Purse Power with Donna Miller

This month, I am enjoying highlighting so many women who have made a difference! My guest for today is Donna Miller, the founder of Purse Power. Donna has made a difference in my life, and also in the lives of many other women!

Donna is a former Human Resources Executive who spent thirty years in Corporate America. A few years ago, she and her sisters came to the blinding realization that women make 80% of all the purchasing decisions. They understood that it meant that if women collectively choose to buy only from the companies that actively promote women, and they could create a funding stream for battered women’s shelters in the process, they could shatter glass ceilings and change women’s lives in a matter of quarters rather than decades.

That was how the idea for Purse Power was born.

Since then, they have started doing presentations about what they have been trying to create, and they have built a national platform of more than 750,000 women-owned and women-led businesses. And they have also created a Google Chrome extension with Carnegie Mellon, to find those businesses when you’re shopping online, and some phone apps to show you where the women-owned businesses are when you are physically near them.

I invited Donna to join me today to talk to us about Purse Power, to share what she’s been doing during the pandemic, and to discuss how women can come together to drive change very rapidly.

Point of sale

Purse Power is trying to give people who want to support women-owned businesses information at the point of sale to help them know who they want to be buying from.

Women align with greener choices

Women tend to align themselves with greener choices because of the health and wellness aspect, and those choices help women to feel empowered.

Driving change in the green and sustainability industry

In the green and sustainability industry, there is currently a lot of thought process that’s going in the direction of women driving change.

One out of four women

Donna points out that one out of every four women in America gets impacted by domestic violence, and they need help.

People are willing to help

If you would like to accomplish something, you need to let the people around you know what you are doing and what you need. You will be amazed at how connected people are and how much they will help.

The power of connection

Donna’s approach to building a network and building connections is to go at it from being helpful to the people you are trying to reach, and also to the people you want to partner with. Understanding who she is trying to get in touch with, and what they want and need, worked very well for Donna. And then she would find a way to bring them all together to share best practices and insights and build a sense of community.

Donna’s magic

Donna’s magic for making a difference in this world lies in figuring what your life is all about, planning backward from there, and being bold.

Insight

The thing that gave Donna insight into what she wanted to do was to use Stephen Covey’s idea of beginning with the end in mind.

Making a difference

She discovered that she wanted to make a difference for women, and she has been doing that ever since then.

Let’s Share the Journey

When the coronavirus pandemic started, Donna realized that many of the entrepreneurs in her network would be struggling. To understand the issues they were facing, to offer them support, and to share some resources, she created a webcast called Let’s Share the Journey, where some of the leading thinkers in the nation share their journeys and their ups and downs, and answer questions.

A hub

Donna has acted as a hub for connecting people, and that has worked very effectively in her journey.

Networking and reconnecting

Zoom has been a good platform for people to reconnect with their old connections in a new way.

Staying in contact

It is important to keep in contact with the people in your network consistently and build a relationship and rapport with them over time because you don’t want to connect with them only when you need something.

A great way to connect

Offering to help and asking people what they need is a great way to connect with them and to add value to your business.

Purse Power

There are currently 758,000 companies registered in Purse Power’s directory. You can use Purse Power to list your business, if you are a woman, and to find women-owned and women-led companies.

Links and resources:

Purse Power