Leigh Hometh: 1st Life – Publishing, 2nd Life – Home Renovations (scratch that), Women’s Fitness Franchise

Leigh got in shape and now owns the place!

Bring in Your Parents Day

Maryl likes this new LinkedIn program

Think of it as the reverse of Career Day at your school when parents would describe their careers to your class mates.  I would liked to have had Bring in Your Parents Day, which debuted last month, with my parents although I did bring them to my workplace once or twice. Even though I worked for a few major American corporations, I always had more nontraditional job titles that didn't automatically make clear what I actually did. Titles like General Manager-Media Centers, Director-Brand Web Experience, Cultural Arts Marketing Manager don't exactly conjure up images of someone being productive like a lawyer, teacher or firefighter. Know what the three most misunderstood job titles are today?

A Cruise to Bermuda and Empowerment

Marsha explains how a journey to an island can take you much further than you thought

A few months ago, my husband, Donald and I took a group of friends, family and clients on a luxury cruise to the beautiful island of Bermuda. Donald is a travel agent (Haygood Travel) and I am a career/ life coach and motivational speaker (StepWise Associates). We thought it would be a treat to combine our business expertise and have some fun on the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas.

Does Meredith Vieira Finally "Have It All"?

Caryl congratulates Meredith on her new job at 60

You've come a long way, baby! MeredithVieira, longtime journalist and sometime game show host, is getting her own syndicated talk show in 2014. For Vieira, who turns 60 this December, the move marks another triumph in a stellar career that began in l975 as a news announcer on a Massachusetts radio station following her graduation from Tufts. In the last decade alone, she's been a co-host of "The View",  Katie Couric's replacement on "Today" (without letting the ratings slide, by the way) and moderator of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Getting her own syndicated show is a little like winning the jackpot on the Millionaire. Vieira will have editorial control as well as financial control (think Oprah!), not to mention her name all over the product. (It's "The Meredith Vieira Show". ) In other words, she's doing this show on her terms.


Having total control is pretty much the holy grail of the 21st century. Plus, doing it your own way is usually a precursor to "having it all." And, like most working women and mothers and battle-tested feminists, Vieira knows full well how hard a road it has been to get here.  In a statement announcing her new gig in the "New York Times" last week, Vieira said she wanted the show to embody what she called the “three H’s”: heat, heart and humor. “And speaking of the heart, I want to thank my husband, Richard, and kids, Ben, Gabe and Lily, for strongly encouraging me to take this incredible opportunity,” she said, and added, “or else they really just want to get me out of the house.” 

Think back to 1980s whenVieira, pregnant with her first child at 36, hit another jackpot by reaching the pinnacle of tv journalism. Perhaps you've forgotten Vieira was a correspondent for the most prestigious and influential show on the air then and even now: "Sixty Minutes". What happened next is an ugly but not atypical story from that era.

Five Post-minivan, Style-conscious Cars for the Mid-life woman

Maryl reveals her car picks based on performance, style, color and nostalgia

I’ve owned a yellow Mustang with a white roof (you have to own one at least once), two Alfa Romeo Spiders: baby blue and cream (loved those cars!), white Mercedes Benz C Class (nice but a bit boring), gold Turbo charged Gran Prix (unbelievable power and maneuverability), a silver Saab (most fuel efficient at that time), a burgundy Cutlass diesel (mistake) and my first car was an orange Datsun (economical until I totaled it). I currently drive a 2005 mint green Jaguar S Class, which I really enjoy. Of course I barely drive it since I mostly blog from home but I know I’ll need to turn it in soon for something new. That’s why I took my family off to the NY Auto Show last month. 

There’s an endless list of criteria on which to base a car buying decision. Mine are simple. I have to like the shape and lines of the model and I favor a more classic design with a unique feature or two. The color is important because the right combination can really make a car stand out from the rest. My husband will take whatever car is on the lot; I will wait a month for the right interior and exterior. 

 But the car has got to perform too. I’m not a speedster but I like getting away from pokey people and maybe peeling off at a green light once or twice. Of course the gas mileage should be reasonable, minimum safety requirements met and the sticker price has to be within my price range. Here’s the five cars I liked the best between $20K to $35K:

Marsha Haygood: How to move from a corporate job to being an entrepreneur

Second Life Profile:  Marsha Haygood

In her first life, Marsha Haygood, currently of StepWise Associates, spent more than 25 years as a corporate executive most recently as VP of human resources and administration for New Line Cinema, a division of Time Warner.  She developed a talent for listening to employees, understanding their needs and offering them solutions and a plan for pursuing a more fulfilling work life.  But then Marsha starting listening to herself and realized that she wanted to work with less senior people and minorities, a segment where there was a serious lack of mentorship.  So Marsha came up with her own second lives plan that was much more detailed and thought out than a simple everyday “to do” list….. 

What is Evernote.

Maryl answers:  The 3 ways Evernote helped me get a memory like an elephant

“To help the world remember everything, communicate effectively and get things done”.  Now that’s a corporate mission statement I can support.  So in my ongoing effort to do less, be more efficient and productive (especially online) and save time, I’m mastering Evernote.  This is a suite of software tools that organizes my ideas and projects together in one place regardless of their format or original source. I’ve already found three ways I can clean up my clutter and stop losing files, photos, bookmarked web pages, emails, video, audio…easily got another hour back to my day!

Maryl Found: An Extra Hour in Her Day

I recently attended a seminar titled, The Art of Less Doing, which is about how to be more productive and spend less time doing fewer things.  There were a number of automation tools proffered that could take the rest of the year to integrate into my daily or weekly agendas.  So I started out slowly with a change that I knew about but needed someone standing over me to do.  As a result I estimate I got an hour back each day.

Maryl commits: To New Year Results Not Resolutions

 Here we are feet back at the starting line, with a clean slate in hand, heart in the right place, head on straight ready to start the yearly cycle over again. At least in our second lives we don’t have to repeat the folly of our past New Year’s resolutions that may have pictured a slimmer, richer, smarter, more caring and newly promoted vision of ourselves but didn’t quite capture our innermost dreams and desires. Whether our goals were honestly honed or not, barely half of us will still be working toward them halfway through the year. But I’ve got three new tactics to beat those odds for 2013. 

Maryl pitches: 4 tips to restart your work life

I attended a panel discussion last month titled “Own Your Future – Where to Start When STARTING OVER”. Love the title. It was hosted by The Thypin Oltchick Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship (TOI) and every seat was taken by women of all ages and backgrounds. Some of them (1) knew what they wanted to start up and were doing it; others just (2)had an idea they were tossing around in their head; the rest (3) hadn’t much of a clue. These types of gatherings can guide women in all three of these stages and are not only enlightening but also empowering. And they are ubiquitous too, offered by such organizations as Ladies Who Launch, Springboard, Golden Seeds and Women 2.0 to name a few that run similar workshops, seminars, conferences and training courses every week. (Just Google “women entrepreneur organizations” to find more and check a list from one of my earlier posts.)

But back to the four panelists, who are all TOI clients and recipients of their loan fund, and their four tips to restart your work life: 

Maryl wishes: Happy Birthday to Eileen

We have another birthday this week. My older sister Eileen would have been 65 today…..more on that momentous age in a moment. Eileen died from encephalitis at age10 before there was a successful treatment for the disease. I’ve lived my whole life wondering what it would have been like to have an older sister, how my life would have been different, and more so what Eileen would have done with hers. I imagine she would have been in a creative field. She was a very sensitive little girl, she liked to draw daffodils and our father was a graphic artist.

Me and Eileen

So would Eileen be retiring from an advertising agency, a design studio, a fashion house or an art school this year? Probably not if you look at a recent AP/CBS poll that finds 73% of baby boomers plan to work past retirement and that number continues to increase. Some are doing it for economic reasons, others because they enjoy the stimulation they get from working or pursuing a vocation of their own design. It’s interesting to note that almost half of the 7.4 million self-employed workers in the USA are baby boomers according to the US Department of Labor. And a third of them began working for themselves at or after age 50.

Maryl tries: Online Dating

I have been looking for a partner for a while now in the usual places and not having any luck. Finding the right match with the ideal background, age, trustworthiness, level of commitment, willingness to be monogamous and whose personality complements mine is quite the challenge. I have to be able to really communicate with this person; we have to “click.”


My family and friends have been very supportive in helping me find someone; my husband especially.  He thought I should just go for it. They understand my need for a partner in order to get my online brand business off the ground and how critical it is for her/him to have the right character traits and skill sets that enhance mine. I had exhausted my network, worked my LinkedIn connections and couldn’t join one more Meetup group. So I turned to online dating.

Start-ups are on the rise and great business ideas and the resources out there to help get you going are endless. There’s a growing recognition that this all begins with a great partner or co-founder. Just go to meetup.com and search under “co-founder” and take your pick.   For that matter, go to Google and search the same.

I’ve already found www.CoFoundersLab.com, which is an online and in person matchmaking service for entrepreneurs who want to launch a startup together. “Think eHarmony for entrepreneurs.” There’s also www.PairUpNYC.com that leverages “advisors’ experience and expertise to create pre-screened matches between founders.” And www.women2.org (founding startups) has a personal account of one women’s quest for her ultimate soul mate.

But I went to www.FounderDating.com first and completed a profile. “FounderDating brings together super talented entrepreneurs with different backgrounds” and attributes and helps you find someone who will complement yours. They conduct in person sessions in various cities and, sad to say, I didn’t make the cut off for last month’s event closest to me. I was told not to think of it as a rejection as the selection process is based on assembling the right number of candidates together with the most complementary expertise. So there may have been too many applicants with brand marketing experience like mine last time and I’ll try again next month.

The marriage metaphor is the right one for this step in building my company. So I’ll keep on dating until I find “the one.” Do share any similar challenges you’ve had in the Comments below but please no fix-ups. I’m too old for blind dates.

Maryl writes: All Alone at the Water Cooler

As the jobless rate shows little improvement, more and more of us are starting and managing our own businesses from home, which can leave you feeling isolated and adrift. (See recent Intuit blog post for more on the psychological effects.) You start to realize the inherent support an average office setting afforded and the voids that now exist, like the emotional lift co-workers can provide or an area of expertise you don’t possess. There's no more huddling around the water cooler or coffee maker.  Yet there are many ways to deal with this lonely disposition from renting office space to informal coffee klatches. For example, there are numerous office business centers, like Select Office Suites, that lease full-time offices, virtual and hourly space and/or conference rooms to all size businesses. The larger metropolitan areas also have business clubs (The Terrace Club in New York is one example.) where you can stop in between meetings to respond to email, conduct a meeting, have a bite or just commune with other anchorless workers for a yearly fee. Think of these like more sophisticated versions of Starbucks, which is of course always another option for taking a breather from one appointment to the next. And there’s a range of similar types of co-working set-ups that encourage collaboration from which business partnerships can be formed. The Twin Cities has a version, called CoCo. 

I’m not ready to invest in meeting space yet but I agree with the advice to get out several times a week to commune with other like workers. Using several online resources, I’ve joined a few groups that I meet with regularly. This past week I met with my entrepreneur group, which was formed at a career counseling company after we were all downsized from our last corporate jobs and sustained on LinkedIn. Only the women members showed up on Wednesday. It was one of our best meetings ever, coincidence, I’m sure!! The give and take was invigorating and heartfelt and I not only walked away with new ideas to pursue for fine tuning my business plan but a commitment to present it at next month’s meeting. Now I have a deadline to meet and I needed that.

Resources for women starting their own businesses that can provide virtual and face-to-face partnering and work teams:

Count Me In - reference sites for researching women's business loans and grants online.
Make Mine a Million is an initiative program of Count Me In, where boldly creative women help each other turn their dreams into a reality via invaluable education, inspiring live events and a dynamic online community.
The Three Tomatoes is a fun “free” e-newsletter that gives you the real skinny on the best of everything in and out of NYC for fabulous, smart women.
Women Business Enterprise National Council is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned controlled, and operated by women in the United States.
Women For Hire offers signature career expos, inspiring speeches and seminars, a popular career-focused magazine and customized marketing programs founded by TV personality and author, Tory Johnson.
She Creates Change empowers women to create a career where they are fully engaged in life, claim their calling, and making a meaningful contribution in the world. Ultimately we are igniting a movement, compelling women to take action, and blaze their path with passion.
Ladies Who Launch is a new media company that provides resources and connections for women entrepreneurs.
Webgrrls is an online and offline networking organization of professional women focusing on propelling our careers and businesses forward by leveraging the power of women, technology and tools that help us succeed.

Maryl writes: “Childhood complete”

That’s what my 19 year-old daughter said to me after watching “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2,” the final episode, last week. She deemed to go to the movie with me because she was feeling a bit glum and wanted to get out. Lana had a challenging first year away at college and is contemplating a year off before returning. Back to that in a moment. We had sat in that same theater nine and a half years ago with a dozen of her middle school friends after a tea party at our home and a white (it had to be white!) limousine ride to the theater for her 10th birthday party (pictures below) and our own little premiere of the first Harry Potter movie. They all grew up with Harry, Hermione and Ron Weasley (Lana’s fav, another redhead) who are off to college on their own or already starring on Broadway and in other films. (Lana met Emma Watson, who played Hermione, on the streets of Providence, RI this year and affirms how unassuming and likeable she is. Also, it’s true Daniel Radclilffe, Harry of course, is extremely shy and Thomas Felton, Draco Malfoy the bully, was the nicest one on the set. Go figure.)

So the three Potter stars are on their way but now to my daughter. Her childhood may be officially over but the maturing and learning are still in play. Despite the vast effort that was put into last year’s tribulations over college applications and acceptances, I would support another game plan as long as we can come up with one that continues her developmental progress and ends with a college degree not too far into the future. Of course, what’s the rush anyway. College doesn’t guarantee you a job and the future you designed for yourself these days. It doesn’t even grant you an apartment of your own upon graduation. The latest statistics tell us that 85% of college grads move back in with their parents because they just can’t find jobs. (See Caryl’s Odyssey II post for her thoughts on this subject.)

Thomas Friedman wrote in a NY Times Op-Ed piece recently that the old career goal of climbing the corporate ladder is over. Now college graduates and anyone looking for gainful employment for that matter must consider inventing their own jobs within companies or with their own start-ups. LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman recently coauthored “The Start-up of You” with Ben Casnocha. They advocate a new mind set as well as skill set to compete for jobs of the future. Because of the uncertain and rapidly-changing conditions we do business in today we need to think and act more like entrepreneurs who start companies with no assurances of their chances of profitability. Hoffman advocates experimenting, adapting and taking your next steps based on that learning. You also need to network and be informed about where the growth opportunities are inside which industries and then define a way that you can add value that no one else can. “For entrepreneurs it’s differentiate or die – that now goes for all of us.”

Entrepreneurship is near and dear to my heart you may recall. I can attest to the fact that at least half the presenters doing pitches at the various entrepreneur meetups I attend are fresh out of – if not still in – college. That says to me that they are learning the basic start-up skills while still in school and aren’t being prepped for bolstering the weight of old corporate structures and business processes. Good for them and woe to the rest of us that have to unlearn what we knew as religion - endeavoring to keep our rigid org charts in order, employees appraised and graded and PowerPoints polished. This paradigm shift is not just for the newbies. We all must learn to network outside our immediate comfort zones, attend panel discussions and seminars and keep our skills uptodate. In fact this week I’m attending a web programming seminar for non-programmers with my goddaughter who is just starting her first real staff job after freelancing for a few years and making a complete move from an analog to a more digital profession. My goal is not to become a coder but my businesses are built on the internet and I know those recent college grads will be a bit more nimble than me in getting their prototypes off the ground. 


But back to Lana again. She’s not even halfway through college and struggling to find her place in the world. Maybe she’s already seen that a college degree isn’t all you need to get where you want to be but try to get someone to read your resume without that credential. So she’s looking into gap year programs, part-time jobs, non-matric college courses, internships (more suggestions anyone?) and willing to try new things. It’s frustrating for her and like most young adults she has little patience. But where I think I can help her is with grasping the importance of being resilient. Friedman agrees we need it now more than ever in a climate that doesn’t immediately recognize the value of our individual talents and ideas. Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, the internet radio service, that just went public, had no luck pitching his idea to over 300 venture capitalists at the start. Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" was rejected 38 times before being published. Even J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter’s creator, was turned down by twelve publishing houses and after she found one was told not to quit her day job. So inventiveness and resilience gave us Harry Potter, a beloved novel and music on our PC’s. I guess Lana and I can stick it out a bit longer.

Maryl writes: Discipline or Dishes?

I’m having a motivation problem. Starting your own business and working for yourself is a whole different discipline. Company employees have job descriptions, department objectives, specific deliverables and performance reviews. You typically work within a team made up of different skill sets so you never had to venture far from your own. Setting financial milestones with profit and loss statements just isn’t one of mine.

So I’ve been sitting in front of my computer on and off for the past few weeks faced with this task. I’ve tried methods for cracking procrastination, chunking the work, setting timeframes, making lists but the fact is that I’d rather be hand washing my dishes, weeding the neighbor’s garden or residing my house in aluminum than figuring out what it will cost to run my business for the first three years. I can’t stay focused long enough to make any noteworthy strides. Maybe this is what adult ADD feels like. On the other hand ADD sufferers are typically very creative and intuitive, which are two attributes I would use to describe my business.

Second life is all about self motivation and discovery and a new learning curve. So what I’ve learned is that I’m more mentally productive in the morning (as are 70% of all workers) when my mind and body are rested and life hasn’t yet interrupted your plans for the day. So I put my workouts off until the afternoons and dug in, did the reading, made my charts and little by little I’m seeing real progress. But if you do have any suggestions for handling difficult tasks that you’re not that deft at, please share them below and soon. I have to create an investor’s term sheet next and my oven needs some serious cleaning!  

   1) There’s so many books on procrastination but this simple

       title says it all, Focus, by Leo Babauta and I like the Zen 

       approach.
   2) We can learn personal productivity from America’s most 

        productive CEO’s.

   3) Here’s some tips on oven and other household cleaners that

       won’t take you away from your work?

Maryl writes: Free Work

I helped a friend last week with an auction to raise money for the non-profit she runs.  In fact I’ve got another one to attend tonight organized by a woman from my entrepreneur group.  Last week’s event was for a cultural exchange program to help underprivileged young adults who have a passion for media in the USA and France.  My friend created Eurica Media Lab to foster global understanding and communication.  She started it after she was let go from her last corporate job and decided to combine her knowledge of media (she was a former film maker) with her familiarity of the French and American cultures (she has homes in both countries). 

Tonight’s fund raiser supports the Partnership for Student Advancement.  It provides high school students in NYC with counseling, training, internships and a lot more to help them identify and pursue a career path.   My fellow entrepreneur left a corporate job too but was a teacher before that and guided her own five children through the city’s school system.  Her passion has always been to help minority students as inspired by her husband who did the same through his law practice.

Both these women don’t do this work for the money.   They aren’t currently taking any salary not to say they wouldn’t like to at some point.  Who wouldn’t in this economy.  They do it because it makes them feel good and allows them to combine their skills and knowledge and use them in a new direction to help fix a problem.  They studied up on all the particulars of starting a company, gathered a board of directors and started making contacts, in this case to ask for money.  I have great respect for both of them.

It’s interesting to note that both of them did not come from former especially lucrative professions.  You don’t have to be sitting on a pile of money to follow your own dream to create dreams for others.  Although I do have another friend who was the head of a large financial exchange and who’s now the chief of staff for the mayor of a good-sized city with a large low-income population.  She earns a single digit salary -- $1 a year -- at that job.  I admire her also.

Any ideas for a non-profit company of your own? 
     1)       Check out Eurica Media Lab
        2)      And Partnership for Student Advancement
        3)      Start learning how to start your own non-profit