A savvy group of women entrepreneurs have penned a book intended to provide tools and strategies for women looking to market their business.
The book Find Your Voice On Social Media: The Six Week Guide to Confidently Sharing Your Message With Those Who Need It Most is a collaboration of personal, practical stories.
Three of the contributors hail from Cochrane including main author Lyndsie Barrie, marketing and communications professional Kelly Sinclair and author and sales representative Carey Wilkinson Lee. Wilkinson Lee wrote her own book How to Get Out of an Abusive Relationship (With Yourself).
More than a year ago Barrie started Fempreneur Marketing School, a free six-week marketing school that she delivers to other women looking to build their marketing momentum. Barrie learned to overcome challenges through her own struggles and failures. The school is an outlet to share her secrets and the book, released in early February, was born from her interactions with students.
“After the third class I thought ‘there’s really a book here’”, Barrie said. Barrie has taught six classes.
“I was getting all these great stories from the women who were graduating from this program.” Barrie put out the word that she was writing a book and needed help from graduates. A core group of seven women came forward and contributed their stories.
“It was a collaborative process.”
The book contains a six-week process that builds confidence and clarity in women who either own a business or are looking to give their business a boost. Barrie is also the author of Money & the 39 Forever Mom. Her first book focused on money success strategies for moms.
“There’s a lot of information that I’ve discovered, a lot of it through trial and error, that I want to share with other women who are trying to start their own businesses or who are trying to figure out how to go on social media,” Barrie said of her marketing school and latest book.
“I’ve heard some women finish this program and say things like ‘I never even thought I was going to be in business’. It’s giving them the tools, empowering them and the drive,” Barrie said of the book and school.
Barrie’s road to success hasn’t been without a few side steps. Barrie’s first business was working as a mobile hair stylist for eight years. In her second book she admits that she knew very little about how money and business work. When she was 21 a client explained to her how investments work. Barrie was intrigued.
She read books on investments and finances and after finding the courage to leave her comfort zone she sold her house in Grand Prairie and moved to Cochrane and entered a financial advisor training program. After completing a handful of grueling financial courses and exams she found employment with a large international investment firm.
She thought she found her dream job, but after not meeting quotas she was fired.
After a day of feeling beaten down and devastated, the single mom pulled herself together and decided to see the silver lining in losing her job. She started her own financial consulting company and most of her clients that she helped in her previous job at the firm came with her.
Barrie says the main challenge with women in business is their lack of confidence.
“Nobody tells them how great they are often enough. They often think that they need to do it on their own. They need a team.”
She explains that most women think that being an entrepreneur means doing it solo. In her marketing school Barrie assigns each student a partner and the students remain as partners for the schools’ six week duration.
“Without the team, none of the other stuff in the marketing school works. If you don’t have people giving you feedback, high-fiving you, telling you it’s going to be OK.”
Book collaborator Sinclair says the marketing school, and the book, doesn’t focus heavily on the differences between men and women in the business world.
“It’s not ignoring it, I tend to think that whenever you put too much attention on something you overcompensate what we’re really just trying to normalize,” Sinclair said.
“We’re just women, who happen to be women who are starting businesses. It’s challenging, but business is challenging. When one succeeds, we all succeed. Rising tides lift all boats.”
To obtain a copy of the book visit https://yycfempreneur.com/media
