The Magic that Happens When Women Entrepreneurs Collaborate
Earlier this year I hit some pretty low points after my husband had lost his job. Not only was I anxious about our situation, I was watching many other mom entrepreneurs come onto the scene with their own websites and communities. My first reaction was to go to a place of scarcity. I had this awful limiting belief that if they existed, and were doing business, that there wouldn’t be enough left over for me.
It sounds crazy when I write it, but it felt incredibly real and scary in that moment. I did know two things at that time. First, I knew I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Second, I knew that to do business in a way that was fun for me, and to stick around, I would have to just focus on doing business in a “Kim” way, and show up as authentically as possible. Some would be attracted to me and follow me, and others wouldn’t. I trusted it would all be fine.
Around the same time, I felt drawn to connect with a particular mom entrepreneur with her own community, Carla Young of MOMeo. On the surface, one would think “competitor” in the yucky sense of the word. But what I sensed from observing her on Twitter was a kind, funny, open woman. I was blessed to discover that she’s even more wonderful.
We joked back in March that it’d be great to get some amazing mom entrepreneurs together in Las Vegas in June. Sounded fun I thought, but we didn’t pursue it. Fast forward to April, and Carla was scheduling me to speak with her MOMeo community about how I get things done so quickly. She asked, “When are you free in June?” I told her the only days I wasn’t when I’d be in Las Vegas attending Baeth’s Life Purpose Spiritual Summit. Carla laughed and said she’d be in Las Vegas that very same weekend!
We decided to make that gathering of great entrepreneurial women come together. As a connector, I immediately got to work inviting some women I wanted to meet and who I believed would be interested in creating something bigger as a group than any of us could on our own. Much to my surprise, nine of us ended up coming together – Alexis Martin Neely, Carla Young, Sarah Robinson, Jennifer Haubein, Sandy Grason, Kim Castle, MaryPat Kavanagh, Dorcy Russell and me!
Each of us shared what we could offer (our true creative brilliance and what’s fun for us to do) as well as the support we’d love from the rest of the group. Getting behind each of these women to support their product and service launches feels great. I’m not sure where it will all go but I have lots of faith. I’m so blessed that I could connect with them and them together and bring them into my life.
Please share your comments on how you’ve benefited by turning your “competitors” into “collaborators”. This is an area were women entrepreneurs really shine!
Tags: Alexis Martin Neely, Baeth Davis, Carla Young, collaboration, Dorcy Russell, entrepreneurial women, Jennifer Haubein, Kim Castle, Kim DeYoung, limiting beliefs, MaryPat Kavanaugh, Momeo Community, Sandy Grason, Sarah Robinson
