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"My gameplan for the conference: talk to women business owners and find out what they are passionate about, how they create the all-important big vision to make their dreams come true and how they handle . . . day-to-day activities." |
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Event Blog – NAWBO Conference NAWBO DAY 3: THE LAST DAY, LEAVING LASTING IMPRESSIONS Posted on June 16, 2008
It's the last day of the conference, and while on the first day I leaped out like it was the first day of school, today I'm creaking out of my bed like I just got back from my prom and have a morning exam. I can't believe it's come to an end so quickly, but I feel like I've packed in months of business networking and learning into three days.
This morning's sessions on brand awareness were terrific. Valarie Willis, principal of Valarie Willis Consulting (valariewillisconsulting.com), demystified a sometimes scary subject. "Fifty-one percent of employers say they live the brand every day, but only 9 percent said they knew what the brand was," Willis said. I saw a lot of women having "aha" moments in her session.
Next up to tantalize was Sophronia Scott, principal of the Done for You Writing & Publishing Co. (doneforyouwriting.com), who talked passionately about the power of books. This Harvard grad, a journalist and former editor at People, rallied women to position themselves for power. "Dan Kennedy and Tim Ferris [authors of the No BS series and 4-Hour Work Week, respectively] shouldn't be the only leaders in the field," Scott said. "There's no reason why women shouldn't be at the forefront too."
Scott did a great job of breaking down the sometimes daunting task of writing a book into small, bite-size steps that are manageable. The key thing she wanted to convey to people who are already authors is that a book is just a beginning. The key to being successful lies in the products, workshops, CDs, DVDs, speaking fees and a host of other spinoffs. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and you could see women scribbling their notes fast and furious.
Making Connections Last Long after the great suggestions are faded away in my noggin, it's the business owners and their enthusiasm I'll remember most. People like Marciela Solis de Kester, the president of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (tucsonhispanicchamber.org), and Lea Marquez-Peterson, business broker (tucsonBizForSale.com), who were at the conference looking to bring business information specifically for Hispanic business owners.
I loved the enthusiasm and vision of Geetha Pai, whose ideas for her company, Baskets-n-Bags (baskets-n-bags.org), are not only making the world a greener place to be, but are helping support women entrepreneurs in India and Asia.
But what touched me most came after chatting with Sandy Dumont, principal in The Image Architect (theimagearchitect.com), and Anne Freedman, president of Speak Out (speakoutinc.com), a firm that helps corporate people learn how to communicate. Freedman, who also leads NAWBO's Miami Chapter and is on the board of her city's chamber of commerce, clasped my hand and as we said our goodbyes said, "Let's see how we can help each other." Those words, spoken with kindness, still ring in my ears. Isn't this what this whole conference is all about? It's an opportunity to bond with fellow business owners, learn from them and ultimately help one another.
For me, this has been an extraordinary experience. For a girl who didn't believe in networking, I'm hooked. If networking means finding incredibly smart people with whom you find a lot in common and share a great deal, count me in. I'm looking forward to following up, deepening the connection into relationships and keeping up with these spirited ladies. I'm also ready to sign up for next year.
Alison Woo is the co-author of How to Say It: Marketing with New Media: A Guide to Promoting Your Small Business Using Websites, E-zines, Blogs and Podcasts. She is also chief media maven for NewMediaMavens.com, a company that teaches business owners how to communicate on the Internet.For more information, visit newmediamavens.com or e-mail her at alison@newmediamavens.com. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "NAWBO" in the subject line.
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Day 2: OH, NELY!
It was another brilliant day, but at the center of it all was none other than the incomparable Nely Galan. Most recently seen on Celebrity Apprentice, Galan is a dynamo of epic proportions. If you don't know her story, hold on. If you do, she still continues to amaze and delight. I had heard Galan tell her story a few years ago at another conference, but each time she tells it, she does it with such genuine appeal and authenticity, one could listen to her forever.
Galan worked her way up the television ranks from a producer to media mogul with a dizzying array of credentials. At the age of 22, Galan was the nation's youngest station manager when she held that role for WNJU-TV Channel 47 in New York, which became the launch pad for what is now the Telemundo Network. She parlayed that success into a deal with Rupert Murdoch, who loaned her $5 million to start her own production company, Galan Entertainment (galanent.com), to produce content for Latinos. He convinced her that content is nothing without distribution and lured her into taking a job launching several of his stations in Latin America. Her company has since successfully produced more than 600 episodes of programming in both English and Spanish. Galan later became the former president of entertainment for the Spanish-language powerhouse Telemundo, and she launched the reality makeover craze with her show on FOX, The Swan. After her most recent stint staring down Donald Trump in the boardroom, Galan is now working on two new television shows for women, The New You, a new daytime talk show, and a show designed for women business owners, Ms. Mogul.
"I started out growing up in New Jersey and overhearing my parents talk about the fact that they didn't have any money [for school], but my mother said, 'Jesus will help us,'" Galan told the packed ballroom. "So I decided to help pay for school by selling Avon. The woman said, 'I'll give you some lipstick as thanks, but I said, 'No, I'll split the money 50-50.'" Soon she was making hundreds per week. Galan told the nuns that her proud Latino father would not want to hear that his teenage daughter paid for her own tuition, so she beseeched them to lie. When they sent home a letter to her parents, they told them that Galan was a genius, and her mother proudly pointed out, "See, Jesus did help us."
It is her humble beginning and stories about how "when you win, sometimes you lose, and even when you lose, you can still win" that were the most endearing. Because she was so comfortable in her own skin and with the mistakes she made along the way to success, she made the audience even more comfortable in theirs. Her candid observations about how "life doesn't get any easier" were reassuring for all of us who continue to scale the mountain every day. By design, keynote speakers are supposed to be motivational. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone whose speech made me more inspired to hit all the notes of my life on key.
Bridging the Technological Divide Both the morning and afternoon technology sessions were packed and full of women business owners eager to know more about the latest technology in marketing their business – from podcasting to social media to the functionality of LinkedIn. For those who are not tech savvy, there were concerns as to what the online new media elements are and their benefits. But to those who are tech savvy, the No. 1 most common concern was how to find time and do it all. How does one work in their business and still find time to blog, create podcasts and update their Facebook page?
But NAWBO chapter leadership in Miami said they had been at the forefront of creating programming for their members, including hosting a blogging party. Valeska Jacques, a certified business process management consultant for Uvium (uvium.com), advised that we stop complaining and start communicating!
Speaker Runa Magnusdottir came all the way from Iceland sporting the snazziest red booties to talk about her new venture, Connected Woman (connected-women.com), which aims to connect women globally, while Lisbeth McNabb, a former Match.com executive, talked about her new social networking site W2W (w2link.com) to connect corporate and entrepreneurial women. It's nice to know there are so many choices when choosing a social media site.
Finding an Exit Another hot topic at this year's conference is designing an exit strategy for your business. Clearly the economic success of women has sparked conversations about how one can cash out big, but the new twist is women thinking about the ending in the beginning. According to financial analysts, if you plan for how you will leave your business, you can create a stronger foundation for it in the beginning. While conventional wisdom says a business owner should sell when the company is on the upswing, Dr. Joel Martin, who sold her advertising company for $20 million and now leads Triad West (triadwest.com), offered tips on how to use momentum in multiple areas of a business to create a sale.
Alison Woo is the co-author of How to Say It: Marketing with New Media: A Guide to Promoting Your Small Business Using Websites, E-zines, Blogs and Podcasts. She is also chief media maven for NewMediaMavens.com, a company that teaches business owners how to communicate on the Internet.For more information, visit newmediamavens.com or e-mail her at alison@newmediamavens.com. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "NAWBO" in the subject line.
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DAY 1: A DAY FULL OF MEANING AND MAGIC
The first day of any new experience can be a little scary. But the moment I crossed over the threshold of the Frank Lloyd Wright Ballroom at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, any hesitation I may have had was swept away with the powerful positive energy bubbling up from the ballroom packed with women business owners. Most of them had never met before; yet, in sharing their passions for business, they instantly had something in common.
The morning began with a Native American ritual to open the conference and included Violet John, a former Miss Indian World in 2006, doing a beautiful Butterfly Dance. NAWBO's Phoenix Chapter president, Choo Tay, CEO of Media 88 Inc. (media88.com), opened the conference by talking about this year's theme. "'Together Rising' is a powerful message, one that speaks to the rising power of women business owners and the great impact of our leadership in spheres ranging from economic to social and political," Tay said. "And while each of us in our own achievement has a measure of interest in our own communities, we are also a compelling voice in the national conversation." The conversation at my table during breakfast ranged from the best way to market your business and finding the time to do it all, to a discussion of UPS's (ups.com) export services and container financing. Obviously what "Brown" can do for you is a whole lot more than I had ever imagined.
The morning breakout sessions on healthcare, immigration and federal procurement proved to be informative and interesting choices. The salon offering the seminar on federal procurement was packed, with many of the women already doing business with the world's best customer, the federal government. Procurement expert Judy Bradt, CEO of Summit Insight (summitinsight.com), finally made the world of government consulting understandable. I've been to several procurement seminars held by various government agencies, and someone needs to hire this woman quick. "The two things that influence government buyers to do business are a person's website and their references," Bradt said.
In between sessions, the coolest place to hang out is the NAWBO/Wachovia Connections Lounge, where the white leather sofas provide a plush place to make friends while checking e-mail, voice mail and everything else. The line for the three Internet kiosks remained busy throughout the day.
One thing I find particularly cool about NAWBO is that the national board and local chapters change leadership on an annual basis. Outgoing president Lisa Kaiser Hickey, CEO of Douglass Screen Printers (dsp-cando.com), said goodbye while new president Cynthia McClain-Hill, co-founder of Strategic Counsel (strategiccounsel.com), took the oath of office along with the organization's new board of directors.
While the changing of the guard led to some misty eyes swelling in pride and admiration, nothing could prepare attendees for the emotional highlight of the day: the NAWBO/ Wells Fargo Trailblazer Awards. Honorees recognized for their determination, their service in the community and their business acumen included: Marion Hook, owner of Adobe Rose Inn (aroseinn.com); Assunta Ng, publisher of the Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly (nwasianweekly.com); and Virginia Madueno, CEO of Imagen LLC (imagenpr.com).
Hook moved from Wisconsin to Tucson, where she bought an investment property as her retirement plan and turned it into a bed and breakfast, later launching a product line of scones from the inn. Ng came from China where "women had no voice" and left home at age 18 to study at the University of Washington. In the 1980s, she opened up the first Asian-language newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. Today her paper employs 12 full-time and 30 part-time staff members. For Madueno, it was seeing a flyer that was a poor imitation of its English version that provided the first seed of inspiration. While pregnant with twins and bedridden in her last trimester, she used the time to develop her business plan and get a procurement opportunity with a county in California to do its Spanish-language marketing. Each one talked about their struggles to strike out on their own, to be the first in their families to do something. There wasn't a dry eye in the ballroom.
As the country's largest small business loan provider, Wells Fargo (wellsfargo.com) was a trailblazer in its commitment to women and banking. Its multimillion-dollar commitment in 1995 to provide women business owners with access to capital quickly became a defining moment in financing women-owned businesses, and now the company is striving to reach new benchmarks by 2010. "We have a vision to help women business owners succeed financially," said Pamela Conboy, executive vice president for regional banking in Arizona. "We will do that by building lifelong relationships with our customers. Banking is more than a checking account. We want to help business owners grow their businesses, and we want to give you advice, whether you're a startup or a multimillion-dollar business owner."
The conference provided some unexpected and delightful surprises. In the midst of talking to the winners of the Wells Fargo award, I met a woman whose work has personally impacted millions of women, though most probably don't know her name. Dr. Sharon Hadary signed up for a three-month stint as temporary executive director for the Center for Women's Business Research (womensbusinessresearch.org) after a successful career at IBM. Nearly two decades later, she's still at the helm. CWBR provides the "data-driven research" on women business owners that the world relies on. And companies like Wells Fargo and American Express have been huge supporters of this nonprofit. Its numbers certify that women in business are a force to be reckoned with. That data has changed how businesses worldwide treat women, and you have her and her organization to thank. She's also a delight! We talked so long that I completely missed the afternoon breakout sessions, but it's meeting women like Sharon and having the opportunity to talk to a woman with that depth of experience that make coming to a conference like this an unforgettable life event.
A saucy fashion show hosted by Jones New York and an opening reception that invited Mayor Phil Gordon, donning the requisite topaz blue cowboy hat worn by the Phoenix chapter members, left everyone in good spirits and ended the evening on a festive note.
Though the NAWBO PAC dinner was closed to the press, I had a chance to chat with representatives of both the Democratic and Republican presumptive nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain respectively, before they addressed NAWBO's political action committee donors about why they think their candidates are swell and worthy of their votes. Ann Fudge, former chair and CEO of global advertising giant Young & Rubicam Brands (yrbrands.com), came to represent Obama and says she never supported a political candidate during her long and successful corporate career. Fudge is an independent, a role she says gave her access to candidates in both parties and allowed her to support the best person regardless of his or her political affiliation. "I thought corporate life was tough, but politics is incredibly more difficult by comparison," Fudge said.
Sharon Harper, CEO of The Plaza Companies (theplazaco.com) and a personal friend of John McCain, stood in for Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, who couldn't make the event. Harper says she came to spread McCain's message of "profitability and peace," two principles she says McCain is committed to.
By the end of this jam-packed day, all I can say I feel is that today was one of the most jam-packed, informative and inspirational days I've had in a very long time. It well surpassed my expectations, and I can't wait for day two.
Alison Woo is the co-author of How to Say It: Marketing with New Media: A Guide to Promoting Your Small Business Using Websites, E-zines, Blogs and Podcasts. She is also chief media maven for NewMediaMavens.com, a company that teaches business owners how to communicate on the Internet.For more information, visit newmediamavens.com or e-mail her at alison@newmediamavens.com. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "NAWBO" in the subject line. . . . . . . . . . . GETTING CONFERENCE-READY When a friend invited me to my first networking event in 2003, I was shocked. I'm a New Yorker, and as such I don't believe in formal networking. The business of the city is business, and amid the hustle and bustle, people generally meet by bumping into one another. Or they are connected by friends and colleagues. Virtually anyone is contactable, and most people are less than six degrees of separation apart from whom they want to talk to or do business with. The prevailing spirit in New York empowers one to summon the chutzpah needed to walk up to anyone and pitch them an idea. At age 17, I once waited outside Trump Tower and approached Donald Trump with a business idea. My 10-second sidewalk speech was enough for him to ask for more details. And while that didn't pan out into business legend, it's an inkling of the can-do spirit that prevails. The downside of that is that there's little community except for the one that you create yourself. After leaving New York to move to Charlotte, N.C., to work on starting a 24-hour news station, I realized that life and business are done a lot differently here. What would be considered assertive, take-charge behavior is looked upon as something garish, especially in the Southeast, where manners matter. It's still about building relationships, but the way one approaches those relationships is completely different. People generally need to be introduced, and business owners don't work with one another until they are comfortable with one another. The upside of all of this is that even though business relationships may move at a slower pace, there is a tremendous sense of community once you are an accepted member of the group. Three years after I moved to Charlotte, I left a decade-long career in television producing and management so I could fulfill the American dream of business ownership. My parents are both entrepreneurs who came to the U.S. when I was 10 days old. They both own successful small businesses. When I stepped into my first event for women business owners, I was amazed at the solidarity of women and the genuineness of women helping women. As a business owner myself, the relationships I've developed with women entrepreneurs I've met at networking events have only helped fuel my business and sustained me during times high and low. On June 12-14, I will have the great opportunity to attend the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) national event, where thousands of women business owners come each year to meet and support one another and get down to business. This year it'll be in Phoenix. Follow this blog each day and you'll meet the amazing leaders who are at the top of their games, hear unique business stories from inspiring entrepreneurs and see some of the best sights from this extraordinary gathering. My gameplan for the conference is simple: talk to as many women business owners as possible and find out what they are passionate about, how they create the all-important big vision to make their dreams come true and how they handle the more mundane day-to-day activities. As a journalist, I am passionate about telling their stories in hopes that it inspires others. But as a business owner, I'm also looking for encouragement, inspiration, best practices and ideas that might help me expand my own thinking. My hope is that ultimately this conference will offer me the best of both worlds, tapping into the relationship-building skills I've learned from my time in both the North and the South. It's an opportunity to meet a wide variety of people in a whole host of different circumstances. But I'm glad I packed my moxie to help me chat with business leaders such as Carly Fiorina and Nely Galan – women I've only previously admired from afar. Alison Woo is the co-author of How to Say It: Marketing with New Media: A Guide to Promoting Your Small Business Using Websites, E-zines, Blogs and Podcasts. She is also chief media maven for NewMediaMavens.com, a company that teaches business owners how to communicate on the Internet.For more information, visit newmediamavens.com or e-mail her at alison@newmediamavens.com. To comment on this blog, e-mail blog@pinkmagazine.com and enter "NAWBO" in the subject line. |
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