Women Like Me : Networking and Role Models

Networking is more than the obvious, an exchange of information to improve your bottom line. It is also a subtle quilt of relationships providing support and inspiration for your life. When people ask me how I built my business I see in my mind's eye the faces of all the incredible women I have met. They were the sources of my success providing standards for business achievement, wisdom and personal style.

A few years ago we lost one of Canada's great entrepreneurial role models, Ginger Eisen.

A Woman of Style and Substance

I was raised in the fifties in a comfortable, smug, dull section of Toronto. All the homes in my neighbourhood were identical and filled with beige and green furniture from Eaton's. The major advantage for a child was that the bathroom was always in the same place in these cookie cutter houses. This was vital in an era when it was embarrassing to ask about "that room".

At thirteen I was taken to a section of Toronto that I had never heard of called Yorkville. It was a Victorian village of coffee houses, budding designers, soon to be famous musicians and stylish boutiques. The shops were outrageous and the best of these was Ginger's Bath Boutique. As I stared in delight at a business that celebrated "that room" with a flower-filled clawfoot bathtub on the front lawn I knew I was home! I followed the media coverage of the theft of the flower-filled tub and admired how business owner Ginger Eisen turned a student prank into a month long promotion for her company. When she became a contractor for bathroom renovations it told women of my age that there were no limits on our potential - a message we rarely got at school and I never heard at home.

When my business, Women Like Me, was on its first success level I leased an office in Yorkville. As I glanced down the street at Ginger's just four doors away it was a proud moment for a new entrepreneur. Eventually Ginger sold her business but as proof of her influence it bears her name to this day.

A Woman Ahead of My Time

In 1992 Ginger co-founded an association for established women entrepreneurs called Women Entrepreneurs of Canada (WEC). Influenced by the businesswomen she met in Europe while sourcing for her boutique Ginger brought a global perspective to WEC by allying it with Les Femmes d'Entreprises Mondiales. This worldwide network of women entrepreneurs has 68,000 members. As President of WEC, Ginger worked tirelessly to promote the international opportunities she believed in.

In 1999, when I became the President of WEC, Ginger served on the Board as the Director for International Affairs. At last I had the opportunity to benefit directly from her years of experience. Of equal importance I could tell her how influential she had been in my life.

Many of the Board meetings were held in Ginger's beautiful Yorkville condo that looked down on her old store (and my old office). Those evenings were gracious affairs valued by the Board members. She entertained us with style and on one evening with elegant courage.

Two weeks after the passing of her husband Ginger was scheduled for cancer surgery the day after a Board meeting. We thought that the meeting should be held somewhere else but Ginger would not hear of it. As we arrived frightened for her and on edge she was her usual self and regaled us with appalling doctor jokes emailed to her by friends.

Do Not Admire From Afar

I have never understood why we wait until it is too late to celebrate the people we admire, so when I knew that her illness was critical I organized a tribute at WEC for Ginger. It was a memorable evening. I enjoyed her pleasure and the effect that her story had on the younger members. My unsolicited advice to you is to tell the role models in your life the importance of their influence. They are probably not aware and would be pleased to know.

Passionate Longevity

To a young woman just starting my career Ginger was proof of what was possible.

Now as a Boomer woman facing decisions about what older could mean for the biggest generation in Canada's history I can look to Ginger for inspiration. In her eighties she drove her car assertively while chatting on her cell phone. She used email to keep in touch with her global network. Ginger still purchased the Canadian rights to new bath products and helped to develop a new wheelchair that could move sideways. She golfed, served WEC, travelled (with a man) and enjoyed the theatre. She was proud of her family. Her vocabulary and thinking were current and she was comfortable with people of all cultures. She appeared in a book on successful aging called Passionate Longevity. I can't think of a more appropriate title for Ginger's legacy.