My very good friend Judi (on the left in this photo) asked me to put a meeting on my calendar. Always one to forego meetings if not completely necessary and if at all possible, I hesitated – and she knew it. She wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer, so, trusting my girlfriend, I went.

She had assembled a group of six or eight women to just meet each other. Women she respects, enjoys and thought would enjoy meeting each other. It was a great get together of wonderful women who had positive energy and fun takes on life and their businesses. It was ‘girlfriend therapy’ because by being with these women for just a few minutes, I completely forgot about my anxiety for being away from my work.

It reminded me that we all need to do this much more often than we do. The women you know would probably enjoy knowing each other. Meeting your friends’ friends is a great way of building your social and professional networks. And, we need to meet women who have interesting opinions, vote differently or who come from another neighborhood. We need to learn from each other and that means opening up your schedule and your conversation to involve your friends – and your friends’ friends.

Here’s a few of the fabulous women that I met through my friend Judi: (THANKS JUDI!)

• Judi Cogan – The fabulous friend who brought all of us together is obviously a ‘connector.’ She has friends wherever she goes and she keeps us all laughing. She is passionate about helping companies hire the right people and helping kids develop systems to learn – basically, she helps companies and kids be successful. (Pretty powerful, right?!) She’s inspiring and I’m so glad I met her last February at a networking event!
• Donna Amos - I  knew Donna from Twitter. Enough people had tweeted – ‘You HAVE to know Donna. She’s great!’ so I was very pleased to finally meet. Donna is a coach for solopreneurs and, the tweet introductions were right, she’s great! She has an upcoming event (that I’m hoping to participate in!) for solopreneurs to plan their goals and marketing plan for 2010.
• Sue Glew - What a great girlfriend story! Sue (on the right in the above picture) and her best friend started ‘Best Friend Errand Service’ (concierge business) a few years ago. Her friend decided to go a different direction – and they’re still best friends! (A testiment to their wonderful friendship!) Sue helps companies and individuals with all their ‘to do’ lists. And, she’s inspiring to talk with like in this interview with us on BlogTalkRadio. (And, Sue wrote a wonderful guest blog for Girlfriendology. See! I told you she was a great girfriend!)
• Nancy Illman – What a fun new friend! Nancy has several creative businesses including “Fancy Nancy Pants” – you have to see them to believe them! (love them!) She just oozes creativity so, in additionl to personalizing pants, she also customizes client’s homes with amazing murals and faux finishes with her company Magic Wand Painting. (Watch Girlfriendology next week for a guest blog by Nancy about her girlfriends!)

Other fabulous women were there too and hopefully I’ll get to know them better in the future. Again, Judi – THANKS for setting up this girlfriend gathering.

What friends should you bring together? Who needs to meet other wonderful women you know? Let’s make Cincinnati a city of ’sisterly support’ and of fabulous female friendships!

Tags: blogtalkradio, cincinnati, connections, friendships, Girlfriendology, girlfriends, Women

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 at 6:28 am and is filed under Be a Better FRIEND, FUN Stuff we share with Girlfriends, Girlfriend Advice and Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.