What is Austin Women Owned Wednesday? This virtual event features small group networking and a keynote presentation focused on
a business topic relevant to the Austin community. For the first 30 minutes of the event, attendees are broken out into small groups to foster connections. There are 10 luncheons in
2022, held January through October, typically on the fourth Wednesday of the
month. Questions? Contact WBCS Senior Director of Programs, Elizabeth Garner.
Join us to perfect your business pitch!
Previous pitch finalist for the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and WBCS WBE, Jessica Gore of Tasty Clean, will share her experience on pitching to judges, receiving feedback, and how she used it to her advantage. Attendees will then break out into small groups so each participant can practice their pitch and receive feedback from WBENC Forum representatives.
Now is the time to practice your pitch! WBCS is hosting an innovation pitch competition in August 2022, feeding up to a national final round for monetary prizes, in partnership with PepsiCo and FedEx. More details and application to come!
Whether or not you plan to apply for the August competition, all are welcome to attend this session and improve their pitch.
 | Jennifer Blakeney President Guaranteed Express
As the President of Guaranteed Express, Jennifer Blakeney facilitates the success of her clients by providing world class logistical solutions. She has over 20 years of transportation and logistics experience. Her approach to the transportation industry was developed through her rise within the same company she now owns. Following her start as an assistant in 1998 and realizing she appreciated the challenges of the transportation industry, she formulated her plan to become an expert in her field. From the very beginning of her career, she’s maintained that clients need solutions that encompass great service from a friendly staff and results they can count on, allowing her to be creative and discover unique approaches that resolve a variety of clientele transportation related issues. This has afforded her the ability to be flexible and continue a commitment to evolve with her clients, which has been her key to success.
Since 2013, Jennifer has been actively volunteering with the Women’s Business Council - Southwest and mentoring other women business owners. She has served on various committees including the Certification Committee and numerous individual event committees which recently earned her the “WBE Volunteer of the Year Award” by the Women’s Business Council - Southwest. Jennifer also serves as a Board Member for the Dallas Executive’s Association, a local networking organization where her company has been a member for more than 21 years.
| |  | Sharon Evans Owner & CEO CFJ Manufacturing
Sharon Evans serves as Owner and Chief Executive Officer for CFJ Manufacturing, a global company assisting clients around the world with their program and manufacturing needs. Her entrepreneurial spirit and hands-on approach has led to the diversification of CFJ Manufacturing’s empire including: retail jewelry store, manufacturing, total employee recognition programs, brand identity solutions, uniforms, embroidery facilities, and PPE manufacturing.
She launched her path in 1983 by opening a fine jewelry store in the heart of Saginaw, Texas. Steeped in tradition, Collections Fine Jewelry’s reputation as a well-regarded and innovative jewelry store spans the globe. Through the encouragement and opportunities of corporate customers, CFJ Manufacturing was birthed in 1997 as she ventured into employee recognition and promotional merchandise. Her devotion to brand integrity naturally progressed the company into the market of corporate uniforms and branded wearables. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas with multiple offices across the nation and in Peru, China, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and Bangladesh, there is not one project she considers out of bounds.
Sharon serves on the board for the Women’s Business Council – Southwest and is a two time WBE Advocate of the Year as well as receiving many awards for her service and mentoring to women owned businesses. She is also and inductee of Women’s Business Enterprise Hall. Sharon’s family is actively engaged in CFJ’s business units and keeps the tradition of excellence in customer service alive. Sharon enjoys working with community projects, traveling with her husband, and spending quality time with family.
| |  | Jessica Gore Founder & President Tasty Clean
One of the most common questions she gets when telling people about Tasty Clean is “Are you a chemist or a scientist?” While she does LOVE science, the answer is no. She is a mom who worked behind the scenes in radio for 10 years prior to being thrust suddenly into motherhood. She found herself go very quickly from the fast-paced world of radio promotions to a stay-at-home mom, and it was HARD!
Born and raised in Wichita Kansas, Jessica graduated from Wichita Southeast High School where she was a member of the Youth Entrepreneur Program. With a need for something more, Jessica relocated to Dallas by herself at the age of 19 with the dream of becoming a fashion designer. Fashion wasn’t her only dream and so she ended up studying broadcasting as well and landed a gig as a part time Promotions Assistant. (This moment was much like winning the lottery, JACKPOT!) Jessica worked hard over the next several years and ended up as a National Promotions Director over six DFW radio stations.
After working in radio for 10 years, she was blessed to find out she was pregnant with her first child and left radio to raise her first-born son. She says she was “blessed” because having a child for most people is a blessing but to Jessica it was something that she was told might never happen. As a survivor of childhood cancer, there were many uncertainties in her life and having a baby was at the top of that list. Finding out that she was pregnant was the most amazing and terrifying thing she had ever known.
While he was her angel, he was what some would call “spirited” and inspired Jessica to think of all sorts of things that would make our lives as parents easier. That one terrible tantrum in a public place over a fallen sucker led to that ah-ha moment where a flailing toddler inspired her to create Tasty Clean. She came up with a list of ingredients that were acceptable for her own family then hired scientists, formulators, and flavor specialists to help find the perfect formula that actually worked. (Tasty Clean was just granted their third patent with more still pending).
Jessica and her husband Corby (whom by the way is a very talented artist and designed the entire Tasty Clean brand including the website) then spent the next several years creating the brand and assessing the market. About a year into this process, they were blessed with a baby girl and their family of four was now complete. Jessica says “We really enjoy watching our children react to Tasty Clean and how proud they are of Mommy and Daddy. Our son now wants to “help run Tasty Clean” when he gets older and that is what fuels my fire!”
| |  | Kathleen Hunt President Personalized Payroll Services
Kathleen Hunt founded her company, Personalized Payroll Services, Inc., in 2011 with the goal to help women-owned businesses thrive and prosper. Personalized Payroll partners with small to mid-sized businesses to customize and streamline their payroll processing and HR services. As a certified woman-owned business enterprise (WBE) through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and an active member of the Women’s Business Council Southwest and Women’s Business Enterprise Council South, Kathleen is passionate about connecting WBEs to one another. She is an advocate for WBEs and frequently makes introductions, referrals and recommendations for others.
Kathleen has more than 30 years of experience in human resources, staffing and sourcing services across various industries. She is an operations and process controls expert putting those skills to work for her clients on a daily basis. Personalized Payroll helps clients avoid costly penalties and accrued interest with timely and accurate local, state and federal tax deposits and filings. The company provides real time payroll solutions offering clients the ability to process payroll anytime from anywhere. Personalized Payroll provides a fully integrated HCM system with applicant tracking, on boarding, benefit enrollment, employee career development and management, employee HR portal for employee to review their paycheck history on line, request PTO, etc. Smart phone technology and unlimited document storage round out the services offered. Also offered is HR On Demand which provides a dedicated HR Professional to assist her clients and their HR Professional. Personalized Payroll partners with other WBEs, such as Lone Star Benefits, to provide health insurance services.
Kathleen is an active leader in the business community serving on many boards and committees that support women business owners. She is a member of the WBENC Forum and has served on the Engagement committee since 2017. Kathleen is a recipient of the WBE Volunteer of the Year Award in 2017 by the Women’s Business Council Southwest and Volunteer of the Year Award in 2014 by the Women’s Business Enterprise Council South.
Personalized Payroll sponsors business events throughout the year including the WBENC Summit & Salute; WBEC South WE Summit & Awards Gala; and Connections to Contracts hosted by the Women’s Business Council Southwest. The company is a Diamond Sponsor and Champion Circle Sponsor for Women’s Business Council Southwest and a Champions Circle Sponsor for WBEC South.
Kathleen was selected to participate in and successfully completed the WBENC Robert Half Accelerated Leadership Development Program and the Energy Executive Program presented by the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. She earned an Associate’s degree in Business Administration and Management at Fox College, Inc.
| |  | Terri Quinton CEO Q2 Marketing Group
Terri L. Quinton is CEO and President of Q2 Marketing Group, an award-winning marketing and business development firm servicing small and mid-sized firms. Her firm works to assist these companies in messaging and connecting to prime target markets in the most economically and efficient method. Quinton is also a Managing Principal of the Alliance of Diversity Printers LLC (ADP-LLC), a printing, warehousing and fulfillment firm with a national footprint.
Quinton is committed to helping women of color and young entrepreneurs grow their businesses, as well as encouraging more diverse participation in STEM. She currently sits on the board of directors for the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC), Dallas/Fort Worth Minority Supplier Diversity Council, Women Business Council – Southwest and volunteers with WINGS (YWCA) entrepreneurial program.
Her corporate experience was with Southwestern Bell Telephone where she held management positions in the data center, comptroller’s office and marketing. She has been recognized with numerous awards for her work and commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Quinton has a computer science degree from Kansas State University and holds an MBA from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville. She has attended executive programs at Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University and Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
| |  | Patti Winstanley CEO Winstanley Consultants
Patti Winstanley is a visionary leader and experienced business development professional with proven results in relationship building, business processes, certification, sales, profitability, and customer growth. She is passionate about coaching businesses to grow.
Called "The Connectanator" by those that know her. Patti helped businesses of all sizes build their sales channels, community partners navigate their procurement networks to increase opportunities for their constituency and match corporations with reliable vendors that meet their procurement needs and goals.
She is a staunch supporter of education having led the Austin ISD Reagan Early College High School Community Advisory Committee as Co-Chair for over 10 years, including the addition of the college credit program.Patti served as the Small Business Chair on the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce Executive Board, and Chair of the WBENC National Conference and Business Fair- Host Committee.
She has used her experience as a teacher for the U.S. Military Boots to Business program, has been on panels for the Go for the Greens Foundation, the SBA, WIPP, Small Business Development and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers, and the Texas Governor’s Commission for Women’s Small Business Forum. She mentors businesses in how to smoothly move on to the next generation or new owners and partners, write a capabilities statement, a 60-second elevator speech and other marketing strategies.
Patti Winstanley has a long history of working with diverse clients and knows what it takes to be successful. From 2005 to 2019, Patti was the President of Aztec Promotional Group and its subsidiaries Tee Time, USA, QTI Promotions and Apparel, and Graham Embroidery – all certified women-owned businesses.
With locations in Tucson, AZ, Austin, and Waco, TX and an additional sales office in Dallas, TX, Patti grew Aztec to 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space, specializing in screen printed and embroidered apparel including uniforms, promotional products, wide format print, chenille for banners, signs, buttons, auditorium logos and jackets, sublimation, employee incentives, fulfillment, and design.
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This event is open to everyone.
Registration is open until the event begins.
Company |
First Name |
Last Name |
A [ Back to top ] | Aflac | Buki | Dada | Aleph | Anna A | Block | Ambient Green | Novella | Landau | Arrow Lift Rentals | Sarah | Bolich | B [ Back to top ] | Bullseye Database Marketing | Dallas | Judd | Bullseye Database Marketing | Deborah Kobe | Norris | C [ Back to top ] | CAET Project Management | Elizabeth | Gauwain | CFJ Manufacturing | Sharon | Evans | F [ Back to top ] | First Equipment Company | Kaity | Moore | First Equipment Company Technical Services | Leslie | Garner | FUSE SOLUTIONS INC | Jennifer | Schaumburg | G [ Back to top ] | Guaranteed Express Inc | Jennifer | Blakeney | I [ Back to top ] | Improve Growth | Brisa | Renteria | K [ Back to top ] | Krasamo Inc. | Melissa | Amoros | M [ Back to top ] | Mariner Global LLC DBA Shades of Brown | Eloise | Mariner | O [ Back to top ] | OnPointe Alliance LLC | Arletha | Kent | P [ Back to top ] | Personalized Payroll Services | Kathleen | Hunt | Q [ Back to top ] | Q2 Marketing Group | Terri | Quinton | S [ Back to top ] | SUMMi7 | Shelli | Howlett | T [ Back to top ] | Tasty Clean | Jessica | Gore | TransSynergy Group | Donna | Hegdahl | V [ Back to top ] | Vistra Corp | Mary | Gano | W [ Back to top ] | Watch Me EXCEL | Lenetra | King | Wild Flower Insight | Tia | Nayar | Winstanley Consultants, LLC | Patti | Winstanley | Wisdom Counselors | Ja'net | Chappelle |
Sponsors
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