Courageously Connecting Businesses with Kat Williams

We’re continuing our series about networking with a conversation with my good friend Kat Williams. She’s the owner of a local to the Springfield MO area business networking group called Courageous Business Connect.

I met Kat many years ago at the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. She’s so bubbly and pours out positivity everywhere she goes. People seem to gravitate to Kat. To me, she seems to be the most well-connected person around Springfield.

I admire Kat in many ways. She is a naturally curious individual, non-judgmental, and brings out the best in everyone.

Kat and I originally met in a local referral networking group. She was heavily involved in the group, helping grow it to thousands of members and dozens of chapters in the Southwest Missouri & Northwest Arkansas regions.

Over time, an idea began to percolate of a different kind of group. A group that would offer more than standing up for a quick elevator pitch & reporting numbers of referrals passed.

There was nothing wrong with the referral networking group she helped grow because that formula works. But over time, the desire to make her dream networking group a reality could not be ignored.

She knew that being on the leadership team and leaving the largest networking group in the area could burn some bridges. I know that Kat struggled with that. She didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. She didn’t want to lose friendships.

She didn’t want to be seen as competition. Her view is always working collaboratively. She understood that not everyone thinks as openly as she does. To begin making her dream a reality, she had to take the leap and risk shaking up the status quo of her current position in the community.

I’m proud of Kat because she found the courage to take the leap and start Courageous Business Connect offering small business owners something different in her community. She brings seasoned entrepreneurs as well as start-ups together to share knowledge for collaborative business growth.

She believes in the beauty and importance of the small business to our economy and likes to keep the money local. She always says that she has 3 rules if you want to play in her playground: