The Only Man in a Killeen Texas Women in Business Seminar

Andre V. Milteer"The Encouragement Guy!"

Yesterday, I attended the 2012 Killeen (Texas) Women in Business Seminar. The event was low-cost, included lunch, and showcased 6 female businesswomen speakers. One of the speakers was BG Laura Richardson [first female assistant general officer of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division].

Much to my surprise, of the 200 [female] persons in attendance, I was the only male. After initially feeling like a fish-outta-water, I began to embrace my rare awkwardness. 'Wow, what an incredible opportunity I have here...all of these amazing professional and smart business females,' I said to myself.

There were 3 things that really jumped out at me from my 6 hours of seminar attendance. The first was that women are fiercely competitive -- in a covert way. The second: female business owners face inner as well as outer challenges that leads to... And third: Businesswomen Rule! Let's explore these 3 aspects of my seminar learning experiences.

Women are Fiercely Competitive -- Covertly. Men are aggressive. We [men] tell the World: This is Mine; I'm gonna; Winning is Everything! On the other hand, my lessons learned [from the 200 businesswomen] was that women quietly exercise their efforts and actions. They hear voices that, "You Can't!" Thus, they drive themselves to succeed. No shouting -- no bragging -- no wolf-ticket selling. Just getting it done. In a secret agent sorta way, businesswomen succeed. Call it what you want, but I call it Fierce Competitiveness.

Killeen CVB - Special Events Room

Second: Businesswomen hear voices -- naysayers -- inner and outer. You know the ones; they speak the universal language of nay, no, and cannot. "You Can[not]'t do That! Girl, You Crazy? Hell No [nay] you gonna lose your..." With all of the external naysaying, it is quite easy for the businesswoman to internalize these naysaying prophecies as real and/or true. To succeed in the face of these voices, the businesswoman must conquer these obstacles to begin her path to success.

Lastly, I learned that Businesswomen are great, creative, and thorough. In short, They Rule!