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What an EXCITING Day! June 1st – Bower Media’s 7 year anniversary and the opportune time to step outside the box and go down a new road. This road started just a few short months ago after a impromptu ladies weekend in the desert followed by the Moab EJS Ladies Meet & Greet where I announced the Ladies Co-Driver Challenge. The ladies showed up in the rain, sleet and wind to meet each other. Wow! If you had asked me if I had any plans to be here today, I would have said NO. I didn’t know what the ladies wanted.
Then I traveled to Florida for Jeep Beach and talked with another group of amazing ladies, all the while, the 91 as part of the original Co-Driver Challenge were also talking to me, and I was listening: “We want attention. We want to learn. We want to meet other awesome ladies.” While in Florida, I spent some time talking to my industry friends, and it was there that I was motivated to start this project. What we later termed “Project Sunflower” became a November release project.
On May 1st, with the help of a client making a personnel change, I decided to give notice to the rest of my clients and with a slight nudge, jump off the cliff to focus on only Bower Media properties. We would go live with the Ladies Online Space on June 1st – in 31 days. Not only did I have to develop exit strategies and help train my replacements, but I also had to develop a website plan and execute it, while maintaining my travel schedule and hosting the Top 10 Ladies at the Training Weekend!!
The huge yellow papers came out and hung on the wall, wrapping around to a second wall. As my creative brain allowed, I would write ideas down and start outlining the different elements to the project. Then I started talking about it in the office with the girls, asking questions. I didn’t have a name for it that fit – so right next to the yellow papers was a bundle of sunflowers – Project Sunflower it is! In fact, the site was named Sunflower Offroad for a while until GEM Offroad caught our attention.
The time flew by. I was planning on doing some market research with my group of 91, but never had the time to put it together. Instead, I asked questions to ladies as I ran into them and listened. I hope I listene
d correctly!
Overland Expo came along. I had only loaded the websites to the domain on Wednesday June 18th and left town on Thursday for the weekend. My team had their instructions and I had my goals. Friday night at the Ladies Meet & Greet I stood in front of a group of people and announced for the first time in public that I was dedicating 100% of my time to the Bower Media properties and more specifically the LADIES! The response was overwhelming. The ladies in this environment reiterated what I kept hearing: “We want to learn. We want to meet other awesome ladies.” When I left on Sunday we had 9 days to launch on June 1st.
With the Memorial Day weekend of wheeling in the mix to help clear the head and remember why I do what I do, we now had 7 days of actual work days to create 3 websites that looked alike and interacted. We did it.
As of today, June 1st, we have only rolled out the first step. The website is up and the forum is active. Some of our events are already underway, with lots more to be announced. Our store is running and we will be adding more products to it. The set of announcements that are to come are BIG, but it will all happen in time. We made our June 1st deadline!!
I hope that you will enjoy and appreciate what we have been able to develop:
GEM Offroad = Guiding, Educating, Motivating Offroad Ladies!! CHAT ABOUT THIS – Click Here
