Festeez & #girlBosses
As entrepreneurs, I feel like we need two things that are polar opposites.
We need people in our lives who don’t talk about our business.
Then, on the other hand, we need people who will talk shop for hours on end.
It’s such an odd dichotomy. In my life, I have both of these groups of people. One I refer to as The Festeez. The others are the #girlBosses.
The Festie Story
In 2002, I began chairing a volunteer committee in Catoosa, Oklahoma. This group organized the annual Halloween festival in town. We became fast friends and although most of us no longer serve on that committee, we are still very close. For thirteen years, we’ve met every 3rd Friday of the month for Festie Friday Night. We also take an annual trip together.
These are my people who DON’T talk about my business. Our goal when we’re together is to have fun!!! Literally, sometimes we spend the entire evening laughing at absolutely nothing at all. This serves such a critical part in my life as an entrepreneur. To have a group who will help me facilitate fun, is LIFE GIVING. I prayed for a group of girlfriends. God answered that prayer with the most incredible group of women who love me, not in spite of my faults, but BECAUSE of them. Seeing myself through their eyes is what my heart needs after a month of “entrepreneuring.”
The #girlBossUSA Story
Then there’s the other group. They are more recent. When I launched my business and was attending countless networking events, I just felt like there was something missing. I needed a way to form deeper relationships with people than just a few minutes at a gathering. I needed people who were in my same boat. Those who, with the fewest words possible, could understand what I was going through. People who had built businesses and struggled. Those whose hearts leapt just like mine, when I gained a client. Someone who understands to their very core, all the entrepreneurial things.
So, my friend Trisha Jorgensen and I created this group. We called it #girlBossUSA. We invited all the most amazing entrepreneurial and C-Suite Executives we knew and … we launched. This group makes the hard ‘business owner moments’ more bearable and the celebrations way more fun! We meet twice a month as well as an annual retreat. This group is all about business. If I had to describe it in a few words, I’d call it a Mastermind on steroids, with a heavy helping of celebrations. Our gatherings concentrate mostly on helping one another with business issues AND recognizing the wins. We have an entire evening every month devoted to getting into the nitty gritty and finding solutions. These people get the entrepreneurial me.
From my people who give me a much-needed reprieve and don’t talk about my business to the ones who talk shop and celebrate one another for business reasons, I feel I have the best of both worlds. I have someone I can call regardless of the situation. Women who understand a woman’s perspective about needing a break from reality and women who know immediately the words to say regarding businessy stuff.
If this blog made you realize that you too need these two groups in your life, I encourage you to look around. These people may already be there. If they aren’t, talk to God. He knows. He created you and me. He knows our hearts. He knows our desires because He put them there.
Here’s how creating these types of friendships work:
- Be brave enough and ask.
- Embrace your vulnerability.
- Learn to be comfortable with some intimacy.
- Be the encourager to others.
- Make an effort to understand their dreams, feelings, fears and goals.
- Be willing to take the risk.
- Be genuine.
- Learn as much as possible about the others.
- Listen, don’t talk.
- Schedule time together at the same time each month and DON’T MISS!
If you’d like more details, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d LOVE to meet for coffee and help you dive into this for yourself.
Very Humbly Yours,
Jennifer Edwards
Festie & #girlBoss
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash