August 6, 2020 • 7 mins
Yes, there are fresh opportunities for success right now, despite the challenges of Covid-19. Elizabeth Vazquez, CEO and co-founder of WeConnect International, has advice for making the most of your connections, your own enthusiasm—and even your mistakes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day, we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day, we just
need to look for and share it. Here's something Good
(00:27):
for Today. Some people are natural connectors. They excel at
learning the talents of people they know and then finding
opportunities to introduce those people to others who can use
their skills. Connectors bring people together and get pleasure from
seeing great things happen as a result. Elizabeth Basquez is
(00:48):
a connector, but on a global level, and she connects
not people, but companies. The organization she co founded, We
Connect International, brings together women owned businesses and may your
corporations that can sell and source their products. We Connect
work with some of the world's largest companies, from Microsoft
to MasterCard, from PNG to General Mills, and helps them
(01:11):
bring women lead businesses into the supply chain. But we
Connect goal goes beyond setting up relationships. The mission is
to economically empower women, who will in turn lift up
their families, communities, and countries. Now it takes a bold
vision and a lot of work to create something like this,
But Elizabeth will tell you that when the passion comes first,
(01:32):
obstacles fall by the wayside. She got her early inspiration
from her mother, who, looking to leave a difficult marriage,
scraped together money from what she calls Mexico's first yard
sale to bring her daughters from Mexico to the US.
The optimism and can do attitude that Elizabeth inherited from
her mother remains strong today that in her experience working
(01:53):
with women entrepreneurs around the world have provided her with
lessons on pivoting, focusing, and finding new opportunit tunities and
even the most challenging times. I sat down with Elizabeth
this week for an episode of Are Made by Women podcast.
Listen here for a short excerpt of some of the
amazing insights Elizabeth shared. What are the things that you
(02:14):
feel that you've either skills you've built um or or
skills that you feel women entrepreneurs or any entrepreneurship should
really have You mentioned, for example, knocking on doors and
getting comfortable with no um Why is that so important?
You have to be really passionate about what you're doing,
You have to really there has to be a good reason,
a motivating factor or whatever that is a love of
(02:37):
what the solution you're trying to provide to the world,
or it could be the love of you know, needing
to pay your bills. Whatever it is UM that motivates you,
you have to really accept that, embrace it, and use
it not in a negative way, but channel it in
a very positive way. And I like, you know, coming
(02:57):
back to COVID nineteen, I think they're so many women
entrepreneurs around the world that we get to work with
who have done massive pivots within their businesses to be
able to survive and thrive and such a challenging environment,
UM to start delivering things that they, you know, didn't
have a lot of experience with, but now they're sort
(03:19):
of the go to UM a company in their area
for things like UM you know, masks or hand sanitizers,
or mental health support or training or UM media crisis
management or you know, there's a long list of things
that that women are doing UM to to meet the needs,
(03:40):
anticipate and meet the needs of their local communities, but
also have an offering that brings in revenue so they
can keep their people employed. So in this moment, um,
how do you or in moments in your past, how
do you overcome those very difficult times? Because, as you said,
there are times when it's it's really lunging and the
struggle is pretty real. What do you tell yourself to
(04:03):
get through those times? So the first thing I do
is what I did just now. I take a deep
breath literally literally in every way, you slow down to
be able to speed up, and you just take a
deep breath, and you become comfortable with what is very uncomfortable.
(04:24):
You become comfortable with the unknowns and embrace them as
opportunities that. Look, I don't know what's going on, but
a lot of other people don't know what's going on either,
So I have an opportunity to try to anticipate the
needs of those around me and come up with some solutions.
And in doing that, people are willing to pay for value.
(04:49):
If you can give them something that is helpful to them,
people are willing to pay for that. Even in an
environment where there's no money available or very li minted money,
the barter system still works and people are able to
trade and to support each other, and then there's a
whole lot that can be done just with being kind
(05:10):
to each other, and and and being comfortable with being
a role model and saying I don't have all the answers,
but here's what I'm trying, and to share that with others,
that's such a gift. And what you're doing by telling
people's stories is such a gift because then I don't
have to make those mistakes, and I don't have to
(05:32):
dream those visions that others have provided. I can learn
from all of that and then take those little bits
and pieces as little bits of gold dust and try
to apply it to my work into my life. And
so I think all of those things really matter in
a time when everyone is looking for support. So many
(05:53):
of us we feel so isolated at times, UM, But
the truth is there's more going on now than ever.
We're leveraging technology to connect with each other in ways
we've never been able to connect UM. And you know,
relative to human history, it's pretty amazing. So those are
some of the things that I try to um look
at look at things as an opportunity. As bad as
(06:15):
it is, talking to Elizabeth provides a great dose of optimism,
and seeing the world through her eyes gives us a
blueprint for creating a brighter and better tomorrow. So here's
something good for today. Elizabeth Vaska has shows us that
there are opportunities even in this time of crisis, and
she goes one step further. She tells us how to
access those opportunities. The first step take a deep breath
(06:38):
and get comfortable with the notion that things are going
to be uncomfortable for a while. Look for all the
wisdom you can pick up from other people's experiences. They
may not be big lessons, they may be lots of
small insights, but look for these glittering bits of advice.
Elizabeth calls them gold dust. They can add up to
something valuable. And remember, one of the best remedies for
this very difficult time is to be kind and try
(07:00):
to support others. Join me on this week's episode of
Made by Women for a conversation with Elizabeth Basquez, President,
CEO and co founder of we Connect International, and join
me on Made by Women every Thursday on I Heart Radio.
(07:24):
Thank you for listening, and please share today's something good
with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co
author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app Store. Here's Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I heart Radio Have
(07:44):
a Great Day. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
check out the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day, we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day, we just
need to look for and share it. Here's something Good
(00:27):
for Today. Some people are natural connectors. They excel at
learning the talents of people they know and then finding
opportunities to introduce those people to others who can use
their skills. Connectors bring people together and get pleasure from
seeing great things happen as a result. Elizabeth Basquez is
(00:48):
a connector, but on a global level, and she connects
not people, but companies. The organization she co founded, We
Connect International, brings together women owned businesses and may your
corporations that can sell and source their products. We Connect
work with some of the world's largest companies, from Microsoft
to MasterCard, from PNG to General Mills, and helps them
(01:11):
bring women lead businesses into the supply chain. But we
Connect goal goes beyond setting up relationships. The mission is
to economically empower women, who will in turn lift up
their families, communities, and countries. Now it takes a bold
vision and a lot of work to create something like this,
But Elizabeth will tell you that when the passion comes first,
(01:32):
obstacles fall by the wayside. She got her early inspiration
from her mother, who, looking to leave a difficult marriage,
scraped together money from what she calls Mexico's first yard
sale to bring her daughters from Mexico to the US.
The optimism and can do attitude that Elizabeth inherited from
her mother remains strong today that in her experience working
(01:53):
with women entrepreneurs around the world have provided her with
lessons on pivoting, focusing, and finding new opportunit tunities and
even the most challenging times. I sat down with Elizabeth
this week for an episode of Are Made by Women podcast.
Listen here for a short excerpt of some of the
amazing insights Elizabeth shared. What are the things that you
(02:14):
feel that you've either skills you've built um or or
skills that you feel women entrepreneurs or any entrepreneurship should
really have You mentioned, for example, knocking on doors and
getting comfortable with no um Why is that so important?
You have to be really passionate about what you're doing,
You have to really there has to be a good reason,
a motivating factor or whatever that is a love of
(02:37):
what the solution you're trying to provide to the world,
or it could be the love of you know, needing
to pay your bills. Whatever it is UM that motivates you,
you have to really accept that, embrace it, and use
it not in a negative way, but channel it in
a very positive way. And I like, you know, coming
(02:57):
back to COVID nineteen, I think they're so many women
entrepreneurs around the world that we get to work with
who have done massive pivots within their businesses to be
able to survive and thrive and such a challenging environment,
UM to start delivering things that they, you know, didn't
have a lot of experience with, but now they're sort
(03:19):
of the go to UM a company in their area
for things like UM you know, masks or hand sanitizers,
or mental health support or training or UM media crisis
management or you know, there's a long list of things
that that women are doing UM to to meet the needs,
(03:40):
anticipate and meet the needs of their local communities, but
also have an offering that brings in revenue so they
can keep their people employed. So in this moment, um,
how do you or in moments in your past, how
do you overcome those very difficult times? Because, as you said,
there are times when it's it's really lunging and the
struggle is pretty real. What do you tell yourself to
(04:03):
get through those times? So the first thing I do
is what I did just now. I take a deep
breath literally literally in every way, you slow down to
be able to speed up, and you just take a
deep breath, and you become comfortable with what is very uncomfortable.
(04:24):
You become comfortable with the unknowns and embrace them as
opportunities that. Look, I don't know what's going on, but
a lot of other people don't know what's going on either,
So I have an opportunity to try to anticipate the
needs of those around me and come up with some solutions.
And in doing that, people are willing to pay for value.
(04:49):
If you can give them something that is helpful to them,
people are willing to pay for that. Even in an
environment where there's no money available or very li minted money,
the barter system still works and people are able to
trade and to support each other, and then there's a
whole lot that can be done just with being kind
(05:10):
to each other, and and and being comfortable with being
a role model and saying I don't have all the answers,
but here's what I'm trying, and to share that with others,
that's such a gift. And what you're doing by telling
people's stories is such a gift because then I don't
have to make those mistakes, and I don't have to
(05:32):
dream those visions that others have provided. I can learn
from all of that and then take those little bits
and pieces as little bits of gold dust and try
to apply it to my work into my life. And
so I think all of those things really matter in
a time when everyone is looking for support. So many
(05:53):
of us we feel so isolated at times, UM, But
the truth is there's more going on now than ever.
We're leveraging technology to connect with each other in ways
we've never been able to connect UM. And you know,
relative to human history, it's pretty amazing. So those are
some of the things that I try to um look
at look at things as an opportunity. As bad as
(06:15):
it is, talking to Elizabeth provides a great dose of optimism,
and seeing the world through her eyes gives us a
blueprint for creating a brighter and better tomorrow. So here's
something good for today. Elizabeth Vaska has shows us that
there are opportunities even in this time of crisis, and
she goes one step further. She tells us how to
access those opportunities. The first step take a deep breath
(06:38):
and get comfortable with the notion that things are going
to be uncomfortable for a while. Look for all the
wisdom you can pick up from other people's experiences. They
may not be big lessons, they may be lots of
small insights, but look for these glittering bits of advice.
Elizabeth calls them gold dust. They can add up to
something valuable. And remember, one of the best remedies for
this very difficult time is to be kind and try
(07:00):
to support others. Join me on this week's episode of
Made by Women for a conversation with Elizabeth Basquez, President,
CEO and co founder of we Connect International, and join
me on Made by Women every Thursday on I Heart Radio.
(07:24):
Thank you for listening, and please share today's something good
with others in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co
author of Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women.
To learn more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women
dot com or download the Seneca Women app free in
the app Store. Here's Something Good is a production of
the Seneca Women podcast network and I heart Radio Have
(07:44):
a Great Day. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
check out the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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