“If you want it, create it.” Those words and an entrepreneurial spirit are what led Meko Lawson to create the Professional Women of Color Network (PWOCN) in 2002. The network was not Lawson’s initial idea. She wanted to start a business conducting empowerment seminars for young women. “There was this vast marketplace and I did not know where to go and how to reach potential clients.” So she invested in herself and the PWOCN was born. Funny thing, it grew to overtake her original business. “I was complaining and then I realized the Network is my business. I was doing events every month empowering and educating women.” So she switched gears. But family matters caused her to leave Seattle for North Carolina and PWOCN foundered. Lawson returned just before the pandemic and in time for the Network to retool and go completely virtual.
The PWCN is steadily growing in 2022, and Meko Lawson is a Tabor 100 member and partner. She conducts an in-person ‘Women of Color Co-Working Day’ on the first Wednesday of each month from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. The drop-in events are free, themed, and usually include a speaker or presentation. “Now that the weather is nicer we’ll do a walk in the afternoon. I also encourage walking meetings. They get us out of our chairs and outdoors.”
Meko Lawson believes we are not only wearing literal masks to prevent Covid, we are wearing virtual masks to adapt in a White world. “Now we may adapt differently based on our ethnicity, but we all have stories to share and starting this network, I realized we are more powerful than we think. I am always listening and we struggle with many of the same things. We can build something together. That’s the vision of the Network.”
Lawson wants the PWOCN to expand nationwide, “so that if I’m sitting here in Snohomish County as the Executive Director of XYZ business and there’s a sea of White around me and I want to talk to a peer, a peer who looks like me, I can contact someone in the Network.”
Meko Lawson says she knows she has missed some opportunities by not being certified by the State. I’ve wanted to be an MWBE and DBE for decades. “I was overwhelmed by the paperwork. Then I went to an OMWBE workshop put on by Tabor 100. I was actually able to complete my MWBE and DBE application. All that was left was notarizing the documents.” That same day, she attended a Zoom meeting sponsored by Tabor on how to do business with the City of Seattle. Lawson is now a consultant listed in the City’s registry. “These are beyond huge for me. Since I became more active with my Tabor membership, it is amazing how much it is paying off.”
Membership dues for PWOCN are $199 per year, but stay tuned for a special rate for Tabor 100 members.
Contact Meko Lawson and PWOCN: 206-659-6356 | [email protected]
