You can sit with us: Empowerment for women entrepreneurs in Colorado Springs
Girl Crush Social Club launched this year as an inclusive place for women entrepreneurs to gather and empower.
Words and photos by Teryn O’Brien
Empowerment. The word packs a punch these days, particularly as gender issues have a permanent spot in the news. From a woman winning the popular vote in the 2016 election to the Women’s March movement that took place across the nation after Inauguration Day, the word empowerment is easily associated with feminism and equality.
One evening each month in Colorado Springs a new group takes that idea of empowerment — women supporting women — and makes it all about business.
Girl Crush Social Club is easily becoming the go-to spot for honest networking, training and encouragement among female small business owners in El Paso County.
The Story of Girl Crush Social Club
In the fall of 2016, both Erin Poovey and Mundi Ross were looking for a way to fill a hole in what they saw in the young professional community of Colorado Springs: an honest community for women small business owners and entrepreneurs under 40.
“I had a desire for peer-to-peer mentorship…and a longing to find other women who were journeying down the same road as me,” Ross said. “And I was just really wanting to be intentional with other women in my life.”
Ross is the founder of a publication called Colorado Collective, which highlights creative, makers, and enthusiasts in Colorado, and she’s working at Till Kitchen as a brand manager, marketer and buyer. She also recently launched a whole new space downtown called COCO Crafted, where her goal is to bring a variety of classes to the community to encourage and cultivate creators and makers in Colorado.
Needless to say, Ross is neck deep in small business and entrepreneurial endeavors, and she felt the need to connect with women her age doing the same. She began working with Courtney Caldwell, a local designer, who helped Ross flesh out the name and imagery around Girl Crush Social Club.
Right about the same time, Poovey, who has owned and operated Camino Massage in Colorado Springs for three years, had just launched a Facebook group for women business owners in the area, and she invited Ross to the group.
“We saw a similarity in what we were craving at separate times,” said Poovey. “Leadership can be really lonely…and I was just really craving that community of women — to be seen by them.”
The similarities were obvious, so the two came together and launched Girl Crush Social Club in January. GCSC is a monthly club for women to build community, ask honest questions and get practical business training as they cultivate their entrepreneurial endeavors.
It happens every second Monday of the month from 5:30–7:30pm at varying locations in Colorado Springs.
“I truly believe that we’ve done a great job with just really fostering a safe space for women. It’s more than just coming and networking. That’s not the purpose,” said Ross.
“It’s space for women to hear, ‘Me, too,’” added Poovey. “I think it really brings us all closer and helps us not feel alone.”
The first three GCSC events launched the concept strongly. January was the kickoff event, and over 100 women showed up to the launch. Clearly, there was a desire for something like this, and this turnout confirmed Ross and Poovey’s hunch — young professional women were looking for community and coaching. Women were dreaming, planning, and launching new ideas, and GCSC could be a place to come and learn through the highs and lows of launching and owning a small business.
On February 13th, GCSC celebrated female friendship with a Galentine’s Day celebration inspired by the fictional holiday Leslie Knope from the popular TV show Parks & Recreation. The evening featured stories about women friendship, poetry, and a speaker — Kate Perdoni, a local musician and producer for Rocky Mountain PBS — who encouraged women to truly support each other, not just compete with each other.
The Nuts & Bolts of Brand Identity
Girl Crush Social Club’s event in March got down to business by unpacking the nuts and bolts of brand identity and marketing. The speakers for March’s event were Elle Taylor, the owner of Amethyst Coffee Company in Denver; Rachel Nichols, a photographer, designer, and food blogger in Denver; and EB Combs, a Denver designer and photographer. EB Combs, Rachel Nichols, and Combs’ husband Jonathan Combs make up the design and branding company The Whistler & the Well, and they helped Amethyst Coffee Company brand itself when Taylor was first launching the idea.
Taylor, who is 27 and stands out in a profession dominated by men, shared her story of starting Amethyst Coffee over two years ago and the branding process that The Whistler & the Well helped her walk through before the storefront launched.
“Branding is not just a word that people throw out. It’s not just an esoteric idea, an aesthetic…because you can have an aesthetic that’s beautiful, but empty,” Taylor said. “But a feeling that you get when you walk into a space that someone has really curated for you — that’s what I was chasing.”
“I think what’s really great about Elle’s representation and her brand is that she has a lot of emotion and meaning…behind her brand,” Combs said. “It’s powerful because there is emotion, and purpose, and meaning there, and that’s something that women specifically excel at in womanhood. We have a lot of passion and drive.”
Nichols and Combs walked the audience through the elements of branding and what makes a good brand, why designers choose the elements they do, and how much of a creative collaboration it should be between the company getting branded and the branding firm.
Branding should be so much more than creating a fancy logo — that’s why it’s called a “brand identity” a lot of times, according to Nichols and Combs. It encompasses the feelings, ideas, thoughts, and dreams for the company that will be communicated to their customers.
So far, the feedback for each Girl Crush Social Club event has been positive.
“As a new business owner…it’s so important to have support,” said Nicole Field, an attendee of March’s GCSC and the owner of Whole Living Pilates in Colorado Springs. “To know that you’re not alone in this, and to just get feedback from other people, and to know that this is what it’s like, this is what you can expect as a business owner.”
“I had a desire for peer-to-peer mentorship…and a longing to find other women who were journeying down the same road as me. And I was just really wanting to be intentional with other women in my life.” — Mundi Ross, GCSC
Field launched Whole Living Pilates in January 2017, and she has found the monthly meetings of GCSC invaluable. “I think there’s something really beautiful and powerful about women rising up and starting something new.”
“Women have a tendency to undersell themselves,” said Taylor of Amethyst Coffee after the event.
She noted she was both elated and nervous to speak in front of so many women whom she admired and respected.
“I think the more we can create the spaces to feel confident and feel like we are worth something as a professional…the more we feel that outside of here,” Taylor said.
Girl Crush Social Club also hosts “Fireside Chats” each month, a short Q&A session that highlights local women and their challenges and triumphs in launching and owning small businesses. The group is currently planning to start local chapters across the nation in the future, as there has already been interest in other cities. While the growing club hasn’t launched a website, it has a Facebook page and Instagram to keep followers up on events.
Teryn O’Brien in the managing editor for the Colorado Collective Magazine and contributor to the PULP.
