Yesterday I had the opportunity to be in a room full of amazing women.  I attended and spoke at the Whale Hunting Women Summit in Indianapolis at the beautiful Columbia Club downtown on the circle.

While the location was beautiful it was the women inside of the club that made it an amazing day.  Hearing Coach Lin Dunn of the Indiana Fever was not only inspirational but funny.  This is a tenacious forward thinking woman who is an excellent mentor for younger women.

Hearing Beverly Pitts, President of the Indianapolis University tell her story of success and Barbara Weaver Smith share with us her challenges at starting Whale Hunters all came together to create a wonderful day.

What I really enjoyed was the networking with women I have not had the opportunity to network with in the past.  Networking with so many women who had an open desire to connect, was the highlight of my day.  I love networking, I love networking with women, unfortunately it is not always possible to network  with great women.  They multi-task, balancing families and businesses. Fixing dinner and managing schedules.  Fewer women network than men, they have jobs and families.  So, the opportunity of be with successful women is one I could not pass up, and one I look forward to repeating in the future.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

Often when I am networking I hear small business owners say things like “I really want to have Eli Lilly, AT&T or GE as one of my clients.” Whenever I hear this I cringe, because I know that it is not enough to want one of these giant companies as a client, you have to have a plan. Not just a plan to land the deal, but a plan to find it and then how are you going to maintain that client.

In her book, Whale Hunting, Barbra Weaver Smith and Tom Searcy, uses the analogy of how the Inuit of Alaska hunted Whales to feed their villages to how small companies can land the Whale of their own. This is an easy analogy follow and carries with it a powerful story of perseverance, commitment, strategy and success.

Barbra and Tom layout the strategy for researching which whale you want to hunt, how to research your whale, capturing your whale, and celebrating your whale. This is a book that you must read if you are really interested in landing your own whale.

Networking is great, but you cannot ask for a referral to a whale if you do not have a plan for landing and managing that whale.

I cannot recommend this book enough, it is an easy read, and not only will you learn how to land your own whale there is a lot of very interesting history in this book that holds you attention as you read in amazement what the Alaskan Inuit could do with a row boat and harpoon. The planning, the implementing and the celebration are inspiring.

As a bonus, Barbara will be doing a whale hunting women workshop here in Indianapolis. It is a program that you want to take advantage of, not only for the educational aspect but for the ability to network with other women whale hunters. See you there!

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

I like to believe that I coined the expression “Mama Karma”.

We’ve all experienced Mama Karma at some point during our journey through motherhood. It starts with a comment you make about someone else’s child. Perhaps while dining out, you hear the banshee screams from a toddler on the other side of the restaurant. You notice a circle of discarded food in a 4 foot perimeter around the highchair and a toddler covered from head to toe with food.  You think to yourself or may even proclaim out loud, “Thank GOD, my child does not act like that in restaurants! My little one has always been so well-behaved.”

And that’s when you are destined to be hit with Mama Karma. It might not happen right away. It may occur during the next phase in your child’s development. (You know, those “Terrible Twos” or those dreaded teen years that everyone keeps warning you about?) Perhaps, your next child will bring on the boomerang of Mama Karma.  It may take weeks, months or even years but Mama Karma will eventually hit you with an unexpected dose of reality.

The bottom line is never say never, especially when you are a parent.  As soon as you utter the words “My child has never”, you are destined to eat them in time.

Mama Karma has recently reared its ugly head once again in the Taylor home.  Having been a creator of the expression “Mama Karma”, you would think I would learn by now.  Alas, even the professor needs to learn a lesson or two.

I made the mistake of boasting how my children never watch the show Yo Gabba Gabba!  If you are not familiar with the preschool program, Noggin and Nick Jr air daily raves for our preschoolers and the popularity of the show makes me cringe.  Like a product of a bad acid trip, bizarre creatures live in DJ Lance Rock’s boom box and teach life-lessons to a hip-hop beat.  Admittedly, the tunes are very catchy, but I always manage to change the channel or avoid the television when this show airs.

As to be expected, after denouncing the existence of the happy hip-hop program, my children begged me to watch the show a week later.  Realizing I had experienced yet another dose of Mama Karma, I made the best of an awful situation by dancing and skippy, skip, skip, skipping around my living room with my children.  Thankfully, my children have not asked to watch the show again since then.  If by chance my children do ask to watch the show again, I will remind them they must tidy up their toys and pick it up, pick it up, pick it up before they can watch the show.

There are many lessons to be learned for all of us.  Thanks again, Mama Karma.