One year ago this month,  in July of 2015, on the first day of school the first year I no longer had a classroom, I meet with 3 other small business owners from the Springfield area for our first Tuesdays Together meeting. I was terrified- all in self doubt mode.  Is anyone going to come? Does anyone else care about building this community? What on earth qualifies me to lead this (even though I WELL know that it isn’t really leading so much as organizing- I am just an organizer!)? One by one, 3 other creatives joined me who wanted to fight for the competition to lessen, and the community to deepen.  And month after month, we have met with between 3 and 8 people, digging into the tough topics of owning a small business.

Springfield has one of the smaller chapters.  Springfield has a pretty thriving small business community in numbers- but we have remained a smaller in the group. I know how impossible it is to chart out a few hours each month, especially if you have some of that community built in to your social life! This month, from my house, we got up an hour early, drove to the opposite side of Springfield for our kids babysitting, drove to the opposite side of Springfield for the meeting, went back and picked up the kids, and then went home- it was about 2.5 hours in the car for me for that meeting.  And it was worth every moment.  Here is the thing about our small group. The people who are there are building such amazingly quality relationships.  There are some people who make it most months, and some who have only been able to come to 1-2 meetings. It has never been the exact same group any 2 months of the 12- and it is incredible to get to learn from and meet and get to know so many different faces!

I am so unbelievably thankful for this small group of women (one husband joined once- but I think we scared him off! Men are oh so welcome though!).  There is such amazing wisdom and comfort and energy when you get to sit at a table and share some food and great conversation with others who are doing what you’re doing. Not all photographers (though mostly), but creative business owners.  People who are using their creative talents of some sort to serve others, give something that they can do that other’s can’t to their clients, and working to make their businesses effective and profitable.  We all work jobs with pretty much teams of 1.  But when we get together, when we spend time in community and can carve out time to meet together in our super busy schedules, whether it involves finding babysitters or giving up work time or not, we are no longer solo entrepreneurs.  Suddenly, we have co-workers who are cheering us on, helping us brain storm, supporting us on social media, giving us ideas, and hoping for our success.  There are referrals and advice and contracts and ideas being passed woman to woman, and it has just been amazing to see and be a part of. I am so proud of our little group. Over those 12 months, about 30 creatives have joined at one point or another in the in person meetings, and I cannot wait to see who else we get to meet this year.  Please email me or request to join our facebook group if you are a small business owner in the area so we can get you connected!

I haven’t done well at all about documenting these meetings, I think because I am so in-the-zone once we get there. This year, I’m going to try to do a little better! But we did grab this for our one year anniversary, and I am so glad we did. I am so so grateful to the Rising Tide Society and it’s amazing founders for all of this- and I cannot believe the change it is making in each of the (many!) communities that are meeting one Tuesday a month to celebrate Community over Competition.

Click here to read about our beginnings!

Click here to read a little mid year update.

Click here to join the facebook group!