Cultivating Community
When I started my first company, Fearless In Training, I had no idea how lonely it would be. There’s no doubt that the idea of entrepreneurship has been a bit glamorized in recent years (I blame Shark Tank), but out of all the advice and cautionary tales I received in response to the news that I was leaving my tech job to start my own business, not one person shared how solitary those first few months would be.
Speaking truthfully, it got pretty rough. I went from working with a team every day to hours on end, working at home with only my dog and my thoughts for company. I think it might have been easier if I had started a business with a physical presence, but everything the company offered was virtual, and sometimes left me feeling like I was shouting out into the either instead of actually connecting with people. Needless to say, it did wonders for my growing entrepreneurial anxiety, and my mind’s constant messaging that my friend Stacy so eloquently describes as “Oh shit, what have I done. The family is going to end up living in a van down by the river.”
Around early February, when the weather peaks at it’s most dreary and abysmal here in Washington State, my anxiety has started to reach an all-time high. Just as I was starting to feel like I was drowning, three things happened back to back that fundamentally shifted my work and mental well-being. Regardless of what we individually believe about interventions of the universe or the divine, there is something to be said for pivotal moments the point us in the right direction.
First, I received a message from a female founder on LinkedIn who had read my recent blog post about choosing to leave my role in tech and asked if I would connect on that call. On that call, I got to know Kristen and the story of how she started her company, Viaggio Partners. It felt like an instant connection, and we both were able to open up about the ups and downs that come from being multi-passionate entrepreneurs. I knew almost instantly that I had made a friend for life. As we were wrapping up, Kristen shared that she was connected to an online community for female entrepreneurs called Ellivate, and that she thought I would really get along with the group’s founder, Sarah Elliott. Fast forward less than a year later, and I’m flying out next week to teach at Ellivate’s annual conference where I will get to connect with other members that I now consider part of my back-office team, my client base, and my friends.
Around that same February timeframe, I also decided it would do my brain and body some good to get out of the house at least once a week, and decided to join a local co-working space called Vibe. What I thought was going to be just a different working environment to break up my days turned into a hub for events, collaboration, and connecting with other entrepreneurs in my area. Suddenly I was meeting new people, participating in writing & accountability groups, and getting a chance each week to be surrounded by other people that totally get what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.
Then, towards the end of February, I was invited by Practice Ignition to help set up and host a panel discussion on International Women’s Day highlighting the voices and experiences of women in accounting. Not only did I get to be a part of a powerful conversation about representation in the industry, but I also got to meet incredible women in the process. By early March, when the event went live, my anxiety had lifted all because I felt like I was connected to and supported by other women who encouraged me when I needed it most.
That is the power of community.
It uplifts us and creates a space for us to reflect on our work beyond what’s going on inside our own heads. It allows us to look back and see how far we’ve come. It surrounds us with other people that get what we’re going through and encourage us to keep going. When I look back at 2019, I know that if it wasn’t for the communities I got connected to in those dark moments last February, I would not be on the path I am today.
But it was after that last moment of connection, the panel discussion on International Women’s Day, that an idea was planted in the back of my brain. I realized and recognized the fact that so many in the realm of accounting & finance felt the way that I did, and didn’t have a community to call their own and encourage them on their path.
As the year progressed, and I started to do more to speak up about issues facing women in the profession, I began to connect with and meet more women that would end up sharing that they wished there was a place for them to network & grow with other women in the industry. After launching the Womxn Talk Money directory last June, many women reached out interested in connecting with the women within the network we were building, and it made me realize that if there wasn’t a community out there for these women, we needed to create it.
Over the course of the past 6 months, my team and I have been slowly planning and building a place for women in accounting and finances to connect with industry opportunities and each other through an online membership model and bi-weekly coaching community. We built slow in order to take time to ask and listen to what women wanted and what kinds of support and benefits would make the greatest impact on their personal and professional development. Now live, the Womxn Talk Money Community is a one of kind way for women in the industry to invest in themselves and get access to coaching, mentorship, speaking opportunities, jobs, educational content, and much more. We’ve been hard at work lining up partners and an incredible line up of coaches to support our members and push for progress in the profession as a whole.
Building this has all been a boatload of work, but as I look towards the launch of our first community coaching call this Friday, I already know it was worth it. When I look back at where I was even just a year ago and realize all of the incredible women that I’ve met in the process of unfolding into this next chapter, I am overwhelmed. There are so many women that I text and talk to for support every week that I didn’t even know a year ago, and even better than that, they now know each other. As I head into 2020, I can’t wait to see how many more women get connected through the new Womxn Talk Money Community. If you or someone you know could benefit from the power of community as they progress through the year ahead, we’d be honored if you’d join us and help spread the word.
