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This weekend, I had the privilege to attend the 2nd annual Chicks Who Click Denver 2010 conference here in Denver. A gathering of like-minded women on the move in the Social Media world, I predict CWC will be a powerhouse in the very near future! What was so amazing, and what resonated by far for me, was that most of us were entrepreneurs who had been something/someone else for most of our lives, finally moving out of a pre-packaged ideal and becoming… REAL.

One of our amazing speakers, Shelly Kramer, gave us a cool little gift: A stone with the word ‘Real’ written on it. She’d done it herself, not run out and bought them at some metaphysical bookstore, and you could feel her in the stones. The point was a reminder that no matter who we were representing, whichever hat we were wearing, we needed to remain REAL… I loved it.

Before I went to the conference, I worried over how I was going to represent. What did I have to offer? I don’t have letters behind my name, I wasn’t working in the field that I had my degree, and I was feeling a bit ill-defined. I speak a great deal about consciousness, and I was hyper-conscious about being thought of as a little ‘woo-woo’ in a room of highly accomplished women. There goes that ego again… and I was wrong. When I was reminded to be real, it shut down my ego, and I found MY accomplished voice in that room of highly accomplished women.

I know I wasn’t the only person who felt that way. This world of social media can be more than overwhelming, especially for those of us in a period of reinvention. The thread that moved in that all-day event was the we are here to support each other to become more real, putting away the traditional roles and creating new ones, often walking away from comfort zones of what we think we should be doing in favor of uncharted paths of  self-invention. These women were risk-takers, pioneering voices in a world on full-tilt, deciding the who, what, why and when in their world. That is not the ‘norm’… it is the ‘new’ and it feels really good.

My beautiful little sister is in her own period of reinvention. She is a new mommy, loving every minute of that role, but she has many other facets that are trying to shine as well. How does she let people know that she’s not only a Realtor, but a residential appraiser, and that credential alone will make her a better Realtor in a sea of Realtors? What I learned at CWC is that she needs to show people her hilarious sense of humor, flash that genuine smile even when she’s cold-calling a lead, be that great listener where other Realtors can’t be bothered to engage, provide that knowledge base and share truth, not fantasies about her industry. She needs to  interview her clients, not the other way around… she is too good to just take anyone, and she will be the one to separate the wheat from the chaff… All by being real.

And who am I…really?

I am one voice, highly accomplished, worthy of being heard, in a world of highly accomplished women. As my dear friend and amazing speaker at CWC, Melanie Mills, reminded us:

“IT ONLY TAKES ONE IDEA, ONE FRIEND, ONE DREAM AND ONE LEAP OF FAITH TO CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER.”

I made many new friends this weekend…and I see all of them as they are… 100% real…

Namaste,

~L

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