Notes from the Massachusetts Women's Conference

I popped into the Massachusetts Women's Conference last week to reconnect with some friends and help out with their Mentor Matchup program.  Below are some random notes I had jotted down during the day in case you didn't attend.

Pleasant surprise of the day: Marcus Buckingham (twitter: http://twitter.com/mwbuckingham), author of Find Your Strongest Life: What the Happiest and Most Successful Women Do Differently.  Never heard of the guy, but, then again, I never watch Oprah.  Not only was he engaging with his lovely accent and funny stories, he brought up the biggest takeaway point for the day for me:  

When children are told they are good at something and not so good at other things, they tend to pursue with enthusiasm all the things that they are good at and ignore the rest.  Grownups, on the other hand, and women especially, focus all their energy on fixing what they are not so good at (i.e., their weaknesses) and do not focus on their strengths.  This could be a major reason why women are getting less and less happy.

Hmmmm.  This certainly explains why women's magazines exist.  (For more on that, click here).  So, for 2010, how about we all have a little less focus on fixing our weaknesses and more on improving our strengths? 

Best speakers: 

• Trudy Sullivan, CEO of Talbot's.  She tells it like it is, and was not apologetic for earlier failures, or for dedicating herself to her career despite having children. (Prioritizing work is something we've been blogging about here at the WomensDISH.)
• Trish McEvoy, Founder, Trish McEvoy Cosmetics.  The story that stayed with me was how she wanted to get into makeup so she went to work in a corner drug store.  The point she made was that you can learn no matter where you are and it sounded like some of the lessons she learned at the very bottom of the ladder were helpful all the way up to the top.
• Kate White, Editor-in-Chief, Cosmopolitan Magazine, author.  Kate added a touch of glamour, yet was incredibly down to earth.  Despite my disdain for women's magazines, she's one panelist who, if I was 10 years younger, I'd be saying to myself "I want to be her!"
• Candy O'Terry, co-host, Magic 106.7's "Exceptional Women".  Fabulous moderator. She injected her own stories and really brought the panel to life.  
• Tory Johnson, CEO, Women for Hire.  Tory started off the morning with high energy and a very candid and engaging talk.  While I know Tory's story, I think it was eye-opening for the women (and a few men) in the room to hear someone openly talk about being unexpectedly fired.

Yes, you'll note that I didn't include Suze Ormond on this list.  I agree that Suze is an entertaining speaker and has her following.  But I reviewed one of her books a few years ago and her talk is pretty much verbatim.  Yes, you can learn a little "chutzpah" from her and I'm sure that was good for folks to hear.  However, when it comes to Suze's content, my take on it is if you didn't know any of the basics that she talks about before you walked into that room, then:

1. I'm worried for your ability to handle any job that has fiscal or budgetary responsibility.
2. I'm wondering if educational reform should include a basic finance 101 class as a high school requirement; and
3. Well, I suppose that would pretty much explain the state of things today.

In other words, while I think a LOT of people need to learn what she's teaching, I felt it wasn't geared to anyone at a manager level or above sitting in the audience. Personally, if I was to attend a conference for my own business purposes (as opposed to hanging out with friends and lending my expertise to the mentor matchup) I would've rather heard about the "business" of running "Suze Orman enterprises" rather than "don't run up credit card debt."

One other off-note for the day - politics:  They had two speakers representing the "political spectrum," and I don't mean to disrespect them because I applaud their being involved in a Women's Conference, but they were both "wives of". I found it odd that they didn't have US Senate candidate Martha Coakley there (for all I know it might've been a scheduling issue on the Coakley campaign part).  Anyhow, I would've rather heard from ANY female candidate who ran and won an election even if it was at a lower profile level because as you all probably know, I've been on my soapbox for the past week about how women cannot be taken seriously in business if they continue to be absent from politics.

The buzz words that I heard over and over from speakers/friends:

• Start networking
• Keep learning.
• Take action.
• Be creative.
• Be focused.
• Drop the guilt & self-doubt.

The people who probably got the most out of the conference were the participants in the Mentor Matchup program.  I'm not writing this because I personally was involved (along with some of my superstar pals who would be nearly impossible to get 20 minutes of their time in a regular setting). I'm writing this because participants got to sit down with "mentors" and ask them a particular question and get 20 minutes of undivided attention, advice and focused brainstorming. I fielded questions from job hunting,  to breaking through to management to opting back into the workforce and creating a marketing plan for 2010; the industries were IT, finance, non-profit, health care, photography and pharmaceutical.

Simply by participating in the Mentor Matchup, those individuals pretty much hit all the buzz words above.

Downtown Women's Club premium members have an opportunity to do something similar to the Mentor Matchup via our DWC+ LinkedIn Group and DWC+ Teleclasses (exclusively limited to DWC+ Paid Members).  Many of our teleclass instructors are open to hearing from participants both during and after the teleclass.  On LinkedIn, I personally respond to most questions that are posed on our LinkedIn Group provided they are "need mentoring" type questions.  And, those are also the ones that yield the most responses (read = networking opportunities) from our entire LinkedIn Group.  So, there you go - an easy way to get started making 2010 your best year yet, and you don't even have to leave your office and go to a conference.

Diane K. Danielson is the founder of the Downtown Women's Club and the author of The Downtown Women's Club Beginner's Guide to Facebook and co-author of The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?).

Comments

[Susan Hammond]

Diane,
Financial literacy on the part of graduating seniors is very low. A Boston Globe article that appeared over the summer indicated that college student credit card debt hovers at $3,000-$4,000. I would like to see a call for a mandatory class for graduating seniors improving their financial literacy. This needs to be included in any education reform. Most schools if they offer it at all it's an elective.

Anyone wishing information on on-line financial literacy programs can check out the News & Resources page on my website.

Happy Holidays!

Susan C Hammond
www.schammond.com

[Diane Danielson/CEO, Downtown Women's Club]

Susan - Kudos to you because I know you've been a long-time advocate for financial literacy -- here's hoping we get there soon. Esp. with credit card offers now with 79% interest. People need to know what spending beyond their means will really cost them in the long run.

[Kathleen Burns Kingsbury]

Here's to financial literacy and women learning to how to earn their worth. I had a chance to speak at the conference and enjoyed meeting so many women dedicated to learning more about money and their money mindset as a way to break through the glass ceiling. I blogged about Suze if you care to check it out go to www.chicksmakecents.com.

Happy Holidays all you powerful women out there!
kbk

[Diane Danielson/CEO, Downtown Women's Club]

Kathleen - Nice write up of the conference. I agree with your points that (1) "I wish she didn't have to yell" and (2) At least she got women to talk about money. For some more on this issue, check out Aliza Sherman's recent post: http://babyfruit.typepad.com/mediagirl/2009/12/why-men-dont-promote-women-more---forbescom.html

Diane

[the female orgasm]

President George W. Bush signed an additional amendment to Executive Order 13183 on December 3,