Lately, I’ve been getting really into the ideas of leadership and coaching, thanks in part to my new job roles. The past few weeks, I’ve fallen down the proverbial rabbit hole of women’s leadership resources – everything from associations with memberships to coaches offering speaking engagements and mentorship classes to two-day conventions to all-women professional clubs. Whew! So I thought I’d share some of these resources, mostly as a way to keep them all in one place (for now).
Tara Sophia Mohr – Playing Big
This one comes first because this is the book that started me on this journey and got me really excited about the new age of women’s roles in leadership positions. More so than that, what I really love about this book is how it has shown me that “women in leadership roles” means something different depending on who you’re talking to – women all across the world define those roles differently, and there is pretty much no wrong answer.
Tara has taken this to the next step, too – in the sections below I delve a little bit into the structures she has built for spreading Playing Big further than just the pages of her book. I’m looking into setting up a Playing Big Peer Mentorship Circle here in Scottsdale, and encourage anyone interested to look into a local circle in their area for support and inspiration from other women in entrepreneurial and leadership roles withing their local communities.
“Playing Big” Peer Mentor Circles
Gather your women’s leadership network, team or department to read Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead. and meet regularly in small circles to discuss and mentor each other. For big results, pair this with a kick-off gathering, a capstone celebration and an executive sponsor. We’ll help you design a program, provide facilitator’s guides, a welcome video, customizable communications, and an opportunity to join Tara in an online video Q&A.
The Playing Big Leadership Program
This speaks more to the professional level you can take this program to. I’m lucky enough to work for company that will indulge me in talking about these sorts of things and even encourages this kind of discovery and continuing education. From Tara’s website: “Enroll a cohort from your company in the Playing Big leadership program, or bring Tara or her team to your organization. Women who attend the Playing Big leadership programs report that they have more confidence, mentor and manage more effectively, share their unique ideas more, and are playing bigger in their careers.”
Female Entrepreneur Association
Created by Carrie Green, author of “She Means Business”
An award winning platform for inspiring and empowering women to succeed in business – not just as employees, but to see women’s business ideas realized and brought to a level of success, whatever that means to them. From work-at-home moms to CEO’s of their own companies, the FEA has thousands of members across the globe supporting and empowering each other to reach their business goals. Their website is full of goodies, like a quiz you can take to find out how close you are to turning your dreams into reality, and a really robust blog with topics from business growth to personal and professional development to money management and well beyond.
You can also become a member of the association, and gain access to a community of thousands of other female entrepreneurs and encouragement, training, and inspiration. They hold monthly one-on-one Q&A calls, help you draft a business success plan, and then train you on the tools to implement that plan to build your business.
#BlogHer
Community of Female Bloggers Inspiring and Empowering Female Content Creators
This might be surprising, but I actually discovered #BlogHer when I stumbled across details to their #BlogHer Health 2019 Conference – a two-day event (January 24th and 25th 2019 in Los Angeles) that focuses on primarily on women’s health and wellness. Their lineup of speakers immediately caught my attention, and I spent the next six hours learning everything I could about #BlogHer.
Health, wellness, branding, SEO, networking, mindfulness, social media, from passion to profit, learning from other female business leaders. Turn your passion into content, community, and commerce.
The AllBright Collective
So this is a concept that has been around for ages – “members-only” clubs aren’t new. But the way that this one is organized and run has me truly captivated and this is like a major #lifegoals thing for me. The collective as a whole offers what they call the AllBright Academy, which is a collection of online courses aimed at arming women with the tools to achieve their goals and build confidence along the way. They also have a monthly events series, which includes what they call their Pitch program, where female entrepreneurs can apply for the opportunity to pitch their ideas to major investors. The part that thrills me the most about this is the culmination of these efforts to promote women in business and leadership, which is their AllBright Club. Picture this: it’s an elegant four story Gregorian style townhouse in London. The space is completely designed by and for women, down to the art that decorates the walls. There are meeting spaces, office spaces, and social spots. The best part? There is a fully stocked bar, a salon, and a gym INSIDE the clubouse. The whole space is meant to bring together brilliant, like-minded women who blend business with social and get. shit. done. Of course, this company is largely based in England, but read more about the opening of their California location in 2019 below.
On opening their first US location
AllBright is a network and community celebrating and connecting smart-thinking women. AllBright supports women at all stages of their careers, with a particular focus on skills, start-ups, and space. The AllBright, the UK’s first of-its-kind members’ club for working women, opened in March 2018 – providing a unique environment for women to connect, create, and collaborate. The AllBright Academy leverages an immersive, digital, cohort-driven curriculum, an outstanding faculty of experts, and diverse and flexible course offerings to help female founders and aspiring founders build and grow their businesses. AllBright’s live events program includes a monthly Pitch Series, which facilitates connecting female founders with funders. The annual 5-day festival, FoundHER (London, Manchester and Glasgow) is an inspiring and dynamic curation of workshops, panels and entertainment. Together, these pillars create a broad and inclusive community that enables women to thrive, underpinned by a robust, year-long program of high-profile events, and an engaged and active community.
Women 2.0
A fantastic resource for women, especially in the tech industry. I very much enjoy browsing their Career, Workplace, and Ideas sections on any given day, for inspiration as much as to read up on topics I’d never even considered before – like this gem on why we need to destigmatize crying in the workplace.
#girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
So talk about a rags-to-riches story. This book, by New York Times bestselling author Sophia Amoruso, outlines how she went from literally getting her meals out of the trash, to starting one of the fastest-growing (and most fabulous, hello) retailers in the world. This one definitely offers a different perspective – Amoruso prides herself on being what she considers an outsider – the black sheep of the women’s fashion family.
I think this is an incredibly valuable book, especially for those who have never considered themselves to be “part of something”. It also proves a great point: it doesn’t matter where you went to school or who your parents are or how many followers you have on Instagram. If you work hard and fuel your passion, you can achieve greatness, whatever that looks like for you.
I also own the #girlboss Workbook, which calls itself “an interactive journal for winning at life” (how could I not buy it..???). More on this later!