*This post is sponsored by BlogHer. Thoughts and opinions are my own.

October is Women’s Small Business month! In honor of that, I invested in business education all month long. Thanks to BlogHer Biz’s digital event series, I gained valuable tools and expert insight to take my business to the next level. 

I have roughly 3 pages of notes that I can’t stop reading from last week’s Business Transformation panel of BlogHer Biz. This session focused on start-ups to fortune 100 companies and featured Samantha Skey, Marian Salzman, DeNeige Watson, Gina Pell, and Carolyn Rodz. These powerhouse women dropped gems regarding ways to evolve throughout our life and career. The panel started off by defining transformation, which Marian defined as “being a student of life...because every single day we’re learning something new”. Adding to that definition, Gina shared, “what I find transformative is establishing connections and community”. I couldn’t agree more as diversity in thought, our circles and more opens us up to evolving more than we can alone.

When it comes to pursuing our dreams, oftentimes we have amazing ideas, but then get stuck on how to transform them into successful businesses. I’m currently in this space with a big idea, and Carolyn gave some valuable advice on pushing play. When thinking of our ideas, we have to ask ourselves, how are you making things better? What’s missing in your life or the lives of those in your circle? A successful, transformative business should solve a problem, whether it’s for a small group or millions. To push play, it’s critical to keep our eyes on the prize and begin chipping away at the building blocks.

Another key takeaway from the session was the importance of remaining curious and evolving at every age. This was powerful to me because I’ve found myself associating ages with goals, which puts unnecessary pressure on myself as I grow. In actuality, “until you’re dead, there is still room for another act”, which was so brilliantly stated by Marian. To add to that, Samantha Skey profoundly noted, “women over 50 are not invisible”, and that is something I’m holding near and dear for years to come as I evolve through life and business.

I learned that along my journey, I must understand that failure is a part of the process. DeNeige reminded us that, “our career is 45 years long...make sure you’re taking those opportunities, taking time to take those risky positions”. As a recovering over thinker, who on occasion has avoided risk, I’m reminding myself that “it’s the journey – the destination will work itself out” (Marian Salzman) and to focus on the impact I want to make. Many thanks to BlogHer and the amazing panelists for sharing their wisdom and motivating us to keep transforming. Check out the full event replay here and thank me later.

You don’t want to miss future BlogHer virtual events, so be sure to subscribe to their newsletter here to stay in the know. I’ll be attending the upcoming BlogHer Food virtual event on November 13 at 1pm, and you should too — sign up here.

Have a glowing day!

Xo,

Shalyce