Sharing Your Voice with the World Through Writing
Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
The pleasure of writing every day has become a constant in my life. If I think back to my teenage years and before Oprah suggested it, I wrote in a journal documenting personal feelings, adventures, favorite pals, and life experiences because my mother did the same thing. I even submitted poems for publications thinking back then I had wisdom to share with the world even though I was young. When my sons were first born, I started journals for them describing their personalities, celebrations, and experiences of being a mother. They will receive them one day.
When blogging became popular in 2007, it made natural sense I’d be drawn to this new form of marketing using my words in written form to attract followers to my company. At first I wasn’t sure what I would write about and how to make writing a frequent pattern but after hosting Amelia Sauter, an Ithaca woman entrepreneur and blogger, as a speaker at an event, I started writing. I remember her saying, “Just try to write one blog post a week to begin and then go from there.” Taking her advice to heart, I not only started blogging in 2008, but have written probably a million words in my weekly “Wednesday Wisdoms” enewsletter ever since delivering wit, advice, and business success strategies to women entrepreneurs the past decade and a half.
Writing these weekly pieces led me to submitting stories for magazines and in the popular book series “Chicken Soup for the Soul,” and eventually landed me a weekly column to the Syracuse Post Standard called “Ask the Entrepreneurs” which I contributed to for 11 years. All of this led to my first book in 2019 called “Under the Rose-Colored Hat” which made me an official author.
This amazing history of sharing my wisdom and voice with the world opened up countless opportunities for me by enhancing my resume, providing me with speaking opportunities, more print and online storytelling opportunities, and opening my world to fellow female authors. It all started by listening to one woman speak at an event and the rest is history.
This Wednesday, June 24th, I am paying this inspiration forward by hosting an online Zoom presentation called “Getting Your Wisdom and Story Heard” sponsored by the New York Women’s Business Center by Sharon CassanoLochman, Founder of Ontario Shore Publishing, who helped me get my book launched. I believe strongly she will inspire women to take that one step – or pen stroke – towards getting their own stories heard via blogging, articles, book submissions, or authoring their own paperback. If you have even a slight interest or desire to write, I invite you to join me by registering at this link.
I am most proud of being an author and leaving my voice in a permanent form in our world.
Wednesday Wisdom: A Plan and A Path
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
Bouncing with excitement I attached my new bike to the back of my car and smiled my way into the front seat ready to re-embark on my favorite bicycle path reopened after three months. Without the beauty of the 9-mile winding path covered with a canopy of green leaves, on the west side of Onondaga Lake Park, I ventured instead to the Erie Canal’s historic dirt path to exercise during my business lunch hours.
Onondaga County had a plan to close the city’s most popular outdoor fitness area in light of the pandemic. Finding an alternate route was a new way of life for the daily runners, bikers, roller bladders, and strollers of the park. But knowing in time, the County’s plan would change, meant everyone using it could create an alternate plan of their own to stay satisfied and fit. With the plan, we all could find a new path.
Leading up to my twenty-fifth celebration of being a woman entrepreneur in a few months, this topic of finding new paths hit me. Just like you, I wasn’t sure what the “entrepreneurial path” looked like when I started with one step on August 8, 1995. I just knew I was passionate and strong enough to step onto the path and move forward one foot at a time until a passageway lay before me. Once in awhile, I glanced over my shoulder witnessing how every individual step taken created a brilliant path behind me. Sometimes along that path, I stopped to rest, sought advice, created a different plan, imagined taking shorter paths off the main path for adventure, but always stopped to notice the lessons along the way.
When I glance back now, I see I couldn’t have accomplished a quarter-century of entrepreneurial success without knowing my path forward would shift directions at times and go up hills and down into valleys where I could celebrate and ponder my position and plan. No matter where I was on the long path of entrepreneurship, a plan was always part of the journey. I needed to know where to concentrate marketing dollars, who to call to land new business, what I needed to do to expand across the state, and the movement of the marketplace in my industry. I liken not having a business plan to taking off on a 25-year bike ride and realizing without a “road map,” where would I go or end up?
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you if you are ready to begin a new business path with your enterprise, you must plan for the journey or else you could get lost along the way. The ride might be breathtaking but at some point you’ll wonder where you are or where you’re going. Even experienced adventurers of business and life know planning is an essential mode of transport to get from Point A to Point B. So where are you right now in your business planning? Are you up-to-date and on track? Has Covid-19 bumped you off the paved roadway you were on? Did you get lost for a moment but rediscovered at the right corridor? Depending on your answers, you’ll know what you need to do or continue to do to get to where you want to go.
Don’t worry if you are like me and you’ve already hit a few divots in the path, almost knocking you to your knees, because we know just in time we regain composure to venture on. Life and business are for the audacious spirits excited to plan the paths forward. Make sure you are both bold and prepared for the next part of this thrilling ride called entrepreneurship.
Women Still Need Seats at Every Table
Inspiration for women, feminists, women’s rights, women entrepreneurs
Today’s blog post is a recap from a post I wrote in August 2018 after attending a brilliant conference on women’s rights hosted by Crewomen.org. In light of equality issues being in the news headlines everywhere in our globe for Black Lives Matters, which I support, it reminds me of my personal two-decade passion of supporting women’s equality – especially pay equality. I hope today’s blog post reminds you we need equality across the board in many areas of life.
“If they don’t give you a chair at the table, bring a folding chair,” was a quote by Shirley Chisholm once said to inspire women to invite themselves to the tables where they weren’t allowed. Shirley knew what she was talking about. She was the first black woman elected to the United States Congress in 1968 completing seven terms. In 1972, she was the first black candidate for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States. Her quote was shared with women of all ages, backgrounds, and professions at the start of Seneca Falls Revisited: Women’s Equality Weekend.
What I basked in most from the three-day conference was the number of new women I met especially African American women. The conference was run by a team of dynamic, intelligent black feminists who welcomed me into their fold as a major sponsor and break-out presenter. I have always loved the energy of black women for reasons I do not know since I was brought up in a fairly white town surrounded by mostly Italian families. All I know is women of all ages intrigued me and probably not having enough African American women in my life made me appreciate them when I met them or learned from them.
I liked walking out of this event with a better understanding of the struggles black women faced because of both their color and sex. When white women have to worry about equality issues, black women still face discrimination on race and sex…not to mention age at times too. A female Indian presenter named Jenifer Rajkumar, a New York City politician, community leader and human rights lawyer talked about the importance of “getting in the room” and being part of the discussion if you aren’t invited based on who you are. As she reminded the crowd, Rosa Parks didn’t have to say a word, but she had to be on the bus sitting in a seat for people to take notice. Change takes practicing your activist voice and using your courage muscle.
“Step away and ask yourself what is most important to you and then create a vehicle to share it with other people,” said the last speaker of the day. Before I returned to work today, I sat near my pool meditating on the words I wrote down and the ones in my head still and created a new vision to wrap my passion for women in business, sports and equality into one larger entity so I can sit on that folding chair Shirley talked about flexing my courage muscle and using my activist voice to create as much positive change for women as I can in the areas of life that resonate with my pink spirit.
There is so much to do still to lift up women that each woman must listen to one or two equality passions that swirl inside their soul and commit to do something about it starting today! One of the main items is to help lobby for and pass the Equal Rights Amendment. As an older woman told me, “women have had timelines forever and look where they have gotten us…not far enough to protect women’s unalienable rights.” What will you do to commit to positive change for women?
Perhaps start by registering for the 2020 Crewomen.org’s virtual 100th Anniversary of Suffrage Conference online July 23-25th. You will be amazed at what you will learn from a diverse group of outstanding leaders in the fight for women’s rights. I am joining them for sure. I hope to see you there too.
Wednesday Wisdom: Colorful Entrepreneurial Transitions
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
Sanibel Island, Florida photograph by Tracy C. Higginbotham
At the brink and end of every sunny day, the sky changes colors. In early morning, the black of only a starlit atmosphere softly changes from navy blue to light blue. At the conclusion of a cloudless day, the horizon is painted in golden yellow, mango, fuchsia, and lavender colors softening its closure. Changes come to our sky everyday giving us plenty of time to notice.
Beautiful daily color changes are not always as wonderful as other transitions. Sometimes change is found in black and white images, statistics, and circumstances. News headlines, bank statements, and corporate communication tell a story in colorless format, forcing us to notice only the bottom line or starkness of a situation. Brilliant hues of the rainbow sometimes aren’t needed in business, just the facts and figures.
With so many factors still effecting women who run and manage their own companies in the times we live in, I continue to feel their struggles and tenacity to rise above the uncontrollable societal changes and economic woes to stay relevant and solvent. Although they may work in a brightly painted office peering out their windows at deep green grass, purple irises with yellow butterflies flitting carelessly around them, and flowing water fountains moving rhythmically day-long, they can’t escape the hard, cold facts of an unknown future due to outside forces.
American author Lisa Lutz said, “Our ability to adapt is amazing. Our ability to change isn’t quite as spectacular.” Think about that statement for a minute as you ponder your personal response to it. It’s true isn’t it? Most people can adapt to anything placed in front of them because they must adjust to new circumstances – like staying home during the pandemic. But changing back to normal practices, philosophies, and actions takes more work. This is where we are as women entrepreneurs still sorting things out in the end stages of the economic pause and reopening phases.
We desire to return to normal, full, lively business environments filled with both happy repeat customers and new clients. We long for lush green money coming in the doors to fortify our dwindling savings accounts. We long to feel unafraid to hug a staff member, stand close to a client without a mask on, shake hands at the end of contract negotiations, and share lunch at a favorite restaurant picking up the tab. Yet, we must remain patient in this black and white period of health and economic uncertainty until life and business returns to a colorful normal.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to encourage you to do a couple things. First, create an optimistic colorful vision for your business future for the rest of the year – one filled with hope and green flowing money pots. Second, take time to do a black and white plan – financial, business, and marketing plan to get you there. Third, if you are stuck on doing the first or second tasks, register for three seminars we created in June and July to get you where you need to go with a four-month business plan, writing objectives, and dealing with change as your friend. They are intended specifically to get you successfully moving again.
Please know I remain committed to helping you with your colorful visions and black and white tasks. I hope upcoming days are filled with more brilliant hopes and dreams dotted with realistic black and white plans to get you to that new horizon where this unexpected situation will be behind us.
Monday Motivation: Summer Brand Inspiration
Monday Motivation, Wisdom on Summer Brand Inspiration, Marketing Advice for Women Entrepreneurs
A decade into running my second company with its very distinguishable looking brand color of fuchsia – a match of my two grandmothers favorite colors red and light pink – I decided to buy some merchandise for corporate events bringing women together. Whether it was for 5K fundraising runs done together in the USA or walking arm-in-arm in Washington DC in January 2017 at the Women’s March on Washington, or in subsequent feminist or athletic programs like the all-women marathon in England, my bright shirts with matching light pink hats that read “Women Supporting Women in Business, Sports, Equality, and Life” are part of our group look.
Not every day is an activist, athletic, or business day, but during the “life” part of a week, I don my bright shirt, hat accompanied by pink sunglasses and head out for a bike ride, run, or errand. I’ve always believed a smart woman entrepreneur wore her brand colors to get noticed and remembered. Having lost all my hair to alopecia, I’m never sure if I get recognized more for my bald head or bright fuchsia outfits. Pink from head to toe….yes my socks match my shirt and hats.
After a nine-mile bike ride today and thirsty after the summer sun rode along with me, I stopped at Dunkin’ Donuts for a favorite refreshing bright pink strawberry coolata. As I pulled up to pay a teenage boy looked at me, read my hat out loud which said “Women Supporting Women” and said, “Are you a feminist?” To which I said gleefully, “Well, Yes I am! I promote women who own their own companies across New York State.” He responded, “Oh.” I added one more caveat, “I raised two sons too who are both feminists now – one of them wears pink shirts too.” He had no reply.
As I drove off with a smile outlined in bright pink lipstick bought from a member Gina Dier of Younique, I laughed a bit wondering if I taught him anything today since he might be done with his high school classes due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. I love when I have the chance to share my beliefs with others through printed wearables, brand colors, and answers to questions. Make sure you are wearing your brand so you can answer the same type of questions on a hot summer afternoon to a complete stranger.
Next time you wear pink, why not check out the Women TIES Website and buy from or hire a woman entrepreneur helping with my mission of stregthening the financial world today and in the future for women until we have a pay equality law. Have a pink day!
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
For 15 years I’ve written an inspirational editorial for the “Wednesday Wisdom” enewsletter to educate, inspire, and motivate my female constitutents. Often the inspiration for the editorial topic comes from a conversation, program notes, hot topics in society, events, and my own experiences. I’ve learned when my emotions build up inside they need a place to flow coming out in my writing. Today is no different after daily news reports of uprisings, peaceful protests, and unprecedented times in our nation as we deal with the Coronavirus Pandemic and George Floyd’s death.
Growing up in a mostly all-white city, I simply did not have opportunities to meet or befriend brown or black women. I did grow up in a family of Italian immigrants who decided when they came to America they didn’t want people to know they were Italian so they dropped speaking their native tongue. My family had food and traditions but never spoke Italian. I love my heritage and roots and am proud my grandfather’s father brought him here when he was 8 years old to have a better life. My family were kind, loving people who opened their doors to anyone who wanted a dish of macaroni or cup of coffee. Homeless men ate at our table, my cousin’s basketball friends and gay friends ate with us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have many brown people in our city to invite but they would have been welcomed at my grandparent’s table.
When I became an entrepreneur in Syracuse, I started meeting diverse women and struck up an immediate friendship with Gwen Webber-McLeod, a dynamic African American woman I adored and respected. I would ask Gwen why more women of color and white women didn’t do business together more often. I couldn’t understand why there was a natural divide. I would share with her times brown women would come to my events solo scanning the room for other women of color to sit with. Many asked me why more African American women weren’t there. I told them, I didn’t know why because they were certainly welcome. Many times I would tell these attendees about Gwen and her work to lift up women of color to higher levels of professional success so they could connect with more diverse women. I simply didn’t know how to keep them interested in coming back for more events though.
A couple years ago, Gwen directed a play at the Auburn Theater called “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.” I bought a ticket not only to support her but to gain a better understanding of African American women. By the end of the extremely moving play, I walked out speechless understanding I could never totally grasp the difficulties black women experienced in America because I was white. I couldn’t walk in their shoes no matter how empathetic I felt. It was an eye opening experience that gave me a new appreciation of their struggles and why I might never have a handful of African American women in my event audience.
What I learned that day and continue to consider in light of our nation’s current situation is to be more empathetic to a black woman’s past and present and helpful when they ask for support. As a woman who fights for pay equality for women, I understand the frustration of inequality in the way it affects me. Don’t we all fight stronger for things that affect us personally? It is no different than our brown friends right now fighting for things they believe strongly in and want changed. We must listen, support them if they ask or find a way to help with change if we are moved to do so.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to be as compassionate as you can to other people’s struggles especially when it comes to inequality. There is so much more to be done for equality across the board in our country. I encourage you to consider what injustice moves you most and get involved. If you don’t have something you are trying to change, offer empathy to people in desperate need for change to make life or business more equitable.
Just like my grandparents, any woman is welcome at the Women TIES table and that includes more women of color. I stand by you.
Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Wisdom for Women, Women Entrepreneurs, and Americans
Not since the night of 9/11 did I feel the way I did last night, tucking myself into bed early in silence to escape raw images of death and destruction, angst and anxiety, unrest and uselessness of a situation I had no control of causing or creating. At the end of 9/11, I remember peeking in at my young sons sleeping in their beds, praying there would be a tomorrow for us all after the shock of the day and losing a friend in one of the planes. I prayed and turned my worries over to God hoping for a better day and future. Last night, I didn’t have my sons within reach since they are grown white men living in New York City, not far from the police car burning and protest hot-spot of Union Square the night before. How I wish they were still within reach to watch them with a mother’s eye.
With a full and compassionate heart, I hurt for the black and brown men and women effected by injustice. I also felt shame and anger towards the people who broke in and stole from small and large businesses in Santa Monica and other cities. As an entrepreneur, the images of looting affected me deeply understanding how much sweat, tears, and money go into building an enterprise or business storefront. I ached for the entrepreneurs who discover they’ve been robbed when they go to work today perhaps because my house was robbed twice in my life. It’s an unsettling feeling to have others take from you especially since one of the robberies happened while our house was on fire on my 9th birthday. As if devastation from a burning home full of memories isn’t enough, the heartless act of stealing from people while they are down already is horrendous to me.
More than anything I’ve always wanted to be a good person, a person who doesn’t look at the color, sexuality, religion, or economic status of another person as a qualifier for inviting them into my life and loving them. Good people are good people and worthy of my affection period. I believe most people are good. It’s probably why the images of the past few days sent me to bed early, silently, to contemplate the fate of our beautiful nation in harm’s way of destroying itself. I don’t know how to make others see or feel what I see and feel about other people, I just pray they will. I also wish for equality and justice, patience and understanding, more love and empathy, and respect for everyone.
As I slowly got out of bed today, not as eagerly as I typically do with the residue images of yesterday’s anger only a moment away, I do what I typically do which is pray for a better day, write about my feelings to share with others, support my sister entrepreneurs, and go outside in the quiet of my old farmland homestead, where only the birds make noises, and hope that the peace of my heart and surroundings find their way into others hearts today to help solving the problems we all face.
P.S. If you need another unlifting visual to help you see the world differently, listen to this 1985 collobration of “We are the World” found on Youtube at https://youtu.be/4M7c-JOnPdw
Wednesday Wisdom: Get Your Sales Shine Back On
Wednesday Wisdom, Business Strategies and Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
As I began a new daily challenge of running 3.5 miles a day to hit a target goal of running 500K by August 31st as part of New York One Challenge, a phone conversation an hour earlier kept racing through my head. Ever since this economic pause occurred conducting sales for my business felt different. Worrying my customers and potential clients didn’t have money to spend on an annual membership packed with marketing benefits, limited traditional sales practices. Only worried about supporting my members best I could with my $1,200 stimulus money, I refrained from consistent sales calls.
With my Apple iPods in my ears, a favorite Florida Georgia Line song of my son’s came on with the melody, “Baby get your shine on, shine on, shine on” repetitively uplifting my feet and mood as I ran. As the miles went by my brain twisted the meaning of the song to have more significance to my entrepreneurial journey encouraging me to get my “shine back on” when it came to corporate sales activities. Why not shine like the pandemic wasn’t here? Why not be excited about selling the great services my company offers? Why not imagine customers have money to spend? Shine on became “sell on” by the time my short run was done.
Just like these last few days of tropical heat flowing through the air, it only takes a 24 hours to turn a cold day into a warm one making us feel totally different. Why not believe as New York State reopens its business doors our attitude can warm back up to familiar sales activities to help financial streams flowing? I believe if we really want to get our “shine back on,” we have the power to do so; and if we believe, so it will be.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to encourage you to think more positively about the financial prospects that lie ahead. As you know already as experienced women in business, corporate sales can decline depending on many factors only to rise again. Like before remember your corporate sales will increase again. An important part of that winning equation is getting your “shine back on” and believing you have the power to change your financial situation.
Get Creative With Your Business
Tuesday Thoughts, Inspiration, Creative Tips for Women Entrepreneursand small businesses
I never thought of my washing machine as an inspirational business object until hearing a presentation from a woman running a national million dollar company years ago. Her success started when she was challenged to think creatively to resurrect her business after a failure. She decided to put every aspect of her business into a “creative spin cycle.” Three years later she became a rock star in her industry with a nationally recognized business.
Women entrepreneurs are faced with the ups and downs of business 365 days a year. They are also faced with time to think during this global and national economic pandemic. Just when we think things are going great, something happens to challenge the progress. Other times, we are flying high because everything is working well. Every small business owner I know has been faced with a scenario when they ask themselves, “Should I quit or keep going on?”
What the business owner said a few years ago is to realize when something needs to change you must look at the pieces of your business putting them into a “creative spin cycle” to see what comes out. What can you change about what you offer? How can you look at your services or products in a different way? How can you change a “cookie cutter” business philosophy into something new and dynamic?cookiecutter
Today’s post is to motivate you if you are feeling like your company needs fresh ideas to revitalize it by bringing every piece of what you offer into the light and shaking them up to spin our fresh new ideas. Like that speaker, you might need to have meaningful conversations with some trusted partners, discover creative collaborations, focus on what your customers love and test the market. Take what is good about your business and put it through the spin cycle to churn out more success.
If you need some inspiration today, turn on your washing machine mentally throwing your business into it and see what comes out. It might just make you and your company a new industry rock star.
Inspiration, Business Success Strategies, Wednesday Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
In 2011 a reality television show called “Gold Rush” documented the gold mining activities of family-owned mining companies searching for gold near Yukon, Canada. Every week drama surrounded the teams as they “almost” found the mother-load of gold just below the surface. Most of the show looked to me to be a “man cave activity” where my guys watched other men’s machines break down just as the families almost struck it big. Maybe I didn’t watch it because there wasn’t a woman in the mix or because from my entrepreneurial years, I know most people don’t strike gold just because they want to.
Online, the word “prospecting” has two references. The first is searching for mineral deposits in a place, by means of experimental drilling and excavation or the responsibilities of salespeople to prospect for customers. Women entrepreneurs know prospecting has always been an essential part of the sales process leading them to in-person networking events, collecting business cards, and joining LinkedIn. If they were prospecting right, they also reached out to family and friends, old college roommates, personal vendors, and an outer circle of connections close to their immediate “ties” because they needed a list of potential customers to secure one day.
When the Coronavirus Pandemic hit and the economic pause began, prospecting for new customers and even selling to old clients, took a back seat as everyone adjusted to a new normal with less money in the economy. How could an entrepreneur know if clients could pay bills if they were furloughed, lost their jobs, or even their own businesses? Without conversations and research, most business owners were put in a holding pattern when it came time for traditional prospecting and sales activities. Now that New York State is reopening, how will small businesses start selling again especially if there is less money to go around?
This Wednesday Wisdom is meant to get you thinking about ramping up your sales activities again as “regular” business starts. How easy or hard will it be to pick up where you left off when the Coronavirus pause began? Have you been selling all along? Did you put a hold on marketing and sales activities? How eager or resistant are you to begin again? Do you think you are as motivated as the Gold Rush families looking for gold in the Yukon? You should be.
If you aren’t, that’s okay but tune in to Women TIES Zoom Meeting on May 28th to learn from an experienced sales professional to get motivated on prospecting and selling again with the right tools and mental attitude. There’s a lot of gold out there to mine. You just have to be willing to go after it.
Women TIES 