ImpartnerCON22

I coined the hashtag as it's near and dear to my heart for leaders to support their often small but mighty channel teams (even within multinational organizations). Feel free to follow, share, and show your commitment as well. (Learn more.)

On May 20, TDZ hosted a special online event for channel peeps (although open to all) to practice a brief meditation in a safe environment together. Email meditation@tracydiziere.com if you would like to be on the invitation list for next year. This event is part of our passion for reducing the stress for our ecosystem and we are happy to give back in this way. 

Is that you are able—from me or from someone else, at some point in your life and ideally without a diagnosis—to hear the messages that it’s ok to receive help; you don’t have to be perfect; you have a right to design your life and success as you see fit; life’s too short to be inauthentic, prideful, or ashamed; and this whole thing is just practice so treat yourself with spaciousness and gentleness as you forget, remember, fall down, pick yourself up—and to extend that to others as they do too. 

From The Channel Company’s survey results, strategic vision is the #1 attribute women leaders in tech say it takes to move up. The trouble is, when women in management or individual contributor roles are doing things that don’t make sense, are doing the jobs of multiple people, do not have resources to delegate to, have internal/emotional barriers to delegating, or do not have the spaciousness in their schedules and enough creative energy to spark strategic thinking, they are not able to define their vision and develop and enact a plan to execute it. I want to see our clients be successful and promoted (and less stressed), so our agency seeks to amp up their strategic thinking by (1) taking non-essentials off their plates and helping them achieve more with content services, (2) creating space and actionable plans with our Strategy Day offer, (3) collaborating to plan for their professional success with a Creative Partnering™ Engagement.  In 2021, 72% of our clients were recognized as WOTC leaders by The Channel Company.

Some of the most successful people I know have a network of people and resources to support them—at their fingertips. They’ve cultivated relationships and amassed knowledge about who can do what—best.  Since knowing who can help you in advance of a fire drill or thorny problem is key, I invite you to be proactive and schedule a “capabilities call” with us. It’s a 30-minute overview of the kind of support we provide to channel leaders so that if you encounter particular challenges, you’ll know just where to turn. To learn about who we are and our approach, visit the About page.

Too often before cancer, I spent a lot of time judging myself, comparing myself, trying to be perfect and fix all my imperfections, not appreciating my strengths and unique gifts, and the list goes on. One of the lessons of my diagnosis and recovery was to practice giving myself the space to be myself and to own my quirks, permission to make mistakes, and to treat myself more like a best friend than an enemy. Do I still fall down on this? Yes. That’s why the word “practice” is key. See also “On Being a Poster Child” below.

This is such a huge topic and I can only scratch the surface. Also, I’m still learning. In short, I think it’s important to explore cancer’s root causes (e.g., environmental factors), issues with pinkwashing and the business of cancer, and the social injustices with respect to prevention. The invitation is to expand awareness beyond what you’ve been told to be aware of. 

One of my core messages is that even as I advocate for certain things, I’m not always a perfect example or the most knowledgeable person there is AND I don’t believe that anyone has to wait until they know everything there is to know or strive to be perfect before opening their mouths. We have to tell our stories even as we’re figuring out what our stories are. The strength of my beliefs and ability to act on them ebbs and flows. I have to course-correct sometimes. And that’s OK. I hope you will give yourself spaciousness and gentleness (see above) if/when you do the same.

TDZ is planning to facilitate invitation-only roundtable discussions with 8 women of the channel leaders on a topic meaningful to invitees and aligned with our core values. We are looking to schedule it around #B2BMX in February (ideally) or virtually. We are currently floating our first "test topic" which is "Preventing burnout and providing support in the face of The Great Resignation."

I am especially interested in leaders and companies who want to recognize men as allies for women. For more info, check out this CRN article.