Entrepreneurs

Home/Tag:Entrepreneurs

Catch & Release—Ready to Launch!

By |2017-07-10T09:42:33-05:00July 6th, 2017|Blog|

MM-BlogHeader-July17-2

Want to understand the heart of Girl Authentic and how together we can bring about a new work equilibrium? Read on.

I have always wanted Girl Authentic to serve three purposes:

  1. Talk to women about building their own businesses and building a different model for all of us to work in
  2. Help women shape their business ideas and approach
  3. Invest in women-led business development

Today I get to share how, for the first time, Girl Authentic has provided support in all three ways.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Catch & Release, created by Jennifer Cook. Jennifer took an idea she’s had for a long time, believed in it, and believed in herself enough to make it a reality.

Are you wondering what her idea was? Jennifer is an outdoor enthusiast. Her activities mostly revolve around fishing, boating, and camping, as well as other outdoor activities she and her kids do. From this love, she decided to create a way for outdoor enthusiasts to exchange their equipment and accessories directly – thus, Catch & Release.

I am so proud of Jennifer. She never gave up—she just kept quietly working on her idea, continued working her “day job,” found support where she needed it, and made it happen.

I know this is just the beginning of a very exciting venture for Jennifer and the community that will begin to take shape as they buy and sell their equipment and accessories through her business. Look for Catch & Release to become THE place to find the best equipment available.

JC-image1

I also have a purely selfish reason to be excited, too, since Catch & Release represents the first time Girl Authentic has provided the comprehensive support I noted above. It’s what I have always hoped Girl Authentic would become in the long term—much sooner than I ever thought I would have the opportunity.

Jennifer told me how supportive and helpful she found the GA blogs—and then she shared her idea. I knew right way she was going to make this a success. Her passion made it feel right. She used words like love and committed and community and confident. I am proud to be a part of Jennifer’s story and will be supporting her in her continued success.

So…here she is—almost a year after she first started working on Catch & Release to launch a new way for outdoor enthusiasts to create a marketplace exclusively for their needs. Please join us. If you have a need to sell something or want to try something new using top equipment without plunking down top dollar, 1) download the app, 2) put your wares up for sale or search for what you want, and 3) tell your friends. The app will let you buy and sell directly with easy payment options so you don’t have to figure out how to get paid or pay someone else.

Jennifer envisioned her dream and then put in the hard work to make it reality. Catch & Release is the real deal, and Girl Authentic is happy to support another business building work equilibrium!

 

Read More
 0

A podcast with CoActive Dreams

By |2015-05-21T15:10:27-05:00May 21st, 2015|Blog|

BlogHeader_PodcastEmail

I’m in a busy season right now, but not too busy to sit down for a few minutes with Cherrie McKenzie from CoActive Dreams. Cherrie blogs to help individuals or corporate professionals succeed at the intersection of career, self and family. She contacted me after she read a comment I posted on the NY Times website, and wanted to learn more about women building new structures in business. I was thrilled to spend some time with her and help cast the vision for women paving the way to create a better balance in the workplace for everyone.

[button colour=”accent” type=”squarearrow” size=”large” link=”http://www.coactivedreams.com/are-women-approaching-the-workplace-all-wrong/” target=”_blank”]Head over to the post on Cherrie’s site to listen now![/button]

Read More
 0

Betwixt and Between

By |2015-05-22T19:55:22-05:00May 19th, 2015|Blog|

BlogHeader_May15Email

How do you get from where you are to where you want to be?

I’ve written a lot on this blog about the need for women to build new businesses – different kinds of businesses – if we hope to achieve a better balance in our workplaces and in our lives. But how does that happen? How do you live well in the world you have, even as you work to make a better one?

You live betwixt and between.

That’s what I’ve been doing. I spend my days moving between two worlds. First is what I have begun to call my “old world” – working independently to provide supply-chain management and large-program management consulting services, the way I’ve earned my living for a long time. Second is my “new world” – that of building Morf3D, a company of the type I’ve proposed women build in my GirlAuthentic blogs.

I’m spending 24-40 hours a week providing supply-chain and ERP implementation work, supporting a wonderful client I have worked with multiple times. I am also traveling and meeting with potential new partners and clients to help build Morf3D. It’s a common story you hear about many others who have started a new business: You use the current work to keep paying the bills and help fund the new business, “burning the candle at both ends.”

Living in both worlds leaves me feeling I’m not doing either very well. I am constantly working on one area while being asked to do something for the other, or thinking about the other. Some days it is exciting; other days it is exhausting.

And I’ve come to a conclusion: I just have to get comfortable with being in transition.

I know this will be part of the “story” of building Morf3D that I can share in the future with other women and men who I hope will also make the leap to build the kinds of companies we want to work in – companies that are involved in changing the world, in making our workplaces places we all want to be. But I also I have a feeling the anxiety, stress, and excitement of building Morf3D is going to be around for a while.  So, I better figure out ways to be with it.

And that’s not easy! Prior to this level of activity with Morf3D, I felt I was pretty good at quieting my mind, being still, relaxing. Now, I realize I have a lot more to learn about how to do this. Stillness has been a struggle – at a time when I need it the most.

But I realize something else too: Building Morf3D feels right. This is our chance to build what we have said we wanted to see in this world in terms of the opportunities we want to create and the type of company we want to give people a chance to work for. This is just the beginning of this journey.

It might be a lifetime journey. Does anyone who is involved in building something new ever feel “done”? Or do they just get comfortable continually building, knowing they are never done? Are we here only for the finish line – or is “betwixt and between” exactly where we ought to be?

What do you think?

Read More
 2

Closing the Gap

By |2015-05-19T14:45:46-05:00June 12th, 2014|Blog, Uncategorized|

BlogHeader_June14Email

“We’re minding the gap, but how do we close it?”

That’s the question the Women Donors Network asked recently. A lot has been written lately about all the gaps that exist for women – in business leadership, in political leadership, in the imbalance of how many hours of taking care of our families women still shoulder even if they are working full time… and I could go on.

In many ways, all this talk is a good thing.  It shines a light on the current state of affairs and encourages the conversations.  We can only create new things through ideas and conversations.

I just wish we were creating new things.

All sorts of changes have been suggested in the current conversations to close the leadership gap for women – but almost inevitably, our ideas are tied to changing the current structures and barriers. We’re talking about having women behave in a certain way to try and succeed in the current structures. We’re not really providing an alternative – for them, or for the men they work with.

Here’s your alternative: Stop playing the old game. Create a new one. 

GirlAuthentic is about helping women create new structures. What would give women the wealth and power necessary to build new structures and eventually – maybe – change the old ones? Women building significant businesses. We can build Fortune 500 companies faster in the next 40 years than we can ever hope to change the current business and political structures in any significant way.

Why build businesses? Because building businesses is the fastest way to acquire wealth.

Why is wealth important?  Because wealth creates power and the ability to create social impact.

We can close the gaps faster if we build the businesses to function in a balanced way, and control the money and the power.  Stop playing the old game, and start creating a new one.

 

 

Read More
 0

Announcing Conversations!

By |2020-11-13T13:17:53-06:00April 14th, 2014|Blog, Bringing Forth the Feminine, Women and the Workplace|

Since the forming of GirlAuthentic, there have been many requests to tell people what the “model” looks like for a new business that is based on a balance of the feminine and masculine. I have resisted answering the requests with only my specific ideas. I do have some ideas, but I guarantee you they are only some of the ideas, and might not even be the most creative. Women have the opportunity today to build businesses that operate and feel the way we want them too.

So, in an attempt to provide examples, my creative team and I have begun to put together a series of conversations with interesting women who have created their own businesses. We also wanted to highlight the thought processes and choices behind the structures they have put in place and how their businesses operate.

Today is our first example. We’d like to present Amy Fowler Stadler, founder of Lewis & Fowler, a well-known technology consulting, strategic project management, and expert staffing services company that started with Amy and her partner, Kevin Lewis, in Denver and now provides services nationally. Please join me in hearing Amy’s vision.

 

 

 

Now it’s your turn: What are your ideas for new models of businesses that are built on a foundation of balance between the masculine and feminine?

Read More
 1

I call it the Art of Coming and Going

By |2015-05-19T14:47:07-05:00January 13th, 2014|Blog, Women and the Workplace|

BlogHeader_Jan13Email

I call it “coming and going.” I have set up one form of it for myself, and I have seen others with many variations on the theme.

What do I mean? I mean the ability to “come and go” from a job place, a company, a profession – even from work altogether. The ability to choose to work for periods of time, and NOT to work for periods of time.

Why do we have this notion that we are supposed to work at least 160 hours per month for 45 years? Tolkien said it best – “not all those who wander are lost.” People who “come and go” pick up all sorts of new experiences and perspectives. If they leave a work environment and choose to return, they do so with so much more to offer. So why do policies discourage this?

What if we simply stopped viewing “coming and going” as a bad thing?

I have. I was lucky enough to garner a set of skills and work experiences that let me work independently as a consultant – which means I choose who I work with, and when. I know many who’ve found similar ways to work. It’s a trend in many professions, in fact – from journalism to various areas of computer science. And, with new national health-care policies that mean your healthcare coverage doesn’t have to be tied to employment, I think we’ll see even more workers empowered to indulge their “wandering” side.

Many are beginning to talk and write about how we are all heading toward being “free agents.” Don’t miss the key word in that phrase – “free”. What if we could fashion careers, professions, jobs, and companies that helped more of us embrace this freedom?  What if we operated in a way such that we knew people would want to “come” to a job or a profession for a while; “go” for a while; and perhaps come back? Whether that is to pursue personal interests, care for family, children, etc. – for both women AND men.

When that happens, we take our power back. I read a comment once that we had become lazy – most of us had traded our freedom to corporations in exchange for security. But we’ve learned that security was an illusion, and the price was often too high.

So how about reclaiming some freedom instead?

Your true job – and mine – is to be happy. But to do so, to feel good about what we are doing, we may have to take our power back. I choose what I do, and when, and with whom. That’s the kind of world I want to live in. That’s the kind of businesses I want to see us building.

How about you?

Read More
 1

Women, we need you to build businesses.

By |2015-05-19T14:48:37-05:00October 15th, 2013|Blog|

BlogHeader_Oct13Email

The predominant business culture most of us operate in today was built by men, for men. All the rules we play by, all the expectations, all the behaviors that are talked about as helping to assure success – they’re all based on a male vibration, male patterns of behavior, male expectations. Men built these businesses. Men run them. They design for men, they build for men, they sell to men.

Yet, there is actually a business case for gender diversity. It literally pays – we have data to prove it. If you build a business that includes more women, includes more of women’s perspectives, and designs for and sells to women, you will be more profitable. The research shows it.

Unfortunately, that same research indicates our efforts at diversity aren’t really working. Corporate programs have made people better at talking about diversity and balance – not better at living it.  And they have no incentive to change.

Even though the data shows they can be more profitable by including more women in their business, it doesn’t change their actual behavior. I wouldn’t expect it to. Most business models today serve many men (though not all of them) perfectly well, just as they are.

Meanwhile, every gender-based conversation we have about what a woman can do to be more successful is just that – gender-based. We’re talking about how women can succeed within a male vibration. Lets talk about how businesses could be structured to better serve everyone (we are going to have to build them).

We can change the culture by building the businesses. We have to build businesses that intentionally have a balance of the masculine and feminine. We have to build businesses with a balance of men and women working in them. And who has the best shot at building those businesses?

Who do you think?

Women, we need you building businesses. It’s not enough to succeed in a man’s world. It’s time to build a better world for everyone.  And, it’s time to get started.
Read More
 4
Copyright 2021 - Girl Authentic | All Rights Reserved
Go to Top