The Blog
February 22, 2012
Step Up: What it Means to Be a Professional Woman
Do you identify with the word ‘professional’? If you work in a large corporation, a small family company, or are an entrepreneur, the likelihood is that you would say ‘yes.’
But what if you left your big corporate job to have a family and are now staying home with the kids?
As the CEO of Step Up Women’s Network, it is my personal and professional mission to connect you to the professional women you need and the underserved teen girls who need you.
I talk to many women who stumble over the word ‘professional’ and wonder if it still applies to them. Most are hung up on the fact that they no longer work outside the home.
They talk to me about the big career they used to have and speak of their current role as ‘stay-at-home Mom’ almost apologetically.
As a proud professional, I have trouble understanding this. Why would you all of a sudden lose your identity as a professional if you choose to stay home and raise children?
February 21, 2012
How I Did It: Julie Schlosser and Lee Clifford, Co-Founders of Altruette
Having a newborn baby is a lot of work. So is starting your own company. Doing the two at the same time might sound like pure insanity but we think we’ve found a way to make it work.
“Don’t leave before you leave,” Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, likes to say. It’s a quote she shares quite often with young professional women who she’s trying to encourage to stay focused on their career. Her argument is quite simple: We have too few female leaders because we women often hop off the career track to have children long before we even get pregnant.
It’s easy to do -- you opt out of the more difficult position being offered to you or you don’t fight for the bigger role that’s open at your office because you think that just one day—maybe in a year or two or maybe five or 10 years out--you might get pregnant and need to take time off.
February 21, 2012
Five Lessons to Ease the Alzheimer’s Journey
When my sister Edweena first began telling me stories about my mother’s increasing forgetfulness, odd behaviors, and erratic emotions, I should have recognized that something was wrong and rallied my family with a plan of assessment, action and acceptance.
After all, as the founder and CEO of a progressive community of assisted living facilities, I see spouses, siblings, sons, and daughters every day grappling with the ways in which dementia is affecting and changing their loved ones.
It turned out, though, that neither my credentials nor my experience served as an inoculation against denial in the years before my mother was finally, officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Even when my sister whispered to me one night that our mother was having imaginary conversations with her long-dead sister and had wandered out into the middle of the street in her nightgown, I found ways to rationalize it.
February 20, 2012
Carolyn Blashek, Founder of Operation Gratitude
1. What are your three words to live by? Why do these words guide your life?
Integrity, Tenacity & Commitment
Living a life of integrity--honor and honesty--elicits respect from others, and I am a firm believer that it is more important to be respected than loved.
Approaching life with tenacity--fighting for what you believe in and never giving up--promotes success against all odds.
Commitment -- in one's relationships, in one's pursuits--ensures ultimate success and satisfaction.
2. What does being an "Architect of Change" mean to you?
I view being an Architect of Change on a micro and on a macro-level. On the micro-level, I have been able to impact a few individual lives by my actions--writing a letter and crocheting a scarf for someone about to go into harm's way. On a macro-level, I recognize that I have fostered an environment that enables many Americans to similarly impact individual lives of those going into harm's way such that the cumulative effect is much larger than the sum of the individual acts--leading military commanders to refer to Operation Gratitude as a "Force Enhancer."
February 18, 2012
Calling All Alzheimer's Caregivers: Share Your Story
I invite you to tune in tonight (2/18) for an Alzheimer's special titled, Glen Campbell Fights Alzheimer's.
Hosted by Shepard Smith, the hourlong special airs at 10pm EST / 7pm PST on Fox News. It will also re-air next Sunday, February 26 at 9pm EST / 6pm PST.
The piece will focus on the public figures who, through their living example and advocacy work, have raised much needed awareness of Alzheimer's Disease.
As I was preparing for the interview, it dawned on me: this will be my first appearance on Fox News. I am thrilled that Fox News is taking on Alzheimer's and I was honored that they asked me to participate. If we are going to defeat this devastating disease, we all need to come together, move beyond political definitions, discuss it openly, and navigate a new path to end it.
February 17, 2012
When the Technology Beast Sleeps
I lost my phone on a Thursday at 4:15 p.m. That was the last call I made that day. From the kitchen. Just a routine call to the sitter about pick up schedules. By 5, I had a feeling something was terribly wrong.
At 6, I felt full-scale panic creeping in. I scoured the kitchen. Did it fall from my pocket when I walked the dog? Did I throw it away in a multi-tasking frenzy—clearing clutter, tossing food, dropping the phone in the garbage?
For four days--ninety six hours--my life changed. I was like a 2nd grader who had only memorized three phone numbers in her head: my dad and mom, my sister and my home. And besides, no one answers the home phone anymore, so that did me no good.
And while I love them, my family is not who I talk to hourly about work, car pool, life logistics.
February 17, 2012
Don’t Quit Before the Miracle
Theo Fleury’s story came to my attention while doing research for an article. I almost passed over it because I didn’t think a National Hockey League legend would have anything in common with women facing adversity. His message, however, was too intriguing to pass by:
“Don’t Quit Before the Miracle is a message everyone needs to hear at some point in their life. It’s about hope, about moving forward, about never giving up, even when the obstacles you face appear overwhelming and unbeatable.”
Theo is a champion. He won an Olympic gold medal as part of the 2002 Canadian Olympic Hockey Team, a Stanley Cup while playing for the Calgary Flames, and he was selected to the NHL All-Star hockey team seven times throughout his career. And he accomplished all of this while standing 5’6” and being one of the shortest players to ever skate in the NHL.
February 16, 2012
Open to Hope: Getting the Love Back in Your Life After a Loss
Every February as Valentine’s Day approaches, I find it’s a great time to take a survey of where I stand on my love meter. Am I on the high or low side this year? How is my relationship with my husband, Phil? With my daughters and their families?
Is there any misunderstanding or disagreement with a dear friend or colleague that still needs some attention? I take a quick inventory.
Inevitably, thinking about the people I love takes me hurtling back in time to what I call my “Ground Zero.” For me, that was in April 1983, when my 17- year-old son, Scott, was killed in an automobile accident. That boy was the love of my life. After his death I wondered if I would ever be happy again.
February 15, 2012
Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, Founders of Rent the Runway
In 2007, we met as sectionmates at Harvard Business School, where over frequent girls’ nights, we became fast friends. During a trip home for Thanksgiving, I (Jenn) witnessed my sister Becky struggle with a “closet full of clothes and nothing to wear” moment.
Becky had an upcoming wedding and wanted something gorgeous—an Hervé Léger maybe, or Proenza Schouler—but her modest salary meant that everything high-end was out of reach.
What if, I thought, the Beckys of this world could have access to their dream closet and a new dress for every occasion? What if designers were able to get their pieces into the hands of young, fashionable women and build an addiction for designer fashion?
February 14, 2012
The Alzheimer's Caregiver: The Real Meaning of Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day can be particularly difficult for spouses of those with Alzheimer’s disease. The media bombards us with a commercialized view of true love: “If he really loves you, he’ll send you flowers, buy you chocolates, and present you with a big diamond ring.” (And, by the way, he should do the same thing next year, only more so.)
If we believe the mass marketers, any man who does less for his wife than this minimum standard must not love her very much. If you are the wife of a man with Alzheimer’s disease, where does this leave you?
Alzheimer’s disease is an insidious thief, stealthily stealing our loved ones from us before our eyes. Those of us who are married made vows to love our spouses in sickness and health, for better or worse, for richer or poorer. Alzheimer’s certainly covers “sickness” and “worse,” and the financial burden moves many couples to “poorer.”
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Inspiration to Start Your Day... t.co/ARlLrv03
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NHL legend Theo Fleury says, Don't Quit Before the Miracle. t.co/zJc34Sj9
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