“The first time I met Christi…

was at the Professional Networking Connections’ Business After Hours where Christi was our guest speaker. I was basically star-struck when I met her because I knew of her company from many years back when I worked for The Greenville News. I hoped to get a chance to introduce myself but thought that there wouldn’t be time at the event. I got the courage to go up to Christi and introduce myself and we talked for over 20 minutes. Instant friends! About a week later, we met for coffee, then made a lunch date, then took a walk together on our lunch break.

 The more we talked, the more our mission became clearer…to help others and to love each other. We knew that God put us together for a reason and we both can honestly say that there was nothing we could do about it – it was meant to be that we put into place a way to inspire, mentor, disciple, and build confidence in others. We both had stories to tell … some happy, some sad, some outrageous…basically, things that have shaped our lives and love for others.

We figured that if we could create a  small gathering of friends to help us along the way, then we could really make an impact on the lives of others. We invited around 20 friends to our first luncheon and, to our surprise, 48 came. We talked about the possibility of getting one hundred people to attend the next event – 130 people came. At the third event, we sold out at a capacity of 130 guests. Then BMW got more involved…they gave WCB their annual luncheon the week of the BMW International Supplier Diversity Conference. We had over 350 guests at the event. With tremendous help and support from our friends and sponsors, we were very proud to provide scholarships to 11 young women in the Upstate. Our Galleria tables were filled with Women-Owned Small Businesses and Non-profit groups.

We believe that one of our greatest assets are our experiences, good and bad, and how we have overcome obstacles and even thrived as a result. We want to share those stories and we want our guest speakers to share their stories. WCB is about the journey. Christi and I are so very blessed that the community has come together to support WCB.”