My Special Reasons for Celebrating a Century of Suffrage
Tuesday Thoughts and Inspiration on Women’s Suffrage
This morning’s New York Times headline, “A Century of Suffrage” immediately transported me to front row experiences at three special events celebrating women’s suffrage.
In Syracuse 2002, female leaders from all walks of life in Syracuse read the transcript of the third National Women’s Rights Convention held in Syracuse on September 8-10, 1852. As an up-and-coming leader of women entrepreneurs in Central New York, a new career choice for many females, I was invited to attend. Listening to prestigious female leaders from Syracuse including past N.O.W. president Karen DeCrow ignited an instant fire in my spirit for women’s rights. At one moment at the reenactment, my spirit joined the current speakers and the ghosts of past women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, from my father’s hometown of Johnstown and Matilda Joslyn Gage, a Syracuse feminist.
The second soul-moving experience was receiving the prestigious WCNY Maker’s Award in Seneca Falls once again for my dedication to women in business. After receiving the award, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with women honored for their own unique contributions, a woman dressed like historical feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton approached me thanking me for continuing the work of foremothers like her. “At the end of my life, I didn’t accomplish all I wanted to but because of women like you today, I know my life’s mission had purpose. Thank you for all you do,” she said. Stunned by the accolade and a lump in my throat, my entrepreneurial life took on new meaning.
The third event that moved me took place high above New York City’s new Hudson Yards project on November 6, 2017, invited there by New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul to celebrate the passage of New York State’s Women’s Suffrage in 1917, with my two twenty-year old, professional working sons by my side bathed in purple, yellow, and white lights. We celebrated with wine and viewed the skyline where we were inspired by the words of the presenters. My sons got a first row seat this time amongst mostly feminists learning why I champion the cause of equal pay for women. It was a surreal moment and one never to be forgotten.
Today as our country celebrates the national passage of the 19th Amendment, there is still much work to do for women’s rights including passage of the Equal Rights Amendment which will bring more equality for women across other key issues. When my youngest son called me the morning Senator Kamala Harris was picked to be Joe Biden’s running mate he said, “Mom, did you hear the wonderful news? A female vice president has been officially chosen. You must be happy.” “Yes, I am Adam,” I said.
My sons grew up respecting a woman’s equal right in business, sports, and life because of my discussions with them and my example. If it wasn’t for accepting that first invitation to listen to the reenactment of Syracuse’s third National Women’s Convention and trying to follow best I could in the footsteps of such feminist icons as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Karen DeCrow, athletic barrier breaker Kathrine Switzer, and others, I wouldn’t be as joyful as I am today to celebrate a “Century of Suffrage” with my sisters and brothers who believe that women are equal to men in all ways.
Share Some Love with Restaurants and Small Businesses
Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
It’s been five months since I drove to New York City to visit my sons, but now the area is opening in varying safety phases so I headed down. As a staunch supporter of entrepreneurs, I hoped all the quaint restaurants, stores, and shops weren’t going to be boarded up. If there is anything that makes my heart break, it is hearing about any small business that closes due to unforeseen circumstances, financial despair, and lack of customers. There isn’t any other way to feel if you truly support small business.
As we turned into the West Village, a new area of the city where my son and his girlfriend moved on a beautiful weather weekend, the streets in front of many restaurants had strands of white twinkle lights and colored bulbs, flowering plants, linen covered tables with candles, fresh flowers, and full menus. Some venues had live music or piped music playing and many of the tables were full taken with couples or families sitting at them. It felt quite magical compared to what I expected.
We choose a Peruvian restaurant to frequent one night and an Italian one the next. Both served outstanding meals with fresh ingredients, masked waiters, and friendly hosts. Customer service was excellent as these purveyors excitedly served customers again. I even had my temperature checked as I headed inside an establishment to use the ladies room. “We can’t be too careful,” the hostess said. I agreed.
Happily content with our entire outdoor eating experience, I couldn’t help but wonder and worry how these eateries currently exist on rainy days or will handle upcoming cold windy days. I couldn’t even think about these little vistas serving food in the snow to no one visiting them if the pandemic continues. The creativeness by which the current restaurants are being in order to bring in revenue was beautiful and heart-warming. My only wish is they continue to reap the revenue they’ve lost since mid-March.
I can attest to the safety, cleanliness, and delightful family eating experiences our family of six experienced. My prayer and wish is you give the restaurants in your hometowns the business they deserve this time of year. Don’t be afraid to eat from your favorite, or even new restaurants, to support local small business. They need us to be brave enough to spend our money out with them all while staying safe and warming our hearts in the atmosphere of quaint, small, personal service establishments looking to hand out food and hospitality. Small businesses are the back bone of our country.
Wednesday Wisdom: Leaving A Business or Personal Legacy
Wednesday Wisdom, Small Business Success, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
It was the first day of my son’s clinical rounds as a second year Physician Assistant student and his first round was with a local Oncology and Hematology practice where he met 25 terminal cancer patients. When he walked in our kitchen after work, he unloaded his briefcase, sat down at the table and shared his experience with me. I asked him what the biggest lesson was from the day and he said, “How short life can be for some people.”
His experience reminded me of one of my Women TIES Advisory Board Members, who was diagnosed with a rare, fatal form of lymphoma in 2004 and told she had a few months to live. Instead of accepting the diagnosis, which her intuition told her was not right; she searched for alternatives to the diagnosis. Fortunately her gut feeling was correct and she discovered she did not have a fatal cancer condition.
Based on her belief that everything happens for a reason, Trisha changed careers and devoted herself full time to teaching others to improve their chances for better medical outcomes. She went on to create a powerful national and international legacy after creating her company Every Patient’s Advocate. She also authored six books and developed an online directory of private, independent patient advocates called AdvoConnection.com with 600 members in 9 countries around the world.
My son could only be a compassionate care taker and adviser for the patients he saw in his rotation but women like Trisha Torrey took the lead in creating a lasting legacy for themselves and others by the work they do as entrepreneurs.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should make you think about the legacy you are leaving as a business owner. You don’t have to be diagnosed with a fatal illness or create a company that saves lives to have an impact, you need to have a personal and corporate mission you live purposefully with each day.
I know my mission for the past 25 years has been motivated by the pay inequality issue faced by women still today by giving them access to my two-decade marketing platform and “ties” to promote their businesses and themselves so they can create strong new economic bonds with other females. Creating a stronger financial legacy for women is what I have dedicated my life to for two decades.
Today write down what you want your legacy to be. Create a mission statement. Set goals. Establish a timeline. Be inspired by others. Do and be more. Make a difference.
As my son witnessed, “Life can be too short for some people” but what we decide to do with our lives can positively impact the world and create our own powerful legacy so when our lives are over whether that is in a couple months or decades away, we have created our own powerful legacy that tells our tale and improves the world for the better.
Brave Women Excel Other Women’s Bravery
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-3ctuy-e5ede2
A 6-minute inspirational recording for women or women entrepreneurs looking for motivation to excel better in their lives or businesses.
Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham
Women TIES, LLC
Author, Under the Rose-Colored Hat
Brave Women Excel Other Women to Bravery – A True Story
Thursday Thoughts, Wisdom, Success Strategies for Women, Female Entrepreneurs, Women in Business
After revealing my bald head to the world in April 2019, through a front page story in our city’s newspaper, I worried my two-decade entrepreneurial image had been shattered by the decision. Knowing the reveal was to help others, not myself, I tried my best to remember the reason for the decision. What happened next changed my life at the time and did again this morning as I read another article in the same newspaper.
Shortly after the April reveal I was approached by a father of a daughter with Alopecia who invited me to meet him, his daughter and two other women with connections to the auto-immune disease at a local restaurant. When the two women joined us at the table, both had hair, so I assumed they had family members with Alopecia. Only after getting comfortable with each other did they announce they were bald but wearing wigs. In fact, one of them owned the restaurant – a sister entrepreneur. There I sat with my pink hat on without a wig on – brave they told me. Comfortable, I told them.
Both women explained that they don’t tell others about their condition and go on with their lives and work. In fact the restaurant owner had just opened a second cafe to expand her enterprise, and there I sat wondering if I could return to work successfully having revealed my truth to my community. I wasn’t throwing a pity party for myself but I hadn’t come to grips with my new self-image. The four of us agreed to meet again at two local Senator’s offices to pitch the need for insurance to cover wig expenses for people with Alopecia and cancer patients who lose their hair from chemo treatments. We left for the Senator’s office, had our meeting and parted ways that snowy afternoon feeling good about our efforts.
It’s been a year since I’ve seen these women in person but one of them appeared in today’s paper with a brilliant story on her desire to reopen a popular restaurant closed by the pandemic. Not only is she reopening this favorite tavern, she is hiring back all the same staff, upgrading it a bit, and committing to finance the deal in the middle of a pandemic. To say I was overwhelmed seeing her stand in front of her new restaurant with a smile on her face, a beautiful wig, and confidence, is an understatement. If I ever need a “Wonder Woman” role model from this point forward, it is this woman who lives her life to the fullest even with Alopecia.
Women truly need the inspiration of other women to move on or up in their lives. I’ve known this for two decades as a woman entrepreneur planning events with only females as speakers to motivate the other female business owners in the room, but I never realized how much I needed to see the bravery of this woman I met to kick me in the seat a bit and get me going again. Granted living with my baldness is only two years old, and they have lived with theirs much longer, most likely adjusting over time, but gosh darn it, I want to be that woman standing in front of her third business helping others, my community, and proving to myself hair or no hair doesn’t make the woman.
I hope this blog post reminds you that sometimes we need to witness the bravery of women to reveal a part of ourselves that needs to take more action. Don’t ever be jealous of other women’s successes, realize they can teach and motivate you to higher levels of your own success.
Keeping Your Options Open
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-gbhxx-e5c6e1
A 5-minute inspirational Wednesday Wisdom to inspire you to check out different business and personal options when making a decision. Be inspired today!
Tracy Higginbotham
Women TIES, LLC
Wednesday Wisdom: Keeping Your Options Open
Wednesday Wisdom, Business Success Strategies, Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners
A second viewing of the horror movie “It” coincided with a visit by my 18-year-old niece before she heads off to college as a freshman in two weeks. In case you never saw the movie, at one suspenseful part, two teenagers are being chased by an evil clown as they reach a dead end at the end of a long hall only to find 3 doors to choose from to allow their escape. Not knowing which one to select, they opened one door at a time slamming them shut since nothing helpful was behind them. Only the last door appeared to offer an option they could live through.
As my freshman niece told me about her South Carolina college’s choice to postpone the opening of school from August 20th to September 15th, leaving her disappointed, I asked what options she was considering knowing she did not want to begin her freshman year in the same bedroom she grew up in. She presented three options including applying for an exemption to be considered to arrive early staying in the only dorm they have open, trying to afford a 3-week expensive temporary apartment or hotel room in Charlestown, or starting her online courses somewhere else – like Lake Tahoe where a friend invited her to stay and start her courses from afar.
Like any decisions ever made, I suggested she do a gut and brain check to see what works best. Sometimes when you are in a scary situation, you don’t have much time to ponder your options. At other times, your option may be limited by others decisions leaving you hanging. But most times, we control multiple resolutions to small or big problems. The pandemic has made small businesses, like the ones renting in major malls or in the hospitality industry, realize they are at the mercy of the disease, health regulations or government mandates, making them hopeless for economic prosperity or recovery. But entrepreneurs always have options no matter the circumstances, even though we don’t love them all. It’s essential to remember we have more control then we think we have to find viable solutions once we view our situation realistically.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom should make you consider your current economic or personal situation and see if you are stuck feeling void of options. If you are, muster up the energy to create a list of solutions. Write them down until you can’t write anymore. Then, rank the solutions based on complexity, timing, money, and how much the solution will improve your business, and numerically figure out the best next steps or solutions to take. Strategic planning tools can help with this process if your options are complex.
We can get paralyzed like the boys facing the three doors or unable to do what we truly desire like my niece, but we also are smart and creative enough to construct alternative plans and survive – if not thrive. We must get to work figuring out our situation and potential solutions. Keep in mind sometimes we discover options better suited for us than we could have imagined.
Friday Feelings, Business Success Strategies, Entrepreneurial Advice for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
After a good, long week of learning, Friday morning was free from technical education and my bike was calling me so off I went for a ten-mile ride under the rich green canopy, paved path, and winding forest around a lake. Fitness always makes me think of business lessons and today was no different, especially with a head full of new knowledge.
The first mile of the ride, I looked down past the handlebars and tires to check out the path’s condition. Fully focused on what was right below and in front of me to avoid any creepy dead animals from the lake, tree limbs, or resting water, my only attention was on the view immediately below my feet.
After the first mile, my eyes focused forward to avoid runners, roller-bladders, elderly people holding hands, and young parents walking children in strollers with pets in tow. I also needed to look forward because the path curves and bends wildly at times in the dark green foliage. Without peering forward to see where I was going in the short term, meant I might veer off path or run into someone. This secondary focus was essential for my biking safety and others.
The last mile of the bike ride, having lost the crowds of people and winding way, I looked up to the sky to take in the tops of the trees that kept me cool, the blue sky and white clouds floating by, with birds soaring – much like my own spirit. This long range, upward focused vision is what touched my heart biking.
After three days of strategic planning education, I quickly realized the analogy of biking and bicycle riding. A majority of business owners spend their time on the tasks immediately in front of them – those short term duties and responsibilities. At some point in their yearly entrepreneurial journey, they take their eyes off the short term tasks to gaze out to see where the “business road” is going due to market changes, Covid-19, competition, budget adjustments, and client requests.
Once a quarter, semi-annually, or annually, entrepreneurs should lift their eyes way above frequent responsibilities to touch base with their overall mission and vision, to feel the sweet air of success, and embrace some joy because before long they’ll be back at the practical, logical parts of planning and managing. If I never raised my chin, head ,and eyes to look above the tree tops towards the end of my bike ride, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much. It takes keen awareness after partaking in hard work in your business or on a bike ride, to glance at a vista to soak in the benefits and remind you why you work (aka bike) so hard.
So remember strategic planning is an essential part of your joy ride through a year of entrepreneurship. It’s equally important to focus on daily tasks as it is to look or project ahead to avoid bumps in the road, and to end with a wider view and appreciation of the work you’ve completed. Make sure to re-energize yourself quarterly by going back to your original business vision so you can keep peddling forward the next quarter with a clear direction, purpose, and plan.
Wednesday Wisdom – Sizzling Business Thoughts
https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hht6w-e4dc7a
A five-minute inspirational podcast to motivate and uplift women entrepreneurs, female business owners, and small business leaders.
In entrepreneurial spirit,
Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham
Women TIES, LLC
Wednesday Wisdom, Business Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Business Leaders
The heat wave scorching our region was nothing like the sizzle of my brain emitting waves of energy after a three-hour strategic planning course with an intellectual woman. It’s been awhile since I’ve contemplated and analyzed facts, figures, unknowns, and relevant data regarding my enterprise, competition, partners, marketplace, and future horizons. When the course was done, I slowly lifted myself off my chair, half stumbled out the door, and did a head first plunge into the cold waters of my pool to cool my mind.
It has been awhile since I’ve taken challenging business courses to advance as a business woman. In the late 1980s, I worked full time in higher education and attended night school two nights a week for multiple semesters trying to earn an advanced degree. After my oldest son was born in 1991, which added more juggling with a full time job, part time school, and business travel, my advanced degree was put on hold. Only after last week’s strategic planning course did I realize I haven’t pushed myself academically as much as I should have the past twenty-five years.
Having a sister with two Masters degrees and a brother almost done with his PhD, I have grappled with finishing the degree primarily to keep my brain infused with knowledge in order to share it with business women who listen to me. When I began my Master’s program there weren’t online courses to take. In-person learning was the only way to earn your degree, but technological advances have made it possible for us to learn more in non-traditional avenues. Part of my new strategic plan will consider adding coursework to finish my Masters degree along with advancing Women TIES nationally and internationally by inviting more women to join us via online events since that is the way of the world now.
This Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to contemplate ways you can advance your knowledge in your field of expertise through online courses and programs. As our sons, daughters, and grandchildren turn to online learning to learn this fall, why shouldn’t we? It doesn’t mean in-person events or classroom learning won’t happen again or that we are giving up on the way things once were; it is embracing change that provides new opportunities to live, learn, and conduct business successfully.
Here’s to the part of our brains that need that extra sizzle once in a while to advance our knowledge. I for one think that’s better than just sizzling in the heat for no good reason.
Women TIES 