Ladies Who Launch

Just Joined the Incubator Ongoing

by, FashionMista

After swooping through the Ladies Who Launch network last week for our launchwork, I discovered the Ongoing part of the Incubator as an option to sign up, which meant that the Incubator would...end! That was sad, and what made it even sadder was that I would possibly lose the cute little shoe icons I have next to my name in the network, for being an Incubator type person/member.

So, I just signed up. Couldn't face Incubator Withdrawal. I'm telling you, after hemming and hawing about how I was going to get myself into gear, the Incubator, through the people I have met, and the spirit the group produced, has been eye-opening. It's taken away some the fear I had of going out on my own (more to come on that later as I develop the master plan, which is too fun not to get into right now, but for my own protection, I'm keep quiet for the moment).

And I love that I signed up with my new business Amex (I pay it right away, as it's the kind that doesn't carry a balance, which is fine with me). I feel so...clean in my banking. My poor bank accounts were reeling in transfers and payments when I made business purchases from my personal checking. Now if I could only figure out how to link my business with my personal accounts in my online banking...That's for another day. Today, I'm coding a new page layout for a website I manage, to hopefully make the whole thing easier to digest and use. So, back to it!

This Cat Has Nine Lives

by, FashionMista

This morning after dashing into work, I got this group email from an  NYC Incubator member who sent it late the night before. It was too good not to share:

"I just got home and I don't know why I'm emailing everyone but for some reason I feel like I have this great group of girlfriends at this never ending sleep over and no one says the last peep! Anyways, I went to a launch party for a pub my sister writes for/networking event of sorts, and I met THE most interesting woman. Her name was Shirley Smith, she is 77, and she is a born again writer. She came to NYC at 22 from Kansas to 'find her passion and follow her dream', which led her to be the first ever Maidenform Model (who doesn't know Maidenform Bras). Then she worked with Tennessee Williams and Robert Redford and Paul Newman on Broadway, was in a few movies, even an Alfred Hitchcock piece. Then she got married to 'an Italian from Brooklyn who was crazy but fun' and painted the best picture of those funny years. She is now an accomplished painter, in the Whitney Museum, and is working on her first novel.

What an inspiration, I wish you all were there. Mick ( my boyfriend - though he says that sounds 8th grade and prefers partner, which I think make him sound like my girlfriend, but I digress-) and I walked Shirley home and we had the best chat. We got to know Shirley even more, and she started telling us her advice for living here. She assessed our ages (28 and 32) and then replied that anyone no matter what age should know that life is all about following your passion, and if you don't, you'll never be happy. Yes, we all say duh, but look around. We all have friends who want to take a risk, follow their passion, make their 'why not me' a reality. We have all taken the step and started making that happen. Seeing Shirley, this woman who went after life full throttle, and has followed her passion, worked hard and persevered.....it was such an inspiration! And she's doing just fine, happy, and may I add, SINGLE! What a treat, it's as if someone knew I needed to meet an amazing woman to keep me ticking, and just like that....it happened."

The group couldn't have agreed more. Shirley's story was so inspiring, as I've lived here for 5 years, but every minute of it I feel that I need to take advantage of my location and any hair brained ideas I may get. When I first moved to New York City, which was supposed to happen on 9/11 minutes before it became 9/11, people asked me: "How long are you going to live there?" All I could answer was: "I don't know. I'll evaluate after 5 years." Five years sprang up on me, and I'm really itching. I guess that's why I jumped and joined the Incubator. Now I feel like I'm on a speeding (faster than moving) sidewalk toward more answers...

Nice Things for Ourselves

by, FashionMista

One of the important things to do, or to understand from the Incubator experience, is to do nice things for ourselves. It's nice to think about what you'd like to do for yourself, and then execute it. I've been thinking about quite a lot of nice things to do for myself, and some have become my Goal Nice Things. For example, right now this minute, a nice thing for myself would be an express facial with my old waxer (before she switched to her upper east side location, and before I started lasering), buy my favorite foundation from Fresh and to try Dior mascara Sefora, and buy my dog an Orvis fleece cumfy dog bed (which led me to a new idea for Katie James dog beds...I'll just make really pretty covers for when you want to jazz up the dog bed instead of re-inventing the wheel of finding fill, etc.).

A super nice thing I did do was to commit a personal day from work to attend the Ladies Who Launch Live event on Oct. 19th in NYC. I paid for it (again, not investing into a production run for some beautiful fabric I have in the corner of my sewing room), but I got a surprise...I made it my first charge on my new business Amex Open card, and since it was over $100, Amex credited me $100!! So that was like a  bonus nice thing for myself.

Other nice things from the group have been:
- pedicures, for sure (I snuck in a 10-minute chair massage mid-week)
- Judith at MakeMyReel.com cut up her visions from last week and made them into a sort of motivational mobile above her desk - cool!
- making time to floss and apply Clay Umbrian face Mask from Fresh (i'm in love with it)
- visits with friends
- tea at Alice's Tea Cup on the upper west side
- walks in central park (I sat for an extra long time with my dog Sunday morning during the windiness while doing my launchwork...she loooved sitting on a rock in the breeze, and i sketched her...she was soo cute)
- naps on Saturday afternoons

So all in all, it's been a pretty great experience so far! The nice thing I'm going to do for myself right now is to publish this post and shut down my computer and read from the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia!!

NYC Tuesday Incubator - "Last Night Was Amazing!"

by, FashionMista

"Last night sas AMAZING" was the first sentance from our Tuesday night Incubator leader, Karla, the day after our first meeting. I felt like I'd just had this secret weeknight rendezvous with some new man! Everything clicked with everyone! We keep replying to this same email, so it keeps generating the same feeling in me and makes me giggle.  :)

But the first night of the Incubator did make for a good week, as it got wheels turning as to how I can make my goals happen. Launchwork for our second meeting was to write our visions of everyone's projects, or goals. Everyone's ideas for each other were so revealing, and fun for the writer because their mind could exercise dreaming without borders for others. And because of the nature of the openness of these Incubators, and the non-linear way of feminine thinking, there could be a few goals per person at this stage in their life.

I of course did my homework...slightly off course from what it should be. As a kid who often did not do homework in high school, and when I did, it could easily be on the wrong chapter, I was reeling in old feelings of "Gaaaah!" However, Karla stressed, and I mean stressed, that this was OK. As David (my boyfriend) would say, "more than OK." (He also says I do things the way I want to no matter what.) But I couldn't help it. I had to critique everyone's website (as it's fun for me and second nature at this point), and suggest blogs and websites to others where I felt it could help their businesses grow. This leads me into the results of the night...

The theme of the evening was "synchronicity." Each girl (can we all be girls here..."woman" is too matronly to me...maybe "lady" is the appropriate word here) went around the room reading their visions for the lady in the hot seat who could do nothing but listen, laugh, register major excitement, and say "thank you." Similar concepts appeared from each reading.

We discovered, that while Iris, an acupuncturist, clearly should open her own practice or studio, she was also a secret romance writer! And Tanea, the calligrapher of MyPerfectPenminship.com, who may explore the magic of font making, was pinpointed as an outstanding stand-up comic and motivational speaker, when as a child, all she wanted to do was be an actress, but when she founded out that "actresses don't EAT!" (aka starving artist), she quickly abandoned that idea. A PR girl of the bunch was practically signing us all up as clients and forming pitches in her mind, despite her jet leggedness from a business trip to Ireland.

The synchronicity for me turned out to be that I am going to start freelancing as a website consultant for companies such as these ladies to help them "know what they don't know" and guide their websites to technical efficiency and make them as appetizing for Google as possible. This is all so that I can continue developing Katie James accessories at the pace which is comfortable for me for now (aka freelance as my day job while making my own schedule). One comment from Jillian, the future concierge service owner, affirmed some direction that I'm taking Katie James. She had downloaded the Katie James geraniums desktop wallpaper and liked it because it made her feel "happy." That is an exact adjective I'm using in my mock business plan for Katie James. I felt little angels in the glowing light singing softly, for it means that I'm on target and someone else felt it.

Jane, the goody bag queen, had a direction for me - develop one new product and market it, making it the "it" product of its kind. Done! This is the second post I've written on the subway, and I dare say, it's quite inconvenient waiting until I can sit down in a subway car, versus typing when I'm standing on the platform...and I'm not about to type all of this into a Blackberry! If only there were guitar straps for laptop computers...Are there any other rock star computer users in the house??

Breast Cancer Fund Lavender Retreat

Ladies Who Launch creator of Aromas for Living (www.aromasforliving.com), Vicky Rathje, hosted the first annual Breast Cancer Fund Lavender Retreat at her incredible lavender farm in Ventura, California.  The Breast Cancer Fund is dedicated to finding the causes of breast cancer and publishes an annual publication on the relationship between toxins in the environment and breast cancer.  100% of the proceeds were dedicated to the Breast Cancer Fund and we raised 5k on Saturday.  It felt amazing! 
The day was most enjoyable and so well organized.  There were about 60 of us present at the event.  The rolling hills of Ventura seemed like a tropical Tuscany. The food and beverage donations were phenomenal.  On behalf of ReSolution Spa (www.resolutionspa.com)I made lavender muffins for breakfast, Edible Arrangements donated the fruit and a fabulous organic lunch was catered by Mae Low and Michael X. 
We were divided into five groups- Lemon, Lavender, Chamomile, Sage, and Orange.  Throughout the day each group participated in the following five workshops: Essential Oil Mixing- Healing Energy Massage, Meditation, Tour of Lavender Fields (led by the charming husband), Crystal Bowls, Yoga, and Chanting.  The energy throughout the day was truly special.  It really felt like we were far, far away from the city.  I left feeling completely renewed and refreshed.  Last night I planted a lavender sprig that I cut from the lavender field tour- I can't wait to return for harvest next year! 

Minneapolis Incubator

It’s been over three and a half hours since I parted with my incubator group on this warm fall afternoon in Minneapolis…and I still have the jitters!  Not the caffeinated coffee shakes or the light goose bumps from the breeze blowing in through my office window, but the kind of buzz that comes from good wholesome energy.  I am overwhelmingly grateful for what these five women see in me after spending two mornings over coffee, a little more than four hours total.  In some ways it’s as if a palm reader met them at the front door as they walked in, telling them exactly what I needed to hear before taking their place in the ordering line. 

The feedback I hear from this group is, in some ways, not unlike what I’ve heard from my sphere group along with family and friends.  There’s just something about hearing it from people who don’t know you, they don’t know what you’re up to or where you’ve come from.  There’s a clean slate where their only focus is to help me with my project.  They listen intently and nod curiously at my ideas and daydreams, visions and fears.

Did somebody say Fear?  My only fear going into this was how will I package up all this information and tweak it and test it and make the right choices so that I can launch my idea within two years and still put food on the table and afford new yoga pants and what if my car breaks down and how will we afford it and can I make it through school at the same time? ( Insert DEEP BREATH here.) These are real fears and whether it’s a greater or lesser fear from one gal to the next, it’s there and it’s an ever evolving issue that needs nurturing throughout the course of life.

Already I’ve learned that something will get me through the start up phase I’m growing through.  There will be a way.  It’ll show its pretty little face sooner than later and I’ll be okay; my family will be okay.  I know this because I see success in the five other women in this incubator; they’ve all been where I’m at in some way and they made it.  This time they’re up against new projects and new goals and the rest of us are willing passengers in the roller coaster they’re now stepping onto, ready to scream with them and throw our hands in the air with thrilled excitement.  If I can gain such empowerment and encouragement from this small group, I can only imagine what power there is in the whole LWL organization, and I’m so looking forward to it.

LWL Incubator: A Re-Awakening

by, FashionMista

Last week I completed my first incubator meeting in NYC. Not knowing what to expect - at all - I was more than pleasantly surprised. I was affected - infected - with the sense that I actually could accomplish what it is I've been dying to accomplish. Motivation has never been my problem. When I want something, I go for it full force. It was the not knowing that was so frustrating for me; now it's the paralysis by analysis about the options of how to get there that I find frightening, and I think have clouded my path. Enter Ladies Who Launch Incubator.

Below is a re-post of what I blogged about on my blog, FashionMista. During the meeting, light bulbs were going off all over the place. One of those was for me - to guest author on the LWL blog about my incubator experience. Let me say I'm honored to be here! Let the magic and clarity begin!

Ladies Who Launch Incubator Likened to Revelation Made By Glenda the Good Witch of the North About the Power of the Ruby Red Slippers

Yes. I’ve known that I’m wearing the ruby red slippers, but I’m still on the yellow brick road meeting the Scarecrow and the Lion asking tons of questions about how to get to where I want to be. In fact, I just met the Lion last week (this sounds sort of odd) when I was realizing that I wasn’t doomed with katie james (my accessories business) just because I couldn’t face the business plan. That Lion’s voice came into my head like “Bring ‘em on! I’ll fight ‘cha!” Except that I wasn’t going to back down at the site of a mouse, like the Cowardly Lion would have at that moment of declaring those fighting words. Nope. I think I’ve entered the Emerald City.

Last night was my first Ladies Who Launch Incubator meeting. It's this concept called Incubators that is positioned as a course for women who know they want to launch something, or move on with something, or even find a husband, and are on the launching pad but don't know where to go or how to do it. Beth Schoenfeldt, the co-founder of Ladies who Launch, is infectious when she describes it on their website or in person. She speaks of women embracing their feminine natures of working and accomplishing goals, instead of conforming against it. She speaks of the almost magic that happens in Incubator groups, which are now in 39 cities including one in South Africa.

My jewelry pouches had sold out at a little show a friend had in Cleveland, and I took the money, which I could have put into production for more pouches, and invested it in myself in this course. Whew! You better believe I wanted this Incubator thing to work out.

You are what you wear, so I made sure to kick start my motivation by wearing my trusty faux alligator pumps again (shh...they're Aerosoles!) and my other flouncy, wrinkly skirt from Surrealist that is just perfect for dancing in a Moroccan styled apartment, or for going to Incubator meetings. I had no idea what to expect. I was hoping for help to brand katie james, launch it off the ground, maybe open a boutique to be the 'day job,' and grow FashionMista, but I didn't know how they were going to help me do that. To be honest, I was afraid I'd be in a room with frustrated women who hated their jobs. Far from it!! The twelve women I was with had serious dreams and goals. We sat in a circle. The first step was to put our "projects" aka the reason we'd come to the Incubator, into the center of the circle. We went around the room, and the magic actually started happening.

One girl started out as a school teacher b/c she didn't think she had any other options, branched out a bit, realized she wanted to be a publicist, moved to NYC with no job or apartment, got both in a week, gained job experience, had a Jerry McGuire Moment about the importance of relationships, and left her agency - with some clients! She's got her business going, but is in the Incubator, I think, to step back, take a breath, and see what she's got to make sure she continues to kick ass. We had two administrative assistants, one of which discovered she had quite a talent for calligraphy (you should have seen her registration form). She hand writes wedding invitations and wants to figure out how to expand her business to leave her job. The other administrative assistant loves helping people, but might crack if she toasts another english muffin in an office, so she wants to figure out how to turn her liking to help people into a personal or life assistant business for people. Oh, and she needs to find a husband, which is why she's in New York from Charlotte, but sees that there are no men (or no normal ones for a Charlotte girl) and so wants to establish this business back in NC. We might see about finding her a husband. Another woman (gosh, this paragraph is getting awfully long) runs one of the most prominent celebrity gift bag companies (for the Oscars, music awards, etc.) and realizes that that era is dead now that the IRS insisted on taxing celebrities on contents of gift bags, so she's transformed her business into an online shop where she sells the contents and buys ads in People Magazine to showcase designers in the gift bags.

After everyone divulged, the next step was getting "launchwork" to complete by next class. There are four classes, or meetings. This first assignment is to give feedback to each woman about her project. Which is really fun because everyone likes to think grand thoughts for other people. And then, as an added bonus, at the end of the day, you have 12 wonderful puffs of air guiding you to accomplishing the project you came in to accomplish. I'm super excited for all of it. There were many ways to connect people with each other and new ideas to help move along their businesses, so I'm excited to do this exercise. On the way home, I was already talking to two women in the apparel industry - one who used to design for Limited and wanted to make a name for herself without analyzing herself into paralysis, and another who wants to make organic clothing using a farm out of Egypt that she discovered while working/sourcing for Aveda.

We also have to do one nice thing for ourselves a day. The first nice thing I've done for myself is to wake up at 6:30am, actually get out of bed this time (poor David, I set the alarm at 6 or 6:30am every morning with the intent of getting out, but it doesn't happen until several snoozes later at 7am on a good day, and 7:20am on an normal day), put on my sweatpants, plug into Nancy Griffith's Other Voices Other Rooms, and write this post. It's all coming back to me now, why I loved what I was doing when I started designing clothes and attending FIT! I loved working in the morning, with the orange sun coming up, peeking through different cracks of my windows while Gerdy waits for me to be done and Dinah jumps around on the couch.

To be honest, I've been feeling so far away from that person, that the thought of sketching or clipping magazines in the morning actually made me sad, b/c I know I'd have to go to work shortly after. But no longer. I'm shedding the complacency and taking back my goals.

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Incubator First Person: Carrie Lezotte

Incubator Experience from Carrie Lezotte, filmmaker

FADE IN: It was a dark and stormy night…

EXT. SUBURBAN DETROIT BUSINESS DISTRICT – NIGHT
The streets have rolled up for the night in Birmingham, Michigan.  The pavement reflects the streetlights and the only sound heard is the spatter of an occasional car rolling through the wet. 

All the storefronts are dark, except for one, which appears as an oasis in the dark.  The light welcoming light radiates not only a visible brightness, but an energy that can be felt.

We will miss Ann Richards!

"I did not want my tombstone to read, ’She kept a really clean house.’ I think I’d like them to remember me by saying, ’She opened government to everyone," 

"Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only she did it backwards and in high heels."

Women-Owned Businesses Grow

– Women-owned firms continue to grow at twice the rate of all firms, according to the biennial update by the Center for Women’s Business Research.

As of 2006, the Center estimates there are 7.7 million majority women-owned firms (firms at least 51% owned by a woman or women). Between 1997 and 2006 the number of majority women-owned firms increased from 5.4 to 7.7 million, an increase of 42%, almost double that of all firms (23%).

“The number of women-owned firms has grown at around twice the rate of all firms for more than two decades,” said Marjorie Alfus, chair of the Center for Women’s Business Research. “Women business owners are significant players in the nation’s economy and their momentum shows no sign of slowing down.”

The new projections also show that there are 10.4 million businesses 50% or more owned by a woman or women that employ 13 million employees and generate nearly $2 trillion ($1.9) in revenues.

In 2006, majority women-owned firms are expected to generate more than $1 trillion ($1.1) in revenues and employ 7.2 million workers. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of all women-owned firms are majority women-owned.

The fastest growing industry sectors for majority-owned firms (between 1997 and 2006) are wholesale trade (283%), health care services (130%), arts, entertainment and recreation (117%), and professional, scientific and technical services (83%). The largest percentage of majority women-owned firms is in the service sector (69%) followed by retail trade (14%).

The 2006 regional, state and metro updates of women-owned businesses will be released in late fall of this year.

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Center for Women’s Business Research
The Center for Women’s Business Research is the premier source of knowledge about women business owners and their enterprises worldwide. The Center’s mission is to unleash the economic potential of women entrepreneurs by conducting research, sharing information and increasing knowledge about this fast-growing sector of the economy.

Since 1989, the Center has generated research-based intelligence that has helped public and private sector leaders, advocates, and individual women business owners make informed strategic decisions for generating greater business opportunities.

The Center shares its knowledge of the economic and social aspects of women’s entrepreneurship with policymakers, financial institutions, corporate leaders, government agencies, academia, and the media through research reports, press releases, newsletter, publications, seminars, speaking engagements, and worldwide on the Internet at www.womensbusinessresearch.org.