The inspirational women of Brisbane

I attended a great networking event this week, run by Brisbane Women.

Founded by writer, Kylie Welsh, Brisbane Women now has over 400 members. 30 women attended Tuesday's event, and after Kylie's introduction, business coach Lisa Murray took the stand.

She asked us "what would it take to make our businesses phenomenal?" She first linked this to having a personal vision - which is more than just a list of goals. Lisa's take was that a vision was about asking the questions "what would satisfy me?" and "what do I need to do to make my heart and soul happy?".

Lisa discussed how our fears of success can hold us from achieving our personal vision, and reminded us of one of Marianne Williamson's beautiful quotes;

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Lisa then called on psychic intuitive, Shauna Teaken, who took us on a quick guided visualisation about our vision for our business. Shauna was about the most down-to-earth psychic intuitive I've ever met, and had us in stitches.

It was then time to write down our vision and break into groups of three to brainstorm it further. I teamed up with two fascinating women, Nirala Jacobi, a naturopathic physician, and Susan Living, director of the Clean Living Clinic. It was probably not coincidental that we all seemed to share a common interest in raising the awareness of holistic therapies, and helping therapists across all modalities to achieve this. How quickly that 15 minutes went! It felt like we only just touched the tip of the iceberg in terms of the possibilities for working towards a common objective.

Lisa then conducted a general question and answer session, the main focus of which turned to making money. Several of the women spoke of their reluctance to charge a full and fair fee for their services. We concluded that if we didn't value our own services, our potential clients would not do so either.

It was then time for a speed networking session, where we had about two minutes to chat to more women in the room, explain what we did and exchange cards. Phew! Exhausting but interesting stuff. There's so many interesting women in Brisbane carving out niche businesses for themselves - and everyone seemed willing to support each other where they could.

The Brisbane Women networking event was really worthwhile, and allows women to continue to network in an online community at http://brisbanewoman.ning.com/. On this site, users can create profiles and list any upcoming events or workshops, and simply connect with other inspiring, entrepreneurial business women in Brisbane.

I'm very much looking forward to the next Brisbane Woman event on 7 July!