Courtney Jones is slated to speak at the 5th Annual Working Women State Conference at The Straz Performing Arts Center in Tampa on September 14th – 15th. Leading female speakers from around the country will share their stories during this conference designed to motivate, educate and inspire.
By Courtney Jones
Here’s my story:
One time I had a great corporate job. Then my husband and I started a family. As the time passed, I found myself continually connecting with incredibly passionate, motivated, educated professional moms. They were everywhere. I’d meet them at the park, at children’s birthday parties and even in my own front yard (which was adjacent to theirs, of course).
Then, it made me sad. I was sad because while these impressive women were loving their lives as moms, they also expressed that they missed having the opportunity to contribute professionally. They sacrificed their professional self in an effort to provide for others and absolutely every one of them were happy that they made the decision that they did. They just wished that there were other options.
Then MomSource Network started fishing.
We started fishing for opportunities, for companies, for business owners and executives, for start-ups and Fortune 500s. We started fishing for flexibility and for options, on behalf of these women. We are fishing for the people and organizations who recognize that this untapped talent pool could create major opportunities for their business to win. These women are excellent at multi-tasking, they are fiercely loyal when they feel appreciated, they are deadline and results-driven—in short, they are incredible team members.
For the last few years, we’ve connected one by one or a handful at a time, this amazing mom-talent to the organizations who value their contributions and are willing to engage them in a flexible full-time, part-time or remote capacity. We’re passionate about connecting each individual woman in our Network to the right opportunity for she and her family. In short, we’re busting ass to find and give her the fish.
Most of the time we’ve done well. We’ve been able to teach companies how to engage women and to find opportunities for teachers, accountants, marketers and more. Both large and small organizations have hired us to help them build remote teams. We’ve experienced some challenges too like struggling to find the right opportunities or enough opportunities. Our entire team is out there working hard to do more to catch more for these deserving women.
Now, we want to do more.
We’ll always keep fishing for the right fit for our members but as we continue to grow, we’ve realized that there is so much more that we can do. We can build a Network of Fisherwomen. We can provide motivated women an opportunity to take charge of their journey to work-life blend, to support the journey of others and to fish with us.
As we embark on our newest adventure, we’ll be training any fisherwoman who wants to join us on how she can use her time prioritizing family as a vehicle to grow her skills, polish her acumen and validate others. Our new roadmaps are designed to address the unique needs of women who are working full-time and planning a transition, those who are ready for a career pivot and those who are actively returning from an absence. Our most popular roadmap: The one for those women who are currently taking a career pause.
Now, when she’s ready, she can set out on the open waters and be confident that she can fish for whatever it is that she wants.
We’ll be providing the rod and reel (or tools and resources) and the bait and tackle (opportunities and support) that we know will help her navigate those murky waters between wherever she is and her ideal work-life blend.
Today, we introduce the modern mom, the Fisherwoman.
We’ve got a sweet success story to share at our 2nd Annual State Conference at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater.
Working Women of Tampa Bay is pleased to announce Megan Smith, Founder, Publisher, and Editor of Cake & Whiskey; the Sweet & Spirited World of Business magazine will be traveling to Clearwater in September for our 2nd Annual Conference.
