Minutes - May Meeting

Minutes

CBC (Cochrane Business Chicks)

Meeting started: 7:11pm

Theme: Summer Self Care

All attendees introduced themselves and gave quick synopses on their business.

Evening consists of eight demonstrations.

Demonstration one: Brenda Sourisseau, independent Consultant, Arbonne

·         At Arbonne, beauty begins with premium botanical ingredients, innovative scientific discovery, and an unwavering commitment to pure, safe and beneficial products. Arbonne creates personal care and wellness products that preserve and enhance the skin, body and mind for an integrative approach to beauty. Working closely with scientists around the world and our Arbonne Institute of Research and Development (AIRD®) facility in Switzerland, we continually explore and develop scientifically advanced, botanically based proprietary formulas that meet our exacting standards for quality, safety and sustainability.

Demonstration two: Jeannie Kennedy, Metabolic Weight Loss Center

·         At Metabolic Weight Loss Centre we utilize a time-proven, medically designed weight loss program and state of the art body strengthening and toning system.

Demonstration three:  Patricia Atchison, Journal Writing

·         At Journals and Papers, indulgence is allowed! Patricia shared with the group the benefits of journaling and gave some practical advice on how to journal.

Demonstration four:  Deborah Spence, Creating Balance

·         We want to help you ‘Live Ideal’ by reaching your optimum health goals. Deborah educated us on anti-aging products and services her business offers.

Demonstration five:  Marla Blackwell, Cochrane Arts Central

·         Marla helped the whole group become artists in 5 minutes. She showed us how anyone can find their creative side.

Demonstration six: Kathy Haigh, Independent Beauty Consultation

·         Kathy shared with us how we can use simple products to keep our skin, feet, and skin healthy this summer.

Demonstration seven: Group discussed some of the “hot spots” in Cochrane for mini-vacations.

      ·        Evelyn Marinoski handed out the ‘Cochrane Map’ and the “Alternate Routes – The Cochrane Guide” as resources for mini-vacation ideas.

Demonstration eight: Evelyn Marinoski shared with an art form that can be an effective stress reliever.

·         Teasles (also known as zentangles) is a method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It's a simple and fun way to create something beautiful. The repeating designs are a great tool for getting your mind to relax, so this is a good stress reliever.

·         For more information visit http://www.teasles.com/ and for pattern ideas visit http://tanglepatterns.com/ or http://www.zentangle.com/.

Group closed with a time of visiting and networking.

Meeting closed at: 9:10pm

(Thanks to Sandra Scott for the minutes.)

May Meeting Reminder

Hello Chicks,

Just a quick reminder that our next meeting is on

Monday, May 30

7:00 – 9:00 pm

Days Inn, Cochrane

With summer and all its busyness ahead of us, sometimes we need to take a bit of time to pamper and be good to ourselves. My mastergroup team suggested that we do a Summer Self Care evening – so that’s what we’re doing. Our evening will feature a number of local business presenters sharing and demonstrating ways to pamper and care for yourself during the coming summer (at least we hope it’s coming, right?!) – some samples included!

We’ll do our usual introductions, but will also make time for networking with each other this evening on a more informal basis.

A couple of reminders:

• Bring your business cards and marketing materials for the Chicks Binder.
• Minutes and Notes from last month’s meeting are on the blog at www.cochranebusinesschicks.com.
• We’ll have a sign-up sheet for what you want to bring to our Potluck evening next month (June 27) at Dianna’s. So think about what you would like to bring and sign up on the list so we can plan accordingly.

See you on Monday,

Evelyn & Vinny

April Meeting Minutes

The April 18 meeting of the Cochrane Business Chicks was held at the Days Inn in Cochrane at 7:00 pm.

The meeting was called to order and we began with a round of introductions.

This was followed by a feature presentation by Dianna Meyer on Finances (see previous post).

The following items were discussed or mentioned in our Discussion session.

• www.cochranebusinesschicks.com is now active and will take you to our blog/website.
• We agreed to have a potluck for our June 27^th meeting. Dianna offered to host it at her house. Thanks Dianna.
• Our CBC year will go from September to September. Those wanting to pay yearly fees may do so. Those joining during the year will have their fees prorated quarterly.
• Mastermind groups have begun. Anyone else who would like to join can contact Vinny or Evelyn.
• A Member Binder will be created – so please bring business cards and brochures for the binder. The binder will be present at each meeting, so that if you are looking for some help in an area for yourself or for a referral, you can get a business card and other information from the binder.
• If you have any suggestions for networking ideas or presentations, please let us know. Or if you would like to volunteer to do the networking session or to present a main feature, or to help out with other things, please let us know.

The discussion session was followed by two member presentations – Evelyn Marinoski with Willowrose Organizing and Amanda Tulk with West Valley Chiropractic Centre.

Instead of a networking session this time, Amanda shared details of a networking event she had recently hosted called “A Ladies Night of Indulgence”. This spa experience evening was a ticketed event and those who came were treated to their choice of a variety of products and services to try out (provided by other complementary businesses), as well as catered food, door prizes, goodie bags and more. About seventy ladies came and from all accounts the evening was thoroughly enjoyed.

The meeting was adjourned shortly after 9:00 pm.

Feature Presentation for April - Finances

Feature Presentation – Finances

By Dianna Meyer   (notes by Evelyn Marinoski)

Money and finances is often more about emotions than anything else – emotions such as fear, doubt, shame, etc. We frequently use money to measure our self-worth, to express love, to show our social conscience through donations, and so on.

All of us have a money style. There is no particular right or wrong answer to this – it just helps to understand what our style is and how to work with it.

Money is a learned behavior with lots of emotions attached to it. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether our past behaviors and emotions mesh with who we are or want to be now.

There are a number of Money Personalities – each with good and bad sides to them.

• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Gambler
• Financial fugitive
• Conservative
• Ostrich
• Miser

Are you conscious or reactive in your relationship with money? How does that affect your personal relationships?

Are we making decisions based on past emotions or present realities?

It’s important to have a personal vision for your life. But it can be a problem if others in your life have a different vision than yours. It’s important to discuss your personal visions with each other, to come to a similar vision that you can work on together, and to get expectations out in the open.

Dianna shared some questions from a financial survey that she works through with her clients.

She noted that while our lifestyle has increased, our disposable income has dwindled. We need to do some serious thinking about our retirements, to think about what that will look like for us, to consider how much we will need to live on, what about illness, what about travel plans, vehicles, dental care and so on.

Consider paying off your house as soon as possible.

Track your spending for awhile to see what you really spend and where. Start paying everything by cash and with only one credit card.

She suggested that we may want to consider a career change, one that would take us into our 70’s. So start now to think about alternate careers that you could enjoy and that could supplement your income now and later on a part-time basis. Choose something that is your passion – it will meet and address our emotional need. Often when we don’t have our emotional needs met, we self-gift ourselves by spending too much.

(Dianna Meyer is a Certified Management Accountant with over thirty years of experience in financial management and consulting.  She currently practices on a part time basis while she pursues her alternate career and passion, opening a Pilates Studio in Cochrane.

You may contact her for a consultation at diannam@shaw.ca or by calling 403-981-3033.)

Lynn's Presentation on "Intentions"

Lynn Thomson, who gave us a great presentation on "Intentions" at our last meeting, has graciously agreed to let me post my notes here for you. Enjoy!

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We often use the word “you” to keep things at somewhat of an arm’s length. It becomes more powerful when we use the word “me” instead.

(Lynn drew a bull’s eye diagram with ME in the center, OTHERS in the next circle and COMMUNITY in the outer circle.)

We need to claim the ME space. Think about ME and the roles I play.

Then Lynn had us do a “Falling Still” exercise. Sit straight and comfortably with your feel flat on the floor. Close your eyes.  Now breath in – all the way to our toes – and then breath out. Repeat this several times and pay attention to your breath – how the air feels cool as it enters and warm as it exits. When she had us open our eyes, she made the comment that breath has the power to make you lose your mind and come to your senses.

Lynn then took us through a series of questions.

What made me get up this morning?

(Don't overanalyze this - just a simple answer like - to go to work)

We were then asked to define the word Intention.

Ÿ    Goals

Ÿ    Reason

Ÿ    Purpose

Ÿ    Choice

Ÿ    Motivation

Ÿ    Commitment

Ÿ    Wants

Ÿ    Desire

It can be more helpful to set intentions for the day than to set goals. Consider setting your intention for the day in the morning – perhaps by doing the Falling Still exercise. If you have an intention set for the day, it makes it easier to measure your success at the end of the day by how well you kept or acted upon your intention.

What was my intention in coming to the meeting tonight?

(and you are not allowed to use the word “should”!)

Ÿ    Build relationships here that then affect my client relationships too

Ÿ    Meet other business women, to learn more about the CBC

Ÿ    Share my business

Ÿ    Learn

Ÿ    Socialize (and get to have some adult conversation J )

Ÿ    To challenge and encourage

What needs to happen here to keep me coming back?

What would make the CBC really successful for me?

(We discussed a bit about celebration – What does that look like for me? Note: Celebration cannot have guilt attached to it.)

Where do we network?

Ÿ    At sports events

Ÿ    Moms groups

Ÿ    Organizations

Ÿ    Hobbies

Ÿ    Volunteering

Ÿ    Church

Where do I network?

What is something specific I want to walk out of here with tonight?

What do I have to offer?

Lynn finished her presentation with this list of Rules for Networking.

Ÿ    Be open-minded

Ÿ    Be prepared

Ÿ    Treat all as equals as a source of your referrals and info (ie, the waitress as well as the leader or speaker)

Ÿ    Don’t be afraid to ask

Ÿ    Don’t waste resources

Ÿ    Give without expectation of return

Ÿ    Always say thank you

Ÿ    Set realistically achievable goals

Ÿ    Be committed

Lynn then took us through a networking exercise where we met each other member. We teamed up two by two and were each given 45 seconds to give our elevator speech and to ask a specific question of the other person. As in, this is what I do in my business, and tonight I am specifically looking for such and such.

A great presentation – very practical. Thank you Lynn.

(Notes by Evelyn Marinoski)

Invitation to learn about Social Media for your business

Hello Chicks,

 

Social Media is the in thing when it comes to marketing these days. If you're like me, that feels like a daunting task to add to all the other stuff I already do.

 

However, if you would like to learn about it, the Cochrane Business Network is bringing in a speaker for their next meeting on Friday, April 8 at 7:30 am, who will be filling us in on why and how to use social media.

 

The fee is $10. You can sign up and pay online at http://calgarybiz.net/cochrane/ or you can pay at the door this time. We do need a head count, so if you could let me know you're coming that would be great.

 

The meeting is next Friday morning in the Community Room at Cochrane Toyota.

 

Thanks,

Evelyn

Gala Awards

As you know, the Chamber is hosting the Community Gala Awards on Sunday May 29th  from 2-5pm, at the RancheHouse, in the Chinook Dining Room. 

I would like to invite the Cochrane Business Chicks to attend.  The Cochrane Business Chicks were nominated for the Business of the Year Award in 2009 and although we did not win, it gave the group great exposure in the community. 

The tables are sold in groups of 8.  It would be great if we could fill one or two tables.  Tickets are priced at $26.25.   You are welcome to invite a spouse, significant other, family members or friend(s). Tickets can be purchased at the Towne Offices, IGA or Chamber Offices, online at the Chamber website.

Please consider attending and REMEMBER, it you know of someone, or a business in town who is deserving of one of the awards, please go to the Chamber website and nominate them.  Nominations close April 8th, 2011 at 4:30 p.m.

Thanks!

Vinny