For those of you that didn’t know, Creative Content Company is owned and was founded by a woman, me. By coincidence, all of the Creative Content Company team are currently women too – but there is something that just didn’t sit quite right with women networking for me. I think the main reason was because I didn’t understand why I would only networking with 50% of my target audience, my business is for men and women… so by networking with just women wasn’t I missing out on selling to men?
However, I gave a few networking events a try. I went to a Women In Business event and an older lady was presenting on the correct business attire for women in the workplace or women business owners. I was told dresses should be below the knee, power suits were a definite no-no, no bright colours and arms should not be on display. There I was wearing a knee length black and red dress with no sleeves. I felt super uncomfortable but as I left I spoke to another lady who agreed it was a touch dated – that was my first experience of women’s networking.
I tried again some months later; it was a debate of equality for women in the workplace run by the Chambers of Commerce. On arrival I was surprised to see that a certain group of people were missing… the men. How could you debate equality in the workplace with no men there? Surely that was going against equality? I was kind of tricked into this women’s only networking but on chatting to the ladies there it seemed what they wanted wasn’t equality, it was to be better than the men and to get more than them… that wasn’t what I was looking for at all – so again, I was put off of women only networking.
Then, many months later I gave it a third try. It was a women’s only networking event in Peterborough with some good guest speakers such as Sam Hale of Advance Performance who was a brilliant speaker, however the other guest speakers were talking about how hard life was as a woman, and they were all fantastic mums and incredible people to have managed to put their business first and kids second. This networking event did not suit me at all – maybe because I wasn’t an ‘incredible mum’ that had it all under control, I was just a single girl with a fairly new business.
So, you’d think I was off womens’ networking for life and so did I… then I met Michelle Craig. I was doing a workshop on Writing A Press Release and she was at the event, she was writing a press release about the Peterborough Women’s Development Community and the way she spoke so passionately seems to have won me over. The group is aimed at women aspiring to be a manager, a leader or an entrepreneur but it’s not a women’s only event – men are also welcome but it was started by women. The idea is to create a circle of energising and inspiring professional women in Peterborough and that’s definitely something I am keen to be part of.
If you are too why don’t you contact Michelle and get yourself booked on? [email protected]
