Life is so funny.  This morning I had a little "Come to Jesus" meeting with myself.  I was down because The Travel Sisters Network hadn't  magically "gone viral" and it seemed like we may need to pour a lot more funds into marketing. We can't spend a ton of money on marketing given the fact we already invested thousands in website development, logo design, business cards, etc.  You see, this concept is kind of a non-profit in a funny way.  We are helping women find their Travel Sisters, but there's no guarantee they will book travel with us and that's okay.  They might make their own plans (some people LOVE that exhaustive planning process, some do not!) , or they might use their own travel agent. We will offer lots of great options and we sure hope people will like them - but this effort is more mission-driven than profit-driven.  We're happy to spend some money on the mission, but we can't ask too much of our own family finances.  So, I kind of said, "You know, it's a good idea, and I really want it to work, but I can't worry myself too much about it.  If it's meant to be, it'll be. I'm going to release it to the powers that be and be at peace."  And I was. I felt all the worry just kind of leave my body.  It was not all up to us.  We're just human.  

After lunch I had a few minutes and I decided to see how the MeetUp group we formed on Monday was going.  WAIT - something weird was happening?? There were now 29 members . . . then 32, 36, 40  . . it was growing right before my eyes??  They were registering for our live event!  I started looking at who was joining . . . I did not recognize these names?  Oh my goodness!  What an amazingly beautiful and diverse group of women! I started messaging them and they responded with enthusiasm.  I finally had the courage to ask - what is going ON?  Why are you all coming right now - today?  One woman said, "Oh, I got an email from MeetUp telling us about this group and I knew immediately I should join!" Lol.

Of course. When you are humble, when you cede control, that's when the magic happens.  New forces suddenly come into play, things you didn't see coming present themselves.  We're sitting at 45 now . . . make that 47. : )  Twenty three local women - at least! - will be at our first live event on January 6th at 7pm.  We're SO EXCITED.  Message received, world!  Message received.

I'll admit I was pretty smug about my sister's decision to join a sorority when we were in college. I didn't get it.  But then again, I wasn't the most socially intelligent person then (or now!lol).  But last week the beauty of soror sisterhood became REAL clear as Teresa set up a call with Jodi McPherson, a fellow Chi Omega from her college days who is two hundred steps ahead of us in how to launch a new venture like the Travel Sisters Network. 

We decided it was time to call in some reinforcements because when our first 7 day Facebook marketing campaign ended, and the smoke from our launch day fireworks cleared, new registrants for our network came to a standstill.  We could easily reload the campaign on Facebook with a new ad (it had actually performed pretty well) but what ELSE was out there for us to consider?

Turns out - a LOT!  Jodi walked us through networking fundamentals, the beauty of platforms like MeetUp, and challenged us to clarify EXACTLY who our target audience is.  It will take months to put all her advice into motion, but for now . . . we have a new MeetUp group!  

Our MeetUp group is called RDU Women With Travel Dreams - check it out and join us there!  We have scheduled a LIVE virtual event on Thursday, January 6th @ 7pm for anyone interested in the Travel Sister Network project and wants to learn more!