Female business leaders in Fort Worth took on the stigma that women don’t work together.
“‘Females don’t work with females.’ That’s not true,” said Sarina Lora Davidson, the director of special events for the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “We live in a community where people want to support everything. If one business is not willing to support another, then it’s really hard to see that community reciprocate that love.”
Mia Moss, the owner of Black Coffee, walks to the stage at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Katherine Morris, the owner of Cherry Coffee, sits with other female entrepreneurs at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Female entrepreneurs give speeches at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. From left to right: Anette Landeros, CEO of Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Katrina Rischer-Carpenter, owner of Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering, Mia Moss, owner of Black Coffee, Christine Lerma Elbitar. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Female entrepreneurs talk to guests Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Black Coffee and Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering catered the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Emcee Brooke Goggans of Mosaic Strategy Partners introduces panelists at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Wild Craft Coffee owner Carrie Collins walks to the stage at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Katherine Morris, the owner of Cherry Coffee, walks to the stage at the 2022 Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast on Sept. 1 at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, 1316 Pennsylvania Ave. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
The Hispanic chamber organized the 2022 “Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast” on Sept. 1.
Mia Moss, owner of Black Coffee; Katrina Rischer-Carpenter, owner of Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering; and Christina Lerma Elbitar, the owner of Chadra Mezza and Grill, took the stage at the 2022 “Women in Leadership: Female Collaborators Breakfast” on Sept. 1 and talked about their journeys in collaboration with each other.
“I’m an introvert so I’ve been blessed to have some extroverts in my life,” Moss said. “They kind of reached out and grabbed me.”
Cherry Coffee owner Katherine Morris, Moss and Wild Craft Coffee owner Carrie Collins created the ‘C. A. T. (Coffee and Tea) Crawl,’ a collaborative coffee and tea shop experience that has exclusive drinks and promotes femme businesses. The crawl collaboration served as an example of successful collaboration between women.
“It’s important that even with being an introvert to kind of, like, reach out and grab somebody’s hand to help them and to get out of my shell so that they can come out of theirs,” Moss said.
The panel intentionally benefited all women, said Anette Landeros, the CEO and president of the chamber. The event, hosted at The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, was catered by Black Coffee and Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering.
Panelists:
Margie Aguilar, ISP Creative
Veronica Torres Hazley, ISP Creative
Carrie Collins, Wild Craft Coffee
Adrienne Rosales Martinez, One to Know Magazine
Katherine Morris, Cherry Coffee Shop
Brooke Goggans, Mosaic Strategy Partners (Emcee)
Lerma Elbitar shared that, as a female business owner, her doors are always open to people who may help.
“Sometimes you feel alone in your business, and you don’t always think people are going through what you’re going through,” Elbitar said. “But we are here, and it’s great to have friends that we can just talk to share with and collaborate with.”
Elbitar promotes breaking down the stigma.
“Females can work together, even if you are in the same industry or you are in the same lane. You’re going to have different ideas and you’re going to have different things that are going to come to light,” Lora Davidson said.
Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering is another example of the success of female collaboration.
“My business started because of collaborating with other women. And since then, I’ve been collaborating with women from the very start and never stopped,” Rischer-Carpenter, the owner of Carpenter’s Cafe and Catering, said. “I just want to say this is important for us as we want to stick together.”
Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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