Women's Empowerment Event #3 - Hidden Gems
October 17, 2019
We had quite the successful Women's Empowerment event this past Saturday, October 12, 2019 at The F-Stop in Chicago. This time, I decided to partner up with my friend Blanca, whom I've known since I was a little girl. Blanca and my older sister went to high school together and I went to school with Blanca's younger siblings so I never would have thought we would reconnect as adults. Blanca attended my first women's empowerment event that I held in the living room of my house. Once the event was over she told me how great it was that I was holding these events and that we should do our own event. I agreed, we collaborated, and I must say, team work makes the dream work! I can't discredit our amazing event planner, Kiara Austin, who donated her services free of charge and was absolutely amazing to work with. Our event would not have been as successful without her insights and all of her help.
Blanca and I make a great team in the sense that she brings qualities that I lack and vice versa. I am the business woman and see things from a procedural view and she brings the creativity, imagination, and attention to detail. I love the fact that she choose our panel of speakers extremely carefully. A few speakers were presented to Blanca and she choose not to work with them because there were certain qualities she was looking for that they lacked. I honestly appreciated this so much because if it were up to me I would have overlooked those things and let them speak. If you got to come to the event, or view it on Instagram live, you saw we had an AMAZING panel of strong, successful, female entrepreneurs who shared inspirational stories with our guests.
My previous events were held in my living room, with me as speaker, and one guest speaker who would speak last, followed by networking. Blanca had a much bigger vision which is something I am also thankful for. Upon one of our first brainstorming phone calls, Blanca mentioned we should get sponsors, swag bags, and women owned vendors for our guests to be able to shop their products. I was floored when I heard this and of course I said, absolutely, lets do it! A lot of time, meetings, planning, phone calls, text messages, emails, and money went into making this event a success and I would not change a thing.
I would now like to talk about the speakers we had at our event, just because they are simply inspiring! First, we brought on Tanya Diaz who is the Owner and Manager of Main Event Real Esate Group. Tanya is highly involved in her local community, mother of 3, and the wife of a 1996 U.S. Olympian and World Boxing Champion. Tanya spoke about her entrepreneurial spirit and even as a young girl she used to collect soda and beer cans at family parties and her dad would take her the next day to cash them in. She put her own career on hold so her husband could pursue his dreams but in the last few years she decided to pursue her own dreams and finally started her own Real Estate company.
Our next speaker, is Connie Brown, Owner of the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor in Forest Park. Connie was a video producer in broadcast journalism and produced commercials and documentaries and was very good at her job and also successful but she always felt something was missing. She became unhappy with her work and one day she simply thought "ice cream," she didn't know why but that is what motivated her to open her own ice cream parlor. She opened The Brown Cow Ice Cream parlor in 2004 and it is now the 5th best Ice Cream Parlor in the U.S.
Next up is Meka Hemmons, AKA "Spider" Meka Hemmons. Meka used to be a professional designer and photo retoucher for many celebrities, the biggest one being Oprah! As time went on at her job, she became more depressed and unhappy with herself. She realized that so many women and young girls have issues with the way they look and that she was part of the problem, making women look flawless in photos when that is not actual reality. She got so depressed that she was taking vodka shots before work just to make it through the day. She finally hit rock bottom and began brainstorming on ideas of what she can do to make herself happy. She figured out that it was photography and she started her own successful photography studio. Meka captures real women in their natural beauty and could not be happier.
Fourth up is Blanca Sepulveda who worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for over 20 years and has worked with the largest financial firms n the industry. Blanca is passionate about giving back to the community and partners with many community based organizations to bring financial awareness as well as financial strategies and solutions for consumers through free workshops and consultations. Blanca mentioned teaching her son how to save at a young age and the importance of trying to teach young people money management skills. Blanca wants to be able to go to schools and teach children about financial education, something that our current education system does not provide. Blanca was amazing in her financial insights and advice for our guests!
Lastly, we have Britt Hinrichs who is the Founder and CEO of Atte. Atte serves small and medium sized businesses as an all inclusive branding agency. Britt is also the founder and publisher of Honestly Unfiltered, a digital platform about empowerment, entrepreneurship, and not giving a f*&^. Britt touched on her struggles with health issues that caused her to lose her first business. When she lost the business she sunk into a deep depression. One day she grabbed her whiteboard and started brain storming, she was up for two days strait creating a business plan and called her friend and told her "we are starting a new business and you are going to be my partner." Her friend agreed and now they have launched Atte and have been successful as well. Britt never gave up even when all the odds were against her and she lost everything, she got back up, dusted herself off, and tried again.
As you can see, we had an amazing panel of women. As I was sitting there listening to their stories I felt so honored and lucky that they agreed to do this event with us. I also felt proud that our guests were able to be entertained and inspired through their stories.
Again, thank you to our awesome speakers for agreeing to take the chance on us and saying yes to our event and for inspiring our guests!
Thank you to everyone who donated to our raffle giveaways: Ulta for providing a beauty bag, Koval Distillary for providing tour and tasting tickets to their distillery, S.L.A.E. (Self Love and Empowerment) for donating stone handmade bracelet set, LimeLife for donating a lip gloss, "Spider" Meka for donating a free headshot raffle, Joriki for donating a yoga outfit, Coopers Hawk for donating a huge wine bottle, 4 month wine club membership, and a complimentary tasting.
Thank you to the swag bag sponsors Color Street, LimeLife, BeUnik, Jenny Says, and Blanca Hines for swag bag donations.
Thank you to our vendors Doll Revolution, NdinoKuda Fashion, Floras Angels, Nzuri Body Essentials, and Joriki for being part of our event as well, you guys rock!
A special thank you to Sam from Bossy Chicago for connecting us to our speakers and vendors, Kiara Austin from KiMoments event planning, Vincent Anduray for videography, Stories to savor for videography, and Cagel for donating our venue.
I will end by announcing that Blanca and I have decided to partner up in turning these events into a nonprofit organization. We want to help women of all backgrounds, ages, colors, and creeds to connect with one another and be the best versions of themselves. We are currently in the planning phase of this exciting new endeavor!
I will add that this is super exciting and honestly a dream come true. I always said "one day when I am rich" I am going to start a nonprofit to help single mothers like myself to have a better life. I now have the opportunity in front of me and although I am no where near being rich, I am going full force and I cannot be stopped. I want to be able to touch women all over the world and I totally think it is possible. DREAM BIG!!!
We had quite the successful Women's Empowerment event this past Saturday, October 12, 2019 at The F-Stop in Chicago. This time, I decided to partner up with my friend Blanca, whom I've known since I was a little girl. Blanca and my older sister went to high school together and I went to school with Blanca's younger siblings so I never would have thought we would reconnect as adults. Blanca attended my first women's empowerment event that I held in the living room of my house. Once the event was over she told me how great it was that I was holding these events and that we should do our own event. I agreed, we collaborated, and I must say, team work makes the dream work! I can't discredit our amazing event planner, Kiara Austin, who donated her services free of charge and was absolutely amazing to work with. Our event would not have been as successful without her insights and all of her help.
Blanca and I make a great team in the sense that she brings qualities that I lack and vice versa. I am the business woman and see things from a procedural view and she brings the creativity, imagination, and attention to detail. I love the fact that she choose our panel of speakers extremely carefully. A few speakers were presented to Blanca and she choose not to work with them because there were certain qualities she was looking for that they lacked. I honestly appreciated this so much because if it were up to me I would have overlooked those things and let them speak. If you got to come to the event, or view it on Instagram live, you saw we had an AMAZING panel of strong, successful, female entrepreneurs who shared inspirational stories with our guests.
My previous events were held in my living room, with me as speaker, and one guest speaker who would speak last, followed by networking. Blanca had a much bigger vision which is something I am also thankful for. Upon one of our first brainstorming phone calls, Blanca mentioned we should get sponsors, swag bags, and women owned vendors for our guests to be able to shop their products. I was floored when I heard this and of course I said, absolutely, lets do it! A lot of time, meetings, planning, phone calls, text messages, emails, and money went into making this event a success and I would not change a thing.
I would now like to talk about the speakers we had at our event, just because they are simply inspiring! First, we brought on Tanya Diaz who is the Owner and Manager of Main Event Real Esate Group. Tanya is highly involved in her local community, mother of 3, and the wife of a 1996 U.S. Olympian and World Boxing Champion. Tanya spoke about her entrepreneurial spirit and even as a young girl she used to collect soda and beer cans at family parties and her dad would take her the next day to cash them in. She put her own career on hold so her husband could pursue his dreams but in the last few years she decided to pursue her own dreams and finally started her own Real Estate company.
Our next speaker, is Connie Brown, Owner of the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor in Forest Park. Connie was a video producer in broadcast journalism and produced commercials and documentaries and was very good at her job and also successful but she always felt something was missing. She became unhappy with her work and one day she simply thought "ice cream," she didn't know why but that is what motivated her to open her own ice cream parlor. She opened The Brown Cow Ice Cream parlor in 2004 and it is now the 5th best Ice Cream Parlor in the U.S.
Next up is Meka Hemmons, AKA "Spider" Meka Hemmons. Meka used to be a professional designer and photo retoucher for many celebrities, the biggest one being Oprah! As time went on at her job, she became more depressed and unhappy with herself. She realized that so many women and young girls have issues with the way they look and that she was part of the problem, making women look flawless in photos when that is not actual reality. She got so depressed that she was taking vodka shots before work just to make it through the day. She finally hit rock bottom and began brainstorming on ideas of what she can do to make herself happy. She figured out that it was photography and she started her own successful photography studio. Meka captures real women in their natural beauty and could not be happier.
Fourth up is Blanca Sepulveda who worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for over 20 years and has worked with the largest financial firms n the industry. Blanca is passionate about giving back to the community and partners with many community based organizations to bring financial awareness as well as financial strategies and solutions for consumers through free workshops and consultations. Blanca mentioned teaching her son how to save at a young age and the importance of trying to teach young people money management skills. Blanca wants to be able to go to schools and teach children about financial education, something that our current education system does not provide. Blanca was amazing in her financial insights and advice for our guests!
Lastly, we have Britt Hinrichs who is the Founder and CEO of Atte. Atte serves small and medium sized businesses as an all inclusive branding agency. Britt is also the founder and publisher of Honestly Unfiltered, a digital platform about empowerment, entrepreneurship, and not giving a f*&^. Britt touched on her struggles with health issues that caused her to lose her first business. When she lost the business she sunk into a deep depression. One day she grabbed her whiteboard and started brain storming, she was up for two days strait creating a business plan and called her friend and told her "we are starting a new business and you are going to be my partner." Her friend agreed and now they have launched Atte and have been successful as well. Britt never gave up even when all the odds were against her and she lost everything, she got back up, dusted herself off, and tried again.
As you can see, we had an amazing panel of women. As I was sitting there listening to their stories I felt so honored and lucky that they agreed to do this event with us. I also felt proud that our guests were able to be entertained and inspired through their stories.
Again, thank you to our awesome speakers for agreeing to take the chance on us and saying yes to our event and for inspiring our guests!
Thank you to everyone who donated to our raffle giveaways: Ulta for providing a beauty bag, Koval Distillary for providing tour and tasting tickets to their distillery, S.L.A.E. (Self Love and Empowerment) for donating stone handmade bracelet set, LimeLife for donating a lip gloss, "Spider" Meka for donating a free headshot raffle, Joriki for donating a yoga outfit, Coopers Hawk for donating a huge wine bottle, 4 month wine club membership, and a complimentary tasting.
Thank you to the swag bag sponsors Color Street, LimeLife, BeUnik, Jenny Says, and Blanca Hines for swag bag donations.
Thank you to our vendors Doll Revolution, NdinoKuda Fashion, Floras Angels, Nzuri Body Essentials, and Joriki for being part of our event as well, you guys rock!
A special thank you to Sam from Bossy Chicago for connecting us to our speakers and vendors, Kiara Austin from KiMoments event planning, Vincent Anduray for videography, Stories to savor for videography, and Cagel for donating our venue.
I will end by announcing that Blanca and I have decided to partner up in turning these events into a nonprofit organization. We want to help women of all backgrounds, ages, colors, and creeds to connect with one another and be the best versions of themselves. We are currently in the planning phase of this exciting new endeavor!
I will add that this is super exciting and honestly a dream come true. I always said "one day when I am rich" I am going to start a nonprofit to help single mothers like myself to have a better life. I now have the opportunity in front of me and although I am no where near being rich, I am going full force and I cannot be stopped. I want to be able to touch women all over the world and I totally think it is possible. DREAM BIG!!!