Women Like Us Foundation trip to Costa Rica

We worked in our school and adopted a women's center there.  So lucky to be a part of this.  And my sis Toni, daughter Catt and grandson Austin joined me.  I took this movie about our mission.

On the top bunk...

On the top bunk…

It was the morning after Thanksgiving.  I was sleeping on the top bunk in my grandson’s room, my husband Jim was on the bottom bunk.  We’d stayed all night at my daughter’s house after a hectic and happy day of turkey, salmon, gourmet squash soup and mashed potatoes and gravy.

Combining the fare of the traditional Thanksgiving and the specialty dishes cooked by my new son in law who hails from London, partnered with the three vegetarians in our family…it was quite the meal.  We raised our glasses and toasted to what we were thankful for; a new marriage and member of the family; the surprise announcement of a new grandchild on the way; and a sharing of thankfulness and caring for one another. 

After dinner, we jammed with piano music from Jim’s musician son, Greg, and turned up the volume on Cold Play while the grandkids, ages 2 to 4 years old took the floor to show off their dance moves.

My family tends to be a little crazy.  It’s who we are.  We love getting together, the more the better, rock the houses with kids, music, cheer and love.  And that’s how and why I ended up on the top bunk on Thanksgiving night. We just weren’t ready to leave this party!

As I climbed up the ladder into bed, my dilemma was to decide which of the many stuffed animals already claiming my space was I to move to find my spot.  Would it be the alligator, maybe the stuffed bumble bee, or one of the many Angry Birds lining the side against the wall?  And the three cats, were sure to let me know that it was night and these beds were their usual settling place.  What was I doing there?

It wasn’t the best of sleeping, up there on that bunk.  Every time  Jim rolled over or adjusted his pillow we rattled and rolled and squeaked.  Bunk beds are not made for 60 somethings!

So the house was full, kids on the floor, babies in the pack and play,  grandparents in the bunk beds and the rest of the family scattered upstairs and down in their own sleeping spots.

And just as things settled in, just as the house fell still and the last of our family quieted for the night, there was a small cry.  It was the littlest member of our family, Anthony, ready to greet the day.  It was, after all, 4:30 AM!

And as I lay there, listening to his beautiful voice, his baby squeals and his urgent cries for his bottle, I felt blessed.  This is my family.  These are the people I love.  These are the reason for all I do.

So, instead of trying to go back to sleep, I reached for the ladder and climbed down to the floor. I picked up the over-sized stuffed pig that had been tossed aside, tucked it under my sleeping husband’s arm and went down to greet the day with that beautiful little member of our family.

Sometimes a squeaky top bunk can be the best place to be reminded of what matters.  It was for me.

I wish you the gift of appreciation for those who love you and those whom you love in 2012 and forever. 

Have a wonderful year.

           

Networking Needs a New Name

Let’s Give Networking a New Name! Let’s Call it Weaving!

By Linda Rendleman, M.S.

 

Is anyone else as tired of the word “networking” as I am? 

 

Everyone says they’re doing it. And if you are a business woman and you’re not doing it, you know you should be. And if you’ve done it but you don’t think it’s helped your business, you’re probably frustrated with it.

 

I have to confess that the word and the meaning of the word has never quite hit the mark for me. And here’s why.

 

When I say the word networking, for some reason I have a vision of that old I Love Lucy episode when Lucy tried to become a telephone operator. She is sitting at the switchboard, the phone starts ringing wildly, and as she tries to connect one caller to another, and then another, and then another with those connection wires switchboard operators used in the 50’s, the havoc begins. Lucy finally ends up all wrapped up with lots of wires, and frustrated callers, but with all the wrong connections. Can you see the scene? Unfruitful and certainly frustrating, time and energy is spent with no real gain.

 

So am I the only person who struggles with this over-used, under-defined and over-worked word?

Am I the only one that gets this visual of a web of lines, a tangled one at that, of contacts, lines knotted up  around over and under, pulling back, going another direction, only to reach another dead end? Quite frankly, the visual I get when I say the word networking makes me tired! It just doesn’t seem efficient.

Then I started thinking about that spider out on the corner of my deck…He has a network. He has a web of lines but he has a system to keep all of those networks, those lines, his WEB formulated into an intricate and beautiful thing. And he’s diligent. He knows where he’s going as he weaves. His organized spinning, around and around, cutting back and forth and across, has a system to it. He builds it into a beautiful thing. A work of art…a system.

Now that’s networking. Maybe we should take our cue from that spider and use a better name for networking. Weaving. Systematically creating a beautiful web of friendships, contacts, help mates as we help one another reach our business and personal goals. Before we make contacts with others, we must create a plan that will help ourselves and our colleagues achieve our objectives.

Here’s 3 Tips to get you started on your Weaving:

1.      Before attending a business event, set a goal for yourself. For example, tell yourself that you will meet 2 new contacts that can be meaningful for you and your business. Only you can decide who that will be or what form they will take... And remember, it’s not all about you. Find synergy with these people that allows both of you to gain from the connection.

2.     Commit yourself to follow up personally six times with that person. It can be as brief as an email or as structured as a planned meeting. Studies show that six “touches” establishes a relationship.

3.     With all of the social media these days, make sure to ask permission to include your 2 new contacts in your social media networking, and even in your private newsletter if you have one.

These few basic steps are important to building relationships by weaving a relationship that has a purpose and structure. The spider has a plan and so should we. Yes, weaving. Now that word makes me feel like I am creating something beautiful, like the spider’s beautiful web.

Women's Business Series goes to Stage Two!

Our fabulous group of women have completed the class session of our Women's Business Series.  We talked about developing your personal brand, leadership, communication and presentation skills, driving your career and networking.  Lots of great conversation and good connections, for sure.
Now we have welcomed our mentors from the business community and have matched up our mentors with the class attendees.  They are partnering for a 3 month program to ensure these ladies continue to move forward with their purpose.

 The mentoring program for our Women's Business Series is headed up by Carla Feagans of Vibrant Life.  Carla put structure to the program and gave us guidelines on how to help one another move to the next level.

Thank you, Carla!

 

April  and Andrea  visit on break.

 The mentors were asked to share who had mentored them and what they learned.  We realized that mentors come in our lives at different times as we move through our careers.

 Amy, Carla and Jennil come together to chat about what it takes to develop your strengths and put them to use.

Mentor Karen and mentee Justin meet to schedule and set goals for a great relationship.

 More mentor conversation on never giving up,
following your gut and living your passion.  Only
you are in charge of where your life goes.

Great class and great connections!  It is when we work together, collaborate together and support one another that we can grow our lives, our careers and our relationships into what we want them to be.

We started our women's business series on Friday.

Thanks Harrison College for partnering with me to bring this information to women.

Our first day we talked about how the course will work and began small group discussions on personal branding.  Guest speakers Kristen Garvey of the Indiana Commission for Women and April Morris, founder of Thin Gloss spoke to our group.  What did we learn?
*  Women are still getting a lesser wage than men in many circumstances.
*  Never never giving up is key to making your dreams come true.
*  Clarifying your values and understanding what is important to you in life can be transferred to creating a successful career for yourself.

Next week we'll continue working on developing the personal brand and getting clear on where you want to head personally and professionally.  Karen Caprino Burg will tell her story of re-creating herself over the years.  Her magazine, Indy Metro Woman, is read by thousands of women.

What do you think we should make sure to cover?  What are the problems women face in business?  How can we move all of us forward?

April Morris told us about how she came up with the idea for her company.

Women's Leadership Workshop...so fun!

Women Like Us Real Stories and Strategies for Living Your Best Life

Use Your Feminine Power to Change the World

Using your Feminine Power .  Are you ready?

Picture this.  Your life is fulfilling, you have a happy family and your career is doing fine.  Your relationship with your family, your partner and your friends is good.  Yet there is a nagging feeling that something is missing. You have a sense of something not quite in balance.  You watch the world news, the reports about the tragedy an earthquake in Haiti, the drama of the lives in turmoil due to an oil spill off the coast of Lousiana.  And you look around.  Sure, the economy is a struggle right now, but you will be okay, you think.  Yet there’s that nagging feeling deep in the pit of your stomach, that little bleep in the back of your brain that says…you should do something.

Or what about this picture?  You know that as a female you are a part of more than half the population in the U.S.  And yet you feel like you’re not living up to your potential and you don’t get it.  You do all of the right things.  You’ve learned how to “work like a man”, you’ve learned to use the opportunities given to you in the corporate world so that you can climb the ladder of success, you understand the need for analysis and accomplishment which is part of the success strategy model of the corporate world, yet you feel unfulfilled and perhaps even a bit of a fake at work.  You have that same little nagging feeling that there must be something more.  That feeling that you’d do things differently, if only you could.

What you are feeling just might be the beginnings of awakening toward a journey that will get you on a different and thrilling track. On that “road less traveled”. Yet, on the road that more and more women are realizing is their birthright. That sense of needing something more, that sense of wanting to be present as a contributor to the needs of the world, could just be what can become the start of change in your life, and the beginnings of identifying your passion for clarifying the real you, the woman you want to become. A journey  that will help you discover how you can use your passion to create change in the world, use your feminine traits of collaboration and relationship to satisfy your own yearnings for contributing to the greater good and living your life on your terms.

 By recognizing your innately female traits of nurturing and consensus, you’ll notice that little nagging in the pit of your stomach, that bleep in the back of your brain, starts to quiet.  Because you will have decided, maybe for the first time or maybe to begin again, that you can be who you are.  You, a woman like you who is, a woman just like us, like all of us, who can bring forth that true and unique human being that is within you and in turn change yourself and change the world.

The previous is a portion of the introduction to the next Women Like Us Book Series...Women Like Us;  Creating Change in the World which will be available August, 2011. 

I love speaking to women!

How does a girl from Martinsville, Indiana survive in a bigger pond?

Honestly, I am not sure that I ever did. Survive in that bigger pond, I mean. When I was growing up we moved so much. I've said in my book that it was part of my parent's plan to keep us upwardly mobile. I say it jokingly, and I know they kept creating change in our lives because they wanted all of us, including themselves, to have a good life.

I'm about to say something here that I have never written. Because of my particular life's journey, certainly we all have our own stories to tell, don't we? I'd love to hear yours.  But, you see, I had gone to 15 different schools before I turned 14 years old. But when our family landed in the small town of Martinsville, Indiana we finally stuck.  I was there from mid 7th grade through high school and then on to college. I can truly say that it was probably the time in my life when I felt I belonged the most. It was fleeting. And as I look back now as a mature woman, I wonder if I belonged then. Other high school girl friends have stayed close. I tried, but lost out. I see old friends on facebook, that's cool. But I feel isolated even then.

I cannot be alone when I say that I never really quite felt like I fit in. Has anyone else lived years and years without a sense of connection to a group? I have realized after years the moving around we did, the making new friends, the role of the new girl in school that I so many times portrayed, wore on me overtime. And as a defense for this I many times did not give completely give of myself to anyone. I just assumed I'd be moving on again soon.  This was reflected later in my adult relationships.

But this crazy self-psychoanalyis of who I was and how I am brings me to  the reason that Business Women Connect and my work with writing and speaking to women has become my life's work. The reason for my passion for motivating and inspiring women, for creating support and resources, for at times taking on my shoulders the problems of others is really so that I can create a sense of belonging for me, too.  And along with creating my own sense of belonging, I bring other women along the way  who perhaps have felt misplaced, like me.



And I want women just like me, women who are my sisters in striving to find their place, to understand that I created Business Women Connect for us. Successful or not, it is one of few things in my life that I have been completely committed to. It is my love and my passion to encourage and support and assist one find her power and live it.

On my way to this 10 years of BWC I've had lots of learning to do, lots of stances to take against people who said I couldn't do it...friends and critics who still say I haven't done it. I have very little encouragement but I stay the course.  And I've made some fabulous new friends, have brought into my tribe women who "get it" whom I love and respect.

My story continues with the financing for this crazy website, the times I was told to stop and the great women  who stood by my vision. Thanks for reading my personal rant...Next time...

Ten Years of BWC: My Story

10 Years of BWC Linda's Story


Have ever had an “ah ha” moment? The kind of moment when you know, deep inside of you, for absolute positive sure that this is what you need to do, think, feel, act on? It happened to me when I first created Business Women Connect.

I was sitting at my desk at my residential real estate appraisal office, L. Rendleman and Associates, by the way I specifically named my company that because this was a male-dominated business and I didn’t want to be in the least handicapped because I was a woman working in a man’s field. Fortunately, lots have changed since then.

But it was that day at my desk when it hit me. I was just learning about the Internet. Back in 2001, the Internet was something that connected to our global world, but little thought or initiative had been taken to connect to our own local communities.

One of the most passionate things I had ever done in my life was to create a local woman’s magazine. It was before magazines for women were local. It was before you could read about a woman and actually reach out to her in your own community. In fact, when we started this local city magazine focusing on women, there was only one other one we knew of in the country.

We were two young mothers with a dream of bringing women together to share resources, mentor one another and connect in friendship and personal growth. We were room mothers for our little first grade daughters. Connie was a broadcast journalist and I had my degree in speaking and writing with a master’s degree in counseling. Two perfect matches stay at home moms who had the courage, craziness to believe they could do anything. We learned about publishing, learned about selling advertising, learned about magazine layout. We were picked up by the local media, were invited on local talk shows, even had a weekly radio show. We took out second mortgages on our homes to front the money for our magazine and found some small investors through our families and some supportive local businesses! Thank you Marsh Supermarkets for believing in us and taking a risk with us.

But two young mothers with just a little bit of business experience and even less money eventually tapped out all of their resources. We little by little lost the ownership to people who knew it was a great opportunity and had the dollars to make it larger than what we could. I left our dream first. The pressure of contributing to our family financially and as a mom of two small children, I was forced to become practical. And my partner Connie? She hung on longer than I did. About another year, eventually selling what was left of her portion of the magazine.

I have all the old original copies. That was back in the 1980’s. I looked so young then. Hmm…

So on that day in my real estate appraisal office, after almost 20 years of knowing in my gut that I had given up, that I had allowed defeat, that I had “lost” my true passion and sold out, believing I couldn’t make it happen…that I got the cold chills all over my body when I realized that I could, again, go after my dream. My dream of connecting and supporting women through my writing and my speaking, my first love, through the internet. And Indy Women Connect, later named Business Women Connect, came to be!

It was then that I learned to never, never, never give up on what you truly want in life. I had a second chance and I was going for it! Connie had moved away years earlier and we lost touch. I learned she died of brain cancer. She would have loved to work with me in this legacy. I am sorry she couldn’t be here with me. I honor her for her inspiration and love.

Coming up next: I’ll share about starting a website when no one understood what to do with it and a major piece of news that made me more determined than ever.