Your stock has gone up - whether you realize it or not.

People want what you have. Corporations and associations need your energy, your thoughts, your leadership and your business. Collectively, we need your buying power to move mountains and garner attention for causes we all can agree on. 

For too long, women have gone unnoticed in the business world, unrecognized in leadership roles, under-acknowledged for their contributions and underappreciated for their work raising children and taking care of the home. Finally we have come upon a time when women are joining together, in collaboration rather than in competition, and are beginning to realize the value of their time, energy and efforts.

So let me ask you - what is your time worth? Your ideas? Your experience?

If you had to hire someone to do the work you do, at the level you do it - what would that cost? 

If you're a mom who takes care of the house and the family as you rush to get everyone out the door, you are...

Anger: When I Try To Name The One Thing, All The Other Things Line Up Behind It

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but it makes me angry when people don’t mean what they say. It makes me angry when people think I should be okay with broken promises and unkept commitments. I am not. I will not be. And I will not apologize for my “high standards.” Without integrity, there is no basis for communication, let alone accountability and responsibility.

It makes me angry that people think “obligation” is a dirty word everyone should be free from. An entire industry called “self help” profits from people’s fear of accountability. Here’s all the self-help you need: take responsibility for your shit, mean what you say and follow through.

It makes me angry when I tell people about a difficulty I’m having with another person and they try to guess what the others involved are thinking instead of listening to ME, the person right in...

Work hard, be strong, pick yourself up when you fall down, don’t show your flaws and do not let others know if you are hurting; this was my German upbringing.  In many aspects it has served me well over my life, and in other ways it has the potential to be limiting.   In a society where women are often viewed as being too emotional to be powerful and successful, left in check, this mantra could easily become very restrictive.    

Restrictive you say?  One would think it would give me the capacity to be more “polished and shiny” when I am on stage.  The problem is, I am a very emotional person at my core and being “polished” is not congruent with my soul.   The times where I tried to be “polished” while delivering my message were the times that I shined the least!

All of us have stories that we carry with...

In October this year, I scrolled through about five pages’ worth of Facebook statuses saying only “Me too.” A hashtag began to appear before the phrase. It was three or four days before I was able to figure out what was going on. I would say I’m relatively informed, so it was unusual for me to be so clueless. Even after much reading, I have to say I’m confused. I’ve come articles explaining #MeToo as a social media campaign to raise awareness about sexual assault, a way for women to take their power back over something they’d long been silent about, the beginning of the move from social movement to social change. I’ve read denouncements of the campaign’s exclusion of male sexual assault victims. I’ve tried to keep track of the various spin-off campaigns. Articles detailing various women’s hesitation about whether to post #MeToo, deliberating whether solidarity was a good enough reason to post or demanding that those...

It started off with good intentions, and the movement has certainly had a resounding impact. There are the well publicized stories of highly paid celebrities and decision makers being ousted from their coveted jobs. Our hearts broke as we watched the female gymnasts come forward en masse to testify against the deranged doctor who stole the innocence from these young girls while their parents sat by, sometimes in the same room, dreaming of Olympic gold medals.

Executives and upper level management started to panic over who would be called out next. And they should have been worried. Because the truth was bigger than a hashtag. The truth was that we, as a society, have tolerated, accepted, even participated in what some tried to call frat boy talk. And this behavior toward women and girls was so pervasive that we were almost lulled into believing it was a societal norm.

I remember as a teen wondering why PG movies would show topless women, but they would never show nude men. Were...

WOMEN'S VOICES MATTER

Women’s Voices Matter (WVM) was founded for the purpose of supporting, empowering and collaborating with women.  We are bringing together women from diverse backgrounds to foster mutually beneficial networking, mentoring and work opportunities, as well as collective career advancement for our members

MISSION STATEMENT:

Women’s Voices Matter strives to create a collaborative culture that empowers women with varying levels of experience, education and influence to learn from one another, grow together, build solid networks, mastermind, mentor, inspire, empower and support our members.

 This is not about competition, this is collaboration. Use every opportunity you can to catapult another woman toward success, and know that as you do so, others will be working to catapult you.

Givers gain, and those who participate frequently by sharing relevant, valuable content will be rewarded – after all, we are women and women love surprises.