Yesterday I played reporter for the Emerging Women in Business Conference. In my role as marketing chair of the conference, I got to shoot video of Carrie Johnson, author of From the Pits to the Palace, during her speech at the Leading Women breakfast, and interview her afterwards. I received the book just the night before and was already inspired by her story.
You see, Carrie has an incredible story. She created a $3.5 million dollar commercial cleaning business, called - get this - Sparkle Cleaning. What girl isn't inspired by a little sparkle? Well, Carrie has a lot of sparkle. She has that sparkle in her eye when she talks to you. I saw her talking to another woman across the room, dressed in the perfect red suit and accessories, and just knew she would win the hearts of everyone in the room.
Carrie wasn't always so sparkly. In 1985, she was a single mother of two trying to support her two boys on her $18k annual income as a reporter. They could barely afford to live in government assisted housing and she struggled with alcohol and drug abuse which had long masked the shame of childhood sexual abuse. She was going nowhere, as they say. Or worse, she was headed for disaster.
Carrie went on to tell the room how she discovered herself through her role as an entrepreneur. Her sons gave her purpose, and her business supported a much better lifestyle than the one she had as a reporter. She turned her life around, and created an impressive business, despite the challenges of being a black woman in a white male dominated industry. She then wrote an inspiring book about the whole ordeal, in order to give others the hope and confidence that they can do it, too. She's writing another one now.
In her story, I heard the stories of so many of our sassy lady entrepreneurs. I heard my own story, always struggling to balance the needs of my business and family. Her story is "every woman entrepreneur's story." I was so lucky to be able to interview her afterwards, to share some of Carrie's sparkle. We talked about getting support, about using your emotion and intuition, about networking effectively, about forming a board of advisors for your company.
The video clips are all with the editor right now, and I'll be sure to share them with you when they are ready. You can join our Facebook and Twitter community to join the conversation between now and the April 22nd EWIB Conference in Providence, RI. I highly recommend reading Carrie's book.
Lisa Bergeron, the Conference chair and president of the So. New England chapter of Leading Women, liked the interviews so much, she asked me to interview Carrie on stage as part of the keynote address. If Carrie doesn't mind that format, I'll gladly do it. I could talk to her for hours!
And, you know... as I'm writing this, the idea popped into my head to have FRESH host the conference after party, maybe with a "sparkle" theme. Why not? Great marketing opportunity for all. My wheels are always turning.
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