Krystal Covington, an integrated marketing professional, has built one of the largest women’s networking groups, Women Of Denver, in Denver, Colorado, and has launched a local magazine with over 30,000 readers. With over 2,000 members in her community group, Covington has learned how to embrace being an extrovert.
Krystal Covington presenting at a Women of Denver Party
Ryan Kane (Hashtagitude)In 2013, Covington moved to Denver after finding her dream job at a Fortune 500 company where she worked in the internal communications department. Not knowing anyone when she moved, she had a difficult time finding like-minded people to connect with. By nature, Covington is quiet, an introvert, however, her drive to meet other inspirational women leaders motivated Covington to be innovative and outgoing. She started a blog where she interviewed women about leadership. With the support from her husband, she turned her blog into an event. “At my first event, five people showed up,” she reminisced. “Then I started hosting the event once a month. My whole goal for the event was so women could have meaningful conversations. Every conversation was really deep and transformational. It evolved from there. The essential reason I did it was to develop friendships.”
As her events expanded, Covington envisioned other ways she could make a positive impact. In addition to her events, she launched a magazine that tied to her mission of Women Of Denver. “The magazine was always intended to be a unique voice for the city and women. I wanted something local. I wanted to connect with my community and do something that supported my own creativity. We highlight the journey of women and the different types of women who are here in our community that we need to meet, celebrate and can learn from.”
Covington strategically developed her business plan. Although she was still working while getting Women Of Denver up and running, there was an end in sight at her fulltime position. “I knew if the organization was really going to grow,” Covington expresses, “I had to be the one to grow it.” She left her job and began consulting. This enabled her to make her own schedule and devote the appropriate amount of attention needed to scale her organization.
Just as people transition and pivot, so do companies and organizations. “I didn’t really expect this to be a business,” Covington confesses. “So because of that, it had to go through so many transitions as I grew and learned how to even run a business.” The first main pivot came when the group went from a free membership organization model to a subscription-based model. “There were the people who saw value in the idea,” she volunteers, “and then the people who didn't. I had to recruit and focus on the people who did see the value in what I was organizing.” Covington took a year to execute on her promises to the group; to see what her members wanted, what worked and what didn’t work.
Earlier in her career, she worked in a role that required her to constantly be on the phone. As an introvert, that required her to use all of her energy. Her boss gave her the book How To Win Friends and Influence People to read. “It started my journey about worrying about charisma and influence. You can create these behaviors that can make you more engaging to other people. For a moment you can be so impactful that it doesn’t drain your energy as much.” Since then she has thoroughly studied the art of influencing to help her with her events and community group.
“The takeaways from my career,” she explains, “have been just knowing that when you have this broad business understanding, you can almost do anything. The career that I've had has given me the ability to go and communicate with and be able to sit down with anyone, in any role, in the company and have a basic understanding of what they do.”
As Covington continues to make a huge impact on a local level, she focuses on three main points to help the organization pivot and grow:
- Figure out what you want. Sometimes we think we want one thing but if we dig a little deeper we find what we’re really searching for.
- Make sure you know what you want to get out of it. Whether it is the money or a certain type of experience, having tangible goals helps keep you focused.
- Determine where your support system is and make sure they’re there for you. Transitioning can be emotional; outside support can help keep you motivated.
Krystal Covington (left), Founder of Women of Denver, leading panel at Women of Denver Party
Ryan Kane (Hashtagitude)“Business isn’t about passion,” Covington concedes. “Business is about money. In the end, the thing that ends up being the most important factor in all of this is making sure that I have a sustainable revenue model that can keep us going. You can make an amazing impact in the world and then you go broke. You can’t continue to make an impact if you don’t prioritize your finances.” Covington continues to grow her membership, connect women and inspire a new generation of women leaders.
