Women Grow Business

I’m still recovering

from the first-ever Women Grow Business Boot Camp, sponsored by Network Solutions and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, this past weekend. Though “recovering” is probably a poor choice of word; it was anything but draining. It was energizing, fun, empowering… I could go on and on.

Even for those of us who bond easily with other women, I don’t think we can quite imagine what it’s like to be in a roomful of women – around 100 or so on Saturday – all with a common goal: to be the best that they can be at their businesses and lives; and often the two overlap.

I started the day nervous but excited; even though we’d planned for pretty much every eventuality, you know Murphy’s Law has a way of insinuating itself just when you don’t need it to.

I ended the day exhausted, emotionally overloaded and literally tingling with the electricity generated by the women I had the great fortune to encounter during the entire experience of pulling the boot camp together.

Our terrific keynote speaker, Kathy Korman Frey, put it best, I think:

“I started the day excited, but unsure – as I am before every talk I give. I ended the day thinking, ‘These are women who could change the world, and probably will.’ Let this be a lesson to all women out there about how a couple of hours, and a room full of the right people, can change your day, your week, your year, and beyond.”

Image: (cc) Shashi Bellamkonda www.shashi.name | Social Media Swami | www.networksolutions.com

Much more to come in terms of information we want to share with all of you who weren’t there – after all, you are ALL our community – but for now, you can see the photos taken by our own Social Media Swami, Shashi Bellamkonda, here. Embedded below is the great keynote Kathy gave, and you can read her blog post here.

And if you’re serious about growing your business, you should sign up for the Sisterhood of Success webinar Kathy’s teaching this Wednesday.

You’ll come away feeling your eyes have just been opened. I guarantee it.

Shonali Burke is editor of Women Grow Business and one of the country’s leading business communicators, who was named to PRWeek’s inaugural top “40 Under 40″ list of US-based PR professionals. She specializes in creating and implementing integrated (online and off), results-based, measurable communication programs for clients both large and small at Shonali Burke Consulting. An accredited business communicator, she is also Adjunct Faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s M.A. in Communications program and active in the local communications community as President of IABC/DC Metro. Talk to her via her blog, Waxing UnLyrical or Twitter.

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Professor Kathy Korman Frey at the George Washington University School of Business has kicked off the 2009-2010 HotMommas Case Study Competition.

Share your experience
It’s a unique project that takes the stories of the women and makes them teachable in a “case study” format, thus providing scalable, global access to role models and virtual mentors.

Need a refresher on Kathy’s great work?
Read this interview with Chief Hot Momma, Kathy Korman Frey, that we published a few months ago.

You have until January 31st:
If you want to nominate someone (yourself included) for the 2009-2010 competition, go to the HotMommas Facebook page or send an email with their information.

Links you may find useful/interesting:

The HotMommas Project

Nomination Form

Why Role Models Matter for Women and Girls

Hot Mommas Project Everyday Revolutionaties

Washington Post article

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Ladies, I’m back.
-with more of the top 10 women’s networking groups in the DC area. I hope you found the first five of this list useful. And the added suggestions from Women Grow Business readers to that list were fantastic (so if you have any more to add, please do in the comments for this post!).

1. YES!Circle.
   YES!Circle is the creation of Margarita Rozenfeld, who is an exceptional career coach, and completely committed to both entrepreneurship and helping others. YES!Circle brings together entrepreneurs from all industries, in all phases of the business lifecycle. Many of the YES!Circle events are held in the downtown DC area. The events provide an intimate setting of brainstorming and learning, and are true peer advisory groups for anyone looking to learn the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship. One of YES!Circle’s most popular annual events is a weekend-long visionary retreat. The next one happens June 26 – 28, 2009 at Berkley Spring, WV. These retreats are for entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and creative types who want to get crystal clear about their vision, mission and action steps to get to their next level of business growth. There are still a few spots available, so check the website for details if an immersion in entrepreneurship interests you. Yes!Circle meets monthly, and the meetings are always full of successful, passionate entrepreneurs looking to connect with like-minded individuals.
2. Executive Women’s Roundtable.
   EWR has evolved into an outstanding group of executive women from all facets of business and government in the DC region. This rapidly growing group meets monthly at Maggianos in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This wonderful setting provides great networking opportunities, and the luncheon speakers are among the best that any networking group has to offer. Speakers include leaders and business owners from all types of businesses, government leaders, political experts, national news correspondents, business coaches, chefs, international authors, women’s rights advocates, health experts, and many more. The leadership of Executive Women’s Roundtable is extremely strong, which ensures top-notch programming and ongoing participation from the best and brightest in our business community.
3. eWomenNetwork.
   eWomenNetwork has been around for many, many years. What started out as a small networking group has mushroomed into one of the most far-reaching women’s networks in the United States. The group has hundreds of networking events occurring during any given month, and the DC Chapter is particularly active. It is run by Susan Wight, who has transformed the DC chapters (meeting in both Tyson’s Corner and Leesburg, VA) into excellent networking events with strong speakers and great attendance. The unique aspect of eWomenNetwork is its national reach. The founder of this group had a vision to create a nationwide, cost-effective network for women, and she has achieved it. There are annual conferences, an author’s network, a coaching network, a speaker’s network, and many other benefits. You can find Susan’s information on the main website, under Managing Directors.
4. National Speakers Association.
   I am a newcomer to NSA, but I attended an event last week, and I know the President of NSA, Susan Trivers. I also know several incredibly gifted colleagues (Sally Strackbein, Jennifer Abernathy, Vernice Armour) that are active in NSA, and they are among the best speakers you could ever hope to see. Not only was I very impressed with the quality, talent, creativity, and diversity of the speakers I saw at their monthly June meeting; I learned so much in the short time that I was there. Professional speaking is truly an art. It is a discipline that requires knowledge in many aspects that extend way beyond an understanding of a specific topic. If you have any interest in pursuing a speaking career, or if you are required to give presentations in your line of work (and most business owners are required to do so), you should consider attending a NSA event or explore their membership options. I hope to be spending more time with NSA.
5. Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia.
   The Women’s Business Center of Northern Virginia is one of the SBA-run women’s business centers around the United States. It is the flagship women’s business center; truly setting the standard for what all women’s business centers should be. These centers fall under the supervision of Ana Harvey, President Obama’s appointed Assistant Administrator for the Office of Women Owned Business within the SBA. Ana is dedicated to ensuring all of the Women’s Business Centers nationwide provide the resources that women business owners need to thrive. This center offers so much to women business owners. It provides classes in virtually every topic, from writing a business plan to securing financing. It provides excellent conferences and workshops, and is a phenomenal springboard and resource for all women business owners.

So there you have my top 10 list. I hope you found a few resources that you have not experienced, and I hope you have been inspired to get out there and connect with other like-minded women.

One more resource
I would like to mention just one more resource. The Hot Mommas Project was launched by an amazing, inspiring woman named Kathy Korman-Frey — who has contributed to Women Grow Business. She’s been teaching women’s entrepreneurship and leadership at George Washington University for years. And here is a description of the Hot Mommas Project:

The Hot Mommas Project is an award-winning women’s leadership program housed at the George Washington University School of Business. The research initiative started in 2002 to fill a gap in the education system:

Scalable access to role models, particularly female ones. Thus, our mission is to increase self-efficacy of women and girls across the globe through exposure to role models. To accomplish our mission, we are building the world’s largest women’s case study library to produce not just vignettes, but credible academic tools that can be utilized in a classroom environment.
I encourage you to visit Hot Mommas to learn more about this groundbreaking program, and to be inspired by heroic tales of entrepreneurship from across the globe.

Thank you for reading my post … more valuable information to come for sure. And what other networking groups and events have been a great support to you in the Washington, DC area?

Happy Networking!

More from Women Grow Business:

• Marissa Levin and her series on sales strategy and leadership;
• Liz Scherer and building quality partnerships (hint: would you marry them?);
• Patricia Frame and women entrepreneurs: value of building your development plan for 2010.

Guest contributor Marissa Levin is Founder and CEO of Information Experts. Launching a new Women Grow Business series on sales strategy, Marissa was named a 2008 BRAVO Award winner by SmartCEO Magazine (which honors the region’s 25 most influential women CEOs) and recently was listed in Washington’s 100 Technology Titans by Washingtonian Magazine. Describing her true passion as “helping other business owners be successful with their own business growth”, Marissa can be reached through her blog Marissa Levin.

Image High Five by LinksmanJD, Creative Commons.

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It was a recent pleasure attending a fundraiser / panel event and reception for the Hot Mommas Project.

Motivating to see: 3 minute video chat
Hot Mommas’ Founder Kathy Korman Frey talked shop on the goals for this event and where the project was headed in regard to women’s entrepreneurial leadership. Thanks for the time Kathy (and congrats!):

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Kathy Korman Frey aka Chief Hot Momma recently shared with Women Grow Business on her women’s leadership program and overall mission to help expand women’s mentoring opportunities aka Hot Mommas Project.

She with her team is geared up to continue connecting emerging women leaders and entrepreneurs to needed experience this summer. And Kathy remains mindful of how to teach life balance while launching new business dreams.

Idea creation, evaluation/research, planning, and pitching
That’s the core curriculum intent of this summer workshop based in women’s entrepreneurial leadership (WEL). It’s a teleseminar format, involving (4) one-hour sessions with action-oriented assignments in between each segment.

A word on deadline
It approaches I think, with the first cycle of classes starting August 17th. Please clarify directly however with her team as I think there’s flexibility available for students (but that’s a theory that’s yet 100% confirmed on my end).

Where to ask questions, how to sign-up, and what to expect
Course planners ask for inquiries to be sent via email from those interested. And the offered guarantee for this program: a measurable increase in the advancement of a core business idea.

More pay dirt:
Those pursuing the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership workshop may also be interested in the “Virtual Mentoring” class.

To register and learn more on the WEL workshop
Send a shout-out via email to support(at)hotmommasproject(dot)org.

And a word to the students!
If you go through the WEL workshop, please visit back at Women Grow Business to relay your lessons learned and achievement as an emerging entrepreneur.

(Image Path to Success by A. Hill, Creative Commons)

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Women Grow Business enthusiast Kathy Korman Frey co-developed the curriculum for the Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at George Washington University (GWU). The program won the National Excellence in Education Award from the U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Kathy also founded the consulting firm Vision Forward and its business curriculum initiative, The Hot Mommas (TM) Project.

This project takes the stories of real women everywhere and converts them to teachable role models for women and girls. It is the world’s largest collection of such teachable stories. And in 2006, the project received one of three National Coleman Foundation Case Awards. Kathy can be reached via Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/ChiefHotMomma.

Kathy’s conviction and drive for teaching entrepreneurship are contagious.
I enjoyed first meeting her at BlogHer’s DC Reach Out Tour last year. And it’s been a thrill watching Kathy’s business make an impact with the growing Hot Mommas Project and other initiatives ever since. Kathy spent a few minutes on the phone recently with Women Grow Business about what’s inspiring her lately and other business observations.

Her shared insights are summarized below.

On what defines entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur doesn’t have to be something you become from attending a certain business course. It simply can be a mindset: Conceiving of an idea, and then seeing it through.

Here are examples:

• An employee of the Smithsonian Institution who was responsible for the construction of the Udvar Hazy air and space museum.

Her entrepreneurial twist? She did it while working part time. Some people call this “intrapreneurship.”

• A stay at home mom who has a lot of business ideas every day, and is figuring out her next move. When is she going to pull the trigger on one of these ideas? She is just at the beginning of the entrepreneurial process. However, she is thinking very entrepreneurially and keeping a list of her ideas.
• A student who has an idea for a business, or something that would improve her school. She implements it WHILE in school, and continues the business after school. Two examples of this: A student of mine at GW who started a business council to bring together the disparate student groups in one place – then plugged in faculty and the administration. Another student saw many groups for MBAs, but what about undergrads interested in business? She started University Women in Business along with some other students and it has taken hold across the nation.
• The Mompreneur movement.
  This movement is a flashing billboard for their new definition of success and entrepreneurship. Women are using their brains to entrepreneur their work, and their lives. Both realms are legitimate banners to be held out there as “success.” Talk about bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan! (Or, as my case goes, bring home the bacon and hire someone else to fry it up in a pan because I tend to endanger my eyebrows and eyelashes when put in a cooking situation).

The interest in this model is starting EARLY. My students now want to know how to fit the life pieces together.

• So, I literally had to inject parts of the Hot Mommas Project and the lessons from our surveys and database of women’s stories into the actual class! Right along spreadsheets and the 4Ps of marketing. How’s that for evolution?
• Boomers and caregiving.
  Women are caregivers. It’s not just a “oh – women tend to do this.” It’s a fact. A majority of women are the caregivers for their kids, their parents, etc. Boomers are a forgotten group, I think. Someone please get in there and entrepreneur this area? I used to work at the National Council on the Aging and have a strong affinity for this demographic.

We are taught to think very linearly, however…
We ladies are zigging and zagging and doing it with style. The Hot Mommas Project actually would not exist without the zigs and zags. So, I am embracing the curves of the road now. No one can tell us anymore that it should be a straight road.

Blue suit entrepreneurship
The wheeling dealing dude in the blue suit is, frankly, an outdated image of entrepreneurship. It’s spreading. It’s everywhere. And we can all get in on it. The premise that “anything is possible” drives the new entrepreneurial mindset.

On confidence for carving out success (and failure along the way)
I tell my students confidence won’t be handed to you from some magical place. The trial and error of the real-world exercises in our Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership class are what give students a taste of the confidence that comes with putting yourself out there and DOING. They, the students, all innately understand that REAL success is not about memorizing concepts or turning in course assignments on time.

Academic communities tend to brainwash into the black and white a bit.
You are either an ‘A’ student or not. Corporate America does it too. How high have you gotten in the organization? How much money do you make? It is important for students of business and life to understand that false confidence comes from the title and the money.

A deeper confidence comes from another place. We try to get at that with the Hot Mommas Project – real stories, real people, real successes and failures.

Here is an example:
Saranne is a Stage 4 cancer survivor. Do you think she felt like a failure when she was in chemo and possibly less able to take care of her daughter and day to-day activities? Do you think she felt like a failure when her health took a front seat to the go-go-go?

Maybe, maybe not.

An extreme situation like that makes us say, “Of COURSE not! She did what she had to do to survive!” There are little, junior varsity versions of this everyday. You are tired. You are on overdraft protection. You need to take some time for yourself. You beat yourself up over it. You’re not “doing what you have to do to survive”…you’re shirking your responsibility.

Our survey shows a great number of women think this way. It’s a little feeling of failure every day. My message [in response to this belief] is STOP!

For more on Saranne, please join us for a case discussion of Saranne’s Hot Mommas Project story. And comments made before June 15 will be automatically entered into a drawing for a MomAgenda.

Women who have role models and mentors are more successful. Period.
So, if someone were to take away ONE thing from this post, I would want it to be go out and find a role model or mentor. It could be a guy, it could be a peer — mentors and role models come in all shapes and sizes (here is a podcast I did for HipTranquilChick on setting up your own mentor group).

Thoughts on a badge of honor
Failure is an interesting one. I was part of the generation that didn’t “do” failure. I think we’re kind of spoiled because there were no real generationally-influencing wars or hard times. You can see the humbling impact a national event like 9-11 has on our nation. It gets us thinking about what really matters. I like to use that as a tool to calm fears and worries – about failure especially.

There is a badge of honor that comes with failure, and looking at it, and saying “Hey, okay, I learned from that,” and moving on.

Manifesting baby steps as an entrepreneur
It’s really valuable to keep in mind that small steps toward implementing an idea are key in developing that entrepreneur-like initiative. For example, do you have a volunteerism idea? Convene a local meeting and invite people’s feedback on your concept.

That’s creating something new and following an idea up with action. It’s this exact one-two-punch of idea and action that anchors the entrepreneur’s mindset.

A Hot Mommas Project book is scheduled for publication in late 2009-2010. In the meantime, browse the Hot Mommas Project case library, and participate in an online case discussion of real women at www.HotMommasProject.org.

(Photo credit of Kathy Korman Frey by Jessica McConnell, George Washington University)

More from:

• NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin;
• Online chat with the Washington Post “Learning to Balance Work and Family
• Washington Post Magazine’s “CEO of Me Inc;
• Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership class.

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