Event focuses on networking, empowerment and shopping
By Maggie Schoonmaker For the Camera
Posted: 04/29/2010 11:21:19 PM MDT
Tobi Hunt wants women to recognize their strengths -- including their purchasing power.
"I want women to band together and help other local women to market and spread the word about their businesses, so they can flourish and grow," she said. "That is what we are here for, to help each other; that's what women do."
That's why Hunt and Bella Weber have organized the Dynamite Divas Women's Spring Expo, a daylong shopping and networking event with a mission of empowering women.
Boulder County women are invited mingle and network at the Aloft Broomfield Hotel in Broomfield.
The event features six speakers, 75 women vendors, food, door prizes and a fashion show. Five dollars of each ticket purchase will benefit the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence.
Hunt and Weber say they aim to change the economy one woman at a time by empowering women to take charge of every aspect of their lives.
The 75 vendors include educators, designers of clothing, purses and jewelry, photographers, artists and more.
"By gathering powerful women together and providing support, we hope to generate a momentum that will not stop with this event. Women are awakening to their power. All we are doing is creating a dynamic gathering place," said Weber.
One of the six national speakers for the event is Sue Frederick, local author of "I See Your Dream Job."
"In my talk, I'll teach attendees how to tap into their flawless intuition and see their own great potential," said Frederick, who calls herself a "career intuitive." "I'll also give free intuitive career readings to members of the audience."
Image consultant and stylist Carol Steinbrecher, of Style Solutions, will present an hour-long fashion show with local models strutting the runway in clothing and jewelry from several local boutiques.
"The fashion show will not only present the new styles and colors of spring -- it is also intended to show women how to put together beautiful outfits that will increase self-confidence and self-esteem," said Steinbrecher.
Inspirational Women Transforming Our Community
Boulder BPW’s 2009 Celebration of Women Event
March 19, 2009 - 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM
A Spice of Life Event Center
“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” Marian Wright Edelman, American Activist
The 2009 Celebration of Women Event gives Boulder BPW the honor of recognizing the women who serve our community by supporting and inspiring others to promote BPW’s mission politically, professionally and personally. The honorees chosen by this year’s committee encapsulate the level of participation, equity and economic self-sufficiency for working women we hope to advocate for all women in the future. These women are the “super heroines” of our time!
Woman of the Year – Angelique Espinoza A long-time Boulder resident and CU alumna, mother, small business owner, community leader and volunteer, Angelique Espinoza is “walking the walk” through her intimate involvement in the political landscape to instigate change, accountability and responsibility in our city government. A former Boulder BPW Board Member for three years, Angelique has been a true advocate of women’s issues. She faithfully honored her commitment to produce the monthly newsletter, despite being in the middle of her own campaign. Her courageous leap into politics as a City of Boulder Council Member is an inspiration to all.
Member of the Year - Tobi Hunt Tobi Hunt inspires the members of Boulder BPW with her dedication to the organization as both the First Vice-President and Program Chair of Boulder BPW for the past two years! A constant BPW ambassador, her efforts have helped revitalize the membership base and make the most of fundraising opportunities. Currently a Relationship Manager at Key Bank, Tobi has over 20 years experience in banking and finance. To celebrate the “Purchasing Power of Women”, Tobi sells her adorable purse pins and accessories as the Owner of Purse Power, LLC. Incredibly, she still has time to host her own networking events: “Breakfast and Network” and “Lunch and Network”.
New Member of the Year - Joanne Peterson
Boulder BPW is fortunate to have someone of Joanne Peterson’s caliber on their Board of Directors. Joining in 2008, she is now both the E-Communications Officer and the Outreach Coordinator. In her short time with the chapter she has amazed the organization by building and managing the website, launching our new e-newsletter and updating the integral parts of our online presence. In synergy with BPW’s mission, she is starting an outreach program with SafeHouse to teach women in need self-sufficiency through learning new professional skills. As the founder and owner of New World Office, Joanne puts her 20 years of experience to work helping small business owners thrive in an efficient manner.
Business of the Year – Boulder Youth Body Alliance and Carmen Cool, Founder
Boulder Youth Body Alliance (BYBA) was founded in 2004 by Carmen Cool after meeting a group of passionate high school youth who wanted to do something about the issue of eating problems and body dissatisfaction in their school. These teens, many of whom had personally struggled with their own body image or eating disorder, felt helpless as they watched their peers skip lunch or do drugs before prom in order to drop a dress size. Since its inception, BYBA has trained 73 youth activists from multiple high schools, and, in turn, they have provided direct education to over 4,500 students, teachers and members of their communities. It is one of the very few organizations in the country that employs creative techniques and peer leadership development to reach youth with alternative messages about weight, health and concepts of beauty.
We’ll see you on March 19th to celebrate the accomplishments of these inspirational women who are transforming our lives.
Boulder Women's Magazine
April 2007
PROFILE - Tobi Hunt - The power of networking with the empowered!
By PAULA PANT
Tobi Hunt is talking about her startup business. The New York native is excited about her new venture selling jewelry she designed herself. But Hunt keeps getting sidetracked into conversation about her first love - her children.
Here's a photo of my daughter Jolie with Bill and Hilary Clinton, Hunt says, pointing to a montage tacked on her office wall. Here's one of Jolie with George Bush. Here's one with her boyfriend. And did you know my daughter attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner?
“I live vicariously through her sometimes,” Hunt says with a proud grin on her face. “I was a single mom and - her life is just so exciting!”
From her downtown office in a KeyBank branch, Hunt starts to tell the story of a woman who draws her energy from a large network of other empowered women.
It began unwittingly. Hunt simply needed a job after graduating from State University New York in Albany. She became an assistant buyer at Lane Bryant largely because, well, it was a job.
But within it, she found a way to help women.
“We designed clothing for women (size) 14, 16, 18 who couldn't find anything to wear,” Hunt says. “They deserve to have nice fashions too.”
She would return to fashion later in life, creating a company that sells pins in the shape of purses. But her early-20s fashion career in Manhattan was short-lived. After a year and a half, Hunt married an alum from her college and moved to a small town outside Albany.
She spent five years in sales for an office-furniture company before becoming a full-time mother.
After 17 years, Hunt's marriage came to an end. Though she had been estranged from the job market for 11 years, financial necessity forced the newly-divorced Hunt to re-enter the workforce.
“Honestly, I had no skills at that time,” Hunt says. “I started off answering phones and doing mail. I've come a long way.”
She made the best of her time in her new role at Key Services, quickly being promoted to administrative assistant and collaborating with her co-workers on projects that helped others, like disaster relief. She volunteered for a string of charity events, including the Walk for Diabetes.
A decade came and went; Hunt's children became young adults. Then in the 1990s Society bank bought her company and began laying off thousands of employees.
A scared Hunt said she didn't sit around amidst the looming threat of pink slips - she elected to leave the company on her own. At a job fair she was recruited by John Hancock Insurance and Financial Services, which paid for Hunt's training as an financial representative.
She earned four licenses - enabling her to sell life insurance, health policies, annuities and mutual funds - and then moved between companies, from John Hancock to Metlife to a small long-term care company, before coming back to KeyBank in 2003.
The woman who was once stung by divorce and financial need is now centering her career on helping other women learn to invest and spend wisely.
“I love empowering women to handle their finances,” Hunt says.
Many women - including, at one point in time, Hunt herself - don't have basic financial skills like the ability to balance a checkbook. Once women learn how to earn and spend prudently, Hunt says, they have control of their own lives.
Her company also emphasizes aiding women. KeyBank hosts a program called “Go Red with Key,” which supports the American Heart Association's “Go Red for Women” campaign. The movement aims to teach women about preventing heart disease and stroke, the number one and number three killers of U.S. women.
Having lived her entire life in New York, Hunt craved new scenery, which eventually inspired her transfer to KeyBank's office in Boulder.
New to town, her networking skills - especially around women - quickly made her a regular fixture on the business-social circuit.
“[When I moved here] I didn't know a soul and now people come to me because I'm the go-to girl,” Hunt says.
Hunt sits on the board of a national organization that lobbies for women's causes, Business and Professional Women; she participates in both Boulder and Longmont's Women's Business Network, attends a monthly business brainstorming session and last year served as keynote speaker for an event hosted by a local women's networking group.
She also began her own business.
One day as Hunt and her mother were shopping at a jewelry store, Hunt noticed a pin shaped like a purse. She bought one and gave it as a gift to a woman in her networking group. The woman loved it.
Hunt bought a few more and gave them away as presents. She again received an enthusiastic response.
She decided purse-pins were a great idea for a business venture.
“It's a fun thing to do,” Hunt says. “What woman doesn't like jewelry?”
Hunt wears a purse pin to work everyday. She says women consistently chime, “They are so cute!”
Hunt markets her product by emphasizing the “purse power” of women. According to statistics Hunt says are provided by a public relations executive at KeyBank, women are responsible for 83 percent of all consumer purchases, including 94 percent of home furnishings, 92 percent of vacations, 91 percent of new homes and even 51 percent of electronics.
The purse pins celebrate the power of women's buying decisions, Hunt says.
“I am woman,” she says. “Hear me shop!”
The AHA's “Go Red for Women” campaign also uses pins to symbolize its message. Women receive a free red dress-shaped pin when they enroll in the AHA's complimentary heart-healthy program, which shares food and exercise tips through a monthly e-newsletter.
Hunt says one of her greatest joys is networking with other empowered women.
“As Samantha from Sex and the City says, ‘we're fabulous!'” Hunt says.
Boulder Daily Camera
October 13th, 2006
Power to the Women
Boulder woman sells purse pins to emphasize financial muscle
Missy Johnson, For the Camera
The buying power of women is something Boulder entrepreneur Tobi Hunt doesn't want women to wear on their sleeve.
A suit coat or a blouse would be nice, though.
Hunt is selling purse pins through a business she calls Purse Power to celebrate the purchasing power of women and encourage them to educate themselves on financial topics.
"My message basically is that women are a force now," Hunt said. "They influence more than 85 percent of the buying power in the country. Women don't recognize their power because they aren't being mentored or educated enough."
According to a Business Week article published in 2005, employed women ages 24 to 54 have become a target market for many American companies. In the past year or so, for instance, large retailers such as Best Buy have pushed sales training programs for staffs to better pitch products to women.
Purse Power is Hunt's first business, but she is no stranger to money and finances. Hunt has been with Key Bank for 18 years. Two years ago, she left Albany, N.Y., to take a position as a relationship manager at Key Bank's Boulder branch. Hunt is involved with Key Bank's Key4Women, a program geared toward helping women jump-start their own businesses and gain control of their own finances.
"It's amazing to me how many women don't know how to balance a check book, or with debit cards don't keep track of what they spend," Hunt said. "I've had clients say, 'Oh, I don't know how to make a financial decision, my husband does everything.'
"Hunt's own grandmother didn't learn to write a check until her grandfather passed away. Hunt said she hopes the message behind the purse pins will lead to more education and awareness.
"The whole message is just the power of women and the power of the purse." she said.
Hunt orders her purse pins from a variety of jewelry distributors. Although purse pins can be difficult to find, Hunt said she's working hard to put together the best selection in the country.
Currently in her collection, Hunt has tiny jeweled purse pins in blue, pink and green, ones bearing American flags, black purses with pearls, leopard print purses with gold handles, and some accented with flowers. The pins sell for $15 each.
Hunt also is expanding her Purse Power collection to include lockets, pendants and picture frames, all in the shape of a purse. Her collection is only available online at www.pursepower.biz.
Hunt admits dealing with pricing issues, manufacturers and an online business has had its challenges.
Although her business is in the beginning stages, many women around the community can be found sporting the purse pendants. Hunt donated 300 pins to the Boulder Chamber of Commerce's "Women Who Light Up the Community," luncheon in September.
Marsha Livingston wears one every day.
Livingston is the owner of the Boulder business GlassMat and the director of the eWomenNetwork Boulder Chapter, a woman-based organization that promotes and supports women-owned businesses.
"We, as women have purse power," Livingston said. "There are women that don't acknowledge that. Awareness and education equals empowerment."
Livingston said women are drawn to Hunt's purse pins when she brings them to eWomenNetwork events.
"They love the way they look," she said. "I expect our soon-to-be first woman president to be wearing Tobi Hunt's purse pins."
Purse Power's purchasing power message in the bag!
Source: Boulder County Business Report
Author: Caron Schwartz Ellis
Last month as I sat down at my elegant place setting at the Omni for the Boulder Chamber's Women Who Light the Community luncheon, something sparkly caught my eye, and it wasn't the faux crystal water glass.
A tiny handbag pin perched on the napkin glittered up at me. Next to it was a note that read, "Women influence more than 85 percent of the buying decisions in this country.
Let's create a movement to acknowledge and declare our Purse Power by wearing our purse pins."
The message hit me like the elbow of an over-enthusiastic bargain hunter at Filene's Basement.
I'm regarded as a semiprofessional shopper - my specialty is haggling - by my friends and family. Just ask my girlfriends who won't venture out in search of furniture, appliances or apparel without my being there for moral support, or my long-suffering spouse who puts up with it.
I probably influence more than 85 percent of the buying decisions of a half-dozen Boulder households.
So Purse Power is my kind of message.
The brains behind the movement is Tobi Hunt, whose day job is relationship manager, particularly with female customers, at Key Bank in Boulder.
The message of the pins, Hunt says, is best articulated in Pallavi Gogoi's article, "I Am Woman, Hear Me Shop," published in BusinessWeek last year.
According to Gogoi, the rising purchasing power and decision-making authority of working women 24-54 years old - some 55 million in the U.S. - is changing the way companies design, make and market products.
Gogoi says, for example, that Home Depot is actively pursuing women with classes that teach them how to do home repairs; Best Buy is retraining its sales staff to talk to women - who do more research than men when making purchases - in practical terms, not techno-speak; and Barbara Kavovit, CEO of Barbara K Enterprises, sells a line of tools ergonomically designed to suit a woman's smaller hand.
"That's the whole message behind my pins," Hunt says. "To declare our power. A call to action to celebrate our purchasing power. Some of these groups have wristbands - I want women to wear their pins with pride."
Hunt is marketing her business right now by giving away or selling at low cost her selection of dozens of purse designs to women's organizations and nonprofits.
She donated 300 pins - one at every place setting - to Women Who Light the Community.
She is giving the Boulder Business and Professional Women's educational foundation profits from pin sales at the organization's Oct. 18 meeting.
She's donating pins to Project Self-Sufficiency's Boulder County Heroes event.
She donated two purse pins to the eWomenNetwork Foundation.
She'll also distribute them at the Boulder YWCA's Mother/Daughter Tea. "A lot of the young girls love my pins, too," Hunt says.
Hunt got the idea, appropriately, while shopping with her mother in Florida. "We went into this jewelry store, and I saw these purse pins and thought they would be great for my clients."
She wore one to an eWomenNetwork event, "and everybody asked, 'where did you get that?'" she says. "I gave out one to everyone at the table."
The questions about the purse on her lapel gained momentum until "Finally I said, 'I need to do something with this. I need to show women they have the purchasing power."
Hunt officially launched Purse Power in April. Her wholesaler finds them - and there are hundreds of colors and styles - mostly from manufacturers in China.
Hunt hopes to make money with her purchase-power message by getting her purse pins in front of every women's group in the country. "At any annual event, wouldn't this be a great gift on every table?"
Visit www.pursepower.biz for more information about Purse Power.
Contact Caron Schwartz Ellis at 303-440-4950 or csellis@bcbr.com.
