It started with a gut feeling back in 2015. Tammy O’Shea, chief marketing officer at Fidelity Bank, knew Southeast Louisiana was home to a growing number of women-led businesses and she sensed those women needed a forum to connect and talk shop. She said one of her first calls was to Elizabeth Broekman, a former colleague whom O’Shea described as having “more energy than anyone I’ve ever met in my life.”
Together, O’Shea and Broekman built the Fidelity Bank P.O.W.E.R. (Potential of Women Entrepreneurs Realized) program in 2017. Since that time, P.O.W.E.R. has grown from 150 to 700 members in the New Orleans area. The program hosts networking and educational workshops for entrepreneurial women in the New Orleans area and produces digital content, including a podcast, to highlight members.
O’Shea said women in business face the same challenges as men in business but tend to go about finding solutions in a little bit of a different way.
“One of the things women really enjoy is being collaborative,” she said. “They’re more likely to share with each other the problems they’re encountering with business.”
Fidelity’s P.O.W.E.R. program was inspired by a model developed by a bank in Richmond, Virginia. Fidelity owns the trademark for the program in Southeast Louisiana.
Members must have an account with Fidelity, and the program comes with custom financial products, including small loans and a checking account with an exclusive purple-colored debit card.
The program also includes P.O.W.E.R. Join-Up meetings, which bring together small groups of members multiple times a year to talk about business obstacles and goals. The groups celebrate victories and swap advice for tackling common challenges — from raising capital to raising children.
“It’s really magic,” Broekman said. “The light bulbs go on and women are like, ‘This is how I can help you.’”
This summer, P.O.W.E.R. partnered with the Louisiana Hospitality Foundation to help drive business to local women-owned bars and restaurants. The program has also launched a blog that will feature insight from local women in business. Broekman said she wants to add a youth advisory board in 2020 to gather insight from young women in the community.
O’Shea and Broekman expect up to 800 attendees at the second-annual P.O.W.E.R. Up Conference, which will take place at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans in March 2020.
O’Shea said the program’s success is rooted in a dual purpose: Do good and creatively serve a historically underserved market.
“It’s just smart business,” she said.