by Tinhorn Consulting | Entrepreneurship
Like any entrepreneur, I’ve had to learn by trial and error. Business owners, especially upstarts, are constantly exploring, throwing out a wide net to attract clients.
When I started my business, I was in earnest pursuit of new clients. Uncertain yet determined. Hungry.
When an acquaintance approached me about a possible website development contract, of course I leapt at the opportunity. Back then I didn’t vet potential clients as I do now. I didn’t have a long client roster but I had a mission for my business – – to work with Tribal communities and to positively change perceptions of Native people across a variety of platforms.
At first glance, the proposal to develop a website was exactly in my wheelhouse and I was eager to begin. I didn’t ask enough questions before the meeting with this potential client; therefore, when the prospect was laid out for me, I was astounded. The proposal was to develop a website featuring young Native American women wearing scant clothing in various provocative poses on hot rod cars.
As a Native woman myself, I was immediately unsettled. As a new business owner, I was conflicted. This was ‘just business,’ after all. Still I had to ask myself whether I could set aside my own personal values in the name of business. Could I be bought?
I thought about what I wanted Tinhorn Consulting to represent. Did I want my company’s name to associated with this type of project? The answer was quickly clear. This was not in harmony with my company’s mission. No payment was worth it if I could not be proud of the end product.
Why am I blogging about this now? As a Native woman business owner for several years, I am often invited to speak to Native American students and young entrepreneurs. I participate in Tribal business summits and meetings locally and nationally. I like to share my story of how I got started as a business owner and the lessons I’ve learned along the way.
Above all, I promote positivity for Indian Country, especially for Native women. Yet, business can be trying at times. Entrepreneurs can often face situations that may fall into a grey area. As I learned myself, it’s important to vet any potential client and ask detailed questions.
What helped me back then, and still guides me, was my mission statement. My business may have evolved over the years but my mission is unchanged.
For those working in Indian Country, we know it can be small place. Reputation and values are important. Nothing is truly ‘just business’ for me when it comes to Indian Country. I want my work to be meaningful, respectful and to celebrate Native culture. Above all, I want my daughter and community to be proud to see Tinhorn Consulting’s logo.
by Tinhorn Consulting | Entrepreneurship
On this Mother’s Day, I am reflecting on values — those I learned from my mother, what I hope to impart to my own daughter and how I apply what I’ve learned to my business.
First, I honor the teachings of my mother, Barbara Tinhorn. She raised me as a single mother for most of my life and has been a constant source of strength. Growing up, she would tell me to always give 110 percent, no matter what I was doing. She taught what she knew from her own life, often working in job situations as the only woman in a world of men. From the fast food industry to a forestry crew to a long career as an elementary teacher on the Hualapai rez, she walked her talk.
My mother would say, “be your work” as your work ethic would define how others would view you. I also learned from my mother to stand up for your beliefs. As a school teacher, she always looked out for her students, whom she considered to be her family and cared for them as such. She would tell the students, as she would tell me, to use our voice to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.
She was honest and frank with me about the difficulties of starting a business and the time it would take to become profitable. Fortunately, given my inherited resilience, she now tells me the seeds are blossoming.
As I was growing up, my mother could be strong-willed but she was also sensitive, wearing her heart on her sleeve. I often call my own daughter my little “cub,” an affectionate term that always reminds me how fiercely my own mother cared for her family and students.
I am grateful for my mother and thankful for the blessings of motherhood. When I first started my business more than 7 years ago, I was single and singular-minded. Now, with a 6 year old daughter, my worldview has changed dramatically, like Dorothy transitioning from black and white Kansas to vibrant technicolor Oz. As a mother, I am now the protector and the teacher.
More than anything, I’ve learned that I don’t have a free pass anymore. I can’t wallow because I have to always be present for my daughter. She is a mirror and what I do reflects through her. I want my daughter to be joyous and strong, imbued with the teachings I learned from my own mother. Every day I tell Zoey to be courageous and always do what makes her heart sing.
I’ve come to learn that my clients respond to the same approach. When I’m facilitating or training a session, I open up my heart and energy to my clients. I always say a prayer to help me help them.
Today I honor the teachings of my mother and pray to always be a positive force for my own daughter. Honor your mother today and honor yourself for everything you do to support your families every day.
Happy Mother’s Day!
by Tinhorn Consulting | Women Warriors
Just this past Sunday (01.21.18), I purposefully participated in the Honoring Indigenous Women Leading The Women’s March to the Polls in downtown Phoenix. I took my five-year old daughter, Zoey because I wanted her to see all of the strong women standing up for gender equality. I explained to Zoey that women are still not treated the same as men and that the women at the march are speaking up to promote change.
Even as I teach my daughter to believe in herself and draw strength from her Hualapai, Navajo, Hopi, and Chinese heritage, I recognize the struggles we as women still face and those our mothers, grandmothers and generations before them faced in their lives.
Today Zoey has a choice to become whatever she wants to be. Even I have been able to reinvent myself from a computer scientist to a woman business owner. These choices were not available to my mother and grandmother. They had to work in the few accepted fields for women, had less educational opportunities and married young since that was the societal expectation.
As much as I hope that with all the struggles our ancestors faced, and women today, that society is moving closer to equality, that we could live in a world where we are treated as people, I recognize the obstacles still ahead of us. I’m reminded of my aunt Eileen, who comforted me during a moment of fear. She assured me of the strength I had within, that I came from a long line of warrior women. “It’s in your blood, in your veins,” she would tell me.
I give my daughter this same assurance which is why I wanted her to be among the Indigenous women gathered for the march. I wanted her to see the warrior women who are not only speaking up for gender and racial equality, but injustice, voicing the hard truths about missing and murdered indigenous women. #mmiw
I was proud to hear the women at the march share their stories, in their own voices, reinforcing to me the reason I am focusing my business on communications services to tribal communities. We, as indigenous people, need to be heard.
A few days ago I saw Zoey looking at herself in a mirror, telling herself that she is pretty, she’s strong and she can run fast. She possesses a confidence I never had at her age. It’s a constant struggle for many women. It is my fervent hope that my daughter will continue to feel this empowered, strong and beautiful every day.
by Tinhorn Consulting | Women Warriors
++EILEEN ALLISON (DINE) ++
According to the National Science Foundation, women were awarded 3.1% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering, 6.5% of bachelor’s degrees in physical sciences, 5.4% of bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and statistics, and 9.7% of bachelor’s degrees in biological sciences in 2012. So when Eileen Allison (Diné) graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Construction Management from Arizona State University (ASU) in 1998, it was a HUGE accomplishment because those percentages for women were even lower then – especially among women identifying as American Indian.
“My passion for math and science led me to study Construction Management,” Eileen said, when asked what inspired her to pursue her studies in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) field.
“I can count the number of Native females on my hand in the construction management field,” she continued. “Like in any STEM field, the female representation is a small number. Females have much to offer; they offer a different perspective in the STEM fields. I know females are talented and can perform just as well or even better than their male counterparts. We need to close that gap and encourage our Native females to pursue a STEM career. It makes me happy to see Native females study STEM fields and succeed in their professional careers.”
Eileen is a mother of 4 children, and is not only very involved in the lives and education of her kids, but also in her community. Eileen has served on her local parent teacher association and basketball booster club. Currently, she is an active member of the ASU Native American Alumni Chapter and enjoys teaching primary school at her church.
Eileen credits planning and preparedness as important practices for success, and often encourages her own children to enrich their learning by taking Honors classes in school and volunteering within their community. “As a mother, I want to see my kids succeed and fulfill their educational goals,” Eileen shares. “As a mother, I can assist with building a firm foundation and it is up to my children to build up from that foundation.”
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