Web Business Woman

Everyone is excited. Everyone on Facebook and Twitter, anyway. All the social media marketing gurus (or experts, or mavens or whatever they choose to call themselves) are “excited.”

They’re excited about some webinar they’ve got scheduled – and they think YOU should be excited, too!

They’re excited about a webinar they just attended by another social media expert/guru who is well-known throughout the blogosphere. Which may or may not be “true.” It’s hard to tell if their excitement is manufactured or real. 

They’re excited about the day, just because … a PMA (positive mental attitude) is better than being in the doldrums.

Well, I’m not excited. I’m not energized. I’m not overflowing with enthusiasm. But, I’m not in the doldrums, either.

I’m just…being. Today I’m just being whatever I feel like being. I’m thankful for the day, and that it’s Saturday, and that we’re pretty well done with fixing up the house. I’m delighted that I can now turn my attention to reading and relaxing a bit, and getting back up to snuff on Twitter. And, to working on the “new” Lip-sticking.

But, when it comes to “excitement” – I’m saving my excitement for reality. In my reality, excitement isn’t part of attending a webinar. Or, discovering someone I lost track of found me on Facebook.

Excitement is saved for true, heart-pounding, eye-brightening, blood-moving events.  Like meeting your favorite twitterer, or being accepted to graduate school, or watching your daughter give birth. Or, announcing your new website and having people twitter it for you. I could get excited about this event, if I were in Suffolk. But, I’m not.

Now, those are things to get excited about. Maybe being excited for excitement’s sake is what turns you on, but I prefer to save my excitement for truly exciteful events.

This blog post is not one of them.

By Guest Blogger, Mary Schmidt, Marketing Troubleshooter

I just finished Nora Ephron’s book of essays, I Feel Bad About My Neck.  As you might expect, she’s LOL funny, with some poignant points about aging.  The title refers to the state of her 60+-year-old neck.  Seems she and her friends wear a lot of turtlenecks these days.   I don’t feel bad about my neck (yet) – but I have changed over the years, mostly (I believe) for the better.  My bank account could be a bit larger and my hips a bit smaller, but overall, every decade has been better than before. That goes for both life and business. 

Ms. Ephron writes about the reality of getting older and what it does for the perspective.  We can natter all day (and 51-year-old Madonna can lift weights until she looks like Mae West on steroids), but the truth is…50 isn’t the new 30; and 60 isn’t very likely “middle-aged.”  I was discussing all this with a consultant friend who’s a very young 71.  She pointed out that our “quality versus quantity of life” perspective should apply to business as well.  (And we women have a big advantage, if we choose to take it.)

We’re in a very interesting “growing up” period in American business – and growing up is always painful.  Previously, we believed that all growth was good and the bigger the better.  Entrepreneurs weren’t taken seriously if they didn’t want to become the next IBM, Microsoft, or GM.  Marketing consultants pitched (still do) programs to “KILL YOUR COMPETITION” or “RUN THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.” Yawn. That’s so 20th century.

Things have changed and I believe for the better.  Certainly we need to pay our bills, but – and this is oh-so-trite but true – it’s only money.  As Jane (my friend) said, those pieces of green paper only have as much value as what I can get in exchange for them. 

And, some of the most valuable things can’t be bought and if they can, it’s not the traditional buying transaction.  I figured out that I’m actually “paying” about $100K a year for the privilege of not flying all over the U.S. all the time, being a “big-time” consultant. (Morning coffee zen time – priceless.)

People are frequently pitching programs to me to grow, make millions, expand, etc…short answer: I don’t wanna.  I’ve got a business model that works for me (most of the time) and, as a sole proprietor, I’ve got a lot of flexibility about what I do and when.  The other piece of it is that – as a woman – I wasn’t indoctrinated from the womb with the ” winner take all, at any costs, BIG DOG!” mentality. 

Of course, this is always why we women (are still) dissed.  We’re perceived as too “soft” and “not serious” in business. (Fellas?  Some of those “home-based” Mommy businesses pay the mortgage and put the kids through college.) All those women who left corporate America?  Many didn’t do so because they couldn’t hack it.  They did it because the games were so silly and wasted valuable time.

In today’s flattened global economy, the traditional “win at all costs” way is a sure recipe for failure. We can’t simply run over the opposition – we’re too integrated/interwoven/connected/interdependent (Example:  U.S. and China.  Neither of our economies – all political ya-yahhing aside – could now survive without the other.)

I don’t feel badly that I’m not a grand poobah of marketing – I’m simply not wired that way.  Certainly, I like to do well; I’m competitive; and I can play the boys’ games (and beat ‘em) when needed; but I don’t lose any sleep over what others think of me and my business.  

So, before you dive back into your 80-hour-week, expand into another facility, or get on yet another plane to fly God knows where…ask yourself, am I doing it because it’s good for business (and me)?…or am I doing it because of I want to be seen as a BIG DOG?

Reading Recommendation: Seth Godin’s Small Is The New Big

P.S. Just don’t look at your neck…or backside. And, put lower-wattage light bulbs in around the house.  Works for me.

As the economy recovers, more and more tweets and blog posts and Facebook notes are focused on the concept of leadership. It may be mentioned outright or it may be referred to in other terms, but the world is interested in how this thing we call leadership works.

How does it work? What is it? Who is the best person to define it?

As children, we look to our Moms and Dads for leadership. It’s in our nature as human beings, however, to defy our parents (even as small children we push the limits as much as possible), leading, when we become adults, to either open defiance against the leaders in our world, or passive defiance – joining groups and communities to present a collective presence.

Within that process, leaders emerge who do good, or bad, who struggle to achieve something useful, and fail. The leaders who create the right followers: passionate, strong, outspoken, determined, inspired, talented men and women, are the leaders we hear the most about. These are the leaders we, as the community of man (and woman), look to when we want answers to those age-old questions: For instance: What is the meaning of life? Why do bad things happen to good people? Who would do such a thing (in instances of outrageous crime)? Who is smarter: men or women? (and does it matter?)

As you were reading this post, when the word ‘leader’ or ‘leadership’ showed up, what images appeared in your brain? There is no doubt you thought of specific people – you remembered or recalled or allowed yourself to accept, the image of one or more people who represent leadership to you.

Here’s my question: How many of them were women?

Here is today’s message: Do not believe the writers who say women still have a long way to go. In truth, we arrived long ago. Just ask one Mary Kay skincare consultant.

Do not believe the blog posts, or news broadcasts, or specials that say women are still hitting a glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is a male produced idea – to intimidate women. It never existed. Do not allow anyone to deceive you into thinking women have not held leadership positions throughout time. Because we have. Even the Bible says so.

As Forbes and Fortune, two established and respected business magazines like to tout the Top 50 Women in Business every year, I like to tout the top women in life – the women who lead all of us by their presence, their persistence, their caring, their nurturing, their intelligence, their giving natures, their determination in world politics and in saving Mother Earth, their risk-taking abilities, their challenging of the status quo, and their willingness to stand up and be counted, right or wrong, behind the scenes or in front. These are the women who lead us – who deserve our applause. I will follow these women anywhere.

To my female readers: You are one of those women. I applaud you.

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna’s Promo Talk

For those readers that follow this blog regularly you may recall that I wrote this post earlier this year about the success that I had in joining Weight Watchers. I’ve always struggled with my weight and thanks to Weight Watchers, along with a great website called Hungry Girl, they have taught me how to eat well and healthy. I reached my “healthy weight” goal and am now a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. All I need to do is weigh in with them at least once a month and maintain my weight. I’m coming up on almost my first year anniversary of when I started the program and though their help and a good exercise routine I’m in the best shape than I’ve been in probably since before I had children.

But anyhow, today I wanted to share with you a great program that Weight Watchers has recently kicked off for the second year in a row. The Lose For Good campaign was created to raise awareness about two global epidemics – obesity and hunger. Between August 30th and October 17th, as Weight Watchers members and online subscribers lose weight, the company will donate up to $1 million to two organizations – Share Our Strength and Action Against Hunger.

Last year the campaign impacted more than 250,000 children and families domestically and actually represented the difference between life and death for more than 6,000 malnourished children abroad.  Over 4 million pounds were lost and $1 million was donated. Also local food drives at Weight Watchers meeting locations collected 1.5 million pounds of food to distribute to families in need.

This year Jenny McCarthy, a passionate activist and actress, has joined the campaign as its ambassador. Jenny is participating in media appearances and is in a public service announcement which encourages Americans to get healthier while also helping to end hunger. In addition, Jenny helped kick off Lose For Good by participating in a ceremony where the company donated a “Good Food Garden” to the Arroyo Head Start center in Altadena, CA, run by the Center for Community and Family Services, Inc. The Arroyo Head Start center serves underprivileged children in the community and until now did not have funding to build a sustainable garden for the kids to use for educational and nutritional purposes. 

“I grew up in a home where $5 could make a difference between having a family dinner or not. This is a real issue that needs attention and I’m proud to help spread the word about the Lose For Good campaign, which encourages people to get healthy while, at the same time giving back,” said Jenny in a statement, who lost weight with Weight Watchers after the birth of her son.

Yesterday, September 15, Weight Watchers had a one-day event called Lose-A-Polozza in which they utilized social media as a tool to help this cause.  Here’s how it worked…for every accepted mention or acknowledgment of “Lose For Good” made on September 15 via blogs, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, Weight Watchers offered to make an additional donation – up to $25,000 – for just one day of social media activity. This donation is on top of the $1 million Weight Watchers is hoping to donate as part of the 2009 Lose For Good campaign!

I’m so sorry that I missed this event and that I’m writing about it a day too late. So if you’re thinking that it may be time to get healthier and lose some weight, join Weight Watchers now. There’s not a better time to lose. As of the time of this posting the Lose For Good website shows that members have lost 1,430,000 poun.

When I decided to go out on my own – about seven years ago, now – I didn’t think about leadership or employees or payroll. I only thought about starting a business that I was responsible for, primarily because the ‘companies’ I had worked for since my divorce had all been… less than what I wanted out of life. Yeah, let’s say that.

I come by the entrepreneurial label honestly. My mother was the same way. She got tired of working for other people, also. Back in the day, way before women were accepted as business professionals or business owners, my Mom got a bank loan and opened a small grocery store about 2 blocks from our house. I did not realize how big a deal that was until many, many years later. Not only was it unheard of for a woman to want to run her own business, it was incredible that a bank was willing to give my Mom a loan! Wow! That little grocery store supported a family of 5 for many years before it was sold.

I must have absorbed some of her spirit for being independent and not accepting the status quo, because I jumped, headlong into starting my own business – with nary a thought of failure. Oh sure, I thought about bills and how I was going to pay them (morgage, lights, heat, phone, food…just the little things), but I didn’t think, “This could fail and I could be in big financial trouble!”

There I was – with my DBA, attending networking events, picking up enough clients and enough work to cover my bills, when…I met Tom, wrote a book, used POD to publish it – and (with Tom’s support and encouragement) decided to create a real business, complete with employees!

And therein lies the tale – to do it: create and establish a business that could employ other people, and serve clients better than the competition; or not to do it: stay where I was, scrambling for clients as a solopreneur, covering my bills and not much more, but not responsible for anyone else – just me.

My book drove me to create the business. My Tom encouraged me and worked with me side-by-side, to do it right. My background (much of my inspiration and ability comes from my Mom) gave me the courage.

And so, Windsor Media Enterprises was born. Dickless Marketing, the book, begat WME the company, and I became a POD publisher. With employees. What a difference a day makes.

Stay tuned as I continue this tale – a tale of success, a tale of woe, a tale of confusion, a tale of learning, and a tale of discovery. Because life is not the same now. WME still exists – but we have no employees. How that all happened will be revealed over time.

Come back next week for Part II.