WISE Women empowers business owners

A new nonprofit organization known as WISE Women (Women Inspiring Successful Entrepreneurs), based in Marysville, is attracting female business owners from local areas who are looking to improve their business or even start a new one.

June 12, 2013 12:43 pm

MARYSVILLE — A new nonprofit organization known as WISE Women (Women Inspiring Successful Entrepreneurs), based in Marysville, is attracting female business owners from local areas who are looking to improve their business or even start a new one.

WISE Women aims to facilitate personal and professional growth through focused workshops, and mastermind groups that create opportunities to strategize and connect with other professional women.

WISE was founded by three local business women — Judy Bradley, owner of Better Your Business; Carin Weier, owner of Weier Wine Tasting, and Diane ‘Scotty’ Irwin, owner of The Design Company.

A group of local entrepreneurs attended the organization’s focused workshop on June 5,. at the Holiday Inn Express in Marysville, to connect with other women and listen to speeches aimed at helping them stay balanced, and training them on strategies for growing a business.

“As business owners, we are really busy, but we have to take the time to fuel ourselves,” said Sue Simpson, a member of WISE Women, who started the meeting with empowerment strategies. “We need that support to remind us why we do what we do. You must remind yourselves how awesome, creative and beautiful you are.”

Bradley led an inspirational presentation on how she was able to achieve a balance between life and work after going through a divorce and starting her own business shortly thereafter.

“I’ve usually been very reactive,” she told the group. “You’re a mom, you’re a wife, you work. I was just reacting to everything that came along. But I realized that you have to pose yourself a question: ‘Are you living by choice or by chance?’ I was not going to let that define me. I was going to succeed.”

Her determination to succeed resulted in the development of Better Your Business and ultimately WISE Women, in conjunction with Weier and Irwin.

“I wasn’t used to investing in myself. A lot of women find that difficult,” she said. “That’s the power of choice. Do you want to be living on purpose or just trying to survive? Right now, I’m living my life on purpose, for me.”

Irwin and Weier spoke about just how important it is for women to maintain positivity and openness in the business world.

“When I got here this morning, I went into the wrong conference room and they were having another meeting,” said Irwin, who described the quiet and closed-off reactions of the meeting attendees in the other room. “I realized that I was in the wrong room, and when I came in here I immediately felt joy, appreciation and openness. What a difference it makes how we present ourselves.”

WISE Women meet on the first and third Wednesday of each month at the Holiday Inn Express, located at 8606 36th Ave. NE in Marysville. The next Mastermind Group is set for June 19 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.