PWCC Connections Newsletter
March 2019
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Mission
PWCC provides networking connections that support, enrich and inspire women to advance professionally and personally.
Goals
PWCC brings professional women together in a variety of networking venues to share knowledge, experiences, and resources with other women. Members have access to:
* Facilitated networking opportunities at monthly speaker luncheons
* Special member-only events
* Committee activities
* Board participation
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March Networking Luncheon:
Carol McCarthy, President and Owner, Remedy
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Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Union League Club of Chicago
65 West Jackson Blvd.
11:30 am-1:30 pm
$40 members | $60 non-members
$500 Table of 10
Sponsors and Premier Members no charge, but RSVP is requested.
To avoid a $10 increase, register by 5:00 p.m. on
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Remedy helps health-focused organizations solve complex brand, marketing, and communications challenges. On any given day, you’ll find her launching game-changing medical devices, refreshing global brands, or inspiring consumers to take small steps toward better health. Every project is unique. All lead to the same destination: a healthier world.
Carol McCarthy has devoted her professional life to the challenges and rewards of building brands for health-minded businesses. She began her career as a nurse and hospital administrator and transitioned into marketing after receiving her MBA. Carol founded Remedy in 1989. She remains actively involved in Remedy’s work today, leading marketing strategy for major client initiatives.
Carol’s business leadership and passion for health and social issues have been widely recognized. In 2013, she received a humanitarian award from the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University. In 2010, she was inducted into the prestigious Chicago Network, and in 2003, she was named Ernst and Young Illinois Entrepreneur of the Year marketing and public relations.
Come hear Carol’s story on March 13. Register
here
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Tips for Smarter Living: Presenting a New Product or Concept to a Client
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When you want your clients to buy a new product or accept a new concept, the secret to immediate results is knowing your customer and making an exciting and informative presentation designed specifically to the customer.
First, determine the novelty of the product and how it compares to others like it and which of your clients are the ideal audience for it. Ask yourself:
What makes this product unique and why is it worth its cost?
How does this product compare with other similar products?
What are the characteristics of a client who would gain the most from the product?
What clients would you like to introduce to it?
Once you have answers to these questions, use them to build your presentation, making sure you cover the following in your presentation:
Product overview
Product features
Ideal customer profile
Channel of distribution
Product pricing
Marketing plan
Brand Packaging and logos
With all of this knowledge and preparation, it will be your team that will make the sale, so emphasize strengths like your problem-solving skills and the technology you bring to the table. Ask for feedback, what the next steps may be, and when a decision will be made. Leave behind printed copies of the information, along with a product sample or a promotional item that will help the client remember you and your team’s preparation. And don’t forget: ask for the sale!
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Mentoring Tip: Help Mentees Boost Their Confidence with Tough Mental Workouts
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Liz is an aspiring young designer on a mission to accelerate her career in a top advertising firm. During her second year with the firm, she came to grips with the fact that she needed to build her confidence to move the needle in her career. She knew she needed a mentor but did not want to look for someone within the firm. Instead, she looked to PWCC Mentoring Program for help which paired her with an experienced marketing director.
When Liz was interviewed a year later about her experience with the program and how her mentor helped her raise her confidence, this is what she had to say: “Although Wendy was very positive and encouraging, our sessions were often a tough mental workout as she wouldn’t hesitate to push me on a difficult subject in order to make progress. Wendy helped me to raise my confidence through our time together by listening but also asking challenging questions.”
Does this scenario relate to your mentoring relationship? If so, here are proven tips for mentors help raise their mentees’ confidence and prowess.
- Think of yourself a personal trainer for your mentee’s career. What do effective personal trainers do? They push you to challenge yourself to do a little more, face what’s in front of you, be more focused, and to take the next step. They do this with every short session they have with you. So, think of every session with your mentee as a “mental workout session” and help your mentee hone in on what she needs to refine next.
- Improve your listening skills. It is easy for a mentor to get into lecture mode, to share her experiences, or to just be nebulously encouraging. All of these are good practices at times. But to truly help someone, a mentor needs to act like a mirror for her mentee as she works through obstacles. Listening with understanding and reflecting and clarifying what is being talked about are a mentor’s most successful tools. This is the ‘tough mental workout’ that takes place when someone is actively listening: listening to what is not being said as much as what is being said and watching for non-verbal clues. Only after understanding what unique challenges a mentee is facing can we help her begin to solve the problem. When you practice active listening and push a mentee to discover and hone in on her personal obstacles, she will begin to solve her own problems.
- Perfect your questioning. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a mentee is to ask the question that begins her to self-reflect and then focus on the future, with solutions. Mentors must recognize that the art of asking the right questions is hard to master, but with good intentions and practice combined with effective listening, we all get better.
Remember that a mentor doesn’t solve a mentee’s problems. Instead, a mentor helps a mentee identify her problems and then develop solutions for them. Just like a good personal trainer, facilitate the work a mentee needs to do to develop and hone the skills she needs to be the best in their industry.
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PWCC Blog: Use Doubt to Lead Yourself and Others
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“
The one way to get me to work my hardest was to doubt me.” -
Michelle Obama
“If you hear a voice within you say
you cannot paint,
then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” - -
Vincent van Gogh
“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” -
Theodore Roosevelt
A healthy mind probes and wonders. It’s skeptical and believes nothing is beyond questioning. In other words, it doubts.
To
doubt
something is to be “uncertain of belief or opinion,” to “deliberately suspend judgment” and seek more information. In other words, to be a skeptic. To think critically before accepting an idea.
While self-doubt can block us creatively, it can also push us to discover something new.
Constructive doubt is above all defined by its capacity to reframe problems, explore new pathways, and deepen our understanding of the world around us. Without permitting doubt, we risk missing opportunities to rethink a process, develop a new product, or see something in a new light.
Self-doubt may be synonymous with lack of
confidence
or low self-esteem. It’s easy to understand that lacking faith in yourself makes it very difficult to engage constructively with challenges and with colleagues.
Self-doubt is generally considered a negative trait. Yet doubt is intellectually and emotionally essential. Questioning is adaptive for survival, allowing for testing
the environment
for safety and for navigating social currents. Questioning is at times a matter of survival, when it represents the first awareness that, without change, disaster awaits. In the social sphere, it is important to learn to gauge trustworthiness, especially since gullibility makes one a target for manipulation
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Submitted by:
Carol Jambor-Smith, Ph.D., Jambor-Smith Communications,
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Overcoming Self-Doubt When Looking for New Clients
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Looking for new clients can often be intimidating, especially as part of this search requires you to sell yourself. Don’t be surprised if feelings of self-doubt start to creep into your thinking. Even the most confident, successful people experience self-doubt, so don’t beat yourself up over it!
Instead, expect to experience some self-doubt. When you’re prepared for and recognize it, you can fight back against it. Even though the natural response to this feeling is to retreat into your comfort zone or lose faith in your abilities, envision what it feels like to land a new client and lean into it.
Think about what you did to land your last new client – how can you repeat your work, even in different circumstances? What was your “bag of tricks” then? How can you use that “bag” again?
And when a pitch is not successful, think about why. Review your work and look for what you can do better next time.
Just like every swing is not a homerun, every pitch to a new client won’t land one. Lean into your past successes and use them as armor against self-doubt so that you can work again to seek new clients.
Submitted by:
Michelle Collett,
Marketing Associate, Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago
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Networking Tip: The Best Defense Against Self-Doubt: A Job Search
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Because searching for a job can be difficult, it’s easy to identify lots of external obstacles – there’s too much competition, it’s too hard to rewrite a resume for each job, LinkedIn is too intimidating to use.
However, our own self-doubt can often be the toughest obstacles to overcome. You know, that little voice that tells you:
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“I’m not good enough to apply for this job”
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“There is no point in trying. I won’t even get an interview”
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“I’ll never find a job I like”
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“Who would want to hire me?”
Sound familiar? Unfortunately, your brain responds to the kind of stimuli you provide it most consistently, especially during times of stress like a job search. If you feed your brain huge meals of self-doubt, you will begin to believe this negativity. Your motivation will decrease; your goals will derail.
Go on a diet from this self-doubt and try these five simple tips for slaying it when you are looking for a job:
1.
Remember Your Accomplishments
When you start to doubt yourself, take a moment to remember your past accomplishments. Envision the last time you had a sense of pride in your work or the last time you received a compliment on your skills or abilities. Don’t restrict your list to your professional accomplishments. Have you run a race – a 5K, 10K, marathon? How did you feel when you finished, having endured, persevered, crossed the finish line? Relive that feeling of achievement. You will have more accomplishments in the future and
every past success
is proof you can get there again.
2.
Set Short Term Goals
Achieving your goals is the best defense against self-doubt. Try setting manageable, short-term goals that you can track and achieve in less than two months. Use a vision board or calendar to set one or two goals per week, such as:
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Attend a professional development webinar
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Meet one new business contact
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Spend one hour reading a book about my industry
3.
Celebrate Small Victories
Avoid falling into a pattern of self-doubt by celebrating the small wins. Take time to acknowledge your progress every step of the way. When you mark a goal off your list or complete an extensive job application, congratulate yourself. Step away from your desk and do a little dance or indulge in an self-care activity such as a work-out, meditation, or a manicure. Simply put: celebrate you.
4.
Practice Positive Self-Talk
If negative self-talk can derail you, imagine what positive affirmations will do! Write down three or four statements you can repeat to yourself whenever self-doubt begins to creep up on you. Repeat them every morning or evening, post them on your bathroom mirror. Select quotes from people who inspire you or create affirmations that match your needs.
Here are a few suggestions:
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“I am creating my new reality daily”
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“I am grateful for the opportunities I will encounter”
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“I have all the skills I need to succeed”
5.
Build a Strong Support System
Yes, it takes a village to endure and triumph during a job search, so build yourself one! When you aren’t feeling very confident or you experience rejection, having friends who remind you of your awesomeness can do wonders. Check in with them regularly, join an online community, or find a group that supports job seekers and meets regularly. Remember, PWCC. luncheons and social events
are a great way to build your support system.
Although it is difficult to stay positive when you are experiencing self-doubt, the best way to overcome your insecurities while searching for a job is to keep doing the things that scare you. Push yourself forward. Make the call. Send the resume. If you take a risk and it doesn’t go as planned, take pride in knowing that you tried, celebrate that victory, and add another inspirational post-it note to the mirror.
Submitted by: Abby Rath, Brand Marketing, Project Management, and Strategic Communications
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Our 2018/2019 Luncheon Events Schedule is available
here
. Mark your calendars and save the dates for these great events. Remember: non-members may only attend one progressive luncheon and one speaker luncheon in any membership year (September - June). So
become a PWCC member
now!
Don't miss our
April 10, 2019 Spring Connections Luncheon
. We also have two Members' Only events you won't want to miss. Go to www.pwcc.org to register and learn more.
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Connections & Conversations
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All First Timers, Experienced Members and Guests are Welcome.
Join us at 11am, prior to every luncheon at the Union League Club, to learn about the Professional Women's Club of Chicago and membership engagement. Ask questions, participate in discussions about PWCC, and network during this brief, 30-minute meeting.
Our next Connections & Conversations Event is
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 11:00 a.m.!
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Please join PWCC in welcoming these new members who joined during February 2019:
Denise Brown, CareGiving.com
Dana Cohen
Lisa Faremouth Weber, Heaven Meets Earth Yoga Life Center
Jill Heise, BluLyne Marketing
Janet Marvel, Pattishall McAuliffe Newbury Hilliard & Geraldson LLP
Becky Nagel, Becky Nagel, LCSW
Katharine Werring, Echo Global Logistics
New Members:
Be sure to look for our New Member Ambassadors with their Red Ribbons affixed to their nametags at our next luncheon. The Ambassadors are keen to help you feel welcome,
comfortable, and introduce you to opportunities available within PWCC.
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All reservations for the monthly luncheons are requested no later than 5:00 p.m. the Friday before the luncheon. Anyone reserving after
Friday, March 8th
at 5:00 p.m. is subject to a $10 late charge and seating availability.
Please help PWCC and the Union League Club make the monthly luncheon experience a great one and reserve on time and observe their
dress code policy
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