In September, Adventure Out Women launched its online presence aimed at providing a networking portal for the professional woman who surrounds herself with pride 365 days a year. Behind the scenes of this new portal are two women, Dawn Dudgeon and Belinda Ramirez who saw a need for a space where likeminded professional women can connect.

I have the distinct honor of being a contributor to their portal and I recently asked Belinda and Dawn to share a bit about the site and themselves.

What has been your biggest challenge being out in your business
life/career?

I can honestly say that looking back; I believe there were times when my patience was challenged. I have never been the kind of person to hide things or lie about who I am. What you see is what you get, the good, bad and the ugly. I have been out since I was very young. I never made excuses about who I am or tried to justify my actions. You are who you are, period. Life is not that complicated, people sometimes can make things much more difficult than they have to be. Not intentionally but we are all human and have good and bad days.

What is your long-term vision for Adventureoutwomen – what do you
most want to have happen as the impact of your work?

I believe that we have developed a very unique vehicle of communication for women to share information and provide professional services, but that is just a very small part of what AOW is. Anyone who knows Dawn and I would agree that being healthy inside and out is very important to us. We believe that your mind and body are a big part of who you are. Taking care of it and carefully feeding it can change how you are and what you feel.

To us learning is very important, we are always in some sort of class or seminar and thrive on learning new things and meeting new people. In developing this portal, Dawn and I brainstormed and wrote down all things we wanted AOW to stand for. We took a pad and pen and wrote down all the good things we liked about portals we used frequently. We were able to develop a business model that adopted some of Craig’s list and put a spin on it by writing about the things that interest us and our community and by offering other activities and events that would allow women to exercise their minds as well as their bodies.

Our dream and hope is to have Adventure out Women be the Craig’s list for the lesbian community. Craig’s list is a no frills, very functional web site. One can get information without all the banner ads, and annoying marketing ads to distract you.

With AOW you can network by marketing professional services, posting events and joining us on our outdoor group workout activities.

What is the #1 piece of advice you would give any woman wanting to
be successful in business?

Number 1 is being honest, bottom line. Do what you say, and say what you mean. Understand that success is the intersection of hard work and opportunity. Opportunities sometimes present themselves, be sure to be ready to take them and understand that it is up to you to find new avenues for opportunities. Never give up on your dream and when people give you constructive criticism, take it for what it is worth and use it to your benefit. Also understand that in our small and growing community there are many wonderful people out there who will help you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and make sure you return the favor. In the end it is all about networking and making mutually beneficial relationships.

Networking and learning the ins and outs of being a professional
woman can be overwhelming. What’s a simple way for a woman to get
started connecting with other successful women?

This is right up our alley! Well first of all surround yourself with others who you aspire to be like. Dawn and I have some friends we admire who are respected in our community. They started a gay yellow pages in Sacramento called Valley Rainbow Page 9 years ago and are very successful, honest and hard working men. For us we do not limit our circle to professional lesbian women.

AOW is all about networking and sharing information of interest with the lesbian community. But we do work with some professional men who target our audience and have some very good advice and services to offer. We often ask them for their opinion.

What brings you the most joy personally or professionally?

I can honestly say that success brings me the most joy both personally and professionally. For me the meaning of success is not being famous or having a lot of money, neither of those applies to me. Success to me is being content with your life. I can say that I am very satisfied with who I am today. With the circle of friends I surround myself with, with the things I have and most importantly with my relationship with Dawn.

Be sure to check out Adventure Out Women as it grows as new content is added regularly. If you want to reach Dawn or Belinda you can email them at dawn@adventureoutwomen.com and belinda@adventureoutwomen.com respectively.

That is the question a dear colleague of mine, Souldancer, asks in his just release book Pay Me What I’m Worth.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Souldancer late in 2005 and working with him one on one earlier this year. If you want someone who thinks outside the box, that’s not Souldancer; just thinking outside the box is too small for this man, he gets rid of the box entirely to open you up to new possibilities in a practical, yet spiritually bent way.

I believe there isn’t a soul alive who doesn’t want to be paid what they are worth and then some. We are all intrinsically worth more than you can fathom. Even from a real world sense of money, we all have unique talents that are worth a lot. And, it is up to you to do the work to get paid what you’re worth. No one is going to show up like a knight in shining armour and hand you money (unless you win the publisher’s clearinghouse and Ed McMahon shows up but even then your core problems aren’t the least bit solved). It takes more than just earning degrees, accolades, and letters after your name. We all know numerous well-decorated and supposedly well educated folks that can’t find their way out of a paper bag and don’t deserve some big salary they somehow commanded. It takes the inner work of learning about yourself, what you’ve already earned, how to truly give with ease, how to ask for what you want, and the all important learning to open yourself so you can receive what is offered to you.

Wondering how I know so much about the book when it was released just days ago? Well, my name is actually IN the book. Why? Because I had the pleasure of putting my editing skills to work in the early draft stages. I can vouch that the material is sound, the exercises are robust, and the chance to finally learn the secrets of getting paid what you’re worth are waiting for you.

(I also must throw in my $.02 that I just love the snappy cover design.)

To buy the book, click on the image above or visit http://lulu.com/payme

If you’re dying for an autographed copy, you can purchase one directly from Souldancer at http://souldancer.org/pages/pmauto.html

Do you feel you are already paid what you’re worth? What do you think about getting paid what you’re worth? Post your thoughts in the comments… AND, if you’re interested in not only reading the book but working with a supportive study group, let me know in the comments below or via e-mail. Souldancer is starting up study groups and I may choose to lead one in the future.

Everyone knows that follow-up and automated systems are crucial to business success. And, let’s face it, you can’t do everything and be everywhere at the same time or you’d be burned out and stressed to the max.

That’s where an autoresponder system for generating and following up with customer prospects comes in handy. I’ve been using AWeber for over a year now and I can say it has made things SO MUCH EASIER.

What is an autoresponder system? It is a way to automatically send e-mails to specified customer leads (or new prospects who sign up for something on your website) at pre-determined time intervals. It is also a way to broadcast e-mails to all or a segment of your customers at one time in a way that maximizes your chance that the e-mail gets to the recipient and is not tossed as SPAM (Nothing is 100%, but AWeber does a good job checking all e-mails against SPAM assasin ratings which indicates the probability a given e-mail will be considered SPAM). It is like having a friend sending follow-up e-mails to your customers and prospects at given intervals while you’re off doing something else.

I use it to capture leads for my Free Report, Newsletter Sign-Up, Product (eCourse) payment and delivery, and broadcasting my eZine monthly. AWeber offers easy to use sign-up forms and a robust administration panel so I could give up struggling with doing it manually and spend that time doing something more productive — from marketing to down-time. I know I don’t even begin to tap some of the power of their features such as split testing and customer segmentation yet either.

Their live chat, e-mail, and telephone support has so far been superb. Pleasant people who care that you get your questions answered and more.

If you’re looking for a way to automate these necessary tasks and communicate with your customers even when you’re not available, take AWeber for a free trial.

Blogwild! Small Business Book Hits Bookstores Today

Today’s the day! Andy Wibbels’ new book just came out: Blogwild! A Guide for Small Business Blogging. As part of the book launch promotion, if you purchase the book on April 6th through Amazon.com (only $12.97), you’ll receive $50 off your choice of Six Figure Blogging, Easy Bake Weblogs, RSS Essentials or Business Blog Basics. This is a great opportunity to grab this hot new book as well as an online course to ensure your success. Buy the book now over at www.GOblogwild.com.

Besides being a great guy, Andy is an expert blogger. I took his Six Figure Blogging course last fall and it was his enthusiasm that propelled me into launching this blog. No one knows the ins and outs of blogging like he does. And in this book he provides both theory, concepts, and practical application of blogging for businesses in easy to understand, approachable language.

To piggy-back on my recent website related post, I wanted to take a moment to recommend my favorite web hosting company – Lunarpages.  I have used their hosting for several years. The sites I have developed on their platform range from simple static page brochues to full-fledged eCommerce sites.  In fact, this blog is hosted at Lunarpages.

The price is right as low as $7.95/month for a ton of functionality, features, reliability, and top notch customer service.

Don’t take just my word for it, though…several prominent web hosting reviews feel similarly:

• Web Hosting Jungle
• Cheap Web Hosting
• Hosting-Review

A recent research study in Canada concluded that  First Impressions Really Count with Webdesign.

Since having a website is essentially a “must-have” success component for anyone in business, this information is worth taking to heart.  The article is a little on the lengthy side, but Andy Wibbels (blogging and website expert) sums the article up nicely in his post “Web Sites have 1/20th of a Second to Impress”

In one capacity or another, I’ve been involved in web technology for over 10 years.  And, this study is not really news in that a clean, crisp, and easy to use site with an authentic tone to its content has always been the goal.  However, as the technology evolves and multi-tasking, burned out visitors surf the web, their attention span has diminished exponentially. So, you have only a blink of an eye to grab their attention or they are gone.

The best thing you can do for your business is to design your site deliberately.  If you’re planning a new website or upgrading an existing one, feel free to check out my free resource called “The Successful Website Planner” over at my Paula G Web Design website. 

Let’s face it, we all like to do business with like-minded lesbian owned businesses when we can.  While I am not someone who has this as their first critieria when making a purchasing decision, it is often one of my critieria if the circumstance lends itself to it.

There are plenty of gay and gay-friendly directories on the web and in print.  So far, though the Lesbian-Business Directory is the The ONLY lesbian owned and operated business directory I have found online.

In addition to the business directory, they also offer a selection of business related articles, interviews, and resources as well for the budding businesswoman.  While it is so far a small selection, I believe this part of their site is new as of late 2005, so I would expect it to grow.