About 90 minutes per week, based on the science of friendship and relationships. Research shows it takes approximately 90 hours to form deep connections with other people. We took that research, along with design strategies for skipping the small talk, to create a program that helps you make life-long connections you can leave the program with. 

We ask people to commit to making at least 75% of the calls. We know that life gets busy, that people get sick, travel, have massive work loads — so your attendance may wane occasionally. But please commit to being there at least 3 times a month for the best results.

No, you do not need to be a parent. You should, however, have a desire to think about what it means to raise our future generations, how to think about inter-generational connections, and what community means to you. This is a space for women to be around other women who are thinking about these issues and navigating these choices alongside you. Do know that we have quite a lot of people who are parents in our program because of Sarah’s work in Startup Parent and Founders With Kids, which you’ll get to know if you apply to join us.

Entrepreneurship is not a requirement for participation, although we find many of our members are 10+ years into their careers and are either intra-preneurial, entrepreneurial, or in senior management positions.

We have female founders who have been entrepreneurs for years, and we also have badass leaders in all sorts of industries who recognize how important it is to be surrounded by other women who are passionate about making great work in the world.

Our entrepreneurs come in many shapes: small business owners, side project makers, authors and creatives, freelancers, venture-backed startups, angel investors and people looking for board members, and senior-level managers and VPs looking to start a new project or venture in the coming years.

In the words of one of our past members, “I know there’s a big move coming for me this year, but I don’t know what it is yet. I want to be able to be around other women while I make these big career moves.”

If that sounds like you, then you’re our kind of people.

This is a space that has become a vibrant, intimate community. In the early days, we started with small groups of six, then expanded to 18 people. A couple years ago we grew to 28 people, and last year we had 36 participants. Every time we grow, we add coaches, create breakout cohorts, and facilitate small groups to retain the intimacy necessary for deep conversation.

We are aiming for 30-40 women in our upcoming cycle, but we’ll welcome as many as we can confidently provide support for.

With intention, care, kindness, strategy, and nourishment. One of the reasons The Wise Women’s Council creates space for such deep conversations is because we spend time creating clear ground rules so we know what to expect and how to be open and honest with each other. The goal is to create expectations and offer structure, so that the time we spend together is supportive and fills you up, instead of becoming just another meeting to dread.

For more about group guidelines and what makes our calls so special, check out this blog post.

For many of us, Voxer is a lifeline. To be more specific, it’s a walkie-talkie style app that allows you to send/receive voice memos and text or picture messages. Pretty simple, right?

We use Voxer for small group conversations between our live calls, so that you can feel connected even if your schedule doesn’t align perfectly with our meetings. It creates the opportunity for real-time conversation, or a place to catch up when we’re ships passing in the (jam-packed) days and (sometimes sleepless) nights.

The app is free to use, and participation in Voxer circles is optional. If you use the pro version, which saves your message history, it’s $29 per year.

We are interested in forming a community where people don’t feel alone, or like the “only one” of their identity or situation. Whether it’s single motherhood, divorce, adoption, disability, race, gender fluidity, we strive to create a community that is supportive of all walks of motherhood.

If you identify as any of these things — if you are an intra-preneur, or feel entrepreneurial and creative — come join us! We’d love to see you apply.

There are many women who ask for financial assistance from their companies or employers, because many have professional development, education, coaching, and ongoing learning reimbursement opportunities.

I encourage you to ask at your workplace, and tell them you’re looking at a yearlong leadership coaching program or leadership training program. (If you run your own company, this is an education & training expense that you can file with your accountant.)

Great companies are invested in supporting their women leaders and often don’t know how to support women going through the shifts in pregnancy, parenting, and life changes that come at the same time as great leaps in business. Keep in mind that they want to help, and it often needs to fit within the umbrella of what they understand and have done before—although we’re big champions of starting new initiatives, too!

Reach out to us at hello@wisewomenscouncil.com if you’d like support with this conversation.

Getting time on your calendar is HARD. I like to keep it simple: tell other people that you are taking a course, and missing a class creates a lot of chaos. People understand what “class” is, and it keeps it simple and clear.

Be proactive with your team and clue them in to your schedule. “This year, I’m enrolled in a women’s leadership training course, and we meet three times a month at 1PM-3PM eastern.  Classes are every other week. I’ll be blocking off my calendar accordingly. I could use your help in keeping those dates/times clear. Do you see any conflicts with this schedule, or anything I can switch around to make this work?”

If you already have a regular meeting at that time, reach out and ask your peers, “Can we switch the monthly all-hands an hour earlier, or can I show up partway through?”

For partnership and spousal dynamics, this is a great opportunity to start a conversation and to set up a clear boundary. The calls happen at nap time on the east coast, and we’ve tried to make a time that most US-based people can come to because it’s very close to lunch or late morning for most folks.

In our family, my husband and I now have a calendar system where we tag our calendar events as @social @meeting @important for the level of interruption we’d prefer to have. The @important tags are ones where the other person is on “interruption duty” when the kids are home, even if we both have meetings at the same time. (In one case during the pandemic, my husband had switched his therapy session to the same time I was teaching, and that week in the pandemic, he took interruption duty with his therapist, because a pandemic is not normal times.)

You don’t need to adopt this exact system, but you can use it as inspiration to start your own conversations about what is important to you and what you’d like support with. This is, after all, a space for leadership — and leadership also means being true to yourself, your needs, and communicating clearly what you need to the other people in your life, and, finding a system or a solution that works as well as it can for everyone.

We have a few work-study options that are offered to alumni who want to return for a second or third year, but for whom financial cost is a concern. These spaces are available to alumni first, and if there are extra spaces available, which is rare, we will reach out to those who have applied to let them know we have a spot available.

This is a group program and community first, so all of the connection and conversation will focus first on our all-group calls. Do your best to make those live, because they are magical and foundational. That’s where I will be, and where you can find me.

We have some extraordinary coaches on staff who can give you space, energy, and time to figure out your next moves. The group coaching program is one of the best all-around coaching packages out there, and an extraordinary value.

That said, I don’t go small with what I do and am committed to knowing each participant. I read every word of every application, and keep a chart on the wall by my desk of every single member. I cherish the connections we make and getting to be a part of your life.

If you want to work 1:1 together, check out the executive coaching options or the small group coaching program.