The Better Bombshell is a networking group for women in the Seattle area, inspired by Charlotte Austin and Siolo Thompson, authors of ‘The Better Bombshell.’ The goal is for women to empower other women, share their stories, inspire others and help each other in the workforce.
Why the desire to start a woman’s networking group? I’ve been inspired by women I meet and their stories of how they are building their career. In too many of these stories, these women are doing it on their own. So, the short story, I want to create a community of support for women.
Here’s how we’re going to do it. We will meet the last Wednesday of every month. We will feature a different speaker every month; women sharing their stories of success, lessons learned for about 15-20 minutes as well as chance to meet other women you may otherwise not meet. It will be casual event to be inspired and meet other women. Please feel free to bring other women as well as your daughters, nieces, and other young girls. I believe this could be unbelievably empowering for young girls to hear and to meet successful women to hopefully be inspired. We’ve got some amazing speakers lined up included Charlotte Austin, Silio Thompson and Torrie Dorrell. As the group grows evolves in time so will how we approach our meetings and topics. Your voice matters!
The whole story of how this idea came about:
Literally within a week, I spoke to two women; one in their 20’s, one in their 50’s that were building their business and didn’t have a lot of support. They were in different phases of their career. And that’s how this idea came about. I know it’s important to me to have a strong women mentor to share best practices, be inspired, and problem solve any issues.
My running partner Julie, in her 50’s, is starting another career. After taking some time off, she was offered an opportunity in the design business. With no training, working from her home, she didn’t have the support of a manager she had access to on a regular basis. Julie researched the heck out of the community in Seattle, got to know the players in the industry and started to create a name for herself. Getting involved in networking groups and boards, Julie got to know the business. One thing she identified was creating an event for the community where she invited a panel to speak on topics that were relevant to her design audience. Not even being in the business for two years, Julie’s event was a huge success. What an accomplishment in so little time.
My hairdresser, building her own business in her mid-20’s. Growing up in the industry, my mom has had her own salon for over 40 years; I know it’s difficult to find a good mentor and building a loyal clientele is tough. Jen, just starting out, was telling me how she is going thru a ton of training, getting various certifications and wants to be a trainer herself. Apparently, it’s a coveted job. There aren’t many trainers and many stylist want the job. Jen is being proactive, reaching out to her community, researching the leaders, networking and getting her name out there. I was so impressed with her motivation. I asked her who her mentor was and what inspired her. Her response; she shrugged her shoulders and said she’s just doing what she thinks is best.
That is only half of my inspiration. The other half comes from Charlotte Austin and Torrie Dorrell. Torrie was a client of my firm. While doing some research on Torrie, I came across an article in ‘The Better Bombshell.’ Torrie was featured because she has been successful in her career that is typically dominated by men. As we know, there is a disproportional amount of men at the C level. And, in the gaming industry; it’s pretty rare to find a women at this level in this industry. Torrie has done a beautiful job navigating her career and raising her daughter. It’s a great story, check it out here.
That leads me to Charlotte Austin. Trying to figure out a name for this networking group, I kept coming back to ‘The Better Bombshell.’ I tried many different interpretations; however none resonated with me like this name. So, I reached out to Charlotte to ask her and her partner, Silio Thompson, if I could use the name. Instantly, Charlotte was on board as well as asking me how she could help launch the group. I was blown away by her accomplishments; mountain guide, published author, world traveler, the list goes on. And, so early in her career! You can read more about Charlotte here.