I’m chatting with Heather Ferrari about the transformative power of an abundance mindset in business networking. We dive into why creating a supportive community for female entrepreneurs is essential for moving past the “salesy” hustle and finding a more meaningful way to grow together.
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The Search for Connection
Business can be polished, but genuine connection? That’s usually a little scary and not something you can control. I’m in a season of trying all kinds of networking groups. I’ve been looking for connection, but I usually find sales pitches or groups that just aren’t quite open feeling. I want connection around others who are passionate about their business as I am about mine.
I’ve tried networking groups before, only recently, like in the past year, have I been more outgoing to go to them and try different ones and things like that. And a couple of them that I went to, they just kind of felt salesy. They felt icky, they felt—I don’t really know how to maybe articulate it, but they just didn’t feel like the right spot for me. And it felt like more of a dread to have to go to it. I still felt disconnected. I still didn’t feel like the organizer or people in the group were very—they weren’t rude by any means. They weren’t mean—it just that they just didn’t care. And I was like, okay, I thought this was supposed to be to get together and chit chat.
Then I walked into a room in Gilbert, Arizona and met Heather Ferrari. She calls herself a specialist in business soup.
Heather Ferrari:
My sweet spot is truly being in the room with female entrepreneurs and small business owners. I just love—I talk about business soup. I love taking business and making it into a fine, organized alphabet letter where we can like, see words and spaces and I just… but I really love that part in the beginning where it’s kind of a mess and we get to organize it. That is my sweet spot.
The Philosophy of Abundance
Barb Davids:
Heather’s organization, The Women 360, isn’t about exchanging business cards. It’s about a philosophy of abundance. It’s the intentional move away from competition and toward the idea that there is more than enough room for everyone to thrive. It’s about sharing resources and insights freely, rather than holding them close out of fear.
Heather Ferrari:
What I didn’t understand and has been the most beautiful just watching it happen, this beautiful evolution, is that the women in the room who have gotten this message—and every single one has like lightning in a bottle—but every woman in the room who got this message is a true sisterhood of really building the women up around them, believing in abundance that there’s not only just one slice of pie of encouragement and success. And once it’s done, it’s over. So I got to keep some for myself.
That belief, that passion, those values of: I’m going to shine the crowns of the women around me, knowing that that doesn’t diminish my shine. It actually amplifies it. When I shine a light on someone else that it actually makes me more beautiful. It’s just… it’s very cyclical. And—or cyclical is not even the right word. It’s circular. And it just—it’s just this beautiful.
So it really is taking the amazing thing that we have built in our room and sharing it, because that is the big goal of the women 360 is that no woman walks alone. Not just the women in Gilbert or the women the East Valley, or the women in Phoenix, or the women in the West Valley. That no woman walks alone. Because we really do understand how much power there is in sisterhood, how much strength we feel when we have those women behind us speaking life into us.
Does Abundance Pay the Bills?
Barb Davids:
Okay, let’s get back to the fantastic topic at hand. Does this philosophy actually pay the bills? I asked Heather for proof, and she told me the story of a lawyer and a relationship therapist, Danielle Granick.
Heather Ferrari:
She is with pro paralegal, and her mission is to help people who are coming out of incarceration to get back their citizenship rights. Her very first event was a women 360 coffee, which they are held during the day, 10 a.m. and she sits down next to Lisa Miller, who is a relationship therapist. Lisa is of an older age. Danielle is of a younger age. Sitting those two, you would never think—man, there is a power partnership in the making.
But Lisa has been with the 360. While she has that mindset of let me learn what you do so I can connect you to someone who wants to know you or you want to know them. So she listens to what Danielle, the lawyer, says. She says, “I have someone I want you to talk to” and connects Danielle to the person that Lisa knew. By the end of that week, Danielle was signing a $40,000 contract. I honestly, I could have cried when I heard that. I’m pretty sure I got tears in my eyes because that’s everything. That’s it.
Barb Davids:
That is the power of a network that functions from a place of spreading the love. But it’s not just coffee and chatting. There is an educational component.
“Make Your Own Music” Strategy
Heather Ferrari:
I used to be in music, I love music. My first ever record I got when I was three years old, and it was Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and yes, oh my goodness. I actually had the opportunity to meet her when I was in music. Oh my goodness, I was three years old again with wide eyes and in typical Joan Jett fashion, she was like, “okay.” She passed away. I was like, yes, that is so her. Yeah.
I’ve since heard that she is an absolutely amazing, lovely, charming human being. But my Joan Jett experience really—it represented everything I heard on her record. So it kind of was special to me. Like, as much as I loved it. Like, I still hold it very, very dear to my heart. And I mean, a shout out to Christopher Gutierrez, who introduced me to her.
So I, I love music, I love metaphors and putting those together along with business strategy just was a perfect combination. And so it’s called Make Your Own Music, and it’s a 12-module curriculum course. And we go through a module per month. It starts off with mission, vision, value, goals. It goes into differentiation, value proposition, customer journey mapping. Then we go to our brand marketing and creating a compelling hook in our messaging.
But first we really do ask the questions that needed to be answered. And for a lot of these women, I realized they didn’t have answers because they didn’t even know they were supposed to be asking the questions. So if I can help educate them and equip them, their confidence will build. And one of the things that’s really cool, some of the feedback I’m hearing are people who talk to them after these meetings and they’re talking about SOPs and KPIs and vanity metrics, and these are like—they sound amazing. And these business women—all of their efforts were business women—but their mind is becoming super strategic. And again, that confidence, it not only propels them forward, it also protects them.
Expanding the Borders
Barb Davids:
The group started in the Phoenix East Valley area, but by the time you hear this, the borders are gone.
Heather Ferrari:
So one of the things that’s really exciting for me is that by the time this episode launches, I will have made this big announcement, which is the Women 360 is going virtual nationwide. Oh my gosh, I am so excited about this.
So at the time, in this moment, we have our women 360 organization. It is in the East Valley. We meet in Gilbert and in Phoenix. By the time that this episode launches, we will have a Women 360 Latinas. That is for Spanish speaking. Either Spanish is your first language or Spanish is your only language. We will have a chapter that is really dedicated to having a room where people—you feel just so much freedom to speak the language that you love. You’re not worrying about your accent. You’re not worrying if people understand you and you are with business owners that they’re your people. They’re your tribe.
We are all one sisterhood. But there is just a beauty in these Latina women and I am so excited for them to—in addition to the Women 360—to also have this room that’s theirs, and it’s going to be led by Maureen Nagle. She came to me with this idea and she said, “I want a room for women who speak my language.” And so she’s doing it. So that’s 360 Latinas.
A Message for Every Woman in Business
Barb Davids:
I asked Heather to sum up what she wants every woman to know about their journey.
Heather Ferrari:
What I would want every woman out there to know about their business journey is that they are qualified, even if it’s an ongoing process. You are there for a reason. You matter. Your heart, your empathy, your intention—that those values that you have, everything else can be learned. Everything else. There are people that are going to teach you.
Don’t give up. If there needs to be a pivot, let’s pivot. But don’t ever think that you are not important, that what you are doing is not important, or you’re not the right person. Come find your person. Come find your tribe. Let’s chat. Let’s see what we can do to make you see and believe in yourself and understand that that heart, that precious heart that you have, that is so unique to you is exactly the person who needs to go forth.
