There's a two-minute video honoring me as a member of the 2024 class of the NC Women Business Owners Hall of Fame. If you listen to it, you might think — THE NARRATOR SOUNDS JUST LIKE SARAH! ??
Over the last six years, I’ve personally produced the 53 videos that celebrate each of the women who have been inducted into this Hall of Fame. I don’t just know their stories — I’ve voiced them. (Usually multiple times, since I can never get the audio right in just one take.)
So when I found out that Liza Weidle had, secretly, worked with a group of people to nominate me this year, and that I’d been chosen — I panicked.
Compared to those 53 stories I know so well,?I don’t deserve it.
I wonder if you can relate — to comparing yourself to others and saying, "There’s no way I should be here. Not me, not yet."
So when I found out I'd received the award, I called friends, asking, "How do you turn down an award?" ??
Because 1?? I haven't done this for a lifetime; 2?? I haven’t done enough with traditional venture capital; 3?? I’m not building a product but building a business off my individual thought leadership... and so on.
It should’ve gone to someone else — not me, not yet.
Luckily, when I was worrying about this, a friend asked me, "Do you think there are any other women out there who would be inspired by your story?"
That brought me back to the mission of this award. To preserve and amplify the many different stories of women entrepreneurs in our state.
Maybe all those reasons I thought I shouldn’t have the honor are the exact reasons why I should.
Maybe that’s the real "not me, not yet." Owning those reasons we’re different, and acknowledging, "They haven’t seen somebody like me do something like this — not me, not yet."
It reminds me of a time I brought Sawyer with me to a board meeting — he was about three, our childcare plan had fallen through, so I brought him, armed with a million snacks to keep him occupied.
And I remember the look of shock on another woman’s face when we walked in. She literally said, "I’ve never seen a baby at a board meeting!"
And I smiled, and said, "We’re proud he’s your first!"??? ??♀?
As women-owned businesses grow, we’re not just following traditional stories of success —?we’re changing the idea of what successful entrepreneurship can look like.
Accepting the award in front of my family, my parents, my in-laws, my friends —?and especially my husband Matthew Glova, CFP? and our two boys — was the honor of a lifetime.
ESPECIALLY since I got to use my own voice to add my own story to this collection —?video number 54.
And I hope that if you hear these stories of the NC WBO Hall of Fame winners, that you’re excited to continue challenging the idea of what success looks like —?to know that if you go somewhere and start to feel like you don’t belong — you can just smile, and think, "Where I am now hasn’t seen someone do it like me."
Not me. Not yet.
But now they will.
??
#womenbusinessowners
