Interview: Jill Salzman, Founding Moms
Jill Salzman is the genius Organizer behind the Founding Moms’ Exchange Meetups —there are now dozens of Founding Moms’ Meetup Groups around the world, specifically designed to support, educate and empower entrepreneurial Moms, with over 2,000 members.
We caught up with Jill to ask a few questions about her life as a super Organizer:
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How would you finish this sentence? Because of the Founding Moms Meetups…
My life has improved dramatically. I now run an organization entirely built upon the Meetup platform. Because of the organization, my professional reputation has earned me spots on top TV shows and media outlets (The New York Times! CNN’s Headline News!), I’ve become the author of a book (Found It: A Field Guide for Mom Entrepreneurs), I’ve done a TED talk partially about Meetup, and I’m launching an accelerator for mom entrepreneurs called The HighStyle Fund.
All the time. Just last week I was given a hand-written thank-you note by one member just for doing what I do. I mean, it’s not just me doing it and I feel silly being thanked. It’s a member-driven organization and I’m merely a facilitator. We have over thirty brilliant facilitators, whom we call “hosts,” that help me to build our Founding Moms’ Exchanges everywhere. It’s a team effort, so personal thank you’s are always the cherry on top, and always humbling.
The best success story has happened more than once: It’s always the moment that I hear that a member was able to hire someone else. When we have the ability, through encouragement and education, to empower an entrepreneur to build her business up enough to be able to hire someone else, that’s pretty much the be-all end-all for me. It’s the very definition of my success, and when it happens, it’s just awesome.
I see us continuing to grow far and wide. It’s astounding to me that three years ago, I didn’t know another fellow female entrepreneur who had kids. Now, I know over 3,000 and am meeting women who want to get a Founding Moms’ Exchange going in Mexico, in Australia, even The Netherlands where we just launched. It sounds so cliche to say it, but I still find it remarkable each and every day that there are women around the world who yearn to connect with like-minded folks, exactly the way I wanted to three years ago. The collective power of Founding Moms is literally changing the world, and this ride has been so awesome, I don’t want it to stop anytime soon.
Thanks for taking a moment to share your Meetup story with us, Jill!
Andrea leads Meetup’s Community team.
