12 Responses to “Quit Wasting Your Time Complaining and Take Action”

1. Dr Todd Fiegel June 19th, 2008 at 5:52 pm

   All true, Ann. Nicely put.

   And it is unfortunate. But I also think the trend is reversing, albeit slowly.

   There are numerous women I hold in high esteem and turn to as mentors. And I suspect many men hold them in as high esteem as well. I think of @CoachDeb, @MariSmith, and @DonnaFox as real leaders of social marketing. (And interesting I think of them as their twIDs because they are moving the field on Twitter.)

   I’ve seen Deb and Donna present at conferences and they are outstanding. Mari was also on a teleconference I attended.

   The women I know and interact with on Twitter (yourself included, @thetimediva) are doing the right things to enhance their brands and their visibility.

   Gender on social media is irrelevant. When more people acknowledge that in all aspects of business (especially at conferences), then everyone will benefit from so much more expertise.

   @DrTodd
   http://www.MapYourAptitude.com

2. The Time Diva June 19th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

   Hey Oh Great Doc of Twitter…

   “Gender on social media is irrelevant. When more people acknowledge that in all aspects of business (especially at conferences), then everyone will benefit from so much more expertise.”

   Very nicely stated and totally agree.

   The Time Diva

3. @CoachDeb June 20th, 2008 at 12:50 am

   Aloha Ann,

   I’m really glad you wrote this post today. And not just because I’m humbled & honored with your high praise for me and my peeps you honored. (btw let me 1st say, Thank you for making my night!)

   But you really did a great job sharing the secret thoughts of what SO many other women (clients) have shared w/ me - but won’t share publicly or with other male marketers.

   When I speak from the stage, there are women who are thrilled that I’m there sharing high quality information about new media marketing and showing that women can deliver. Glad to represent. If I can serve as a role model for other women to give them an image of what THEY can do - awesome!

   It’s a shame, but many male internet marketers who have predominantly male speakers don’t realize that is the reason for the slipping attendance to their big seminars. And if they continue to surround themselves with “yes men” they’ll continue to get dwindling results & blame other things as the cause.

   Hint 4 women speakers:
   This is Great news for you!

   Wake up - Bond with one another, support each other & deliver! Because your time has come - especially with the rising popularity of sites like Twitter and all channels in “social media” (aka: new media with lipstick on).

   The other thing that holds women back… and this may be SHOCKING for some women to hear - but it has Nothing to do with other MEN… it has to do with other WOMEN turning to men instead of other women for the same content. (Ah but I’ll save that for another column for Female Entrepreneur Mag.

   I’m thrilled you mentioned Adam Urbanski and what he did with this week’s upcoming telesummit.

   I find it fascinating that he is the ONLY man in internet marketing that “figured it out” thus far.

   He successfully pulled the power hitters of social media together for a jam packed week teaching his clients how to use social media. Coincidentally - all women!

   Women who btw have been around in these type of social networking forums for many years now - way before internet marketers figured out this was a great place to “meet women” er - I mean - to meet clients.

   Now the question is - how quickly will other women support each other as opposed to being groupies for men who couldn’t care less about them - other than taking them for whatever they’ve got - and then splittin in da mornin’? (The one night stand so to speak.)

   Important note:
   Much appreciation goes to the men (and women) who HAVE put their faith in me and put me on stage to share my tips and strategies on new media marketing & have thrilled their audience as a result:

   Stephen Pierce
   Donna Fox
   Paulie Sabol
   Mike Filesaime
   Tom Beal
   Ross Goldberg
   Dave Lakhani
   Adam Urbanski (via teleseminar)

   & while these two men are not in the internet marketing world, they’re widely known in the blogosphere world as major influencers
   Dave Taylor
   Andy Beal

   You GUYZ (+ Donna Fox) Rock!

   Am I sexist?
   http://snipurl.com/entmag3
   Some say yes others say “impossible”

   Share your thoughts in the comment box below & then “tell me off” or show your support on the Entrepreneur Mag where I claimed women are natural born influencers & have the edge in the social media marketplace:
   http://snipurl.com/entmag3

   @CoachDeb
   Deborah Micek
   Author of “Secrets of Online Persuasion”

4. Mari Smith June 20th, 2008 at 1:52 am

   w00t!!! Love this post, Ann. Really well said here.

   I’m ALL for taking action - we gotta vote with our feet, mouths, mice, and dollars!! Men are action-takers and problem-solvers. Their ears are kinda like dogs and they tend not to have the frequency tuned into the complaint channel (read: poorly worded requests from us women!!)… I know, I’m speaking from years of personal experience and studying the genders. ha!

   So we’d all be better served by walking the talk and just getting out there and making things *happen*!! Like Ghandi says, “be the change you want to see in the world.” Love that.

   I’m not necessarily a big fan of exclusively female or exclusively male events… unless for a specific strategic reason. But for sure I’d love to see more women on the stage at seminars. (I was at the Speed Money Seminar in Vancouver in May: 8 guys, 1 gal… Sylvie Fortin, Michel’s wife!)

   I second your powerhouse list of women (thanks a mil for including moi!!!) … another fab gal to add is Kim Castle of http://brandu.com

   Cheers!
   @marismith

5. Debbie Ducic June 20th, 2008 at 2:07 am

   I’m so glad to have found other women who aren’t chicken to be straight up here about the reality of male dominance in the online media industry I can barely stand it!

   THANK YOU ladies for speaking up and standing your ground because the “big guys” really do tend to discount our concerns in that regard.

   When I auditioned for “Next Internet Millionaire”, my first video was all about leveling the field. My experience as a contestant representing the women’s market and being shut down by Mark Joiner and Joel Comm on the very first day solidified my belief that these guys had NO CLUE as to the power of women online.

   Although I was THRILLED that a woman came out on top in that competition, and a very talented woman at that who totally deserved it, are they supporting and promoting her now?

   Since then, I too have made it a point to promote women and women’s products and services as well as buy from them whenever possible!

   In fact, in the last month, I put together what I call the GutZy Woman International Mastermind Alliance in an attempt to represent a powerful alliance of women co-promoting in a two huge giveaway events…

   One with Chet Holmes promoting his daughter Amanda’s music and the other with Janet Beckers of Wonderful Web Women that just started today as a matter of fact!

   If you don’t know Janet, she is VERY supportive of teaching and mentoring women and I would hope that anyone reading this post supports her giveaway event, because many of those contributing gifts are “newbie” women who have been encouraged to bring their gifts to the world and have thrived as a result of her efforts.

   The other incredible women I’m proud to be associated with in the Masterind are Tracy Repchuck, Diane Corriette, Hayley Solich, Patti Serrano and Joanie Winberg.

   With that said, I’m certainly not a man hater, I’ve been married 26 years, men have been incredible mentors for me. As a matter of fact, David Skul and Frank Klein of Relativity Corp. have helped me tremendously since I opened GutZy Women LLC last year! But I consider them “Enlightened Men”…wish there were more like the around.

   I’m turning 55 this year and have been advocating for women over 30 years. When I’ve talked to men about inequalities, they just couldn’t seem to grasp the reality. But I have seen some positive change and those men who GET IT, like Adam in the above example are going to be so far ahead of the game!

   Anyway, I’m totally aligned with your desire to promote and support smart, talented women in this industry, and will be glad to join forces in some way! Hope to continue the conversation!

   LOVE
   Debbie Ducic
   GutZy Woman

6. Anne P. Mitchell June 20th, 2008 at 2:17 am

   My observation - based on always having been a woman in a “male-dominated industry”…and doing a lot of speaking..is that women generally don’t know how to play the game to promote themselves to those slots. (Complaining about lack of women is not the same as promoting women, by a long shot.) Boys and girls learn different rules of engagement from very early on, in school, from extracurricular activities, etc., and this carries over to their adult and professional lives.

   This is, in my experience, one of the reasons for that well-known phenomena of the woman executive or business-person seeming “too assertive”, as if they feel they have to “overcompensate” for being a woman in male-dominated profession. It’s all related; it’s one thing to promote oneself - it’s another thing to promote oneself effectively. To demonstrate one’s self-confidence when putting oneself forth as a candidate for a position is very different than being assertive about what a good candidate you’d be.

   Further confounding this is that women have, since time immemorial, learned that one of the best ways to “promote themselves” to men and to get their attention is through being attractive to men. So you have the almost perverse paradox of smart, capable professional women whose opening gambit is “look at me, I’m really attractive as well as smart” - but the message that sends in the business world is far from “I’m smart and capable” - even if you *are* smart and capable.

   So, to turn the whole thing on its head, rather than blaming men for not putting women in speaking roles, women need to look at how they are putting themselves out there - and how their methods of self-promotion differ from those who *are* getting those speaking engagements. And if you think that suggesting that the problem is (at least in part) with women as a whole is preposterous, well, it’s no more so than suggesting the same thing about men.

7. Adam Urbanski June 20th, 2008 at 2:35 am

   Hey Ann! Great post!

   I was going to keep quiet, but after seeing this topic pop up on Twitter several times I’ve decided to chime in!

   I think you excellently addressed the issue of not complaining – and taking action instead. And I see more and more women do this.

   And I love the list of women powerhouses you listed above. Mostly, because I can call almost every one of them a friend. But also, for three other reasons.

   First, a privilege of mentoring a couple of them when they were getting started.

   Second, three of them were at one point members of my personal Power-House Master-Mind group.

   Those experiences allowed me to see just how powerful and smart they are!

   Finally, the third reason – I believe they are trailblazers leading other women.

   Fact is, there are a lot of powerful women out there who are already VERY successful online and offline. I have a number of programs scheduled with many of them over the next several months.

   But there are still a lot of women who make a big mistake – they try to market and sell the way men do it!

   Now, trying to imitate someone else never looks good (it might be good for short laughs, but it doesn’t work long term) And when powerful and small women try to do things in a “manly” way it just doesn’t work.

   But the women Ann listed above have found a way to be themselves and make “this business and marketing thing” work for them. That’s what makes them so powerful. And I’m proud to be friends with so many of them.

   Final thought… I really believe that we have already crossed the tipping point online where majority of established online users have been taken too many time by deep promises and shallow delivery – so typical of man-style marketing. (sorry guys!)

   This makes a lot of room for women who are so natural at this “attraction” and “community-style”, “relationship-based” marketing. So watch out guys! I have a feeling we’ll see a huge wave of women take over the “Internet guru-ship” in the next 2-5 years.

   I’m just glad I’m getting on the train while it’s still running slow

   Smiles,
   @adamurbanski

   P.S. Ann, I really enjoyed chatting with you earlier today. And, as you can probably see from the time stamp, I do like to stay up late

8. SuzyJean June 20th, 2008 at 2:43 am

   WOW Not much left to say! All so well said and put. I’ll add the reason I think women are great in the social media world is there natural tendency to talk and discuss things and in the real world they will (when safe) ask for help - that’s what we need to see happening online.
   It’s easy to just assume that only the guys have a real handle on all this stuff. what we need to remember is there’s a difference between the techie stuff and the business and social media stuff. I do think the guys have a natural ‘thing’ for the techie stuff - and that’s great, but that doesn’t make them automatically the beezneez for everything else.

   Wonder if that’ll put the cat among the pigeons?
   Cheers
   Suzy

9. Ross Goldberg June 20th, 2008 at 8:44 am

   Women are an integral piece of internet marketing. In fact, most purchases are influenced by them and many marketers miss the mark.

   My next seminar has 3 women out of 18 speakers. The sad part is that there are more women involved with my seminar than most others.

   Ladies, make yourselves heard! Get out there and show your stuff. I would love to put on a seminar with nothing but ladies speaking. You have the power to make that happen!

   Ross Goldberg

10. Bob Jenkins June 20th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    Another reason why @DonnaFox needs to put on TIMME IV with Paulie…

    Great post and comments. Having been in a profession for 10 years dominated by women (yet administratively by men), I recognize this as an ongoing battle in the $0.74/$1 battle.

    History lesson coming here…

    One of the solutions is for people to grab the limelight instead of waiting for others to shine it on them. That’s what your leaders above are doing. And then they are also being recognized as peers and superiors.

    However, for any minority-represented group, the trend tends to be one of too mistakes… either waiting for someone else to give them their due, or expecting to have to do it alone.

    In all historical struggles that result in long term victory, a few members of the majority-power have been instrumental in leveling the playing field.

    Think back to the Kennedys in the civil rights days, deKlerk in South Africa, or the wise men of the Congress who passed Title IX in the 70s… Winning needs partnership more than rivalry.

    The same is true here.

    Mari Smith does well on her own, but having Ben Mack legitimize her among the GOBN last month certainly helps.

    @CoachDeb deserves props on her own, but propelled also by Warren Whitlock and Stephen Pierce (for example).

    Obviously there are other examples, but you get the point.

    Bob Jenkins
    AskBobTheTeacher.com

    p.s. The most common frustration I had in the classroom when it came to teaching girls was many had bought into the social construct that they should start their brainy ideas/answers with, “This may be wrong, but…”

11. Penny Haynes June 20th, 2008 at 9:42 am

    Ann, bravo! You know, this subject has had me so brainwashed, I was actually SHOCKED to see my name so very kindly included in your list. I know I SHOULDN’T have been, since I believe I’m the only woman designing podcast-related multimedia software.

    As far as not being considered for speaking, however, I think that is my fault. I have a colleague who loves to talk and travel and meet the who’s who. She does very well, but she’s a go-getter and makes things happen. But she hangs with the guys and plays their game. She’s VERY good at it.

    She’s the opposite of me - I’m not a schmoozer. I definitely won’t seek out men who have shunned me to try and kiss their butt (I’m not suggesting the aforementioned woman does this, by the way). This, obviously, can be to my detriment, as most of the successful men I have met via podcasting COMPLETELY ignore me. It’s like I don’t even exist (except to become their affiliate and market them to my network).

    At one point, I honestly asked myself why it mattered to me whether or not I was being ignored by all of these men. I decided it must somehow hurt my ego, and I didn’t want to fuel that fire. I decided that my passion is creating unique, usable products, not being recognized by other people. Recognition is fleeting, and I’d rather not chase it. Products, however, hopefully last a lifetime.

    My real satisfaction comes from seeing people create their own multimedia from my software and promote themselves online. The only way I suffer from it is that their ignoring me means they won’t partner with me and cross market.

12. Why Facebook? Social Networking for Fun and Profits! » Blog Archive » Social Media Marketing: Battle Of The Sexes? June 23rd, 2008 at 5:08 am

    [...] my friend and mentee, Ann Rusnak The Time Diva, wrote this post: Quit Wasting Your Time Complaining and Take Action encouraging women to stop complaining about how the marketing world is male-dominated and to [...]