Women in Consulting (WIC) is filled with amazing talent who are top in their fields. Many also give generously of their time to various organizations (thankfully so, as WIC wouldn’t be the same without them!). This summer, one of WIC’s long-time members – Sue Connelly – was honored for her contributions, receiving the Jefferson Award for her countless hours helping people find jobs through the KITlist.

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For those of you who aren’t familiar with Women in Consulting’s (WIC) organizational structure, WIC is an all-volunteer organization, except for the person who manages our administrative office. And the programs this amazing team collectively puts together are, well, amazing. Two shining examples of this are the Welcome to WIC (W2W) and member orientation programs developed by the membership and pro bono teams. Read the rest of this entry »

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…thanks to the efforts of everyone who attended and those who helped organize the meeting.

WOW! That was my opening statement at the 2010 midyear offsite of WIC’s pro bono team. It’s what I think whenever I think of the expertise and experience that comprises our team. It’s what I think whenever I see what that collective brain power can accomplish. 

The number of programs put into place and projects completed during the first half of 2010 is staggering — especially when you consider that every one one of these women has a day job and is doing this in her “spare” time.

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Gain Insight into the Latest Consulting Trends and the Best Practices of Successful Consultants 

It’s time once again to complete the WIC 9th Annual Compensation Survey. Each year, we get rave reviews about how this survey inspires and guides consultants in their businesses and helps them benchmark their consulting practices against those of top consultants nationwide. This track record of success also sparks the interest of local and industry press who continue to track our annual results.  

This year, the economy continues to be top of mind—but there’s been a shift. Things are starting to gain momentum. Whether your business continues to expand, has experienced a slowdown or turnaround, or is consistent with last year, we want to hear about your experiences! 

Take the WIC 9th Annual Compensation Survey now. 

Survey ends on August 5, 2010. 

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I’ve been a marketing and customer communication consultant full time since February 1999. Around March 2001, I redid my website, and that website remained in place, pretty much in the same format, until October 2009. I cringe as I write that. It’s not that the site was horrible, but it was sadly out of date. Instead of practicing what I preached, I fell into a doctor’s “do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do” syndrome — advising clients to do things that I was ignoring in my own business.
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I have tons of blog post topics on my to-do list, and a lot on my overall to-do list as well. BUT I felt compelled to stop and write a quick (hopefully!) post on the despair and irritation I have on this ever-increasing tendency to focus on bad news.

I follow CNN on Twitter. It’s actually the one Twitter feed I have sent to my iPhone. I rarely have time to read the newspaper (sigh!), and I’ve given up on the evening news because the rare good news is so fleeting as to be nonexistent. With the CNN Twitter feed, I feel connected — like I’m reasonably up to date on what’s happening. And as I have time, I click off and read the details. BUT (there’s that BUT again), lately, the CNN feed is about as happy as the evening news! Today was actually a “good” day, with a sprinkling of good news (depending on your point of view): 

• At least six people shot in Washington, D.C., police say
• Jaime Escalante, the math teacher portrayed in “Stand and Deliver,” has died
• Colombian soldier held 12 years is released by rebels, Red Cross says
• Serial killer, former “Dating Game” contestant Rodney Alcala sentenced to death
• A small private plane has crashed near Roanoke Regional Airport in Virginia
• Reports: 21 bodies discarded by Chinese hospital near river
• President Obama signs final health care bill
• Man pleads guilty in plot to go on “killing spree” against blacks

 Yesterday’s 10+ posts were all negative, tragic, or violent-infused downers, as is the case most days.

What, you ask, does such a blog post have to do with consulting?

A lot.

What we focus on becomes our reality. I’m a firm believer in that. If we focus on the negative, it becomes all that we see, all that we experience. It consumes us. And the negativity snowballs with a life of its own, infecting those around us. Just watch the stock market when something bad happens for an example of what I mean.

As for consulting, which do you think will bring about the reality that we want? Concentrating on lost clients and dwindling projects or looking for new opportunities? Doing the former stresses us out, makes us grumpy, robs us of our creative energy — none of which is conducive to building business. In fact, it probably scares people away. The latter is future oriented, positive. It’s motivating rather than de-motivating.

What if we all focused on our lost clients and projects? Would you feel energized or would you feel scared to the point of immobility? After all, if it’s so bad, why bother? Why not pack it in and go back to the “dark side” of regular employment?

Now imagine if everyone put their energies into developing new ideas, generating new business and exciting opportunities? I bet our motivation would go off the charts.

So let’s say goodbye to this focus on bad news and create a frenzy of positive energy.

Think of something new you want to try for your business (or your personal life, if work/life balance is what’s driving you now). Share it with others. You’ll get input, and they’ll get ideas. And like the old shampoo commercial, they’ll two friends, and so on, and so on. 

Come on, I dare ya (to coin another phrase by Robert Conrad in the Eveready commercials — yes, I know I’m dating myself!)!

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Roughly a month ago, Women in Consulting’s (WIC) Web team launched a new website. Now launching a new site can be a time-consuming and daunting task for teams whose primary focus is maintaining an organization’s website. But when you’re doing it as a side gig — and pro bono yet! — it adds a whole other element to the picture.

I’m beyond grateful to the efforts put forth by WIC’s online marketing team to create such a fabulous new site for WIC and its members. They poured their creative juices, along with some blood, sweat, and tears (maybe a few curses, too) into this project — and the resulting site is proof of that. It incorporates new tools and communication vehicles. It makes it easier to find information. And it better reflects WIC’s image and personality. It also gives us room to grow — and with all the hard work that other WIC teams are doing (more on that later), this is a very good thing indeed.

What’s New

Here are just a few of the new site components, in addition to the new look and feel and navigation structure:

• Revised home page:
  • Better highlights the latest news and events
  • Incorporates WIC’s various social media endeavors, with quick access to latest Tweets and blog posts, as well as links to our Facebook , LinkedIn , and Twitter pages
  • Sponsorship and banner ads
• WIC Community Toolbar, a handy Google-like toolbar that puts the consultant directory and WIC blog posts, articles, news, and events just one-click away
• New Programs & Events section that describes the various programs that WIC offers, along with a complete calendar of events

If you find anything amiss or that you’d like to see done differently, send your input to webmaster@womeninconsulting.org. The team welcomes all feedback.

With Much Gratitude 

The following are the people to thank the next time you see or talk to them:

• Gabriela Martinez, designer extraordinaire and WIC’s brand chair
• Tiraporn Olsen, programmer and CMS guru
• Roan Bear, resident Web technical guru and WIC’s Web technical chair
• Angi Roberts, CMS entry and chief problem solver, working late into the night to make sure all the content was in the CMS tool and that it worked
• Karilee Wirthlin, CMS entry and Angi’s partner in crime in making sure all our T’s were crossed and Is were dotted (and this wasn’t her first time doing this for WIC — she drove the last WIC site launch)
• Melissa Stacey, Linda Popky, Jean Lombard, and Gabriela Martinez, content reviewers who have other WIC responsibilities but were kind enough to lend a hand

See, I wasn’t lying when I said at the January meeting that it takes a village to run WIC. It takes one just to launch the website! Thanks to everyone who made it possible!

More Things to Come

The Web team isn’t the only group working hard to make WIC the best it can be for members. Other teams are equally hard at work. I will periodically post other program highlights to WIC’s blog, so stay tuned!

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I had the pleasure of attending WIC’s general meeting last Thursday, where Kate Purmal shared insights into how we can make 2010 our best year yet…without breaking our necks! I particularly like that last part!

As part of the networking exercise, everyone was asked to answer the following question:

If you could choose between the following, which would you choose:

• You double your revenue in 2010 but work the same amount of time
• You keep your revenue at the current level but work half the time
• Your revenue and the amount of time you work remain the same but your projects are 2x more satisfying

That was a tough one for me. I want to keep my revenue at the current level and work half the time (I have a young daughter)—but I also want the projects to be 2x more satisfying. An overwhelming amount of Thursday’s attendees voted to double their revenue but work the same amount of time.

What would you choose?

Digging a Little Deeper

If you attended the meeting and would like a copy of Kate’s PowerPoint slides from Thursday’s meeting, email her at kpurmal@gmail.com, and she’ll send them to you. She’s also offering meeting attendees special deals on two of her upcoming workshops, geared to building sales and your thought leadership.  

Sales Boot Camp

If the presentation whet your appetite and you’d like to take your sales to the next level, Kate has an upcoming Sales Boot Camp on February 18, 2010. The one-day workshop is $495 for WIC meeting attendees.

In the workshop, Kate digs deeper on several topics from the WIC meeting:

-       Role-play to perfect the art of creating a “trial balloon” proposal in a single meeting
-       Create a phase 1 or Trojan Horse proposal for your business
-       Develop a phased model for your services
-       Build an action plan to fill your sales pipeline
-       And much more

For more information and to register visit http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=196613

Thought Leadership Workshop

Kate and her personal guru Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius, are hosting a one-day intensive workshop where you’ll use private writing and exercises to develop a compelling thought leadership platform. You’ll tap into your creative genius to brainstorm high-level ideas and review them with the group to pick the most compelling and captivating concepts. By developing a platform for thought leadership you gain access to a wider range of potential clients and can charge more for your services.

The workshop is $495 for WIC meeting attendees.

For more information and to register visit http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=196828

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Research from The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute, as outlined in “Women Business Owners to Lead the Nation in Job Creation ” by Rieva Lesonsky, shows that by 2018, women entrepreneurs will be responsible for creating between 5 million and 5.5 million new jobs nationwide,” more than half the new jobs expected.

According to the article, Guardian’s research shows that when women become their own bosses, they’re more likely than male managers or entrepreneurs to:

• Diligently engage in strategic and tactical facets of their business
• Proactively focus on customers
• Incorporate community and environment into their business plans
• Be receptive to input and guidance from internal and external advisers
• Create opportunities for others

When I read the list above, my first reaction was, “Duh, we’ve known that at WIC for years!” In fact, these very characteristics are what set WIC apart from so many other networking organizations. It’s these very characteristics that underscore WIC’s collaborative organizational structure and drive our members and affiliates to readily share their advice, experience, and insights with others in the WIC Community who solicit help with a particular business problem. (NOTE: Ms. Lesonsky was also not surprised by these findings.)

I particularly liked the quote from John Krubski, futurist and research advisor to The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute:

“This women-led management approach will have a profound impact on the employees and customers connected to these businesses. Women small-business owners will ultimately create more opportunities for employees to grow in their jobs and inspire others to start their own small business–all while providing customers with superior service.”

So to all of my fellow WIC colleagues and associates, I say, “You go girls!”

Read the full “Women Business Owners to Lead the Nation in Job Creation” article 

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I just finished reading an interesting post on Copyblogger by Sonia Simone. I love people who aren’t afraid to question the status quo or express an opposing viewpoint to acceptable practices. I love it even when I don’t agree with them, because it keeps the conversation going, ensures we don’t get complacent, and pushes us to explore all the avenues.

The mantra in social media is to invite feedback, engage in conversation. Sonia isn’t advocating ignoring comments. Rather, she suggests we should:

• Focus on where we want to go
• Develop a “red velvet rope policy”
• Ask ourselves “Is this person my customer?” whenever we receive a negative remark.

It’s an article worth the read.

“Are You Getting Dangerous Feedback from Your Readers and Prospects”

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