#womensupportingwomen
A "speaker one sheet" is a document highlighting a professional speaker's short bio, signature talks, testimonials, and contact information. After I created mine back in January, I sent it to some contacts to ask that they keep me in mind when organizing events or to introduce me to conference organizers.
One of the women I sent my speaker one sheet to was Sheila Murphy. She's an in-house lawyer turned career and business coach for lawyers. (Sheila is awesome. If you're not following her on LinkedIn, you need to be!) Sheila immediately jumped into action and introduced me to her friend Susan Freeman, a Stevie-award winning CEO and founder of Conscious Inclusion Company. Sheila thought I'd be a great fit for Susan's Wonder Women in Business podcast. Ecstatic for this lead, I reached out to Susan and crossed my fingers that she'd respond.
She immediately did, explaining that any friend of Sheila's was a friend of hers. Amazing! We set up a call and within five minutes of meeting Susan on Zoom, I knew I had a friend for life. She invited me to be a guest on her podcast and said that our meeting was kismet: she explained that she runs an annual, TED-style storytelling event and one of her speakers just dropped out, so would I be interested in speaking on a national platform in Chicago in June? I gleefully accepted, then burst into happy tears the moment I got off the call.
All this from asking Sheila for help?! A new friend and two incredible opportunities?! Recording my podcast episode was a blast and speaking in Chicago in June changed my life in more ways than I can recount here and now. #womensupportingwomen indeed.
But wait -- there's more.
Later in the summer, Susan reached out to her network to help connect her son's friend and college classmate, Kaitlyn Zhang, with mentors. Eager to help pay forward the kindness I've received, I asked my incredible friend (and fellow kindergartener mom!) Jing Wang, Head of Portfolio and Strategy at Mars Retail Group. if she'd be willing to speak to Susan and Kaitlyn. Without hesitation, Jing agreed. She Zoomed with Susan and also hit it off. She met with Kaitlyn and then gave her a private tour of M&M's World in NYC. (Susan recently announced that the power of #womensupportwomen helped open multiple doors for Kaitlyn, including an amazing job following college graduation. Incredible!)
Everything came full circle last week. Susan and Kim Stuart, COO of Conscious Inclusion, traveled from California to NYC to present at an ALM conference. With Susan and Kim in NYC and Jing and I less than 20 miles west, we all had to meet. The result? An epic morning. Jing arranged a special tour for us at M&M's World, where we ate delicious chocolate and had an amazing in-store experience. All the while, I got to learn from and about three incredible women. I left with a full heart -- and stomach.
I share this story because it was a full circle moment -- and I'm humbled and grateful. It really hit me like a ton of bricks, just as I was shopping for M&M's goodies and laughing with these three women: when women support other women, the possibilities are endless. Back in January, I never would have guessed that come November, I'd have several new female friends, been considered a "Wonder Woman in Business" for a podcast, taken the stage in Chicago, introduced a mom friend to Susan, and toured behind-the-scenes at M&M's World!
Notably, this story is just one of many personal examples I have of #womensupportingwomen, particularly since launching JMT Speaks nearly three years ago. It’s dawned on me that I could probably write my newsletter about my experience every week and I still wouldn't be done, from those who have introduced me to their contacts, encouraged me to pitch myself for work, attended my events, sent me motivational messages, attended my book club, signed up for this newsletter and asked a friend to do so, liked and/or commented on my posts -- I could go on and on.
So thanks for letting me share this one story to showcase my favorite hashtag. Not to mention, the moral of the story is to use your voice! Ask for support -- so many of us are willing to lend it -- and say yes when someone is brave enough to make the ask.
You just might find yourself trying fudgy brownie and dark chocolate peanut M&M's for the first time. :-)
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