More To Life Than Gym And Diet, LADIES!

I only write about things that matter to me. Experiences and lessons learnt, and if in the process someone is challenged, inspired or has a good chuckle out of it, well, I am quite pleased. Let me share with you what happened last week. Grab some wine will you?

I had the pleasure of attending the Women In Business Award ceremony  last week in a bid to do 2 things:

1. Hear from unapologetically powerful women in business as they share their experiences in different industries.
2. Network and spread my business cards because I realised I don’t do that enough (shame on me!) and I needed to stop being scared or intimidated by those who have “established” businesses. So I bought my ticket (3,500 bob. Weeh!)stacked my cards in my golden clutch and off I went to conquer.   Yaani I was on a mission you don’t even understand.

The event was fantastic. The speakers sparked so much in me and I was encouraged to continue pushing on with my company-a youth media agency called MRX Media Ltd. Check us out here!https://mrxmedia.co.ke/

After the event, came dinner. Depending on the ticket, we were allocated different rooms. The “high room” belonged to those who coughed 10K to mingle with the who’s who. Mimi na three five yangu nilikua… let’s say regular section? Hehehe…Like I always say, kila mtu na uwezo wake. I honestly didn’t mind it. Since this was my first time to attend this event I made a mental note to save for the VIP ticket next year, God willing. So there I was. Delicious food on my plate and not a familiar face to sit next to. I felt a bit anxious but reminded myself why I was there.To network. I sat down where other 7 ladies were and dug in. You know, pacing myself wondering how to get that business talk going.

LOL.

3 ladies who seemed to be friends and were sat next to each other were chatting away about chocolate, how much they loved it, food and the like. “This is s good ice breaker,” I thought to myself, allowing myself to laugh at the jokes they made. The other ladies seemed a bit uncomfortable and I gathered they were probably there solo as well and were wondering how to join in the conversation. It’s all good, we cant all be the “cool kids at the table” and that’s perfectly alright. Things took a turn though, as I cut into my fish fillet. I realised the 3 friends were still talking about food, how often they go to the gym, their diet routine and the like. That’s when I realised I needed to change tact. I wasn’t going to achieve my goal by talking about my weight.

I turned to one of the other silent ladies and introduced myself, asked what she did and we exchanged cards. The so called “less cool kid” turned out to be more resourceful. While that was happening the diet and gym talk was still happening and I almost snapped. In my head I wanted to ask the ladies, “Ok girls, ok. So you bought a ticket to such an event to talk about that? Do you think that when men meet even in clubs they discuss how much they bench press and eat, THE WHOLE NIGHT?? They network!Talk about their businesses, their deals, MONEY.

And what about us ladies?

It was at this point I walked away from the table like:

and joined another one that was oh the more refreshing. Good banter on the hustle, how we can move forward. Exchange of cards. BINGO. Mission accomplished.

Lessons learnt:

1. Go to networking events.  Put yourself out there. No fear. Just have a goal before you do.
2. Work with what you have. If you can’t get to the high table, trust me the ones we think are  ‘little people?’ can be VERY resourceful. Usidharau.
3. Our time is too precious to waste! If that table you are on isn’t building you, please move. Ain’t no shame! ‘Table’ here can be many things. You smart. Figure it out.
4. We as ladies need to discuss things that enrich us. We need to be in the big leagues and we wont get there if all we discuss is chocolates and gyms. Unless we are making chocolates and building gyms.

Conquer Your world.

Mwalimu Rachel.