I came back into my office today on a high after spending the last four days with my NAWBO sisters at our National board meeting, chapter president onboarding and Advocacy Day events, and waiting for me was a resignation letter from one of my key employees. Back to reality. But isn’t that the life of a woman business owner? Ups and downs, great stuff followed by not so great stuff.
The past year has gone by in a blur—it feels like just a few months ago that I stood in Washington, DC and was sworn in as your National Board Chair. Over the past year, I’ve visited quite a few of your chapters, sworn in several chapter boards and had the opportunity to interact with many of our chapter leaders and members, both at our national events and online in our various Facebook groups and on my quarterly Chair Chats. I’m so inspired by all of you!
Great things are happening in our local chapters to support our members, help them grow their businesses and provide leadership opportunities for them to grow personally and professionally. And great things are happening at National, too, as we keep upping our game with more member benefits and educational programming, building our influence by advocating on behalf of all women entrepreneurs and hosting ever bigger and better national events that meet the needs of our members. I especially want to recognize our CEO Jen Earle and the National team for their tireless work to take NAWBO to the next level.
As my #ChairYear comes to an end, I’m excited about the new projects I’ll now have time to work on. Not to worry, they’re (mostly) for NAWBO. Like the podcast we’re launching to help members address their business challenges. If you’re having a challenge you want us to help with, email the details to lbishop@nawboinstitute.org. And I’ll still be working with the amazing leaders on our National Board to serve our members and chapter leaders for the next year.
Since the theme of this month’s NAWBO One is Next Gen, I also want to add how awesome it has been to have the opportunity to meet so many young women who are getting ready to take over the world. I’m so looking forward to our conference in Jacksonville, Florida, in October—we’re launching a new Next Gen track just for those brilliant young women who are starting their own businesses, sharing their ideas and stepping into their leadership. When I was in school, I never imagined that one day I would be running my own multi-million-dollar company. Today’s next generation of women entrepreneurs has no doubt that they will take over the world, and I can’t wait to watch them do just that. See you all in Jacksonville!