Networking 101: We've got No Strings to Hold Us Down

Female Entrepreneur Mixer A Success!

Our team was invited to attend an entrepreneur mixer this past weekend. It involved a group of courageous ladies, all of which are holding their own in the business world, in specialties such as Web Design, Photography, Real-Estate, Mental Health, Insurance, Retail (Stella & Dot) and HMFibres (to name a few).

We trekked to the "Big City" with business cards in hand and a cautious optimism about what today would involve. Inevitably the point of today was to network; to pick each others brains, and promote our businesses. This is easy enough to do when you are hidden behind a computer; that's why blogs, emails, Facebook and other social media tools are all wonderful places to share ideas, and promote your business - BUT - networking face to face? Face to face, meaning we have to get out from behind our computers,  sweatpants off, get our hair 'did, and look the part.  All par for the course, right?

Big Sigh, brush your shoulders off... and enter the business world.

Upon opening the doors to our first "entrepreneur mixer", we were greeted with the smell of  business success (real estate to be exact), the smell of floor cleaner, genuine excitement, and a wafting hint of icing. Yes, there were cupcakes, AND I don't want to spoil the ending, but they were delicious.

We quickly shuffled into a private room and headed right for some spring water. It was hot, and if you are going to be talking face-to-face to anyone you want to make sure that your throat isn't dry. Also it gives you something to "play with" when you have some down time.

Luckily that wasn't something we had to worry about. The next few hours were filled with brilliance. We chatted about what it means to have a home business; how to set schedules for yourself so you can have a work life, and home life. How to set guidelines and deadlines so you can still enjoy your life outside of your business. Most importantly we discussed tips for how to shut "IT" off; IT= the essence of your creating...the little voice that calls at 11pm or 3 am telling you that you should be knitting, sewing, creating....and not sleeping (the "it" is personal, but in our case it deals with yarn and fabric..for you "it"could mean anything from woodworking and gardening to computer design and mortgage documents..whatever your passion is that comes calling at all times of the night.)

We met the neatest web designer/branding team from Reservoir Studios who put it like this :
"We are not in a career where 1 +1 = 2. We have to work on a formula to appeal to a potential client....its the creative process...we have to go on a journey of discovery every time we tackle a new project..."

Aww, so someone else out there gets it!

AND that is basically how we felt the entire time we were there, in discussion with a great group of ladies who all get it! Who eat, breathe and sleep their careers, whether its in sweatpants or heels, behind a camera or sewing machine, they are out there getting it done.

What a great way to get inspired, motivated and realize there are women out there who want to listen and support you - pull you up, not trample you on their way up.

Soooooooo it just seems fitting that we all wanted to keep in contact - enter social media networking tool: Facebook. We suggested creating a small female entrepreneur group on Facebook, so we could throw out ideas, any exciting business announcements and to just keep in contact with each another.

Presto Chango - Reservoir Studios creates *Spark...because that's what they do...apparently they take a random idea and they make it look like this:

Pretty Eh?

An extremely talented group of ladies that we had the pleasure to meet, and hopefully meet again.

We are also looking forward to a neat collaboration with one of the business teams we met, so stay tuned.

OH, and we won a beautiful glass tumbler....no big deal.

It might look like I was driving during this picture, but I wasn't.....

H & M get your fibres on.