The Power of Networking
by
Nancy Salamone

Carole Hyatt says that “One new person has a minimum network of 300 possibilities to introduce you to”. 

Networking is a powerful tool for women and it has worked for me.

I was a Marketing Vice President with a Wall Street Insurance Company reporting directly to the CEO. One day the CEO called me and said “Nancy – I want to increase the number of women sales reps and I want you to develop a campaign to accomplish that”.

After some thought I decided that the campaign would offer a book about women and selling, particularly, how to sell yourself. It needed to be a substantial book that offered practical advice written by a woman author.

After narrowing my search to about 15 books I chose “The Woman’s New Selling Game” by Carole Hyatt, who I didn’t know at the time. I chose that book because it was by far different from other books in that it was full of real practical advice.

I launched a magazine based ad campaign offering the book free to women who responded. We had a tremendous response and ended up sending books to 5,000 women!

The result of the campaign was a complete “win-win” for the company. Women who received the book either became sales reps or clients of the company. The Regional VPs were ecstatic and my CEO was thrilled with the results. The campaign was successful and I was a hero!

Sometime later I received a call from Carole Hyatt. Carole thanked me and asked to meet me because she was interested in why I purchased so many of her books. Carole and I met and I told her about the campaign.

Carole Hyatt is a bestselling author, international motivational speaker, and an expert on career development and women's corporate consulting programs. She also organizes and runs symposiums for women business leaders. During our conversation Carole invited me to her next Leadership Forum and I attended.

I’m going to tell you something about myself. I am a survivor of domestic violence.

For 20 years I lived 2 lives. One, a competent business executive and the other - a behind closed doors abused wife.  

After I finally left my ex-husband one of the fears I had to overcome was about my ability to manage my own finances. Even though I had been the major wage earner for twenty years and managed multi-million dollar corporate budgets, he managed our money. Now I had to learn personal financial management skills so that I could move my life forward.

It took some time and lots of work but I acquired the personal money management skills I needed.

By the time I met Carole my dark days were well behind me and I was at a point in my life where I wanted to give something back. By then I had bought my own home, I had a wonderful circle of good friends, I had investments and I had traveled throughout the world. I had even bought myself a Mink Coat and a Rolex Watch! I was a successful corporate executive who had created the life I had always dreamed of.

But I also knew how devastating it was to live with domestic violence and how difficult it is to leave that relationship and create a life for yourself.

There are millions of women like me who have to learn good money management skills, especially women who have left or who are in the process of leaving an abusive relationship. For them, these skills are essential if they are to break free of the recurring cycle of domestic violence that dominates their lives. In a domestic violence relationship it’s the abuser who controls the money.

At the forum I told Carole that I wanted to help women who like me, had left violent relationships and needed to become financially literate. Carole didn’t hesitate and immediately told me to call Dede Bartlett who, at that time was the Co-chair of the NYC Domestic Violence Council.

I called Dede and told her that I would like to attend the next meeting of the council and she invited me. The council included members from the corporate community, executives from women’s organizations and members of both the legal and judicial communities.

All of these people had a common goal and that was to help women get out and stay out of domestic violent relationships.

After one meeting I spoke to Dede and told her what I wanted to do. Dede wasted no time and called over a woman named Mary Baughman who is the Executive Director of Jersey Battered Women’s Services.

Mary just happened to be looking for a financial self-sufficiency program for the women in her shelter.

Mary and I met several times. She was concerned that the women in her shelter learn the day-to-day skills they needed to manage their personal finances. I explained to Mary that in addition to learning the practical financial management skills they needed, we needed to address the fear of money that these women harbor.

Mary agreed and I wrote the first version of “The Business of Me” which I have moderated many times since.

One, Carole Hyatt, two Dede Bartlett, three Mary Baughman; these women meant networking success for me.  

But my story doesn’t end there. After successfully testing the program we’ve re-written and expanded The Business of Me making it possible to present the program in any organization anywhere, anytime the organization has 15 women ready to go.

The initial phase of this lifelong program is comprised of 6 weekly two-hour sessions. These sessions are followed by 3 monthly “Board of Directors” meetings which are chaired by the program moderator and held at the sponsoring facility. At the end of the 3^rd “Board of Directors” meeting the participants elect a chairperson and the group continues to meet monthly at a place chosen by them, electing new leadership every year.

This networking concept allows the program to continue over a lifetime using both the monthly “Board of Director’s” meetings and through the Facebook Group page that is formed for the group at the beginning of their program. This creates a strong, continuing support network that is so important if these women are to break the cycle of domestic violence that consumes their lives.

Acclaimed Yale University anthropologist David Levinson, in a family violence study[1] he conducted that focused on battered women found that in the ninety societies he studied, incidents of battering were practically nonexistent when women have economic independence and support from other women.

For women, the support of other women is essential. Networking works.

Nancy Salamone is an author, speaker and an advocate against domestic violence who believes that knowledge about personal money management brings confidence and self-sufficiency. She is the author of the landmark financial self-sufficiency program The Business of Me. Her new book is titled Victory Over Violence - Nancy’s Story and The Business of Me. 

(C) Copyright 2010. Nancy Salamone. All Rights Reserved.