The words community and celebration summarize our kick- off event of the new Be You series for the 2015 Wholistic Woman Retreats year at a glance. The new Be You program is building from a past series called Build Your Own Business (BYOB) success that I created five years ago as a way to build and weave a community together on a monthly basis with education and happy hours. Roughly 500 overlapping participants (mostly women) joined in for the personal and professional tips, fun networking, and a focus on results. All women based speakers brought powerful knowledge to our community, and this will continue.
During our event on Tuesday, we spent much of our time discussing the power of one word which filled the room with words of wisdom. I was happy to hear the word “shine” two times as that was my word last year and it served me well. My word this year is “move”. As I received this strong word late last year it became clear it was time to “move” toward the “Be You” program – dropping the “B” or Business from BYOB and focusing on YOU with a supportive group of professional coaches and members of the Wholistic Woman community.
Part of the program on Tuesday, which was extra special for me, was a 10 year business anniversary celebration of my KRB Customized Training Solutions, now KRB Business Solutions LLC. As I shared a few milestones, it was clear the first half of the decade was business building and the second part community building. My business motto is educate, motivate and cultivate. In building my business it was about education and motivation all the way. I have learned that the cultivating piece is a process and takes time. My business has involved traveling the past 20 years and you could say working on the road is how I do business. In the middle years of building my business, I was really craving community in my area. As the saying goes, “home is where the heart is” and those of you that know me, know I have a lot of heart. With traveling, my heart was all over the place. The BYOB monthly sessions, which I conducted and trained on a much bigger scale for a corporation before starting my own business, came to be a constant and were the building blocks in my life here locally. I have recognized that some business projects will come and go – like hitting the ball out of the park with a Washington Nationals 6 month contract during their inaugural season, and some stay – like my new Joint Venture in Texas formed with my top client of 5 years.
It is interesting that before starting my business there was a postcard with the words “take a leap of faith” that nudged me to start my business and now I am living this one word in my joint venture Minute Leap DFW, LLC years later.
Community building is where the heart is. The encouragement, empathy and attitude of gratitude in our community makes us whole. In other words, business will be here, but community is the heart that keeps us alive and growing. I am proud to see the seed I have planted grow, and it feels amazing to serve a larger community through WWR and pass on a program to more “women on the- grow” for more enrichment.
Our celebration the other night was topped off with a champagne toast and songs I selected for Coach Sandie to sing. Just as we all sang, “walking 500 miles and 500 more to be the one who walk those miles and shows up at your door” – KRB will be there, WWR will be there, our door is open and we invite you in. We have walked these miles and are opening more doors in our community. The second song, “Walking on Sunshine” touches me and touched others with beautiful words like: “ I feel alive, I feel a love.” I am more alive and a better me because of our community, and hope the new Be You program will serve you to be the best YOU in 2015.
If you are not a member, please consider reviewing our membership plan for Wholistic Woman Retreats by Clicking Here to see how you can build a better you through our community membership. Be Whole, and celebrate Being YOU!
Today’s author: Kelye Rouse Brown is an executive coach, conference speaker, HR expert, and seminar leader on employee and management training. Through her company, KRB Business Solutions, LLC, she specializes in communications and leadership, career coaching, and result driven solutions for hospitality, healthcare and service oriented clients. You can reach Kelye at [email protected] or visit her website www.krbcustomizedtrainingsolutions.com