The Wild WE is one year old! As we enter our second wild year, we celebrate with an interview with, founder Ja-Nae Duane. Discover how Ja-Nae and her childhood friend and co-founder, Kate Powers, turned an inspiration into a growing national organization dedicated to supporting women business owners. We even managed to dig up this rare photo of Ja-Nae and Kate (circa 1995), when they were wild teenage entrepreneurs!

I was running events for another networking group. I realized that men and women network differently. I wanted to provide a resource for women to all work together as a unit. I noticed that in most of the networking groups I was involved in, women were simply not networking effectively. I also felt strongly about finding ways to give back and help the women's movement. We've come a long way, but it's by no means over yet! In 2001, I created an organization called the National Artistic Effort, a volunteer organization which unites artists in order to facilitate positive change within our communities. After nine years in academia and lots of experience leading school-related functions and promoting myself in my music career, starting an organization dedicated to women entrepreneurs was a natural for me.

First, I talked about the idea with Kate Powers, treasurer and co-founder of The Wild WE who has been my friend since childhood. Before I knew it, we had attracted a few other friends who loved the idea and we were meeting regularly around the kitchen table to shape the fledgling organization. Kate has a well-cultivated instinct for coaching small business owners after starting her own business that later failed. She was grateful for that experience and eager to use her knowledge to help other women. Kate "got" my vision and was in it for the long haul.

I wanted a name that was inviting to the common woman, the small business owner just starting out without a lot of resources. So many of the names of the existing women's organizations out there seemed either boring or intimidating. I wanted something fun, creative, and inviting. The word "entrepreneur" has a creative connotation and I knew entrepreneur should be part of the name. "Wild" came into the mix after lots of brainstorming. When we came up with the word wild, we knew we had a winning name. "Wild" gives female entrepreneurs permission to be a little goofy, to take chances in a safe place. It gives us permission to make mistakes and be individuals. Individuality sells and as creative entrepreneurs, we are all wild in different ways.

1. Wild WE Boot Camp - Wild WE Boot Camp is an intensive training program that teaches critical skills for business and life success. The Wild WE Boot Camp is a combination of live teleseminars and recorded presentations, which can last over several weeks or one hour long session. The teleseminars are led by an expert instructor and include a question and answer session. There is also a discussion board where you can interact with your campmates. Wild WE boot camps feature business gurus who are ready to help you and your business succeed. Each training session provides concrete and proven advice and addresses how to adopt the best, most cost-effective solutions to directly and positively impact your business.


2. Wild WE Member of the Month - Later this summer, we plan to add a new feature to the Wild WE monthly newsletter. In this column we will highlight a gold or platinum member who has shown great resourcefulness, creativity, and wisdom in her growth as a Wild WE.


3. Wild WE Database - The Wild WE database will only be available to gold and platinum members. If you've ever networked on Ryze, you'll understand the concept. Members will log in with a user name and password. Each member will be able to provide basic information via a member profile. Once you're in the database, you will be able to search for information about other members (you can search on categories such as interests, geographic location, type of business).

These are just a few of the ways The Wild WE is making networking easy, fun, and WILD for you in its second year.