay to give yourself a break and repurpose and recycle former pieces of beauty like our tree, for new purposes. No one knows if you rework something from before for a new day. |
Thursday Thoughts: Add Quiet Days in 2025
Thursday Thoughts, Inspiration, Motivation for Women
The winter winds were swirling, and snowflakes and sleet pelted my cheeks. I stepped into the quietness of January 2, the beautiful rush of the holidays behind me. All I heard was the wind.
My typical boundless energy was stifled from within. I could tell my body and mind needed a rest, a reset of sorts. I decided to dedicate the day to total silence except for a quick video taken lying in the snow, in which I told others of my new “quiet day” mentality once a week starting today.
As I listened to the quietness of my internal self, I noticed feelings, thoughts, and ideas stirring. It’s impossible to quiet ourselves, even when we sleep, as we get immersed in vibrant dreams, but once a week, from 9-5 p.m., I told myself I’d pick a “quiet day” based on my schedule not to speak or listen to anything outside myself.
Could I play piano? Type an inspirational blog post. Train for my April marathon? “Yes,” I heard myself say, but no talking, conversing with others, or listening to electronic devices to disturb the peace that needs to bubble.
This might seem like a Renaissance idea in 2025, but since the Presidential election, I’ve already silenced the media, turned to reading books more, played my piano, immersed myself in athletic feats, and avoided negative news. I have noticed a difference—a reawakening within, a more peaceful place to reside.
Now that I have voiced my “quiet day” mentality, I will find interesting things to do on those days, like painting, reading about the news instead of listening to it, restructuring my business, cleaning out unnecessary things, reading how I can help those less fortunate than me, and writing more.
I encourage you to consider the same action—one “quiet day” a week from 9 to 5 p.m. if you can. Let me know what develops, and I’ll keep you posted. Here’s to some stillness in 2025.
An Introspective “View” on 2025
Inspiration, Motivation, Wednesday Wisdom for 2025
It couldn’t have been greyer and drearier weatherwise to begin a new year. Was the climate a sign of things to come in 2025?
I brushed away the doubt, pulled on my running pants, rainproof jacket, sunglasses (to protect my contact lenses), and sneakers, and headed for a two-mile run. The weather wouldn’t stop me on the first day of the year, training for an April marathon.
As I suspected, there were other hearty runners at my favorite course. I saw a group of 20 women in tutus running together, an interracial couple, and a few single runners like me. Each person either waved or wished a “Happy New Year,” making the grey day lighter.
Midway through my run, my sunglasses were so speckled with raindrops and fog from overheating that I could not see anything. Should I take my sunglasses off so I can see where I’m going? I wondered. I rejected the notion, knowing I knew the straight, flat path and also wondering what it was like to be a blind runner.
In 2017, when I ran the Boston Marathon, I passed a blind runner and her coach on Heartbreak Hill. He was leading her onward. I thought it was amazing to witness. That memory inspired me to finish my Boston run and today’s training run. “If she can run blind, I can too,” I heard myself say out loud.
As I ran steadily in the fog and blinded by the raindrops on my glasses, I thanked God for being an able-bodied, strong woman who could take my glasses off and see better at any time. I didn’t need a coach or seeing-eye-dog to guide me or a stick; I was blessed with sight, although I was hampered by purpose during the run. As I try every sport once in my lifetime, I decided today to try some para-sports if I can find anyone to take me along with them and not be offended by my interest.
With a new bright road ahead, there is so much to appreciate, so why not shine some light in your life on what it is like to not be as blessed as others? What could that resolution truly do for your spirit and soul? I hope you join me by doing something this different and sharing the lessons you glean.
New Year’s Resolutions: To Plan or Not to Plan?
As another year closes its doors and opens on Wednesday, we might be pressured to construct the best New Year’s Resolution list we’ve ever had. But what I learned in 2022 still resonates with me; four months into the year, as I flew from a flying trapeze high above the ground in Rochester, a significant new goal can be hatched in the most unusual spaces at any time.
I liken what happened to me on the trapeze to one of Harry S. Truman’s quotes, “You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation we can’t foresee now.” Most of us aren’t seers or cradle crystal balls in our hands to gaze upon the next year and see what unfolds; all we have is our imagination.
In the past, only 25% of my annual resolutions or goals came true when I reviewed them, even though it was exhilarating to imagine myself 20 pounds lighter, running another marathon, traveling abroad, increasing my membership numbers, and seeing myself with a full head of hair again. But honestly, remembering the places I went, the people I saw, and the things I accomplished unexpectedly as they popped up during the year was equally exciting.
So today, as you ponder this last post of 2024, I ask you to consider whether you want to plan and set goals for the new year or let life take you for a ride. Maybe you can prepare for your career but let your life flow. If you are anxious about not having a plan, do one and realize that you should look at it every quarter and cross off what you’ve accomplished or add new goals that have bubbled up due to your interest or outside circumstances.
If you are like me, you might want to let life happen the best you can and embrace the unexpected moments. As Stephen King said, “You Can. You Should. And If You Are Brave Enough to Start. You will.”
May 2025 bring you unexpected pleasures and successes you couldn’t have imagined today.
Women TIES 