Coach Cassandra Rae

As a solopreneur (one-woman-business) networking can be a very effective tool for growing your business.  I’ve been involved with about 10 or so groups throughout the last couple of years and have gotten very choosy about which ones to make a commitment to.  Currently, I only belong to one: CWIN (conscious women innovatively networking). And this is one reason why:

You see, I’m kinda going through some stuff right now with my extended family.  It’s the kind of stuff that grabs your attention quick, forces you to scrutinize your priorities, and if necessary make drastic changes.  Well, one of the drastic changes I’ve made is to take a break from my business.  Yup, currently I’m on sabbatical through the first week of September.  And when I shared what was going on with the ladies of CWIN they sent me this amazing gift basket from All the Buzz.

I was so surprised when it was delivered and when I opened up it up…Oh My Gosh! it’s the best ever! It’s like the person who made it knew me personally. It had a beautiful journal, yummy cookies, tea, & chocolate, sweet smelling bath products, and even a bag of gourmet trail mix. Oh and a candle too. It was absolutely perfect and I felt so loved and supported.

I’m so fortunate to belong to a networking group that is more like a supportive group of friends.  Thank you, ladies of CWIN.  You make such a positive difference in my life.

Tags: CWIN, friends, networking, sabbatical, solopreneurs, support

“Family Harmony”
Photo Artwork by Me!

A huge, heart-felt thank you to everyone who offered their advice and words of encouragement in my freak-out moment.  In case you don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I decided to honor my commitment to family and friends and go to the Cal football game.  Almost as soon as I posted the request to my blog, I knew that the right thing for me was to go to the game.  It’s like all I needed was the space to freak out, write about it, and then ask for help.  And even though I had already decided what to do before I read your comments, it’s important to me that you know just how much your comments helped.  It felt so amazingly good to see such a quick response to my cry for help.  And it was so cool how all of the comments I read before the game turned out to be confirmations for the decision I made, which really boosted my confidence.  So thank you for sharing your thoughts, ideas, and love.  *SQUEEZE*

A funny side-note: I totally forgot that my friend Jerry who I was meeting up with for the Cal game is a subscriber to my blog.  He read about my dilema and then had trouble sleeping not knowing if I was going to show up the next day or not.  Poor guy!  He had no idea that I had already decided to go and there wasn’t time to check in with me about it due to the late hour on Friday and planning to meet early on Saturday.  He must have been so relieved to see me show up on time at the BART station!

In retrospect, I am really glad I chose to go to the Cal game.  This is something I’ve been doing for 10 years and it really means a lot to me and my family.  In fact, I used to go to all the games.  Now that we only go to one a year it has become even more of a special occasion.  My only complaint is that when we met up with the extended crowd of friends to tailgate, people gave me such a hard time for not going to all of the games.  It’s like they focused on what I wasn’t doing instead of the fact that I was there with them in the moment.  I guess maybe part of me was buying into the idea of “I should be doing more” (oh, that reminds me of yesterday’s post!) but, honestly I feel good about choosing to do what works best for me and my family.

Tags: advice, Family, friends, support

So tomorrow is our annual Cal football game. We used to be season ticket holders and go to all the home games. But, then we realized that it was taking so much energy – one Saturday event would consume the whole weekend really because Sunday we were too tired to do much else. Plus, we have Gracie the Chihuahua and a busy teenage daughter. So we whittled it down to one game a year and tomorrow’s the day. We picked this day months ago and our good friends bought the tickets for us. It’s even the birthday of another friend who we’ve chipped in to buy a gift for.

Here’s where I need your advice.

The thing is…tomorrow is also BizTechDay in San Francisco. So many of my entrepreneur friends have invited me to go. In fact, I’ve even been invited to go at no cost. Damn. I really want to go. The solopreneurs that I look up to are going and I know it would be really good for my business to attend.

Here’s another catch.

The Hubs and Daughter have said that if I cancel going to the game, then they’ll cancel too. They said, “It’s simply not the same without you.” At first I was like, “Damn! That’s a lot of pressure.” It’s true. I feel like I’m deciding for all of us and not just me. But, I know that’s not entirely true. I also know how important my presence is to the friends we’ve promised to go with.

But, the truth is my heart is at BizTechDay. I mean, I’ve known about it for quite some time and knew that I was already booked and it wasn’t a big deal. Until I started receiving personal invitation from people I really admire.

Crap. What should I do?

Oh my heaven…and I just remembered that another really good friend who is moving away soon is having a baby shower tomorrow and I really want to go to that too. Double crap! I feel torn in so many different directions and I feel loyal to everyone…which also makes me feel loyal to none.

Now I really need your help.

Oh, and while I was writing this Daughter tells me, “You’re not supporting me. You’re just pressuring me. You’ve done nothing but pressure me all week.”

Argh.

Tags: advice, business, Family, friends