It’s been a few days now since I attended the Success Summit event hosted by Today’s Innovative Woman. I’m taking a few moments to reflect on my experience and what I have taken home from the event.
The speakers were amazing and their topics were right on target for where we are as women in our businesses, whether start-ups, in business for a few years, or long-time entrepreneurs. My business coach was the first speaker and talked about becoming famous in your niche market. I have heard advice over the years that you shouldn’t limit your target market as you’ll miss out on business, but her information was very helpful. Having a specific market will allow you to attract your ideal client, will make it easier for your referral sources to know who best to refer, and will allow you to work effortlessly. It doesn’t mean you don’t work with those outside of your niche, but your marketing will be so much easier when you know who it is you serve.
Michele DeKinder-Smith talked about how to use some of the more masculine characteristics to help us be successful. For instance, men are more singularly focused and get lots of work completed. As women, we are often distracted due to our multi-tasking and not accomplishing as much. If we block our calendars and focus on one task at a time, we will be much more successful. She had so many more amazing tips. She also spoke about how using our feminine skills is also important, but not to focus solely on those.
Jennifer Bourn discussed how to develop an extraordinary brand. She discussed what we should look at in terms of our brand, how we are branding our business, and the marketing used to promote our businesses (they aren’t the same things!) Having a brand that is well recognized is important and will help develop our reputations as experts in our fields.
Debbie Delgado talked about transforming your sales results by changing your mindset. Sometimes discussing our services with potential clients is hard because we don’t know how to close the conversation and get them to buy our product or service. Her advice is not to worry about if they want to buy from you or not. Realize that you have been given a gift to share with the world. Some will need it and some won’t. Be confident in sharing your gift and the right clients will find you.
And the host, Cathy Alessandra, talked about going from Entrepreneur to CEO of your company. Find what it is you love to do, set your boundaries (super important!), implement your plan (delegate tasks where you can), and figure out what you can do differently than everyone else. Get support because you can’t do it alone.
We also had the chance to meet others in attendance and share who we are and what service we provide. I met some amazing women and look forward to getting to know them better (and seeing them again next time).
I know next year will be another amazing event, and I can’t wait to see what information will be presented then. If you want to attend, block your calendar now. It’s going to be on September 29, 2013. I hope to see you there!
Candy
