Dear NAWBO Chicago,
Every year in my business, I try to pick a “word for the year” and this word gets utilized within the company when we are setting goals for the team, it is the theme of our annual Leadership Retreat, and I try to weave bits and pieces of it into our marketing campaigns. For 2025, my word of the year is “antifragile.” Fragile things break when bad things happen. Resilient things keep working despite challenges. Antifragile things (or people) get better when bad things happen to them, like our immune systems or muscles.
The best entrepreneurs, leaders and companies are antifragile. When a leader is antifragile, it completely changes the culture that cultivates the individuals inside it. I was thinking about this word of the year within the context of my NAWBO Chicago membership and how being a part of NAWBO really helps me lean into making my company less fragile and more resilient. Here are a few ways that NAWBO Chicago supports our membership work towards building businesses that are antifragile:
- Our programming rocks! In January, I attended the first in a two-part series to Learn to Pitch with Confidence. Every business owner needs to know how to pitch – whether it is to close the sale, secure investors or hire that ideal employee, we need to have the utmost confidence when we shoot our shot. NAWBO Chicago helps us with education and professional development that matters on topics that I need to know about!
- We help business owners secure access to capital. Nothing helps a business be more resilient than having a cash reserve at the ready should things not work out the way you had planned. Thanks to our esteemed sponsors, chapter members have tons of resources when it comes to trying to grow our businesses through capital expansion. Women-owned businesses receive less than 3% of venture capital funding annually, therefore, this opportunity to educate ourselves on access to capital is extremely important for WBOs who want to scale up. Financing is not one size fits all, and thanks to our sponsors BMO Bank (shout-out to NAWBO Chicago Board Member Letticia Flores-Poole), Old National Bank, First Women’s Bank, Chase and CIBC, there are many options for our members. They support and educate us on access to capital and we are grateful.
- We inspire and unite people! In January, I attended Chicago Connects where I sat down with a host of other women business owners, and we put together beautiful vision boards to help us keep on keeping on when the going gets tough. I love having my new vision board hanging in my office. It reminds me of how far I have come and what is in store for the future. Thanks to Lisa Shaw of Lisa’s Boutique Catering and Qiana Turner of Madison Elyse Events who co-lead the group for hosting such a warm and welcoming event on a very cold and unforgiving Chicago evening!
- We have wonderful Mastermind groups that are a benefit for Premier members. What a great way to create a business that is antifragile. The chapter just launched its seventh Mastermind Group and they are powerful! NAWBO Chicago Board Member Lindsey Evans of Liberty Pointe Realty has this to say about the support of her group: ”My Mastermind group changed the entire trajectory of my life. The support that I receive from NAWBO members helped me overcome the most challenging time I experienced as a business owner and I’m forever grateful for their support!”
If you too have an inkling that your business also needs to become “antifragile” in 2025, consider joining our community at NAWBO Chicago! We have so many ways to help you build muscle and resilience and “antifragility” into your business this year!
Sincerely,
Angie Noll
NAWBO Chicago President
Founder of Reconciled Solutions