Traditional networking wasn’t built for most women entrepreneurs.

It was built for a world where hustle was a badge of honor. Where success meant showing up no matter what. Where relationships were measured in business cards and referral slips.

If that version of networking has ever made you feel unseen, pressured, or downright icky, you’re not alone.

And more importantly: You are not wrong.

What Traditional Networking Looks Like

• Rigid attendance policies that don’t reflect the reality of caregiving, chronic illness, or simply being a whole human.
• Referral quotas that push women to make connections out of obligation, not intuition.
• A constant focus on pitching, selling, and performing instead of connecting.
• Competitive energy rooted in scarcity because there’s only room for one bookkeeper, one VA, one copywriter, right?
• Transaction over transformation.

It’s masculine energy, and for so many women entrepreneurs, it’s not working.

Why It Fails Us

1. It doesn’t honor our lives.
   We build businesses while raising kids, tending to parents, managing households, managing hormones. We need flexibility, not punishment for missing a meeting.
   
2. It stifles our intuition.
   Women refer from the heart. We champion each other because we believe in one another, not because we have to check a box.
   
3. It prioritizes performance over presence.
   Sales will come. But what do we really want? Real talk. Eye contact. Energy that says “I see you.”
   
4. It isolates us.
   Traditional networking often tells women to stay in their lane, specifically to view others as competition. But we are natural collaborators.
   
5. It makes us shrink.
   If you’ve ever walked out of a networking meeting feeling drained or like you didn’t belong, you didn’t fail networking. It failed you.
   

Try Networking Steeped with Feminine Energy

You don’t need to force yourself into a networking mold that doesn’t fit. Specifically,

• You are not “too sensitive” or “too emotional” or “too woo” for networking.
• You don’t need to hustle harder or pitch louder.
• You don’t need to refer someone just to make a quota.

You just need the right room.

And here’s the best news: That room exists. In fact, there are so many women-led, feminine-powered, soul-centered networking communities thriving right now.

Please keep looking until you find your people. Because the right networking group won’t just help you grow your business, it will help you grow into the woman you were always meant to be.

MORE RESOURCES:

Here are other resources to support your networking journey:

Virtual Networkers: My global virtual networking organization for women entrepreneurs.

Weekly Connect Newsletter: Subscribe for networking and marketing tips, plus the upcoming week’s Virtual Networkers schedule.

Celestial Love Notes: Begin your free subscription to my daily inspirational emails, full of love and empowerment.

My Book, That First Client: Learn how to create an effective marketing system that will always attract clients to your business.

My Book, Loud Woman: Get inspired to be louder in your life and business.