YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Leaders of organizations that focus on women in business – including one founded more than a century ago – say the groups provide networking opportunities and a safe space to discuss what is going on professionally and personally.
Regardless of where women are at in their personal and professional trajectories – whether they’re a student or a CEO – they often are their own worst enemy, struggling to find their identity, Candace Turpack says. Finding those friendships and that sisterhood “helps you not only do really great things for the community, but it helps you find out who you are outside of your home and work life.”
Turpack, a senior wealth adviser with Huntington National Bank, is the founder of the Traveling Ladies Night group and recently co-founded another group that is preparing to stage its first event – a fashion show. They are among several Mahoning Valley groups that focus on supporting women though networking, mentorship opportunities and collaboration.
Perhaps the oldest such local group is Youngtown Business & Professional Women, which was established in 1920.
Since the beginning, it has focused on empowering women through mentorship and education, according to Dee McFarland, benefits consultant/owner of Reliable Consulting Group in Boardman and YBPW scholarship chairwoman. This year alone the organization has awarded $10,000 in scholarships, she reports.
The organization also hosts a Woman of the Year event. “Every year we showcase a woman who has excelled in her profession and also has served as a mentor to women,” says Gina DeGenova, Mahoning County Juvenile Court Magistrate and YBPW’s president.
Membership sits at around 50 currently and the Youngstown chapter is the largest BPW local in the state, McFarland reports. Its members represent several fields and include company founders. Several members work in the nonprofit sector as well.
“Honestly, when we come together, we don’t really talk much about what we do,” McFarland says. “Really, we’re just talking about making connections and relationships.”
The monthly meetings allow members to share a bit about themselves, their business or upcoming events. Meetings also include a presentation by featured speakers, both from within and outside membership.
“We will bring in women from different industries to talk about things that are impacting women,” including on issues such as fair compensation at the annual Equal Pay Day event, DeGenova says. Members also can take advantage of various personal development opportunities.
Sometimes a woman might not be comfortable with public speaking so the meeting provides “a safe space where they can talk about whatever they want to talk about and get comfortable talking in front of a group,” McFarland says.
Dandelion-Inc
Businesswoman Lisa Resnick initially founded Dandelion-Inc a few years ago to provide marketing strategies for women in business but soon began hosting monthly gatherings.
The businesswomen who attended said they wanted more connectivity and opportunities to learn and to create balance in their lives. “Really, it was just listening to the women that were showing up,” Resnick recalls.
Each month, Dandelion-Inc hosts its in-person Dandelion Discussion events as well as group sessions, accountability sessions and workshops, Resnick says. Those workshops, which can range from anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, offer women “tangible things” that they can take away and apply to their business.
Paige Collins, owner of All Spruced Up Cleaning in Boardman, says she has been involved with Dandelion-Inc for at least two years. She learned about it online because she was looking for ways to get support as a woman in business, seeking women who – like her – were “trying to run a business, but also be a mom and a wife.”
Being a part of an organization like Dandelion-Inc “helps to put your name in rooms that you’re not necessarily in” and provide connections, she adds.
“You’re always able to go to those women when you’re going through a stressful situation, and they’ll help you through it,” she adds. “Owning a business can be kind of lonely, so it’s nice to have other people who may know what you’re going through and help walk you through those tough times.”
Several Dandelion-Inc members who are part of other networking groups say it is “beyond networking” and is a community, Resnick says.
“When you build that community, it is about reciprocity. It is about building up and being happy for other people’s successes,” she continues.
Women’s Power Lunch
Amy Shope, founder and managing partner of Lehner Shope Wealth Group and co-founder and director of the nonprofit Dylan’s House, both in Canfield, established the Women’s Power Lunch about eight years ago. She had been a financial adviser at a bank for most of her career before “taking this big leap of faith” in 2017.
A book she read targeted to women financial advisers emphasized the importance of creating a community building off the empathy, trust and compassion that women “just generally have,” she says.
Shope had hoped to get five women to show up for her first power lunch, but 40 attended. Now taking place at her current office in Canfield, the lunches provide a forum for a different woman business owner, entrepreneur or CEO each month to share their story.
When those women get together to “invest” in themselves for an hour, meet people and make connections, business happens organically, Shope says. Hearing people who have met at her power lunches tell her that it is something they look forward to every month “really makes it so worth doing,” she says.
Traveling Ladies Night
Turpack’s group, Traveling Ladies Night, is a women’s food group originally established to patronize a new local restaurant each month.
“When they come, they can talk about work, they can not talk about work,” Turpack says. “They can do whatever they want, but it’s an opportunity for women to sit down, get to meet other women as well as enjoy local food.”
Lauren Martauz, controller at Tippecanoe Country Club, says she got involved with Traveling Ladies Night about 10 months ago, having met Turpack through a mutual friend.
“What I love about the group is it’s kind of an inclusive space where women of all backgrounds, we can come together, you can meet new friends and just enjoy yourself,” she remarks.
Let’s Go Girls
Karsyn Berk, a licensed cosmetologist and makeup artist, founded Let’s Go Girls about two years ago, she says. Though schedules are busy, members try to get together regularly for dinner “or a fun event” to just relax and not stress about work.
“You come to one event and you’re going to be hooked. There’s no judgment. Everyone’s there to uplift one another,” Berk says.
Turpack and Berk connected through a mutual acquaintance and their two groups began interacting.
Members of Turpack’s organization, tend to be more established in their professions up though retirement age, while Berk’s group draws more women who are earlier in their careers.
Berk says her members enjoy interacting with Turpack’s group, and the reverse is true as well.
“Anyone can learn something from everybody,” she says. “At the end of the day, we’re all women. We’re still supporting each other and uplifting each other.”
Turpack and Berk established Female Founded in August. Turpack says she and Berk wanted to find a way to combine their organizations “and do something really good while we’re at it.”
Female Founded will hold its first event, the Female Founded Fashion Show for Charity, Nov. 2 at Penguin City Brewing Co. in Youngstown.
“It’s really about the power of collaboration between women who are determined to show up and support each other and do great things for the community,” Turpack says.
The beneficiary of this year’s fashion show is Clothed in Strength, a not-for-profit organization that helps low-to-moderate income single mothers in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Heather Fronk is CEO and founded the organization.
In addition to providing women with items ranging from clothing and shoes to hygiene products and diapers, Clothed in Strength offers financial grants to single mothers experiencing emergency hardships. This calendar year, it has awarded more than $15,000 in grants, Fronk reports.
“The last part of our mission is we connect these women with additional resources,” including daycare, transportation, employment or mental health treatment, she continues. “Oftentimes, more than anything, they need community, and they need someone to be a cheerleader for them until maybe they believe in themselves.”
Ultimately, Female Founded wants to build on the fashion show by continuing to serve as a hub to connect women with other women. They are working on creating online tools such as an events calendar.
“We don’t want to take over anything,” Turpack says. “We just really want to create a hub to get all sorts of women pointed in the right direction, whether it’s our women’s group, whether it’s another women’s group, regardless, where it gives us all an opportunity to come together and support a good cause at least once a year.”
After hosting her power lunches, Shope had a vision for something bigger, and wanted to do a conference or summit in conjunction with Dandelion-Inc, “something that could be bigger in the community,” she recalls.
Shope’s suggestion was to create something for women in the area that they know they are a part of and to lift each other up, “showing that collaboration is better than competition all the time,” Resnick says.
“I don’t believe in competition. I believe that we’re so much better together when we collaborate,” Shope affirms.
The Women Rising event, which took place Sept. 19, featured a panel discussion, breakout sessions on topics including investing and leveraging capital, and a keynote address by the manager of business development and entrepreneurship in the state’s minority business development division.
“People already are messaging me saying they’ve put it on their calendar for next year,” Shope says. This year, attendance was capped at 250. Next year, “the sky is the limit,” she predicts.
Value
Berk says Let’s Go Girls has impacted her “truly in the best way,” and her members thank her all the time for starting the group.
“It’s so important because at the end of the day, we’re all going through the same things. We’re mothers, we’re daughters, we’re parents, we are friends and wives, and we’re juggling all these different hats,” Shope says.
“You come into these organizations, and you meet not only people that can help you professionally but personally,” DeGenova says. Not only do they provide a mechanism for women to be involved in and give back to the community, but they also provide friendship, mentorship and opportunities to grow as people, she adds.
When McFarland started in the insurance industry, there were times when she was the only woman in the office, so there was no opportunity to make connections with women, she recalls.
“Our experiences and how we experience the world – how we experience the business world and our personal lives – is different,” she says. “It’s important for us to help each other and raise each other up.”
Women sometimes are in the minority in business, a situation Tippecanoe’s Martauz says is changing.
“I’ve met so many women founders, women business owners, women in higher-up positions that are in male-dominated fields,” she reflects. “It’s also important for me. I’m a new mom. It’s important to see where these women are at in their lives … to see that maybe children didn’t set them back in their career, like society makes you think it will.”
Pictured at top: Heather Fronk, founder and CEO of Clothed in Strength, and Karsyn Berk, founder of Let’s Go Girls.