Exceeding My Expectations

Rather than write about Savvy Girl Marketing tips this week, I wanted to share with you a personal life experience where I applied the power of conscious thought, made a choice and then took action towards the direction of my goals, which created an experience that exceeded my expectation.

Taking my own advice about utilizing online networks, I recently wandered into a phenomenal website called Divapreneurs, where women entrepreneurs support each other by promoting their businesses, sharing resources, networking and empowering each other towards their mutual business goals. I thought, this is a great network for me to participate in, and began filling out the application almost immediately.

After being approved, I added some personal touches to my profile, and with in less than 24-hours I was receiving warm welcomes, solicitations of friendship and networking opportunities from other members. The messages and comments I received were not the typical “Hey, come look at my business” instead, they felt genuine and inviting, like these were old friends who were just waiting for me to show up to a party.

Continuing to make myself at home I noticed on one of the forums that in exchange for my participation as a discussion moderator, I would receive free advertising on community pages for a month. My previous reaction to an opportunity like this would have normally been to shy away from a commitment so soon, however, I thought “What the heck, it’s only a month. Let’s see what happens.”

Somewhat comfortable with choice I had made, I figured that now was as good of time as any to really plant my feet and grow some roots; I began adding to discussions, starting discussions and within a week I started my own group called ‘Savvy Girl Marketing’ (Of course inspired by this blog), which shortly gained over 30 members. I thought, “Wow, this great. I felt like I found a professional female powered networking home, a place to share ideas with other women in various stages of building their businesses”.

Meanwhile, in my own business, I had come across a couple of clients who really liked my services, but were a little disappointed that I would have to outsource certain aspects of graphic design in order to reach their goals. So, I decided to go through my rolodex to see who I knew that I would either hire or bring on in some other capacity. Sadly, everyone fell short of my expectations, but I knew I had to do something in order to fill this obvious void. I decided that the best thing to do was to consciously repeat the thought pattern that the right person or situation would make itself available to me.

The day after I served as moderator for the first time, I received a voice-mail from the head of the network. I just knew I had done something wrong or she needed to discuss with me how to do it better. My commitment phobias all set in. A little reluctant, I returned her call the following day, and to my surprise she was calling to potentially hire me to do marketing and media relations for Divapreneurs. I was so honored to be apart of this fast-growing opportunity that I quickly agreed to be interviewed by the rest of the Board of Directors.

A day after I met with the board the founder, Elaine Biss (ElaineBiss.com), called me and said I was voted in and asked if I could start right away. Now, what makes this opportunity even more interesting to me is that besides being the founder of this incredible network, Elaine Biss is a highly accomplished graphic designer with many brand identities, websites and design projects to her credit, and as you may be guessing right now, after much thoughtful discussion, she is the new Creative Art Director of Breathe Media Communications.