Ladies Who Launch

Ventura Incubator's Sherry Gaba

Life Coach Sherry Gaba appeared on Dr. Drew Pinsky's brand new  Health radio show for one hour on December 13, 2007 in the  Los Angeles and San Diego markets.  Dr. Drew is known for Dr. Drew's Love Line syndicated radio show.  She spoke about parenting, single parenting, the differences between Life Coaching and Psychotherapy and dealing with the frenzy of the Holidays.   

Rocket Launchers: Ladies Who Launch In The News

• Boston Leader LYNN TOOMEY, Founder of Art to Gogh (www.arttogogh.net), recently won the grand prize in the third annual Mount Wachusett Community College’s (MWCC), third annual business plan competition. Way to go Lynn!   The competition rewards the business plan that best portrays a unique and innovative service or concept.   Check out some of the great press this distinguished award has led resulted in.  Mount Wachusett Newsletter, http://www.mwcc.edu/info/news.html#first,  and a cable TV program where she did an interview, http://www.wccatv.com/soapbox/583. 

• LA Incubator MINDY DAVIS, founder and owner of Peels on Wheels, was featured in the New York Time’s Thursday Styles section.  The article, entitled Hello, Day Spa?  This Order is for Delivery, highlights the frequent frustrations people have with booking and getting to a spa service and how there is a new trend in ‘home delivery’ spa services.  Mindy’s mobile spa brings the spa treatment directly to the client; in fact, her employees travel up to a 70 mile radius to meet a client.   

• Our new DENVER INCUBATORS are making news!  The Daily Camera Boulder Colorado newspaper highlighted LWL, the “savvy network for women business owners,” and noted it’s arrival in the Boulder area. . http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2007/nov/26/briefcase/   Also, Colorado Incubator leader RICKI BOOKER is profiled in The Family Groove in their segment called, “The Family Groove’s Profile of a Mom Who’s Making it Happen.”    It highlights her series of children’s books called Change is Strange.  http://www.thefamilygroove.com/dec_MotherNature.htm  In addition, Ricki was featured on Book Launch Café and interviewed about her book series.  http://booklaunchcafe.typepad.com/booklaunchcafe/change-is-strange.html

• NY Incubator leader JANERA SOEREL is the Founder & Editor of www.JANERA.com,The Voice for Global Nomads.  Her organization just held their third Immigration Salon in D.C., and it was covered beautifully by Delphine Schrank, a writer at The Washington Post.  The Global Nomad Immigration Dinner Salons are evenings where experts and guests meet to talk about Immigration. Janera further explains that “the experts facilitate the discussion that starts after I open the conversation with the question, ‘what if we were to have free movement of people, as we have free movement of goods and capital.’” The events are meant to be fun and connect interesting guests and experts. http://www.janera.com/janera_editornote.php

Quiet Riot: Congrats to Sweet Riot!

Clare Nehra sent us news about Sweet Riot coffee business. Sweetriot was the national top 3 winner for the Fortune Small Business Competition 2007

Bara Sapir's Test Prep New York Featured in Women's World

Test Prep New York is featured this week (Dec 4 - 11th) on page 7 in Women's World magazine. The article features a Full Potential Audio Series success story by reporting on one of our clients who reclaimed her confidence and life direction after using our product. The Full Potential Series is a 5.5.
commercially available audio program created to optimize test-taking potential by enhancing retention, recall, concentration, and confidence, for the test and for life.

More Press From Incubator Members in LA and Boston

LA Incubator Tracey Vieira is a designer and the founder of Cute-ture . Cute-ture's Space Hopper is currently featured on the front of Cookie Magazine’s Gift Guide ’07 (Dec/Jan issue).   Also, Cute-ture’s baby squeakers are hailed as one of the “Best Toys of 2007: 0-12 months” in Parents Magazine (Nov issue.  Plus, their baby Minimink Booties are noted as a winter essential in Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine (Dec issue.) 

LA Incubator Alice Aspen, author and speaker wrote an article for the American Chronicle entitled, Blackberry Business is Causing a Social and Physical Attention Deficit Crisis, World-wide!   Her article highlights some salient points in regards to our society’s ever growing “need” for blackberry use ... “Are they able to give equal attention to two things at one time? Or are they building an attention deficit into their lives in their personal relationships? What or who really gets the first level of attention?”  

Boston Incubator Dani Nordin, founder and designer of the eco-friendly marketing and design firm, the zen kitchen http://tzk-design.com/index.html and Zen Kitchen blog  wrote a very insightful piece that is currently posted on Creative Latitude.  Dani writes about The Seven Deadly Sins of Email Marketing – tips that many of us can benefit from, even if we don’t have a regular email newsletter.  Each of the 7 tips are easily implemented and can help strengthen your business connections when communicating via email.  

Rocket Launchers: Ladies Who Launch In The News

SF Incubator Britt Michaelian, founder of Responsible Family Company  was interviewed on ABC’s San Francisco affiliates View From the Bay.  Britt spoke about some important and necessary information that should always be shared with a babysitter before leaving the house.  http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=viewfrombay&id=5757967.

NYC Incubator Julie Goldman is the founder of The Original Runner Company.   Her company is being featured on “Get Married” on Lifetime TV in a segment about wedding décor and is cited as an expert in the field of aisle décor. The interview focuses on ways aisle runners can make an event unique.  The segment also includes the extensive line of custom painted aisle runners Julie’s company has made for thousands of weddings. Her segment will re-air on 12/12 on Lifetime TV.

LA Incubator Alexis Neely, personal family lawyer and founder of the Family Wealth Planning Institute  , was interviewed by Pam Vetter and published in the Valleynew.com news site.  The article, Protecting Your Kids, highlights the importance of having a plan for your children in case something were to happen to you.  She’s creating a website at www.KidsProtectionPlan.com that will provide free paperwork for parents to designate guardianship for their children.  http://valleynews.com/TheValley/Stories/Family-Friends/General-Family-Friends/Story~392253.aspx

Winnipeg, Canada Incubator Janet J. BrightCorne, designer and founder of Candyware ... the sweetest jewelry designs around, was just interviewed on Radio Singapore International.  Janet was featured during the Business Ideas segment.  Click here for the MP3 audio link on the press page of her site.       

Multitasker's Downfall

New York Incubator member Ann Marie Segaric is a career coach and she gives advice to multitaskers in Monday's amNY article, "Multitaskers’ Downfall".  Here is Ann Marie's advice:  

"I never hear the word 'multitasking' until someone is overwhelmed," said Annemarie Segaric, a career coach at Segaric.com.

"Multitasking is a buzz word that no one seems to do particularly well, because going back and forth between unrelated projects just consumes more mental energy, is never an efficient use of time and just creates a chaotic mind-set."

A stray text message or phone call can be a welcome diversion. However, a continuous back-and-forth between current projects and communication devices has the potential for project mix-ups, failed deadlines and drained energy.

"It's best to carve out different times in your schedule to answer the bulk of your messages. It keeps you focused," Segaric said. "The night before or [at] the beginning of your workday ... map out your priorities, determine how long each will take and what time would be best to carry them out."

Also, make sure your multitasking isn't a mask for procrastination. Segaric advises "putting the energy you would have wasted on avoidance tactics on how good you'll feel once the project is finished."

Victoria Colligan Named Crain's Cleveland 40 Under 40

Yay! Ladies Who Launch Co-Founder Victoria Colligan was named one Crain's Cleveland "40 Under 40".

Here's an excerpt of the article, but click through to see the video of Victoria Colligan.

The woman-owned businesses, she found, were started as much to change the entrepreneur’s lifestyle as to build an empire. For example, she noted, “Women will moderate the growth of the business because (they are raising) small children.”

As a result, the women entrepreneurs were learning about being business owners differently than men.

“These women were not reading traditional business publications or joining traditional networking groups,” Ms. Colligan said. “We thought there was a need to create content and opportunities for networking for women launching businesses that had more of a lifestyle purpose.”

She started with her newsletter and eventually teamed up with Beth Schoenfeldt, Ladies Who Launch’s co-founder, who was developing an incubator concept to offer businesswomen workshops and coaching. Today, that newsletter and the workshops are key parts of Ladies Who Launch, a national organization with franchises in nearly 50 cities helping women balance their businesses with other aspects of their lives.

Last spring, Ms. Colligan and Ms. Schoenfeldt, with co-author Amy Swift, turned their business into a book, “Ladies Who Launch: Embracing Entrepreneurship & Creativity as a Lifestyle.”

While she started her business in New York, Ms. Colligan, raised in Pepper Pike, returned to Northeast Ohio in 2002 as she began thinking about where her two young

daughters would be going to school. She realized she wanted them to attend Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, where she had gone, so she and her

husband Owen, a co-founder and managing partner of Rockwood Equity Partners LLC, moved to Cleveland. Their businesses maintain offices in both cities.

Margey Lowery, who joined Ladies Who Launch as a franchisee a year ago and now owns franchises for Cleveland, Akron and Columbus, works closely with Ms. Colligan.

“I found Victoria very creative — she always has great ideas,” Ms. Lowery said. “She’s on the cutting edge in how women communicate with each other.”

Rocket Launchers: Ladies Who Launch In The News

Our recent Atlanta LIVE Event is popping up on blog spots all over, being described as an event filled with new friends, great info and lots of positive energy.  See how Trista, founder of the Urban Turban fared with her new fashion piece.  Also, Melissa Grossman blogs about her extremely positive experience from stepping out of her comfort zone by attending, participating, displaying a booth and facilitating a breakout session at the Atlanta LIVE event.

Book Launch Café just posted an interview with our Editor in Chief, Amy Swift, coinciding with their book review of our recent book launch.  It’s a cute, fun read ... AND you can find out some interesting tidbits on Amy ... like where SHE finds inspiration and creativity in her writing.

Atlanta Incubator Britt Menzies, founder of Stinky Kids, has a number of her products featured in FoxNews.com’s IMag Holiday Gift Buying Guide.  StinkyKids is included with some famous name brand items like Webkinz, American Girls and Legos.   

Stella Grizont, our own Director of Strategic Development, was recently interviewed on Good News Broadcast for their Getting Your Money’s Worth segment.  She talks about the cultural movement of women launching businesses at a faster rate than their male counterparts, and the whole mompreneur phenomenon.  Go to the link below, scroll down to bottom right of page, click on Ladies Who Launch segment, dated 10/16/07.
 
DC Incubator Megan Cosby just received a large feature in the Washington Post’s Express, following the recent Ladies Who Launch D.C. LIVE Event. In the article, Megan, a D.C. business development lawyer, describes how she wanted to become more involved – and vocal in politics, but not through the traditional route of lobbying or legislating.  It was through her Incubator group that she realized she could create the discussion of ideas through a blog.  PolichicksOnline is her blog which is known as "the It girl's guide to politics (just enough to get by at a cocktail party)".  The article is called "Getting Ahead: Girl Power Hours."

Portland Incubator Lea McWhorter, founder of Sophisticated Beads, initially set out to help others with her jewelry designs by giving back.  Unconventional to most business standards, she didn’t consider the prospect of really “making money.”  Read more about Lea’s inspiration, her journey to her business development, and the positive experiences she has had through LWL.  Check out her fantastic recent article in the Clackamas Review Newspaper.  

NYC Incubator Jamie Lazar, inventor and founder of zakkerz, has a fantastic feature in the “Style File” section of the December InStyle issue.   A zakkerz is a magnetic strip for temporarily hemming pants. Perfect solution for your favorite pair of long pants that are too long to wear with flats or sneakers ... until you attach a zakkerz to each leg.

NYC Incubator Jenny Hwa, designer and founder of Loyale, has her pieces hitting the press left and right! Her Costilla Jacket (which was also won in auction by co-founder Victoria at the NYC Live Event) is featured in the November issue of Nylon magazine.  Her Tularosa dress is featured in Nov. Travel + Leisure and was worn by Kris Carr, author of Crazy Sexy Cancer on a taped segment for Oprah which aired on October 22nd, 2007.   http://loyaleclothing.com/press.htm Both pieces are featured on her website – check them out!

Portland Incubator Mindee Doney and co-founder Julie Pickens of Little Busy Bodies, LLC, were just interviewed on KOIN, a CBS affiliate in Portland, Oregon for their new Boogie Wipes.  After having little luck in using saline spray and bulb syringes to clean out their kids’ noses -- and with so many cold medications being pulled from the shelves, Mindee and Julie consulted a chemist and invented Boogie Wipes.

NYC Incubator Rachel Dooley, designer and founder of Gemma Redux, just had her designs featured in Daily Candy this week!   (Sign-in is required;membership is free.)

NYC Incubator Jennifer Cassetta, founder of Health And The City , just had another great interview about her business, this week in the NYPost.com.  In the background she is training martial arts students, while the interview focuses on her business offerings and the current and ongoing request from HBO to change her name. Go Jennifer!   

Incubator Jen Gorman’s Wifeville.com "Gold Medal Wife" undies were featured in the latest episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians" on E!  Reality star Kim Kardashian gave her mother - Kris Jenner - the undies on the show! After all, Kris Jenner is married to Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner! She is a GOLD MEDAL WIFE!