Since my beloved In Good Company, a women-only co-working, networking, and educational space, shut its doors last year, I’ve been slightly adrift. My business is going well and I’m loving my work more than ever, but I have missed being around a community of successful women entrepreneurs kicking butt and taking names on the reg.
In the past year I’ve attended many different networking and educational events targeted at entrepreneurial women and a lot of them have been great, but no matter how good the format, speaker, group, or organization, there’s something that always feels a bit off (to me) when the purpose of an event is “networking.” In all fairness, it probably has a lot to do my expectations coupled with my general discomfort in “pitching” (and “being pitched to”).
I realized that I needed something else, something more organic and community focused. Something beyond looking for potential clients and instead for a community.
So, along with another displaced IGCer, I decided to just make it happen. We put our heads together, thought about what we wanted, what we were missing from our lives, and, as importantly, what we didn’t want.
We wanted:
- To be around, connect with, and learn from cool women doing cool shit
- People we could give something to, but also learn something from
- Women in an intermediate/advanced level in their business
- To socialize in an easy, relaxed atmosphere
- To meet at a destination (worth the hard-won night out!)
- A small-ish group so everyone could interact easily
- A thoughtful and diverse invite list
- To connect people in our lives we think could compliment each other
- To spend time together and with other women we admire in one place on a regular basis
- To foster the community and connections outside the actual get togethers
We didn’t want:
- Organizing the get-togethers to feel like a chore
- Anything that felt “network-y”
- To overdo it. Once every three months is something we know we can commit to.
- Anyone to feel like they were giving more than they were getting
So with all that in mind, we picked a date, designed an invite, came up with a cute name (Mind Your Business), and found a cozy woman-owned speak-easy cocktail joint and each of us invited a handful of professional women we know and want to spend more time with. We compared lists and made sure we had a well-rounded and dynamic group.
It. Was. AWESOME!
We followed up by creating a secret Facebook group so everyone can continue chatting and stay in touch and we expect it to grow as we plan our next meet-up for January.
Moral of the story? If you’re not finding what you need, figure out a way to make it happen. Build that community, start that group, set up that event. Chances are, if you’re missing it, others are too.