Cara Doyle, Summit Lawn & Landscape, Fort Collins, shares the value she derived from being part of the recent CEO Exchange: Women’s Leadership Roundtable.

The part I took away most was knowing that I wasn't alone in this industry.

It was great when we sat down at lunch and were able to talk one-on-one about working with your family and having a family. It is good to know that there are other women out there who work with their husbands/fathers etc., each day and do so successfully.

It was also really nice to bounce ideas off of others to see what is working for them and what isn't. I am not sure who said it, but the comment about how there is enough work to go around and we shouldn't be competitors, but should work with each other versus against each other was a good one. I hope to catch up with some of the other ladies I met over lunch while down at Pro Green in January.

The day after this event, I had dinner with a good friend of mine and told her about the roundtable. She encouraged me to try one of her bucket exercises to see where my time and energy is going as a business owner. It showed me that I am taking on too much and that there were some specific duties that could go to someone else in my office.

That would give me time to focus more on the things I really want to do like marketing, blog writing, updating our website more often and just making our business run better overall. Possibly even looking into some fun niche ideas that we have been throwing around up in our barn that we would love to implement!

It also allowed me to finally answer my husband's ubiquitous "what do you do all day?" question.

Thank you for offering programs like the roundtable and bringing in quality key speakers to help us to make our businesses better. I am glad they aren't all about which irrigation head is better or 50 things to do with a wheelbarrow and shovel on the jobsite!

Read more from this issue of Colorado Green NOW:
Colorado ranks high in energy efficiency
It all comes down to condos
Are customers different post-recession?
What you told us about 2014 buying trends