SAVE THE DATE! 2009 SWWAN Women's Empowerment Conference

We are so excited! Been planning for months already the celebration for Single Working Women's Week this year. (Read about our first celebration here.)

We have an astounding lineup of talent doing presentations for our first annual 2009 SWWAN Women's Empowerment Conference. Please save some time to attend one or more of the sessions--you will be enlightened, informed and inspired at each one of these mini-workshops. The schedule includes 2 sessions each day (3 pm and 7 pm CT) on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the week of August 2-8.

Check out the announcement of the 2009 SWWAN Women's Empowerment Conference.

Single Working Women's Week is on NOW!

SWWANs Stephanie and Melissa talk about how much fun it is to have a holiday just for single women.

Stop by and take our survey--get a free gift. We're introducing our vendor network for SWWANs to get discounts and special services.

We're in Chicago this holiday week. Radiance Fine Jewelry is one of our original vendors--25 percent off fine jewelry repair for all SWWANs.

more tomorrow!

Early morning thoughts

It's just after 5 am. Ever have one of those nights when sleep was just refusing to cooperate? Couldn't get there...couldn't stay there...had to give up after waking at 4:15 and just lying there for an hour.

Much to think about for sure. Exciting new ventures for SWWAN in the making. Several big developments on the personal side. And sleep is such an elusive gift anyway. Look at how little sleep many new mothers--especially single moms-- have to survive on, sometimes for years. And the ability to sleep soundly often seems to deteriorate with aging--some older folks say they rarely sleep 8 hours and seem to wake often.

So heaven knows we humans can do it. But a lot of us need to develop tricks for dealing with nighttime wakefulness--and the racing thoughts that often come with it. One friend gets up and reads a not-too-intense novel til she falls asleep again. That works pretty well sometimes. If it's after 4:30 and I'm not too physically exhausted, I usually just get up and get a head start on my work day. When you're self-employed or otherwise deeply invested in your work, that doesn't feel too bad.

What do you do when you can't sleep? Does it happen often? Please share!

Do you feel like communicating with other single working women?

I didn't mean to drive anyone nuts with those couple of posts from when I was at the media-connections conference. What I was doing was practicing using Jott (god, I love that new program--here's my earlier post on Jott) to add posts, and using Blogger to send a photo with a post.

Anyway, if you got annoyed, sorry about that. Hope you'll ignore it and come back to see what else is going on.

By the way, we have established a couple of different ways to connect -- LinkedIn for SWWAN, yahoo groups for SWWAN/singleworkingwomen. Do you guys have a preference on how to connect with each other? I'm assuming you would like to communicate with other members, yet? Please email us to let us know your thoughts.

Adventures of the midlife woman

If you're 50-ish, you're entering a new stage of life--sometimes called midlife--when your priorities might be shifting. If you're in your fifties and you had kids, you're adjusting to life without those consuming responsibilities. If you're 5-plus and still vibrant, you're a modern woman! Gosh, remember when we were kids, and FORTY was considered OLD? We've come a long way, baby...

Anyway, there's a blog called Fearless Fifties that's all about helping women grow and enjoy at this time of life. Some of us might be looking at retiring; a lot of us will keep working long past the I-ought-to-be-able-to-hang-it-up-by-now age.

And of course, a bunch of us midlifer baby-boomer women are single--so let's all connect with each other. Sign up for the Fearless Fifties newsletter. Sign up for our blog (in the lefthand margin). Then come back and tell us what you love about growing older--and it's okay to complain about what you hate about getting older. What are the challenges of being single at midlife? What are you passionate about today!?

I love this saying I read somewhere: "What a man's learned by the time he's fifty, you almost can't write down." And that goes double for women!

Ohio Secretary of State commends SWWAN in sweltering heat

It was an honor for SWWAN to receive an official commendation from Ohio's Secretary of State. The heat and humidity were intense at our Cleveland celebration of the first annual Single Working Women's Week. After tornado-force winds and torrential rains beat the city into a flooded mess, Jennifer Brunner came to tell brave attendees why she supports SWWAN (more in previous post).

The commendation says in part: "...as a small token of gratitude and admiration for the exemplary work of SWWAN...[leaders of which] have invested their time and resources in providing leadership, motivation and genuine support...[to enhance] the lives of countless single women in the workforce."

We are humbled and grateful for this gracious gesture. The members of SWWAN thank you, Jennifer, and thank you, Ohio. It was a beautiful occasion, despite the building's power failure. The food from Davis Bakery was outstanding and a good, if somewhat sweaty, time was had by all.

Fun at Single Working Women's Week in Cleveland

Smiling faces at Famicos Notre Dame Apts--just before Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner shared her straight-from-life story about helping a loved one through a very difficult time of single motherhood. Secretary Brunner spoke, too, about her commitment to making Ohio a better place to live for more of its citizens--she will start by measuring the social health index of the state. More later about the Secretary's four goals.

Thank you to all who joined us to make the first annual Cleveland celebration of our official holiday a memorable occasion! Special thanks to Chris King of Creative Keys and Tina Hamrick, NAWBO Cleveland president-elect and partner in SJKBeringer Group...and especially to Secretary Brunner. Your commitment to our event and the wonderful citation you presented to SWWAN will help fuel our efforts over the year to come.

Starting a business in Ohio? Consider the franchise...

If you've thought about starting a business but shake in your boots when it comes to things like legal hassles, inventory, marketing and so on, franchising can be a savvy approach. Well, there's a guy in Cleveland who can help you figure it all out--believe it or not, at no charge to you. He's Joel Libava and he operates a website full of information and resources about franchising--psst! he even has a section "franchising for Women Only!"--and writes a very friendly blog called The Franchise King, which just happens to have a very nice reference to SWWAN. Here's the company's online bio:

Since 1990, the Libavas have been helping folks with their dreams of business ownership. If you want to lower your risk, and learn how to choose some great franchises for our area, we are the ones to speak with! Call 216-831-2610 We specialize in the franchise business segment, helping those who wish to explore and learn about which franchises they may be a great fit for. We also work with young franchise companies wishing to market online, with our state targeted website, Statefranchisecenters.com

I know Joel professionally, and I can tell you he'll probably be glad to share his knowledge even if you live somewhere else.

Thanks for the shout out, Joel!