The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), The Pennsylvania Conference for Women, and The Camden County Women’s Health Conference. These are just a few of the campaigns and events I’ve participated in and/or will be participating in this month – like the Breast Cancer Awareness event I’m hosting for a loved one currently under-going treatment for this disease. I believe it’s such a great time to be an American Woman…a time of great healthcare advancements and improved medical treatment plans, strides towards womens ‘equality rights’, and because I’m a woman in the Healthcare IT jobs industry, of course.
Last week I attended the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA and it was great! One of the most supportive, educational, interactive, beneficial, and fun times I’ve had at such an event like this. This conference was hugely attended by women locally from the “Delaware Valley” a.k.a. the tri-state region I hail from (NJ, PA, DE), and New York City, as well as women I met from across the country! One of the keynote speakers was Arianna Huffington – founder of the national online news publication entitled The Huffington Post – she delivered a great talk about the importance of getting enough of the “S” word… ‘SLEEP’ and how she turned what may have become a negative personal relationship into founding her nationally known publication!
Also, during this daylong event – I really got a lot out of the ‘Small Business Boot Camp’ – a very popular, two-part workshop headed up by Tory Johnson (the workplace contributor on TV’s ABC’s Good Morning America), founder of ‘Women For Hire’ (a 13-year old multimillion-dollar career expo business, and Spark & Hustle National Conferences – for current and aspiring women small business owners. Tory’s panel of women included a banker, small business owners, an estate planner, and “The Small Biz Lady” – Melinda Emerson – a dynamic, no nonsense style guru for everything social media and more. She is like a ‘Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, and Small Business advisor” all wrapped in one! We couldn’t get enough of Ms. Emerson relentless style of speaking and her valuable advice and she did not hold back anything either. She shared so many of her “how to’s” and guidance for using social media, blogs, websites, and other media to your advantage. Also, which ones (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Blogs) to use and when to use them, and how to “hustle” your business, products and services. By the end of part-one of this workshop session, about 50 women swamped around Ms. Emerson, as she tossed out her ‘SmallBizChat’ T-shirts and other give-a-ways, as she kept on providing one-to-one advice to each and every women who came up to the podium asking her questions and seeking her additional advice.
Near the end of this day at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, many of us women assembled again for part-two of the Tory Johnson’s ‘Small Business Boot Camp’ workshop session, entitled “Pitch It.” We were lectured to and coached on how to verbally sell your business in a few minutes” speech. For example some of my delivery went like this – “My name is Shirley Corsey, I’m a Certified Healthcare IT professional, and Blogger at Healthcare IT Today. With over 8 years of becoming an expert of consulting for hospitals and clinics nationally, I recently established my own Electronic Medical Records consulting firm called SC Consultant, LLC…” . One by one we were able to approach the microphone and ‘pitch’ ourselves the best way we could. The last one standing at the microphone, was this shaking, nervous lady almost in tears…she then turned away from the microphone and returned back to her seat, without delivering her speech. The next few I witnessed one of the most heartwarming displays of caring, as several women went over to the very nervous and upset lady and gave so much support and encouragement. These were many of the same woman who earlier in the day during part-one of this workshop, were previously swamping “The Small Biz Lady” to get advice. After a little while, the lady was able to rally her nerves and then pitch her business from her seat (the moderator walked the microphone to her)…and to our surprise “The Nervous Lady” received the loudest applause of the day! Ms. Emerson (our other ‘Lady’ of the day), provided even more support and guidance…as she pulled out her very last give-a-way of the day, a copy of her newly penned book entitled ‘Become Your Own Boss in 12 Months’ and walked it over to her as well.
I declare! This is the moment I realized that “womanhood” goes well beyond all of this month of October events – I know it’s such a great time to be an American Woman!
