Kat Simmons knows very well the value of hard work in her more than two decades in comedy.
However, she recently discovered that networking also is valuable - and it can make dreams come true.
On Aug. 8 the Carson Valley resident won a major talent competition, the eWomenNetwork's Got Talent, a part of the association's International Conference in Dallas.
With judges including an entertainment attorney, an actress and a successful entrepreneur/inventor, the contest wasn't meant simply to provide an evening of fun for the more than 2,000 attendees; it was designed to help launch the careers of the contestants.
Simmons said since she received the highest scores possible from all three judges, "I've become a crazy woman - there's been a lot of e-mails, a lot of offers, a lot of people who want to help me to the next level."
In addition to a cash prize, she has a booking in Canada, an invitation to travel to Southern California to meet people in the industry and other offers pending.
"I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train - it's a spotlight" she said.
"We have many different success stories about networking and the connections women have made, but this is a unique one," said Kymberlee Simantel, executive managing director of the Reno/Sparks/Tahoe chapter of eWomenNetwork, one of 113 chapters nationwide.
Simantel said the local group, numbering more than 300 members, is extremely proud of Simmons as well as Schall Adams, a blues and jazz singer and local member who also performed as one of just 10 finalists in the eWomenNetwork's Got Talent competition.
Simmons had only four minutes to perform, but "It felt like the truest moment of my life to have all those women get me and to know that I got them," she said.
"It felt like I was standing underneath a jet plane, like I was being held up by all the women and everything I've ever worked for. The level of energy that comes when you capture people, when you're in the moment with them - it felt like what I was meant to do," she added.
While raising two children in Carson Valley, Simmons has done standup at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star and has performed on the Comedy Channel and Fox's Comedy Tonight, but she sees the eWomenNetwork competition win as allowing her to take her perspective as a woman and single mother to a larger stage.
Simmons is fearless about finding humor in aging, the beauty industry and pantyhose.
"Women spend a fair amount of time trying to hide from the truth - of aging, not seeing who they are," she said. "I love to pull the covers off all that stuff. It's OK to have wrinkles. I'd like to be that voice for women."
A longtime Northern Nevadan, Simmons attended Billinghurst Middle School and Wooster High and is a UNR graduate. She moved to Los Angeles to begin her standup career in 1987 before relocating to Gardnerville to raise her children.
"I've been a believer in 'If you can see it, you can achieve it,' but when you're a single mother, sometimes you just want two shoes to match," she said.
Simmons often performs for convention groups and produces an annual comedy revue at the Carson Valley Inn. "I realize it took 22 years to get here, and as long as I'm alive, I'll be doing comedy," she said.
For more information about Simmons, visit www.katsimmons.com.
To find out more about eWomenNetwork and local networking events, visit www.ewomennetwork.com or call 853-2120.