AN UNEXPECTED FRIEND She

was sitting across the table on the patio at Buffalo Wild Wings that sunny afternoon. Seeming quiet and reserved, she was quite the match for my expressive conversations. My best friend had invited me to happy hour and wanted to introduce me to this friend of hers, whom I’d never met. We both had been, or were currently in, the financial services realm and she thought we’d click. She was right. But, it took another six years and life-changing events for both of us to truly ignite that friendship.

Life took both of us on quite the trip those next six years. I navigated a job loss, fought my way through my parents divorce and expanded my beautiful family while simultaneously she became a CFO, divorced and remarried the same incredible man, and expanded her family after a near death of her niece. The lessons life taught us during those years prepared us to connect and collaborate in a way we never would have before, as we became close friends through female business ownership.

Firm believers in God’s timing we didn’t question the fact that we hadn’t spoken since drinking cold beers on that hot summer day at Buffalo Wild Wings. Somehow His timing was perfection yet again, and we spontaneously met for coffee to discuss our simultaneous leaps into entrepreneurship. As an expert in business finance, she was building her financial and leadership consulting firm and I was building my communications firm.

My business management degree coupled with many years in a sales and management aspect of banking and financial services led me to feel confident enough to build my business. But I needed a partner who understood the pieces I had yet to learn. Similarly, sales and marketing was not her forte and she trusted my expertise in that realm. We became invested in each others’ success and walked hand-in-hand through the ups and downs of living the entrepreneurial life.

As a business owner, numbers are everything. The confidence through numbers and support that she and her team have given me allows me to lean into the perceived unknown every day. Her attention to detail helps me to make the best decisions for my business while still dreaming big. While God’s timing is absolutely perfect, I only wish I’d had access to her knowledge through Light Learning as a prior corporate leader.

As women, it is often hard to find other women that truly believe “we all rise together.” So, when you find one like I have, hold on tight and treat her right. Invest in her and she, my friend, will invest in you too. Always