When they first announced the Rising Tides, the Northbay chapter opening in our county, I was ecstatic, Victor was a bit indifferent (he didn’t know the amazingness that was going to happen ;)). I had only heard of the Rising Tides movement a year ago to be exact in the Walkthrough Workshop with Justin and Mary Marantz. It’s a community, a type of supportive forum, made up by thousands and thousands of creatives. The mission? A rising tide lifts all boats. Every second Tuesday or so of each month, a group of creative entrepreneurs (anywhere from florists, makeup and hair artists, photographers, video, event design, interior design, bloggers, etc.) come together to learn a mutually benefitting lesson and to share experiences.  Aside from the wealth of knowledge that is exchange you connect with people that you might’ve never known working in your industry in your location.

Our first meeting was the best kick-off event to our series of Tuesdays Together. There I met Katie from Katie Rebecca Events, who since has become a great leader to our community, an inspirational designer to aspire and now we get to call a friend. We discovered new spaces in the Bay Area that our now on our venues wishlist and have collaborated with talented new friends. Plus the amounts of topics we cover are such great resources that have changed facets of our business in ways that are challenging but pivotal. We knew throughout the years we have been photographing, creating and sometimes teaching, something was missing. These are the ways that being part of a community helps us, teaches us, and inspires us.

1. Creating relationships. Forget networking and the swift transaction of exchanging business cards. We’ve connected with incredibly talented artists and entrepreneurs. Over the last 6 months, we’ve been able to collaborate on shoots and connect heart to heart with people in our county! A part of me is still in disbelief that these amazing friendors of ours are in our area. The Facebook group has also been a great support online group. There we met our editor Joy Danielle and our amazing brand designer, Ravyn from Three Fifteen Design Studio.

2. Getting to know new places. Our meetings have been taking places in different places that we’ve never thought of stepping foot in. I’ve taken some inspiration from each place, whether it’s been a retail place or a club. Although I’ve grown up in Marin County for most of my life, there are still many new places coming about. Our friend Armin (DJ Armin) and Katie have been getting really diverse areas for us to hold our small gatherings. Also, we’ve heard and started to read about the different venue’s spaces that are just a short drive away from our small town of San Rafael.

3. The Invaluable Content. Each lesson is tailored to general queries that entrepreneurs may be facing and encourages solutions and new ideas. I recall our financial chat with Brittany from Simply Creative to have turned the tables for me. It was eye-opening and called to perspective many things we had concerns about in growing our business. She challenged us to think about the numbers in a non-confrontational way which is exactly what we needed!

From each token of knowledge and connection, we have implemented and changed parts that are beneficial to our growth. We took note of the strides to take in order to accomplish some of our business goals that we’ve had for years. There are times where we walked away from the meeting knowing that our business and personal struggles were shared with other creatives. There were other times we walked away knowing we weren’t too far off the track and that we’ve implemented good strategies. We have collaborated on shoots with other creative entrepreneurs, had professional styling done for our video shoot, we’ve acquired a great studio meeting space and have gotten to know about amazing businesses also striving in our hub of Marin. If you are a creative in Marin, feel free to visit or add to our Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/559602224243489/ Read more about Rising Tides here.

This has been just shy of 6 months experience and we can’t wait to also be of a service to our community of Tiders. We’re eager to share and learn but most of all, to be a resource as well. We figure it’s the best way to payback at least an ounce of all that we’ve gotten!