What IS Launching Women and WHY do I Want to Play?

Amy Walker, Becky Mackintosh, Shantel McBride, Suzy Gustafson, Kim Flynn

What IS Launching Women and WHY do I Want to Play?

See these amazing women?  I know them all.  Who are they?  Well, that is quite a story!  And it would take quite a while for me to tell it.  So instead, I want to start slowly and give you the background of Launching Women.

Believe it or not, Launching Women was actually born back in 2010.  It marinated in my head for a while and never felt just right, even though the graphics had been created and everything.  I realized that I had actually put the cart before the horse, so to speak, and that I needed to spend time launching myself, in order to pull together my ideas for Launching Women.  So I watched, and waited, and attended a bunch of interesting training and events.
 
October 2012 I thought that perhaps it was time, and then I attended an event that really excited me.  In fact, I put everything else that I was doing on the shelf and accepted an offer to become the Executive Director of an organization that claimed to be helping women around the world in business, family and personal life.  It was a dream!  Alas, when things seem too good to be true, they usually are.  After 7 months I had been promised many things (salary included) over and over.  I also found out that the numbers that the organization were using as far as their email list, the number of countries that they were in, and the exposure they had were made up.  At that point, I resigned.

What happens when you feel like you have failed?  Or in this case, just made a huge mistake in trusting someone?  Well, I spent a couple of months in mourning and then pulled up my big girl pants and decided to start fresh.  But the craziest thing happened.  It wasn't really starting fresh, because my network had changed.  My relationships had grown.  I found out that every entrepreneur has periods of failure and realized that I wasn't alone.  I allowed myself to learn the lesson and to grow up a bit.  

My mind kept coming back to Launching Women.  I called a few friends with my epiphanies.  They said, "Do it."  So here I am - doing it!  I want to tell the stories of entrepreneurs and how they grew their business, and I want to help entrepreneurs in the process who want to build their network, their team, and especially their business.  I have spent 3 years watching, waiting, learning, and growing.  

And I'm ready to launch!