Constant Client Communication Vital For Small Business Success
Monday Marking Advice and Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
Yesterday during a conversation with some women entrepreneurs, I shared success using Constant Contact (an email marketing tool) to communicate with my Women TIES members the past 13 years and reaching out to new 261 Fearless Expo contacts this year. Since Constant Contact is something you might want to subscribe to and use regularly to communicate with your customers in 2018 if you aren’t using an email marketing system yet. Here is some quick information on Constant Contact.
According to https://blogs.constantcontact.com/benefits-of-email-marketing/, deciding where to invest your marketing dollars isn’t a decision you take lightly. You know you need to attract new customers and keep your existing clients coming back, but you can’t afford to invest time or resources into something that isn’t going to deliver the results you expect. Email marketing is a cost-effective solution that gives you the power to reach customers in a place most people visit every day — their inbox.
There’s plenty of data to back up the benefits of email marketing. For example: 91 percent of US adults like to receive promotional emails from companies they do business with (MarketingSherpa, 2015) and Email is almost 40 times more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined in helping your business acquire new customers. (McKinsey, 2014)
Here are the top 10 of 29 benefits of using email marketing:
1. Build credibility
People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Email gives you the ability to build credibility with your audience by sharing helpful and informative content.
2. Generate calls
When done right, email marketing lets you reach the right person, with the right offer, at the right time. For some businesses, a well-timed email results in a flood of calls each time they hit send.
3. Increase donations
As fundraising efforts continue to move online, nonprofits need to adapt their outreach efforts as well. For example: Texas-based nonprofit, Rescued Pets Movement, saw the benefit of using email to increase donations when they sent an email to raise emergency funds for a dog in need in March 2013.
4. Strengthen relationships
If you want to build strong customer relationships, it’s important to have an effective tool to communicate with the people who matter most to your business. Email gives you the ability to stay top-of-mind and keep people engaged with your business during your busy season and the slower times of the year.
5. Improve communication
If your business depends on having a reliable way to communicate with your members and clients, you need to have a communication channel you can trust.
6. Build your brand
With email, you can strengthen brand recognition with new and potential clients, and extend your reach when people forward or share your message with a friend.
7. Boost sales
When you have an audience of people who are interested in receiving updates from your business, you’ll be able to think differently about how you boost sales throughout the year. This has been especially valuable for a business like Colorado-based Allegria Spa, which communicates with local residents and visitors from around the country.
8. Learn what works
Email marketing gives you the metrics you need to see how your emails are performing. These insights help you market smarter, and also give you the advantage of better understanding the needs and interests of your customer base.
9. Get started quickly
With email marketing software like Constant Contact, you’ll have the tools and training you need to get started quickly — regardless of your level of marketing experience or expertise. When you do get stuck, they have a team of people who are dedicated to your success.
10. Reach people on any device
With nearly two-thirds of all emails being opened on a mobile device, email marketing is one of the best tools you can use to take advantage of the growing popularity of mobile technology.
I hope you give yourself the gift of email marketing this holiday season as you look into 2018 and a new business year. Communicating with our customers is a priceless gift for all.
Wednesday Wisdom: The Silence Breakers
Inspiration, Wisdom and Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
I had to wait to see what was about to be announced. I hoped with all my heart it would be a female on the cover of Time Magazine Person of the Year since in my opinion this has been the year of women stepping up in our country. I flashed back to a warm May 2017 day testifying in front of the New York State Labor Commissioner and her panel of 8 women listening to reasons our government needs to pass a state pay equality bill; because until a law is passed women entrepreneurs will continue to under price their services too.
Then my memory jumped to images of pink hats, signs and two busloads of women from Central New York traveling with me to Washington in January and an interview in front of the Capitol building with ESPNW where I spoke about Women TIES Mission of women buying from women to help eradicate pay inequality. Young women jumped in the background after the interview cementing my words with their excitement.
When I announced and promoted the fact I was taking women to the Women’s March, I received calls from women all over the state asking me about details, but more importantly sharing their stories of rape, sexual harassment in the work place, losing a son to AIDS, worrying about their handicapped son not being treated well and so much more. I was touched by every story. It changed me. It made me more resolute to do what I could for all women period – not just women in business although that is where my true passion resides – but for all female causes.
Although some of my followers did not agree with my decision to go to Washington DC, which affected the number of members and friends, I had to go and bring women with me that wanted to go. It was about showing support for the gender I love -women. You can imagine how glad I was to see Time Magazine’s cover “The Silence Breakers” revealed starring women who broke their silence through the #MeToo movement.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is a salute to every single woman who has withstood pay inequality, injustice, sexual harassment, and gender inequality. I am sure if you are reading this you have experienced some form of injustice or inequality in your lifetime. It is also to remind you that women have been the ones to share your story and emotions with and who inspire us to fight on. Today, appreciate the women who have stuck by you and elevated you when life was tough.
I also want you to mark your calendar for the weekend of January 19-21, 2018 when Women TIES, along with the New Feminists for Justice, a group that created the Syracuse Women’s March last year, will produce a non-political celebratory weekend for women and girls including an empowering business and networking event on Friday, Women’s March on Saturday, and attend the Syracuse University Women’s Basketball team trying to break an attendance record on Sunday. Please join me shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand as we kick-off “the year of women.”
Monday Motivation: The Value of Traveling for Business, Meeting Legends & Fearless Women
Inspiration and wisdom for women entrepreneurs and female business owners
For the past six months I have been helping Team 261 Fearless spread news about their social running community for women here in the United States. Encouraging women who like to run to join 261 Fearless is another passion of mine especially since I have met so many new international and national women the past two years since being invited by Kathrine Switzer to meet her and 13 other women in New York City. My life has changed for the better in so many ways but especially by becoming more fearless in business, sports and life. As Kathrine says, “When you are fearless, you are free.”
I wanted to share with my female readers and Women TIES members the wonderful weekend I just experienced in San Antonio, Texas spreading the news about 261 Fearless through attendance at an EXPO, special events and even a 5K run with new Texas friends. These women are just as fantastic as the women I’ve met the past 22 years in business. We are the same – fearless women with passion for supporting each other in life. If you are interested in becoming more involved with 261 Fearless, contact me directly and visit 261 Fearless Website.
Team 261 Fearless Rocks and Rolls San Antonio
On a balmy Thursday night, Deb Mills and Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham, 261 Fearless Staff Members, arrived in beautiful San Antonio, Texas just in time to stroll along the infamous San Antonio River Walk. Since it was December and the start of holiday season, beautiful long strands of green, white and red lights hung down from tall trees proving dazzling lighting as dusk turned into dark. The air was full of holiday tunes and Mexican songs sung by a boys and girls musical group. Deb and I were both thankful to experience Texas for the first time together – a state both of us had not visited yet. If the atmosphere was a foreshadowing of the fun to come, we would have known this 261 Fearless event would be special.
The San Antonio Rock and Roll event began Friday morning with a flashy start when a samba band and two dancers dressed in gold and purple sashayed to the stage to warm up the crowed before introducing some rock stars of running including 261Fearless’ own Kathrine Switzer and 2015 Men’s Boston Marathon Winner Meb Keflezighi.The crowd was thick listening to the running stars and eager to enter the Expo after the speeches. Kathrine shared the origins of 261 Fearless as the audience erupted in applause.
The 261 Fearless Expo Booth welcomed many visitors including a collection of 100 women interested in joining our Train the Trainer programs in Dallas, Chicago and Boston in 2018, signing up for our newsletter or becoming a new “Fearless Friend.” We also greeted our 261 Fearless Rock and Roll running team of 14 women including one special 11 year old girl named “Rosie” who had written a paper on Kathrine Switzer and decided to run on our team to meet her. This girl was a spark of energy and joy. She made a few eyes tear up when she jumped for pure joy when she first encountered Kathrine.
The 5K and 10K races started(click on the link to watch the quick video)on Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. blocks away from the iconic “Alamo.” 261 Fearless camerawoman Rosy Sparker was ready to videotape our run on Facebook Live and Boston Athletic Association Past President Joann Flamino joined us as the new 261 Fearless Advocate. With our new purple running shirts on, we started off through the streets. I ran behind little Rosie at times telling her I was running better in her tale winds! It was the truth having not run for 4 months due to a hip injury.
As I lost sight of my team, I remembered Kathrine’s wise words, “Running is about putting one foot in front of the other- no matter what your ability until you finish the race.” I was doing that as I lost my “group” happily letting them finish together triumphantly. Around the two and a half mile mark, I saw Meb Keflezighi running down our street slapping hands and telling us to keep running. He almost missed my hand but slowed down and came back to slap it! I thought “Okay Tracy let’s get this ole’ hip of yours to the finish line since Meb inspired you!”
At the finish line I found my “family of purple sisters” waiting for me. We hugged and decided to walk a block to the iconic Alamo to take a group photo. How could we not do that? We were running together in Texas! Later that evening we joined together in celebration for dinner in a beautiful restaurant along the River Walk with an original Train-the-Trainer Mary T. Callaghan of Houston Texas who Deb and I hadn’t seen since first meeting her, Kathrine and each other in October 30, 2015. Mary operates the Greater Houston Girls on the Run. We all shared Mexican food and drinks and listened to Kathrine and Joann inspire us. Our runners were gifted with small tokens of appreciation for their fundraising efforts and we all hugged good bye since the half and marathon runners had to run the next morning.
As the sun set over the River Walk with the twinkling lit trees as if to say, “Hope ya’ll had a great time,” we departed happy to have run together with new fearless friends from another part of America, hoping we meet again soon in another great city together with our new national and international friends. This is the true “spirit” of 261 Fearless! I can’t wait to meet more incredible women in 2018!
Looking Into 2018
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration and Advice for New York State Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of speaking to a female reporter from New York Magazine who discovered the fact I had taken 110 women to the Women’s March on Washington in January. She was composing a story for the one year anniversary of the event and wanted to speak to women who participated in the March and how it had changed their lives. Always being someone open to talking to media, I accepted her invitation.
The one hour in-depth interview covered many topics especially the origins of Women TIES along with my increasingly feminist spirit to not only help women entrepreneurs, but to speak about about pay inequality, and encouraging more women to support female athletes. She asked if this new spirit was born from the March. I told her I didn’t think so but it was strengthened by the almost one million women I witnessed positively standing shoulder to shoulder in support of all things women.
“When did you change Tracy?” she asked. I said, “I guess I never realized until this year that the female activist has been inside me all along.” Earlier in the week, a local group who coordinated the Syracuse Women’s March asked me to work with them to create one here on January 20, 2018. I agreed but suggested we could broaden the event into a “Weekend Celebration of Women” starting with a business empowerment program produced by Women TIES on Friday, the March on Saturday and a large attendance of women at the Syracuse University Women’s Basketball Game on Sunday. Why not make the entire weekend, a pro-female celebration of unity, peace and movement.
Just like earlier this year, I will be inviting every woman I know through our membership, readership, events and social media connections to come together and celebrate with me and other women to keep the movement and spirit of the Women’s March continuing. It will not have a political spin to it just women celebrating women.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to encourage you to embrace everything good about you and to share it with the world in 2018. We need more women standing up, sharing, and collaborating to make this world more powerful and positive through our actions. It does not mean you have to be political; it means you have to get involved and unite with women of similar interests whether that’s women in business, with similar community interests, or with social causes that move your heart and spirit.
I believe 2018 will be the year of the woman and I want you to join Women TIES as we expand our reach beyond just business to incorporate more social and community activities to bring women together. The world will never change for the better unless more women unite and stand up to support other women in more areas of life. Mark your calendar for January 19-21, 2018 and stay tuned for details. I want you at our events to lend your own unique perspective and energy.
As New York State Lt. General Kathy Hochul said at our POWER Conference in September, “100 years from now, what will women say about the women of today and how they made the world a better place for women?” I want to be one of the women that is making that positive change to last another 100 years. Will you join me?
Increasing Revenue Takes Effort
Marketing Monday Wisdom on Sales for Women Entrepreneurs
Another Monday has arrived and whether you look forward to it with anticipation and excitement as a professional probably is influenced with how you ended your business week last week or the rest, rejuvenation and enjoyment you found over the Thanksgiving holiday There is something very appealing to Monday mornings if you are an entrepreneur because if you are like me you are excited about ways to increase revenue.
If you are having trouble finding motivation behind doing sales at the start of a new work week, I hope today’s Marketing Monday post called “Increasing Revenue Takes Effort” which was delivered by sales expert Lynn Hidy of UpYourTeleSales.com at a meeting last year for my company Women TIES will inform and motivate you in your sales efforts this week.
Increasing Revenue Takes E.F.F.O.R.T
E- Enthusiasm
* Ask your customers why they do business with you and what keeps them coming back.
* Ask them “why choose to do business with you vs. any other similar company/organization?”
F – Focus
* Focus is critical in generating more money. You must focus on specific revenue generating activities all the time whether you like it or not.
* Set an appointment with yourself on your calendar to make sales calls.
F – Forecast
* Focus is crucial in generating more money. Focus needs to be specific revenue generation energy.
* Set an appointment with yourself so you can focus and concentrate on sales activities.
* Women entrepreneurs do not spend enough time forecasting. Forecasting can help drive your sales activity!
O – Optimize
* Create an ideal customer profile of who your best customers are.
* Know where your clients are from and when you can allow yourself to be in the right time and place to meet them.
* Put yourself in the position to have a great sales conversation.
R – Results
* Conduct a survey of current customers because the goal is to turn data into information, and information into insight and insight into making decisions.
* You must know your clients well enough to know when a potential customer does not fit your client profile. If they don’t “qualify”, let them go.
TT – Talk Tracts
* Create good scripts to qualify prospects.
* Know how you will handle any objections.
* Make sure you know how to close a membership sale.
I wish you a fantastic and productive revenue producing week ahead. Believe that anything is possible if you put your focus and effort into achieving your goals.
P.S. If you live in the Greater Albany, Saratoga or Capital Region, join us at this Wednesday’s event to jump start sales with some new women entrepreneurs. Register by November 28th at 4 p.m. at http://womenties.com/events.cfm#Event493
Thanksgiving Message for Women Entrepreneurs
Inspiration and Wednesday Wisdom with the theme of Thanksgiving
Earlier this year my youngest sister traced our family tree back to having two relatives on the Mayflower. Tracing our lineage forward our ancestors never left the New England region even up to our grandparents residing in Johnstown, New York near Albany.
In 2005, a year before my father passed away, we spent Thanksgiving in Maine. I remember waking up to a light snowfall with the smell of fresh coffee and a house filled with my three youngest siblings, father, stepmother, husband and two sons. It was one of those magical days when your heart sings and knows it will remember why the day was so special. I now know my “ancestors spirit” was probably around us in New England.
My stepmother and I were in the kitchen making up a homemade butternut soup recipe as we tasted it as we were developing it. My sons were downstairs in the basement running around to the music of my brother’s drums and guitar playing. My father and husband were watching football. It was as close as you could get to a Hallmark Thanksgiving.
Now 16 years later my father’s laughter is in my memory, my stepmother can’t cook because she has Alzheimer’s Disease living in a nursing home, my brothers and sisters live in different parts of New England and I await my two grown up sons to fly home together tonight from New York City where they work and live. Time passes.
My story is the same as your story but slightly different. Memories of Thanksgiving past creep into our hearts especially if we have lost a loved one this year or if our family dynamic has changed. It is a reason I like to think back to the bravery of the newly arrived pilgrims and their willingness to sit down with a tribe of people they didn’t know to share a moment in time filled with appreciation for being together and the food prepared, then we can do the same.
As women entrepreneurs we are blessed every day to live the life of our dreams which may be different yet similar to the early Americans who believed life could be better in a new world. We are fortunate to “live our dream” making our own money our own way and sharing it with any tribe of people we serve.
My life has been enriched with the thousands of women I have met the past twenty two years associated with my businesses. If I had a large enough dining room table, I would invite each and every one of them over to share in the meal I am cooking. Since I can’t do that, I will bless and thank each of them – and you – when I say my grace tomorrow.
The Flow of Business Planning
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration and Advice for Women, Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
As the road led around curves, up hills and into the Adirondack Park, the vista became spotted with tall pine trees, deer munching on greens alongside the road, silent lakes abandoned from summer joy and grey gloomy skies. I had promised myself I would support a dear friend at her annual Retreat for women giving myself a gift of reflection as another business year draws to an end. When else would I have time to contemplate an amazing year of activity, fearlessness and growth?
The moment I opened the car door, letting the warm air of a three hour drive release into the crisp 13 degree air of Blue Mountain Lake, I felt the surge of positive energy hit me. I was in the right place at the right time and excited to learn from my friend, the other women and myself. The main log cabin had a crackling fireplace, full-size glass windows peering out to calm waters and the smell of pine. I heard women converse in another room, laughing and sharing already. I was eager to join them and partake in the discussion.
The theme of “clarity” or “clearing away” was introduced in every exercise, artistic options and group dialogs during the Retreat. Every woman was there needing lucidity in their business or personal lives. I was there to ponder this next stage in my life as an empty nester and 22 year woman entrepreneur being pulled towards more equality and women’s rights issues. We were all there to create a flow of feelings and intellectual thoughts without resistance that would lead us forward.
We were invited to take breaks in nature at points throughout the day. It was hard not to be drawn outside to the beautiful calm lake with lapping water. I sat on a dock, like I had growing up, thinking back on my life and forward. The water had a way of bringing up memories. After taking in the recollections, I walked up a hill to a beautiful bubbling stream rushing downhill. The flow of the water, stillness of the air and gurgling of nature enveloped me into a cocoon of hope. Flowing out were old emotions, flowing in was enlightened future ideas. How could Mother Nature produce such profound insight?
Every day gave us a chance to embrace another woman’s past, current situation and hope for her future. Dreams of a stronger marriage, empty nest lifestyle, changes in profession and becoming healthier were just a few of my new friend’s hopes. On the last morning as we said good-bye, we held hands in a circle acknowledging the women we met, the quality time spent together and a new awareness for our lives. It was a circle of fulfillment.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to soak into this visual putting yourself in my spot as I journeyed to this special place, witnessing the beauty, freshness and hope for a different and yet blessed future. Once in awhile, we need to go “off track” into serenity to contemplate, plan and hope forward. Like the crystal clear stream, we aren’t mean to be stagnate but to move, flow and change overtime. We often feel stuck when we stop ourselves from moving forward. I hope you do so today in peace and hope.
I wish you a blessed and beautiful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Remember to be thankful for your personal entrepreneurial life that flows everyday with new possibilities.
The Most Important Question to Ask
Inspiration and wisdom for women entrepreneurs, small business owners, female business owners
There have been many times I have asked myself one particular question. I asked it when I graduated from college and had to find my first professional job. The same question appeared when I had my first son. About 4 years later, the issue arose after having my second son realizing I couldn’t afford daycare costs on our salary. This question has appeared at every cross road and significant milestone in my personal life.
After becoming a woman entrepreneur at the age of 30, the same question surfaced time and again as I grew my first business, launched my second one and added divisions to the second company after 22 years of becoming a woman entrepreneur. I haven’t mind addressing the inquiry because it appears when I’m ready and sometimes when I’m not but always in the right moment. The million dollar question that appears in most women’s personal or business life is “What Now?”
As human beings we get use to a certain pattern in life or work and then a change occurs and we ask ourselves the important question, “What Now?” For some of us it means, educating ourselves so we can survive the next step, other times it requires faith, many times it means letting go and moving on into another stage waiting for us. Sometimes we see the end coming or the new beginning shining bright and other times we are surprised.
The riches, rewards and knowledge I have gained over two decades of being a woman entrepreneur have altered my path along the business journey. No longer am I satisfied with just planning golf tournaments or managing someone’s fundraising event, I need more. My evolution demands more. The evolvement of women in the work place, playing fields and board rooms still with so many inequalities leaves me asking “What Now?” like it always has.
With more time on my hands because my sons live in New York City means more time to work longer hours, travel to different destinations, accept more speaking invitations and passionately and more loudly support issues important to me. Perhaps at 53 years old, I want to contemplate the “What Now” question so I make the next 20 years of my life and career more meaningful then ever to leave a legacy. I want to continue to change the world for the better for women entrepreneurs and women the best way I know how by always asking that question “What Now Tracy?”
If you are inspired to find out more about your next step in life or business, join me on Friday, November 17th in Syracuse for a program called “Activate & Strengthen Your Vision For The Next Stage.” I promise you and I will walk away with a clearer answer to that question.
Brilliant New Women to Meet
Inspiration and Wednesday Wisdom for women entrepreneurs and female business owners
A top the 48th floor of a new building in Hudson Yards with 240 degree glass views of New York City with the most mesmerizing crystal clear view of the Hudson River was where a centennial celebration of women’s suffrage was held on November 6th. The room glowed from gold and purple lights intermixing to create a spectacular aura as fanciful hors d’oeuvres and ‘suffrage’ drinks comprised of champagne, rose water and a lavender bud were passed. My two handsome sons, who don’t mind having a ‘pro-female’ mother, joined me and mingled with women of all ages. A tall cake topped with “100” was center stage for all to see. It was glorious.
Like any networking event, people mingled looking for others to talk to. I couldn’t take my eyes off a woman I thought was someone I knew from a Women TIES event in Skaneateles. I finally approached her and said, “Do I know you?” She responded, “I don’t think so, but tell me who you are?” So I shared my background and how I was invited to this exclusive affair. In turn she told me she had recently met New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul and was invited to attend. After more ‘small talk’ about my career including the Women’s Athletic Network, the woman said to me, “I love sports too. I was the CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers once,” I thought to myself only in New York City on this night would I meet this amazing career woman.
The woman I met was Wendy Selig-Prieb, an attorney by trade and the only female president and chairman of a Major League Baseball Club. As part of management’s Labor Committee in 1994-1995, Selig-Prieb was the first woman to represent Major League Baseball in its collective bargaining with the MLB Players Association. She served on numerous other committees for Baseball and represented the Brewers at Major League meetings from September 1992- January 2005. She was an impressive in person as in her resume. She engaged with my sons even asking my oldest son about her orthopedic ankle injury. We walked away glad to have met each other.
I wish I had a chance to meet every woman in that room there to celebrate women’s history. What stories would each of them have? Who could I have met and the reasons why they were there and how they are making a contribution to women’s history in business? There are also women not at business events, like my sister Bre Chamberlain who fights for Fair Rent Portland to help her own community. I won’t know about all the women in the world making positive changes but I learned the simple lesson in reaching out to someone new and starting a meaningful conversation until we uncover more brilliant women to know, do business with and admire.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you this month to meet as many new women as you can at our events or others and uncover the brilliant, innovative, intelligent women that exist in this world. It is time to come out from your small network of familiar faces and launch yourself into a new community of women you haven’t met yet.
Women TIES loves doing that for our regional female entrepreneurs at our regional meetings, during our equality programs and even at female sporting events. Ask yourself, “Who could I meet at the next program and how my world will be different after meeting them?” You might just feel higher than a kite looking out over the sparkling lights of a horizon after you do. I welcome you to rise above.
Women Don’t Forget You Have G.I.R.L. Power
Inspiration, wisdom and advice for women, women entrepreneurs, females and girls
The beautiful Gal Gadot portrayed “Wonder Woman” in the movies this year empowering girls and women everywhere to seek the “wonder woman” within her. What resonated with me about the movie was actually the beginning of it when young wonder woman was a spunky, tenacious girl defying her elders to follow her internal passion and desire to meet her destiny on her own timeline.
Last week I was asked to deliver an inspiring speech to the top Gold Award Girl Scouts of New York/Pennsylvania. Although there were 50 of them in total, there were only 20 in the audience. I took some inspiration from Wonder Woman and brought my own “secret girl power weapon” with me – pink glasses. I also brought pink glasses for each girl to give to them at the end of the presentation. They were a gift from me to them so they would always remember the woman they were in this moment, tackling large community projects, excelling above others and changing the world their own way. The pink glasses were for them to put on anytime they need strength, fearlessness, or motivation to follow their internal path. It was not a golden lasso but it was something they loved.
Today’s blog post is to remind women of all ages they have a G.I.R.L. in them as well so here is part of my speech in remind you that even if you aren’t Wonder Woman, you are as powerful as any other women or girl in this world capable to do anything and change the world for the better.
G – Go Getter
How many of you typically raise your hand in the classroom to answer questions or help? That was me in elementary school through high school. I was always raising my hand. I never quite understood why others didn’t raise their hand as much as me. I just “had to raise my hand” – because I wanted to always be doing something to challenge myself as a “leader”. Being a Go Getter is something you have inside you and it’s ready to come out bursting into life. Think of it as a bright pink energy. It’s a drive. A desire. A knowing. It’s something you might be able to contain because you know you have something to give. Go Getters can’t just sit by, they must be involved because they want to make a difference.
I – Innovator
When we talk about innovator – how would you describe that “person inside you”? Is it by the projects you did to get this award? Is it ideas you keep having to make the world better? Or is it like my neice Ramona who picks up a plastic plate and spies beach glass and says, “Aunt Tracy I’m going to make a really pretty ornament to hang in your window? One of the reasons I love the word innovator is because it means “trendsetting” or “shining a light” on something. You were innovative when you created your Gold Star Award projects. You had a spark of light that hit you and you developed into something real and important. Don’t ever lose sight of this spark because they keep coming all your life if you look for them.
The world needs innovators in all areas especially the STEM fields which is really great career future for girls. STEM is science, technology, engineering and math. I actually was really interested in these subjects throughout my educational years but I never had a female role model in one of these careers pushing me to stick with it. Many of the STEM fields are about innovation in some way.
R – Risk Taker
Aahhh….risk is an interesting word. How many of you would say you are a risk taker? In my mind being a “risk taker” means someone has enough confidence in themselves and their abilities that they believe they can do something even though others think they can’t.
When you are so passionate about changing something, experiencing something new or jumping into an adventure, it feels risky BUT if you’ve thought about it and its safe than the only harm taking the risk is that you might fail at it. My favorite quote of all time is, “If you don’t try, you can’t fail. If you fail, you get back up and try again.” This has happened to me many times in my life. Sometimes the risk paid off and other times it didn’t.
For example – to start your own business takes risk. Monetary risk, market risk, longtivity risk. But I had desire too strong to not take the risk and try after seeing my Aunt run her business since the late sixties and my mom who ran a ski shop with my Dad. I was around women who risked in business which encouraged me deep in my spirit to do the same one day even though I never realized it until I was 30!
Sometimes a risk pays off much bigger than you imagine it can. Your world opens up when you take calculated risks. I would not be standing up here speaking to you today, if I didn’t take the biggest risk of all to become an outspoken woman who wants other women to believe in “woman power” and “girl power” still in a male dominated world.
Some people ask me, “Do you hate men and boys?” and I say, “Of course not, I have a husband, two sons, a father and two brothers – I love men but I am on this earth to help advance women and girls so they have more equality.” My favorite quote on my desk reads, “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.” I risk every day in my beliefs because I want to give back and I want to give back to girls and women. My boys think I’m actually pretty cool because I “live pink” but I love watching sports and I throw a mean football pass. So I’m good with them!
L – Leader –
I knew I could lead. I believed in myself. If you believe in yourself and find something you want to be a leader of, then you raise that hand, volunteer, or create a business or non-profit organization someday where you can change the world your own way. The more you lead, the more confident you become too.
Leadership can take you on an amazing journey. Earlier this year, I took 110 women to the Women’s March on Washington in January to join almost a million other people to march peacefully and in soliditary with each other for women’s rights which are also human rights. I KNEW if I didn’t lead two busloads of women, some of us couldn’t get there to be part of the historic moment.
You know what that leadership role cost me two really dear friends and some of my customers because I was leading something that was seen as “political” but I couldn’t sit in Syracuse and not go. I had forgotten that back in 9th grade, I put together an all female slate to run for our 9th grade class office roles. I ran as President and had 3 other girl friends run. Before us, no all girl slate had ever run! But I didn’t think about what had happened before, I did what I thought was awesome.
(Me now delivering speeches)
I remember being up on stage with my speech written out in red pen – which I could not see from my little note cards – back then I wasn’t a polished speaker so I stuttered some I’m sure, but I delivered the speech. Next up was an all guys slate – which was typical back then – 1979 and still today in most cases right? I didn’t care I was challenging the norm, I knew me and my 3 girlfriends would do a stellar job as class officers.
The election took place and what do you think happened? Did we win or did we lost? WE LOST. How did it feel? Not so bad really. I was really proud we had tried to break the “norm” back then. All 4 of us didn’t wallow in our loss, we started taking on leadership roles in other organizations like Honor Society, YearBook, etc. We tried. Remember my quote above, “We tried. We failed. We got up and tried again until we succeeded.”
Failure is not a horrible event in life. It can be a motivator for greater things. Just remember to get back up again!
Women TIES 