For the last several months, I’ve been talking a lot about what I want The Other Women to become.
Not just something you read.
Something you can actually walk into.
A place where women meet people they might not otherwise meet. Where businesses collaborate instead of compete. Where an introduction might lead somewhere. Where we create experiences that feel a little different from the things already on our calendars.
Last night, we tried it.
Our first Collaboration Series happened.
And people came.
I realize that sounds like a fairly basic requirement for hosting an event. 😂
But if you've ever created something from scratch, you know exactly why that sentence matters.
Because before people come, there is a period of time when you have absolutely no idea whether they will.
There Is Always That Moment
You can make the graphics. Send the invitations. Talk about it on social media. Confirm the people involved. Buy the things. Set everything up.
And still, somewhere in the back of your mind, there's a tiny voice asking:
What if nobody comes?
Or maybe they come and leave immediately.
Maybe nobody talks to each other.
Maybe the idea that made perfect sense in your head feels completely different once actual human beings are standing inside of it.
These are the glamorous thoughts behind entrepreneurship nobody puts on Instagram. 😂
But then the first person arrives.
And another.
And another.
Conversations start. People introduce themselves. Someone meets someone they didn't know before. People linger.
And suddenly the thing you've been describing isn't an idea anymore.
It's happening right in front of you.
I had one of those moments last night.
I looked around and thought:
This is what I meant.
Maybe People Aren't Waiting for Another Event
I've been thinking about why that felt important.
And I don't think it's because the world desperately needed another event on a Wednesday night.
We have plenty of events.
Our calendars are not suffering from a lack of options.
I think what people are looking for is a reason to show up.
Something interesting.
Someone they want to meet.
An experience they haven't had before.
A chance to discover a business or a person they wouldn't have found on their own.
A connection that might actually go somewhere.
That's what I want the Collaboration Series to become.
Not events for the sake of events.
A reason for women to say yes.
And that got me thinking about how often we wait for someone else to give us something to say yes to.
Sometimes You Have to Make the Invitation
We wait to be invited.
To be introduced.
To be asked.
To be included.
To be offered the opportunity.
To find the perfect group.
To stumble into the right collaboration.
And sometimes those things happen.
But sometimes the thing we're waiting for doesn't exist yet.
Or it exists, but not quite the way we want it to.
And maybe the answer isn't to keep looking.
Maybe we're supposed to create the invitation.
That doesn't necessarily mean launching a business or hosting an event.
It could be incredibly small.
Invite four women to coffee because you think they should know each other.
Ask someone whose work you admire if she'd like to collaborate.
Introduce two people who should absolutely be in each other's orbit.
Start the walking group nobody seems to have organized.
Plan the dinner.
Pitch the idea.
Ask someone to join you.
Put the date on the calendar.
Give people something concrete enough that they can actually respond to it.
Because “we should do something sometime” has probably killed more good ideas than failure ever has.
Yes Is Only Possible After the Ask
Here's the mildly inconvenient part.
Once you make an invitation, someone can decline it.
I know.
Terrible system. 😂
They can ignore the email. They can be busy. They can love you and still not want to do the thing. You can put something together and discover that it needs work.
That's the risk of turning an idea into something real.
But there's another possibility.
They might say yes.
That's something I'm learning over and over while building The Other Women.
A surprising amount of what has happened started with one person asking another person a very simple question.
Want to grab coffee?
Can I introduce you to someone?
Would you be interested in collaborating?
What if we did this together?
Want to come?
One yes leads to a conversation.
That conversation leads to an idea.
The idea leads to someone else.
And six months later you're standing in the middle of something wondering exactly how all these people got here.
It wasn't one giant leap.
It was a series of invitations.
You Don't Need Everyone to Say Yes
I’m also learning that this isn’t really about getting everyone to show up.
Numbers matter. I'm building a business; I'm not going to pretend they don't.
But one really good conversation matters too.
One introduction.
One woman discovering another woman's business.
One person walking away thinking, I'm really glad I came.
Because the goal isn't simply to get people through the door.
It's to create something worth showing up for.
And that's the standard I want to keep.
The Conversation Continues
So this week, instead of thinking about what you're waiting to be invited to, think about what you could invite someone into.
The coffee.
The collaboration.
The introduction.
The dinner.
The idea you've talked about approximately 47 times but still haven't put on the calendar.
Make the invitation.
It doesn't need to be perfectly planned. It just needs to become real enough for someone else to answer.
Last night, I got to stand inside something that existed only as an idea a few months ago.
Women came. They talked. They connected. They discovered something new.
They said yes.
And maybe that's how more things begin than we realize.
Not because someone finally invited us.
Because one of us decided to make the invitation.
So, what are you going to give someone the chance to say yes to?
XO,
