Wednesday Wisdom: Believe Women
After spending two hours poolside yesterday with two women from different parts of New York State, who met through Women TIES but never face-to-face, I witnessed my entrepreneurial dream as reality. Allowing women in a relaxed way to meet each other creates stronger emotional bonds that lead to better business bonds especially in such an ideal setting.
Our conversation zig and zagged, like the butterflies around the deck flowers, covering the topics of rebranding, raising kids in a technical world, healthy eating, Billie Jean King, and Cliftonstrengths Assessment tool. The pop Korean band BTS even came into a discussion talking about midlife music choices. I’m just saying it was a mix of personal and business disclosures that warmed our hearts and bonded us.
As my 27th anniversary of becoming a woman entrepreneur occurs on August 8th, I stepped away from the conversation reminiscing on my early beginnings with a home-based business (that you hid from clients in 1995), with no pool in the backyard, not knowing women entrepreneurship would become my passion and career, or envisioning the ways I would develop into a vocal feminist in the areas of women in business, sports and life. Sometimes you don’t know where the stones lead you on a path, until you look back.
After my guests left, I saw a message from a Cortland member mentioning the results of NYS Governor Cuomo’s sexual harassment investigation. My thoughts immediately went back to the beginning of my career when I was 21 working in Philadelphia as the Assistant to the Corporate Vice President of an investment banking firm with a male client of my male boss who sexually harassed me. When my boss complained to me about not treating his client well, I told him the problem and all he said was, “I don’t care Tracy, he is my largest financial client and you’ll do what he asks.” I knew in that moment I needed to work with and for women only. Yesterday’s pool conversation and Cuomo’s news reminded me that I believe and hear women when they share their truths.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom has a couple thoughts for you. First, look back over your shoulder and see where the stones in your path have led you. Are you where you thought you would be? Where did the path curve? Are you happy with where you are? Second, do you believe women when they speak their truth? If so, good! If not, why? If women are ever going to rise in this world of ours, it will be because other women believed their truths, supported them when needed, and carried both theirs and their own torch to make a difference.
We have so much more individual and collective power than we believe. Women are the future whether they speak up or calmly share their story poolside. Listen and believe.
My Personal Take on Simone Biles and What Matters Most
Even walking across my road to retrieve the mail on a hot summer day can’t be done most days without quickly popping on a pink hat to cover my bald head. Not many cars come down our road, mostly tractors in the summer harvesting wheat or watering knee-high corn, so why the need to hide my perfectly round head from the occasional passerby?
As the world talks about Simone Biles and her difficult, personal decision to bow out of the Toyoko Olympics, following suit with sister athlete Naomi Osaka who withdrew from Wimbledon earlier in the summer due to her mental health, I was moved to write because I understand them and their current situation. Like them, I know this is a stage of my life where limited acceptance of my physical and mental situation will not define me in the end.
Although hiding my head in public is based more on vanity, I suppose more than anything else after having beautiful, healthy brown hair for fifty years complete with perfect eyebrows and long eyelashes, I understand that a woman’s mental image, stamina and strength of character can flip on a dime if dealing with difficult emotions and expectations from themselves and society.
I am not ‘head’lining the front of every sports story around the globe, but in my own part of the world, I pick and choose when I want to display my baldness, where, and to whom. On brave days, I gloriously let my head shine in the sun, on less confident days, I mask it under a hat, wear sunglasses, and hope people don’t notice me. In the spotlight and on stage in my 26-year public speaking career and as a writer in our local newspaper and local television guest, shrinking in the lights still bothers me after 3 years of complete baldness. I’ve had to deal with accepting my own vulnerability.
Yesterday as I read the headlines about Simone’s withdrawal from the USA Women’s Team Olympic Gymnastics competition, I headed out to where I feel most comfortable, on my bike, without a hat, only a bike helmet, to get rid of negative energy and soak in good vibes. By the end of my 15-miler, I took off my helmet in the full parking lot, saw people stare at my bald head, got in my car and took the photo at the beginning of this post to share on social media to support Simone and talk about mental health when dealing with a diagnosis.
Believe me, today I want to erase that physical image from my social media pages, and put my condition back undercover, but I’m going to keep it up because Simone and Naomi don’t have the chance to go undercover with their news because they are in the public’s eye. All I say everyday to myself, to you my readers, and to the public, is be kind to people who are dealing with sensitive mental health issues. Criticism never helped anyone, only kindness did.
Wednesday Wisdom: Back to Basics
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
Swimming in my beautiful pool this morning, enjoying the warm water lap after lap for 30 minutes reminded me how good it feels to return to repetitive basics sometimes that can only produce a level of simple pleasure. Most days I awake with a fierce amount of energy to push myself hard athletically, relentlessly doing more than the day before. When I’m finished, I often have dreamt up a large business or personal goal to achieve.
But in the soft morning atmosphere all I felt like doing was return to the basics – swimming laps, sipping coffee poolside, writing this wisdom, listing general business tasks to achieve, and eating healthy summer fruits from my garden. Believe me there are days I long for attending fancy black-tie events of yesteryear, speaking in front of 400 women entrepreneurs at a large conference, training for a 26.2 mile marathon, or seeking a large yearly client to secure my finances, but today, it was about simple basic important tasks.
Although the pandemic might have slowed women entrepreneurs down enough to return to the basics of living, did it help you return to the basics of business? Did you focus more on reconciling your books, organizing paper files, deleting stacks of online fodder, re-writing your marketing plan, or even giving yourself time to rethink what you want to do with your business by sitting somewhere quiet with an iced tea? Summer lends us these opportunities when the marketplace becomes quieter due to others taking vacations and time off to enjoy this season.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that if your business days seem quieter this time of year, it is gifting you the perfect opportunity to return to the basics of your business and work “on” it, not just “in” it, like other times of the year when the pace is more frantic. It is okay to slow down, ponder, wonder, list, work on, and get things in order as you enjoy the summer breezes.
We all know that sooner than later we will be too busy to find time to attend to the simple tasks needed to keep our businesses and selves running.
Monday Motivation: She is Us
Monday Motivation, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Athletes, Women
Look.
Look a bit longer.
Keep looking until it sinks in.
She is us. We can be her.
There our countless inspirational stories at the Olympics but none that caught the world’s attention or mine today like Rayssa Leal, the girl in the photos above.
Rayssa’s official Wikipedia profile reads, “Jhulia Rayssa Mendes Leal (born 4 January 2008), also known as Rayssa Leal, is a goofy-footed Brazilian skateboarder, silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Games. She is also known as the “Little Skateboard Fairy”, a nickname she got after her video went viral at the age of eight doing skateboarding tricks in a fairy costume.”
She qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she participated when she was only 13 years old, being the youngest Brazilian to participate in the Olympic Games ever. In the skateboarding street competition, she ranked 3rd in the qualifiers. In the final, she won the silver medal and is the youngest Olympic medalist of the past 85 years and the youngest athlete in the history of Brazil to reach a podium at the Olympics.
If you look back and read my Wednesday’s blog post, you will see my highlight of Wally Funk, a woman in her 80s, who achieved her dream of flying into space after a lifetime of dreaming. In contrast, today Rayssa Leal achieves her dream at the age of 13, teaching every single woman reading this piece today that anything is possible, at any stage of life, if you pursue your goals passionately, forgetting your age or stage in life.
Women often seek inspirational stories of other women to glean access to what it takes to succeed, especially in business, but what these two females teach us is that we have the power with our personal actions, hopes, tenacity, and unlimited belief in ourselves to do and accomplish anything.
So, what are you waiting for?
My blog posts don’t often begin with these words, “Don’t laugh at what I’m about to share with you,” but today I feel it is necessary since I’m sharing a personal story of my own short lived Olympic dream since today marks the beginning of the Olympic games in Toyko. For sixteen days, American will focus their attention on the international world as elite athletes from all over the globe compete for Olympic Gold.
In 1972 after watching Mark Spitz win seven gold medals at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, I turned to my stepfather and said, “I want to start training for the Olympics too.” I had been swimming since I was 5 years old (I was 8 in 1972) so I thought I was a pro. We lived on Lake Delta in Rome, New York so I had the means to swim every day if I wanted. Enthusiastically he said, “Okay, I’ll coach you.” I’m positive now he knew his coaching career would be short lived but he didn’t express it.
So for the next two weeks, I swam across the cove on the lake twice a day building up my Olympic muscles. One night at dinner, I said to my coach, “I don’t want to be an Olympic swimmer anymore. Is that okay?” He smiled (or smirked I’m not sure which) and said “Sure Tracy it’s your dream.”
I know what you are thinking, what does this story have to do with besides getting excited for another Summer Olympics? I’ll tell you what I learned and what I hope you walk away with after hearing this story:
* You must be a dreamer to start anything. Whether you are beginning a new career, a new business or taking up a new endeavor. You must dream and believe you can do it before you ever even try!
* Becoming an Olympic athlete, like becoming an entrepreneur, means it is easy to set the dream in action but when time goes on and you lose passion, get tired or aren’t really prepared to dedicate your heart and soul to it, you can fail or at least change your mind about proceeding forward. To do anything really big takes sheer will, training, focus and determination.
* When you realize something you started isn’t working, it is okay to walk away if you have thought about it thoroughly. It only took me two weeks to realize I was caught up in the Olympic spirit and the glory of gold to realize that was why I wanted to become an Olympian.
* As a 26-year woman entrepreneur with two successful businesses, I have proof that I can start something and stick with it uplifting me when I think back to my Olympic fail. Not all dreams work out; but many do.
I hope you turn on the Olympics and cheer on the female athletes competing for gold. As a once member of an Adult-Learn-To-Crew team, I’ll be cheering on the USA female Crew team in the Olympics and of course every female athlete in every sport. If you happen to catch a shimmer of something sparkling in the air above Tokyo, it could be my Olympic dream from 1972. I say, “Keep Dreaming!”
Wednesday Wisdom: Finally, the Great Pink Yonder
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Motivation for Women, Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
As the Blue Origin rocket took off into space yesterday morning carrying one of the richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos, he was accompanied by three other people including Wally Funk. At first you might think Wally is another wealthy man rubbing elbows with Bezos, but if you read about Funk you quickly learn she was one of 13 women who did not pass the NASA medical tests back in the early 1960s because the agency didn’t truly attempt to fly any female astronauts until the late 1970s. In fact, it took until 1983 until Sally Ride because the first American woman to venture into space.
Funk, now age 82, was a talented pilot who dreamed of flying into space, but was never part of NASA’s vision, but it didn’t mean she gave up on her passion. Without a chance to fly into the wild blue yonder, Wally instead built a career as a pilot and flight teacher. Over time, she accrued 19,600 flight house on various aircrafts and taught more than 3,000 people to fly.
When asked what she thought of being selected by Bezos for the flight she said, “I’ll love every second of it. Whoooo! Ha-ha. I can hardly wait. Nothing has ever gotten in my way.” She added, “They said, ‘Well, you’re a girl, you can’t do that.’ I said, ’Guess what, doesn’t matter what you are. You can still do it if you want to do it and I like to do things that nobody has ever done.” Amazing, right?
Well, today’s Wednesday Wisdom is simply to inspire you to live like Wally Funk, not allowing sexism, government limits, or your own personal limiting thoughts, to keep you from launching your own personal passion to a higher level. If you have passion in your specific business field, don’t let anything stop you from embracing it and partaking in it, maybe in ways you didn’t envision at first, until you’ve reach a ripe old age. If Wally can fly into space at the age of 82, after decades of waiting for her chance, what do you still have waiting for you by continuing to follow your own lead.
A friend called Funk to congratulate her on the chance to finally fly into space and Wally responded, “I’ve waited a lifetime, honey. I’m going up there for all of us.” Spoken like a woman after my own heart. I only wish Bezos could have gone one step father and painted one bright pink stripe on the outside of the Blue Origin rocket signifying a woman who never gave up her vision was on board.
Creating the Perfect Summer Business Timeline
As you open your business doors on a July day, turn on your fans, start your computer and settle into work, you are greeted by one of those so called “lazy, dog days of summer.” The dense humidity in the air, a lack of a morning breeze and the rich blue sky makes you start your business day feeling relaxed and peaceful.
The problem during this exceptional time of year in Upstate New York is finding the right energy and focus to do work, make sales calls, and maintain an even revenue flow. Conducting business in the summer tends to make us lazy and unmotivated just as a cool, fall day can stimulate our vigor.
I have found the best way to stay motivated during this time of year is to not abandon how you run your business the rest of the year. If you can stick to a regimented to-do-list September through June, why can’t you revise it and be committed to a disciplined set of responsibilities during the dog days of summer?
This blog post should inspire you to enjoy the beauty of this season while sustaining a strong business at the same time. You can do this by adjusting your hours to an earlier time of day (ex: 6 a.m. – 2 p.m. work day), creating a two month timeline to ensure you attend to vital business details and perhaps adding part time summer help to pick up extra business duties. Just because the air outside makes us feel lazy, doesn’t mean we can relax too much as the CEO of our company this summer or we’ll be panicked when Labor Day is here and two months have flown by without conducting important business.
I hope after reading this editorial you construct a summer timeline from now until September 6th that includes one day a week of sales calls, making appointments with key business partners to plan for the fall season, brushing up on new social media or general marketing skills, and attending events where you can conduct summer sales business.
There is definitely a way to enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer while keeping our businesses and motivation vibrant and effervescent. I hope you enjoy, plan and prosper today through Labor Day.
Monday Motivation, Money Thoughts for Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
Three pieces of financial advice surfaced this morning after talking to women entrepreneurs the past few days about ways to make their companies more profitable.
The first was from a highly respected female business owner running a multi-million dollar business who shared something small she implemented which produced big financial results, she said, “Discover two or three small repetitive expenses within your business and eradicate or reduce them.” Entrepreneurs tend to focus on revenue generation more than eliminating insignificant expenditures which is part of the corporate financial equation.
The second comment came from a 10-year entrepreneur who decided to eliminate small customer accounts in order to spend more time on larger client projects. The multitude of interactions with customers with smaller accounts was eliminating her profitability. In order to correct the situation, she decided to only sell to and secure a select group of higher paying clients.
The final piece of financial wisdom was from a small business owner who decided she was not interested in adding staff to her company but wanted to make more money. Her solution was to contract herself out as an expert to work on specific projects for other national businesses in her industry.
Today be inspired to recognize when you need to make monetary changes as an entrepreneur to become more financially successful. As we lead passionate lives with joy and purpose to help the marketplace and our customers, we can forget to focus on our financials. As evident by the examples above, sometimes it takes a renewed financial focus like decreasing expenses, working on larger accounts or outsourcing your expertise to become more financially sound. There are multitudes of ways to achieve monetary successes in your business so focus on them this week.
Running a tighter entrepreneurial ship doesn’t mean you will lose the joy out of conducting business, instead you will feel proud of the necessary adjustments to become more profitable.
You Are BeYOUtiful Today
Inspiration, Friday Feelings, Love for Women, Women Entrepreneurs and Alopecia
The dark clouds still gathered above me and the humidity dripped and hung close to my exposed athletic arms and legs as I made my way through an overgrown canopy trail of trees and shrubs. “Perfect,” I thought to myself. Lately my favorite biking path was full of Fourth of July vacationers walking in foursomes across the narrow bikeway oblivious to anyone else. My sharp sounding pink bike bell quickly moved them aside so I could wiz past, but not today.
My internal energy and strong legs carried me quickly through the twisting woods, over a bridge, through an Amphitheater where Luke Bryant had played twelve hours prior and where I’ll see my favorite the Dave Matthews Band play in August, around the lake’s edge, down a long hill and over to the top of another bridge where I stopped to catch my breath and grab a view.
Today was a different bike day. It was serene. Deeply peaceful even with music in my ears. The humidity provided the hug I needed on the fifteenth anniversary of my father’s passing to the “great football field in the sky” as I like to think. He was an avid sports participant and fan and biking today was the perfect homage to his crystal anniversary typically commemorated with a watch as the gift.
On my way back through the woods, I peered down at my purple Fitbit watch as I rounded a bend noticing a lilac painted rock with some words on it. “It must be one of those special painted rocks people gift strangers,” I thought to myself. I was the receiver of a red rock in Maine, where my father lived for many years, and another one in Sanibel Island, where we vacation annually. Both are perched on my kitchen windowsill to view daily.
This light purple rock had two pink hearts on it and the words “Be- YOU-tiful”. Since I was biking bald, my latest way to accept my alopecia and total baldness as a 56-year-old woman who once had gorgeous dark flowing hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and where I tell people I feel the most like myself – carefree with pink glasses on – an image of my dad whispering from above, “Be you, Tracy, it is enough,” vibrated in my heart. I felt him all the way from above, 15 years later from when he left my side, exactly when I needed to hear it.
On the back of the rock was a label from Coach Matt’s Art Academy with the note, “If you find a new home for this rock, please take a picture and post it to our Facebook page.” When I arrived home, I visited the page and attached a photo of me holding the rock and suggesting the kids learn more about alopecia at www.naaf.org.
If I’ve learned one thing dedicating my life to sports, especially since losing all my hair, it’s that sports bring freedom, happiness, health, self-love and peace of mind to those of us struggling with any problems in our lives or careers. If today is the day you read this post looking for inspiration, I highly suggest taking a bike ride, walk or run by yourself, looking up to remember someone special who always made you happy, and looking down to find special gifts laying at your feet…..and most importantly remember to love who you are.
Wednesday Wisdom and Business Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
You’ve seen them. You’ve been in them. You know, those long ice cream lines when you begin wondering why a frozen treat deserves more wait time than an important doctor’s appointment. Although your patience level might be tested on a beautiful summer day, the owner of the establishment is sweating inside thrilled with the ramped-up business as she flashes back to non-existent lines during other months. They’ve dreamed and planned for this moment hoping if they built the right business, marketed it properly and consistently, the customers would come.
This time of year, is no different than the six-week retail push from Thanksgiving to Christmas when a majority of sales take place either saving or sinking retail business projections. Go to any mall when the ice cream lines are long outside to find short lines inside Central New York enterprises because consumers are more interested in summer breezes, fireworks, and picnics then shopping. These enterprises beg for cold weather as much as ice cream businesses rejoice in hot weather.
It’s all about cycles. Life has cycles. Business has cycles. To thrive or survive in any cycle means proper forecasting, planning, and marketing. Reviewing past revenue records demonstrates financial highs and lows over a year. Besides regular, or in the recent year irregular changes in the economy, reviews, plans, and action are essential in surviving your company’s sales cycles.
As an event planner with my first company, I knew I had limited event revenue in the dead of winter and high peaks of revenue in summer and fall. I planned for this topography by asking for larger deposits and payment periods from my nine-month event clients to keep financial reserves on keel. After 1, 3, and 5 years in business, looking at numbers and graphs helps planning for the next same stretch of business. Don’t ever underestimate the value of cycles, whether good or bad, in effective planning of your enterprise.
This Wednesday Wisdom should remind you that while you are standing in that long ice cream line to remember the importance of an updated financial analysis of your numbers on a periodic basis. If we don’t review where we are, to where we planned to be, we can’t steer our businesses forward as successfully as we originally thought.
Don’t reject your numbers, study them, embrace them, and revise if you must, and then treat yourself to any frozen treat of your liking enjoying the merriment of a long line, like the one you’ll be creating for your company.
Women TIES 
