#19 How We Hired an Intern on Twitter (yes..Found, Interviewed, Hired)

 Here is Brandy. She is our new intern. Isn’t she adorable?

Twitter-size pic of Brandy

She is smart as a whip and responsive beyond belief too. She is actually totally overqualified to be an intern. She is a virtual assistant – and a fabulous one who gets paid. But she wants to help US – The Hot Mommas Project – because she is inspired and wants to give back. Here is how we found her, and hired her, 0n Twitter.

It all started when I posted the following on Twitter:

 Posted by ChiefHotMomma

Please RT: The Hot Mommas Project is seeking 2 unpaid interns. Must have interest in women’s leadership. #BeAnIntern mkting/tech/outreach6:37 PM Jun 10th from Adjix

The RTs (re-tweets) began and the Twitter Sisterhood rose powerfully from their desks, parked cars, playdates, and boardrooms into the Twitterverse. Each of the women below put our intern listing out to their networks, representing a good 40,000 people.  And, here they are, the Twitter Sisterhood that helped us find Brandy:

@ladyday93 @jillfoster @digitalsista @gingerlatte @sarahrobinson @jessicaknows @e_wendt @tcwsonja @danavshelley @AFashionista @lydiafernandes

I DMed (Direct Messaged) Brandy my email so she could send me her resume. This all took place Thursday.

Friday, I decide “Hey…Why don’t we just conduct the entire interview on Twitter?” I knew my kids could wake up at any minute and a phone call would be pointless. Here is the interview stream on Twitter.  HERE is the interview stream on TweetChat. The interview took place piece by piece as I:

1. Got my kids breakfast.

2. Took my son to school.

3. Played in the playground with my daughter.

4. Walked to Starbucks – of course – with my daughter.

5. Watched Dora with my daughter. 

I extended the offer to Brandy right as Dora was ending. So, that is officially the best Dora The Explorer I’ve ever not watched. My daugher was cuddled up beside me, Brandy was knocking all the interview questions OUT OF THE PARK (in 140 characters or less), and I wound up with HELP. Which – as we ladies know – is what we so desperately need. 

The Hot Mommas Project needed someone smart, flexible, who believed in our cause, and who “gets it.” Kids screaming in the back? No problem. Internet access out at the university where I teach? No problem. Brandy can roll with us for sure.

WELCOME ON BOARD BRANDY! Find Brandy’s blog here. She is a virtual assistant. Hire her!

 

 

#18 Top 5 Tips for Getting Media Coverage. Media Training Part 2 – Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time.

 

Here is a pair of underwear I came across in the Gold's Gym parking lot. This will make sense later.

Media. Coverage. How do you do it? How do you get there? The Hot Mommas® Project has experienced a baptism by fire with regard to media training this past year.  We talked with some experts to make it more familiar, and less “TAKE.ME.TO. YOUR.LEADER.” Here are the big things we learned.

{ThemeSong: Take It Off by The Donnas]

 1. GETTING COVERAGE IS ABOUT GETTING OUT THERE. For the Hot Mommas® Project, getting coverage was about GETTING OUT THERE. Here are a few cause and effect press equations:

a. This article from GW (where I teach)…..led to an inquiry from Washington Post Magazine reporter Vanessa Gezari…which led to THIS massive article  and THIS Washington Post online chat.

P.s. This is a lesson in skilled reporting. Vanessa caputures it. She’s listed on Pulitzer.com for a reason.

P.s. Vanessa’s article led to a feature on NPR’s Michelle Martin’s show “Tell Me More.”

P.s.s The article also led to an INFLUX of calls and emails from everyone ranging from farmers to consultants to book coaches to military personnel to everyday folks wanting to learn to balance. It was amazing. Busy, but amazing.  Saranne Rothberg – our 2008-2009 Hot Mommas Project winner – wound up  media coaching me.  She said, “Are you READY for Oprah?” Like, literally, “Can you handle it?” She told me that when she was on Oprah for her charity ComedyCures, she got 20,000 emails. 

Here are some of the people who called, with which/whom we have real and great relationships now: David Allen, Sam Horn, Mom-entum Resources.  Also, lots of GW alumni and admins contacted me which was fun. Someone even was influenced to take a job at the university after reading the article. And I’m just an adjunct there!

b. This mass email (which I cringed to write  and blast out there – SCROLL DOWN to see text)….led to this interview.

c. This press release …led to coverage by US News and World Report (which was edited down into a teeny weeny thing, but, whatever. See around 1:00 min and very end.)

2. GETTING COVERAGE IS ABOUT HAVING “PEOPLE.”  When Saranne Rothberg  (her story), Brenda Rhodes (her story), and LaSara Firefox (her story) emerged as winners from our 2008-2009 finalists, they wrote me and said :

Saranne, Brenda, and LaSara: “We’ll have our PR people talk with your PR people.”

Me: “I don’t have people. Well, I teach at the George Washington University School of Business. There is the media office there.”  (Those of  you who follow this blog know about my co-dependent relationship with Racine Tucker-Hamilton in the GWSB communications office).

Saranne, Brenda, and LaSara: “Okay, well, put us in touch with Racine.”

So – my takeaway is that many entrepreneurs have “people.”  Example: The other day I spoke with Kristina Bouweri, owner of massive limo and transport company Reston Limo. She told me that when the company was smaller, she spent $500 a month on a PR person and it was the best money they ever spent because PR has helped distinguish their business from the competition.

Cause and effect: More on “people”…Racine Tucker-Hamilton was responsible, through her contacts, for this feature on ABC 7 News here in DC. There have also been a million billion other mentions of The Hot Mommas Project by GW – here was a great one because, being a cheap entrepreneur, I got a free head shot out of it. 

No effect: Interestingly, we got NO inquiries around this release concerning our hoity toity judges. However, the judges did blast it out to their networks which was helpful for getting the word out.

3. GETTING COVERAGE IS ABOUT THE STORY.

We’re named “The Hot Mommas® Project.” Clearly, this helps us. Then, we do cool stuff (teachable role models for women and girls). This also helps us. If your service is a trash removal service, this may be less interesting. However, if you remove “1 pound of belly button lint”…you just might have  a story! Or, if you’re Gold’s Gym (one of our event partners this summer), and you do a press release on “Gym Goers Lose Underwear, and Pants Sizes,” that just might get someone’s attention. In the famous words of Vanessa Gezari, “The media has a problem with subtelty.”  So, don’t be subtle.  Sam Horn’s book POP! is about very deliberately getting people’s attention.

4. GETTING COVERAGE IS ABOUT TELLING THE STORY….WELL (as in “good,” in an adept manner, etc.).

Me:  Saranne, all these women are coming to DC for the awards event. How cool! Egypt, Canada, everywhere!

Saranne: You should do a story on that.  You should call a local morning talk show and line up some Hot Mommas to be on the show.

Me: I would just call, and say “Hey, all these Hot Mommas are coming in town, can we come on your show?”

Saranne: Sure. But do a press release. I see the title: “Hot Mommas Descend Upon  DC.”

And, so it was.  Cause and effect: This press release resulted from that conversation…and we were on this show (see last link). We brought Alicia Anderson (her story) and Kelly Kolker (her story, comment and podcast).

5. GETTING COVERAGE IS ABOUT DISTRIBUTION.

After we recieved the coverage mentioned above, we:

- posted it on Twitter

- sent it to our Hot Mommas Facebook group

- sent it to my Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Facebook group (academically oriented)

- Shashib and others re-tweeted it including Harvard Business School, Wharton Women, Alfred P Sloan Foundation, and Judy Martin.

- We put it on the front page of our website.

- We put it on our “buzz” page.

- If we had a newsletter, we would have put it in that.

- If we had a better-organized database, we would have sent it to our top-tier judges.

PARTING THOUGHTS:

In addition to the above “getting coverage” tips, there is a third section in this tripych of media coverage: HOW TO NOT FREAK OUT or, said in a more professional way, PREPARING FOR INTERVIEWS. That will be the next post.  Let’s just say I had some “issues” and things to work through when the media blitz hit. For some people, like Romi Lassaly or Stacy Debroff or Amy Reyer or Saranne, the kind of media we got is rather dinky (except for the NPR and Washington Post Mag). However, for me it was like drinking from a firehose.  I had to address some personal issues I have about media and attention, in addition to general preparation and media training. My network really came to bat for me in working through those challenges.

The thing that it sucks to say: Some people can be kind of petty.  While most people were really happy for us re: the media coverage, there were some surprising reactions. Let’s just say that some folks who I thought would be our biggest supporters said nothing. nada. zilch. or resorted to snarky comments or – as a friend of mine and I very unprofessionally call it – “The Weenie Patrol.”  However, 99  & 44/100% of our reactions were positive. We have a lot of people behind us. That feels great. 

Link it up. Here are other insiders posts. I’m also starting an insider’s Twitter stream for the morbidly curious.

#18 Top 5 Tips for Getting Media Coverage , #17 How to Bring Red Carpet Cache to Your Event  , #16: How to do a Mass/Blast Email Campaign , #15b: Announcing Our Judges , #15a: The Press Release Backstory , #14b: Confessions and Reflections , #14a: Confessions and Reflections , #14: How to Do a Business Model , # 13: Leadership and Management , #12: Search Engine Optimization and Link Love , #11: Top 7 Low/No Cost Stuff To Use In Business , #10: How We Are Getting Press & Buzz , #9: How to Market_Networking Our Brains Out , #8: How We Got Our First Sponsors , #7: How to Implement , #6: Help Arrives , #5: Emergency Broadcast , #4:The Productive Amoeba , #3: THE PLAN , #2: Triage , The Art of the Start

#17 How to Bring Red Carpet Cache to Your Event – Media Training Part 1

Last night I attended the premiere of Rock of Ages on Broadway. Here is a review. It ROCKED! I was with my friend who works in the entertainment industry. In this post I share what I learned re: ins and outs of the red carpet. What does this have to do with The Hot Mommas Project and entrepreneurs , in general?  With a little organization, red carpet “cache” can be applied to any event needing to stand out from the crowd. Below are my top 5 observations about the red carpet, how it works, and ideas for applying it (entrepreneurial bootstrap style) to an event.

On March 9, the winners of our 2008-2009 Case Competition were announced in conjunction with a Hoffman Lecture Series at the George Washington School of Business, hosted by Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Now that we are into our 2009-2010 Hot Mommas Project Case Competition, many have suggested to us that we are have a really great event to raise funding and coincide with our awards. So, as I attended the Rock of Ages opening night on broadway, I was taking major notes.

Themesong: I Want To Rock, Twisted Sister

1. Walking the Red Carpet

How it works: This was fascinating to watch. There was a big red carpet laid out in front of the theatre. There are two sets of barricades. One barricade keeps “normal people” separate from the red carpet “walk” section. The other barricade keeps the press back off the red carpet walk. The event started at 6:45, the red carpet opened at 6:15, and the photographers had to show up at 5:30 to get lined up. Major “A list” publications get the best spots. Two photographers will typically be allowed on the red carpet itself (not behind the barricade), for instance a photographer hired by the studio or sponsor company as well as an industry publication photography (think “Variety”). I watched my friend in action as she acted as a “handler” for a celebrity. First, she walked him around to the head of the red carpet. The press is on the left, and the “Rock of Ages” 6-foot tall backdrops are on the right up against the building.  She yells out his name to the press, then he steps out onto the red carpet. The Rock of Ages publicist takes over at that point and moves him from the first stopping point to the next stopping point so all photographers can get a shot. Then, she escorts him down to the end of the red carpet where my friend was waiting for him with his ticket and showed him through the VIP entrance. (Yes, I know you want to know who this person is but I am supposed to keep all confidential .)

How to do the red carpet at an event: Take the extra step of getting a red carpet from IKEA or the hardware store, hanging a banner, and taking a picture of attendees. Example: Recently, the Hot Mommas Project announced winners of our 2008-2009 case competition (role models on paper for women and girls). I realized that, in the future, I would like to highlight the case others writers by walking them down a red carpet. Thus, after taking their nametag, I would like one of our team members to be a “handler” and walk the case writers, sponsors, and partners down the red carpet toting a clip board and calling out their name before they proceed to the designated spot for a picture. What a great Flickr roll that would be! It is also a great way of saying thank you and letting them know their importance to us.

A party held by Guy Kawasaki last summer in advance of BlogHer had a lot of these elements: Photographers, fun pictures, and many unique elements and amazing SWAG. Guy had boas and other fun stuff people wore for pictures. You social media folk who remember Guy’s avatar with the boa? That was an outgrowth of the party.

2. Celebrity attendance

Lead singer from Survivor, Rock of Ages after party

How it works: My friend was calling around trying to get celebrities to attend this event. This is where connections and calling in favors come in handy. I sat directly behind the guy who founded Twisted Sister and his amazing girlfriend who is in business publishing. Two seats down from him was Dee Snider, lead singer of Twisted Sister, and his wife who really showed her savvy in a “Rock Wives” show a few years back. I leaned over to my friend and said, “Dee Snider is sitting RIGHT THERE!!” She said, “Yeah, all the hair bands from the 80s were invited to the premiere because their music is in the show.” Dee still has great hair. [Side note: The band has an incredibly cool, but little-known, story that I may write about in a case for a business textbook. Stay tuned on that.]

How to get a celebrity to attend your event: Start EARLY making connections with local or national luminaries to see if they will attend your event. Maybe you want to honor them with a special award to acknowledge their work in your industry or have them as a speaker. Once you lock them in, let the press know. Start asking around NOW unless you know tons of luminaries who will do whatever you say at the drop of a hat.  Example: In DC and in business, Linda Rabbitt (who spoke at the Hoffman Lecture Series preceding our event) is a big deal. She owns one of the top 50 largest woman- owned companies in the US, and the 2nd larges woman-owned construction company in the nation. I went to Erik Winslow in my department at GW and presented the idea of her as a speaker, followed by the Hot Mommas Project awards. He contacted her, she liked the idea, done. People still have not stopped talking to me about the event. Take the extra step, ask around. You never know whose sister’s cousin knows Kevin Bacon.

[Update - many entertainment industry folks thought Steve Perry performed at the after-party, but, in fact - it was a cover band "Evolution" - now THAT is talent!]

3.  Giveaways/SWAG

How it works: Rock of Ages is a Broadway show, soon to be a film, so clearly there are tickets involved (see image at top). There were also great giveaways that I thought were cool, different, and I will definitely use (or my kids will use) in the future. At Rock of Ages they gave out what looked like lighters with LED lights with “Rock of Ages” printed on it. People used those during the play like they were at a concert. At the after-party, they gave out flasks with “Rock of Ages” printed on them. This particular giveaway was so perfect given the tone of the play (e.g., Rock, excess, etc.).

How to get cheap giveaways for your event: It would be easy and cheap to print something that looked like a Broadway show ticket, pictured here. Maybe someone pictured on the Red Carpet could frame the ticket with their red carpet picture. Marketing for you when someone walks in their office and says, “Where were you there?”  As far as cheap giveaways, I have to give a shout out to my husband’s company who are some of the best in the business at this stuff. www.OnSalePromos.com. There are SO MANY thousands of products. It would be good to have someone to brainstorm with about options in a certain price range. Also, corporations often have leftover giveaways from tradeshows, etc. Maybe you could recycle some of those, and offer sponsors and partners the opportunity to get their name out at your event.  At our March 9 event, we had many sponsors ranging from SEPHORA to Green Valley Spa to David and Goliath and Beijo Bags who donated free goods to our winners. See our prize list here. ALL our prizes were donated. We targeted and approached individual companies that I liked and fit with our project. Another alternative is Peter Shankman’s Friday HARO where he lists gift bag queries.

4. Bathroom traffic director

How it works: This poor little theater was overwhelmed by the stampeding opening night crowd.  I was in a bathroom line at intermission which looked hopeless. I think there must have been 100 people in front of me. Ladies, I know you hear me on this. One of the great injustices in the world is male and female bathroom inequities. Anyway, I got it! I thought, “How did THAT happen?” Then, I see the bathroom traffic director. “Number 6 is open!” she yells out. “Mam, wait right there. Okay, number 4 is open.” This is the first time I have ever seen such a thing. Now, behind that is someone who knows how to run an operation.

How to have your own bathroom traffic director: Okay, so, the real point here is a really memorable, stand-out element that helps your event run smoothly. You could pay someone $100 for five hours to do something really cool at your event. Example: “Neworking Fairy.” At a Hot Mommas Project event, let’s say a “Networking Fairy” is walking around with an earpiece, and I have the other earpiece. The “Networking Fairy” introduces people that should meet. For example, if I am talking to the publicist from Rock of Ages, I will tell the networking fairy “Bring my husband down to the bar on the first floor, I want him to meet the Rock of Ages publicist about doing their giveaways.”  The press can help your event seem unique, too, in terms of the less obvious experience. At Guy Kawasaki’s event last summer, people were there recording podcasts. So, in that way, the press can be a credibility/excitement-infusing tool. At our March 9 event, US News and World Report was there doing a segment on women’s education. They interviewed Hot Mommas Case Authors Saranne Rothberg, Lydia Fernandes, and others. People were talking about it “Did you get interviewed by US News and World Report?”…just as I was talking about the bathroom traffic director at Rock of Ages. US News found out about us because of this press release.

5. Afterparty with unique elements

How it works: At the play, we got passes to an after party at a bar two doors down. The VIPs headed to a special section guarded by security. Everyone else went into the main area by the stage. Constantine (from American Idol and who stars in the Broadway Rock of Ages show) sang at the after party as well as Survivor. [[Reality check: How cool is THAT?]] There were two dancers up on stage who – shall we say – really got everyone’s attention. The after-party seemed to feed off the energy of the play. It was great.

How to have your own unique after-party: If you’re having an event, print after-party passes to hand out with nametags/tickets. If it’s a weeknight, I’m sure a local bar or restaurant would be happy to have your posse storm their bar. The cheap version is to have a cash bar or make an arrangement with the restaurant for discount drinks that you pay for. The expensive version is to have a private room and you or a sponsor take care of the tab.  Example: One of my big regrets is not having an after party after the Hot Mommas Project awards were given out at GW on March 9. I was very caught up in what was appropriate vs not given the fact that we were hanger-oners to a university event (a Hoffman Lecture Series). The lecturer, Linda Rabbitt, was inspirational. The awardees and their stories were as well. People were crying, buzzing like bees, and networking at the bottom of the lecture hall after the event. There was an incredible energy in the air. There was a reception afterward where the mingling continued. However, next year I see that more “outlets” are needed for the massive energy of the crowd. I will definitely plan on speaking with a nearby restaurant early to check on interest of sponsoring an after-party. As far as unique elements, it would be great to immediately flash the red carpet pictures on a screen throughout the party as well as quotes from cases/sponsors. If Shashi Bellamkonda comes to your event you’re in business, because he essentially does real-time coverage. He is a machine! Here is the Flickr roll of some pics he took at our March 9 event. Because I am so exhausted from the premiere and after party, I can’t be any more creative than that presently.

Any cool/unique things you’ve seen at events that might help an entrepreneur? Post here.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part-Time #16: How to do a Mass/Blast Email Campaign

Let me start this post by saying: I am not a huge fan of mass emails.

Exception: When someone has opted in, as I have for two of the best newsletters I know (from Harvard Business School and Julie Weeks’ WomenAble, also listed at bottom of this post).

Sections of this post will cover: Popular mass/blast email programs/campaigners, how to write a blast email, challenges of blast emails, and other fun stuff. Everything in this post is totally opposite @TheMogulMom’s summary of Seth Godin’s advice on “How to Write a Personal Email.“

For the Hot Mommas Project, mass emails are about moving out of our comfort zone: Theme song (Retro, baby)

---

But, not being overly cheesy in doing that: Theme song (Think Night at the Roxbury, Will Ferrell, Chris Katan, shiny suits).

---

POPULAR MASS/BLAST EMAIL PROGRAMS/CAMPAIGNERS:

These are mass email programs I considered:

Program	Number of Contacts*	Price per month
iContact	500	$9.95
Constant Contact	500	$15.00
Campaigner	2500	$25.00
Mail Chimp	500	$10.00 or $8.50 for non profits

* These are the smallest packages available per program

iContact – This was recommended to me by Robin McIntire on Twitter. What won me over was their really good, results-based marketing approach on the site. They talk about how they are white listed because of relationships with ISPs.

Constant Contact - Tons of people use this. There has to be a reason.

Campaigner – My husband’s company uses this. He does a lot of emails.

Mail Chimp - This was mentioned to me by JRLeckie on Twitter.

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A MASS/BLAST EMAIL PROGRAMS/CAMPAIGN:

Below are completely subjective tips on constructing a mass email based on:

a. Common sense

b. The reactions to our most recent blast emails, and

c. How I constructed my email in iContact.

Starter tip: Choose a service that meets your contact and email volume needs – Some services limit you by number of contacts, but let you send a million, billion emails to those contacts. For others, it’s the opposite. I have very few contacts (1,000) but can do 6,000 emails per month. So, I will send an email to 700 people from my Outlook, delete that list, upload another list of 500 people from my Outlook so I don’t go over the 1000 limit. My lists are very organized in Excel, so, I don’t stress about deleting and adding back lists to stay under 1000 contacts.

Another starter tip: Do a trial- Most of the services above offer a free trial.  I think I started with a 250 contact trial on iContact. It went well, so, I upgraded to 1000 per month. When/if you upgrade, find out how you can get out of the contract.  For instance, we at the Hot Mommas Project are just doing these emails during our case competition. I want to end the subscription after that. Look into those rules for the service you choose if this is not a permanent thing.

1. Upload contact list. You will need to have a list of emails in Excel. You will need a new file for each group (you can’t upload multiple worksheets). I sent one to “men” one to “Hot Mommas” and one to “survey takers.” These were three separate documents.

Tip: Use a service with easy contact upload and purging. You look dumb if you send someone the same email a million times. Make sure the service you use purges duplicate emails.

2. Manually edit list.

a. Make sure your emails and names look okay. I had to change the first names of folks where I had “Alan & Karen”, for instance, and make sure it just said, “Karen.”

b. Label fields.You can do this by adding field names in the very first line of your spreadsheet, e.g. [fname] (first name). Alternatively, iContact has a drop down box that you can use after upload to label each column in your spreadsheet.

3. Construct email (sample in next section). You can use a template or create from scratch. You can insert [fieldname] in the text of your email where you want the information to appear. For example, Dear [fname] would be “Dear Kathy” in my email. I prefer to construct mine from scratch. I do not like HTML template emails.

NOTE: If you want to track results for your campaign you do need to do a version in HTML, even if it is just a text email. The site will explain all of this hopefully. iContact does.

4. Copy HTML to plain text. A plain text version is needed for folks that don’t have HTML capability (Blackberries and such is my guess on this). Typically, it can look a little weird and you need to EDIT the plain text version to make sure it looks okay.

5. Do a spam check. Once you construct an email, iContact has a ”spam checker” which rates the chances of your email getting through SPAM filters. You can then go back and make changes based on the feedback of this little bot. One of my favorites, which I still don’t understand, is “Attempt to obfuscate subject.”

6. Send a test email. Send one to yourself and make sure it looks okay.

7. Launch! I read one-time that campaigns launched on a Tuesday or Wednesday mid-day/afternoon were most successful.  This  survey says it is true.

8. Measure results. You should be able to click and track pretty easily.

Tip: Use a service with good results tracking. I do this so infrequently that I don’t care about results. But, if I had a newsletter that folks opted into and I did this every quarter, I’d be curious about performance.  The iContact dashboard looks good to me. There is summary, detail, and lots of pretty pictures. Again, you will have to see if the service you’re looking into tracks the data in which you’re interested.

TABOO – Don’t Do This or You Will Be Automatically Entered Into The Formaggio Club:

I just attended a conference for entrepreneurship professors. There was an exhibitor there called “SimuLearn.” I did not go to their both, nor did I have any interactions with their staff. What arrives yesterday? A blast email from SimuLearn. They are operating off the attendees list. Look, I have as much sympathy for small business sales folks as anyone. However, the title of this email – in my opinion – should be: “Sorry we didn’t have a chance to meet at the conference”. In the TEXT of the email I would like to see the following:

1. An introduction

2. An explanation of value provided by being on their list (giveaways, cutting edge research, blah blah)

3. Permission to keep sending notes.

Bottom line: I think it is tacky to heist names off an attendee list or an email to you and send repeated blast emails. Don’t put friends and associates – or even strangers – in that position. Your friends and associates may be too polite to unsubscribe, but, they are annoyed that you put them on the list without their permission and then they get all these emails from you every week for a year.

[Update: See comments below - I got my first-ever "cold" blast email that I liked from www.OurMilkMoney.com]

EMAIL SAMPLES AND REACTIONS

The “tacky factor” was my big obstacle to doing a mass email in the first place. There is something about it that gives me the willies. I went ahead and sent the email. It started like this:

“Dear [name of person receiving email],

This morning I was speaking with my friend Colleen at Starbucks. “Why haven’t I heard anything from you on The Hot Mommas Project case competition? It is such a great project to help women and girls,” she said. I told her “Because I don’t like sending mass emails.”  In a very nice way, she told me to get over myself and send the email. You are receiving this email because you are in my Outlook, which undoubtedly means you have something great to offer The Hot Mommas Project project. The bottom line is this: If you are a great female role model or have ever considered mentoring a young woman or peer, please see the information below. If you also want to nominate another role model,  please forward this email (nomination information below) and cc us at support@HotMommasProject.com. Cases must be completed by 1/31 midnight EST. This is a ground-breaking project to help the women and girls. If you are not already involved, please consider participating telling your story and/or nominating 2 others by forwarding the below information…”

HOW YOU KNOW YOUR EMAIL WAS GOOD: POSITIVE REACTIONS.

Great reaction #1:

My BFF Julie who runs the policy office for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship:

“I like how the email started. It drew me in.”

Great reaction #2:

“Kathy – from my perspective I love to get “mass” emails just like this one. Thanks for taking the time to send it out and I will certainly fill in a case. Cheryl, Cheryl Mitchell, Principal, Red Ball Solutions Inc.“

Great reaction #3:

“Hey Kathy, This is is Tricia Duncan Calling. I am calling about your Hot Mommas Project.

I got your email that you sent and sent it off to a bunch of fascinating women that I know. One of them, her name is Rebecca Cooper; she’s an ABC News Correspondent. She has a new show Sunday nights called “Washington Business.” She thinks that your idea is great and she wants to know if you want to be on her show. What I am going to do is get you guys in touch. You can either call me back or email Rebecca. She’s a dear friend of and I know she’d love to hear from you. She also lives here in the Palisades.

Hope to hear from you soon. I think your project is awesome. Bye.”

[Update: I am going on this show February 10th}

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THIS FLACK:

1. Who are you and how did you get my name? We did not get this response this time around, but I have in the past. Be able to back this up. If you “spray and pray” – remember that your credibility could be diminished. Credibility is very important to The Hot Mommas Project, thus, every single person to whom we send an email is: a. In my personal contact database or has registered on the Hot Mommas Project site, b. Asked to be signed up on our alert list, c. Took our survey between 2005-2007.

2. Did you mean to send this to me? This email came mainly from important people who already serve in some capacity with our project, namely: Judges or faculty at GW.

3. &%!#!!!!!: We didn’t get any of these reactions. But, it would be funny to hear about some folks who have gotten extraordinarily severe reactions to their mailings. Come on, post them in the comments. We all need some entertainment.

FAVORITE NEWSLETTERS AND INFORMATION SOURCES:

HBS Working Knowledge: Harvard Business School’s newsletter which can sometimes be theoretical, but, gives you a good sense of the “big issues” folks are talking about in business.

Julie Weeks – WomenAble: Quarterly newsletters on pretty much every big update in women’s leadership (globally) from policy to business.

HARO :  I  heart HARO (Help a Reporter Out). I have mentioned this many times in these posts. It is opt-in ONLY.  Distribution of over 40k and counting.

Alltop : I heart Alltop- They don’t have a newsletter, though.   However, I’m listing my favorites here and will tell you that seeing 100 + blog headlines in a category (blogs I do are in Moms and Start Up categories) really helps give you a quick sense of what is going on in that segment.

PARTING THOUGHTS:

So – I have “issues” with mass email.  Why? I think it’s kind of cheesy unless done right – which, in my opinion is:

1. OPT IN only

2. INFREQUENTLY to actual contact YOU KNOW.

High value must ALWAYS be the denominator.  Truthfully, I think I still have issues with it even when it IS  “done right.”   This is where mentors come in. I vented about my blast email “issues” to Colleen Reilly, who does VERY cool work in the health care arena, one morning. She’s like, “Eh, send it. Don’t make such a big deal about it.” That helped me. Colleen was like one of those people who pushes you over the wall when you go to those corporate retreat places, except, Colleen didn’t have my shoe/other in her face. Bonus.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time #15b: Announcing Our Judges

Today we announce the Hot Mommas Project judging panel. (I’m also pasting the list below). They are awesome. Here is the press release.  How do you figure out how to “announce” something? This is how I did it given that we are going guerrilla and, even if we had more money I wouldn’t spend it because the economy stinks:

1. Modeling – This is a nice word for copying people. I pretty much copied what I saw my friends and clients at the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation do when they released their Johnny Money Online Game (business simulation game). It was picked up by a lot of bloggers and such.  Of course, it is really cool. But, if I may be so bold, what we are doing is really cool. (See updated ABOUT page).  I found some of the sources below through that, and also fashioned my press release after theirs (JMOG press release).

2. Asking for advice – As I’ve mentioned lots of times throughout this blog, I rely on friends in PR. A lot. I am essentially co-dependent on Racine Tucker-Hamilton at GWSB communications. She reviewed our press release SEVERAL times. I will likely check in with Susan Apgood from News Generation and Candice McDonough in communications at New Line Cinema (I am not putting a link for Candice because people always stalk her and give her their headshots, so, I will spare her).

3. Social media – I am coming up with a few creative ideas, like 150-character descriptions of the judges to list on Twitter along with our hashtag term for the competition “#casewriter08″.  More below.

We’ll see what happens as we broadcast this through a number of sources:

a. “Free press release” services. Which was not really free. But then became free when I complained it wasn’t free, and they refunded me. Now I can go to the movies, by myself.

b. Our “normal” blog – which tons of people visit, but, no one comments.

c. Our judges, who are all getting this out to their networks.

d. Facebook (our Hot Mommas Group which, now, has all of 46 members or something – but, in looking it over I realized it’s quite the power group).

e. Twitter. Everyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about Twitter.

f. The George Washington University School of Business (they will be sending this out through their channels on Friday).

g. Am I forgetting anything folks? Keep in mind that we have no PR firm, rely entirely on GW and the kindness of others, and spent all our money on the development of our case wizard software at www.HotMommasProject.org (we love you @djuth – you’re worth it!).

As I say in other posts….

*****************************************

What is this, where I am, who are you? If this is your first time here, this is the insider’s blog for The Hot Mommas Project. We are a women’s leadership project housed at the George Washington University in DC and have an audacious goal of becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone.  Click here for about page.

*****************************************

Here are the judges. You may kiss their rings.

Adriana Alarcon Efrach Part-time SAHM (Stay at Home Mom), part-time interpreter. Former Mexican diplomat and Executive Director of The Latino Coalition Foundation.

Ann Handley Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, and author of acclaimed personal blog, Annarchy. Voted #1 most influential woman in social media.Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, which provides strategic and tactical marketing know-how for marketing and business professionals through a full range of online media. She writes at the MarketingProfs Daily Fix, a blog in the top 20 of the Advertising Age Power150 and in the top 10 of The Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing & Social Media Blogs. She is also a contributor to The Huffington Post. Previously, she was the co-founder of ClickZ, one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary. Prior to that, she spent 12 years as a business editor and writer for both local and national trade and consumer publications.

Ashgar Mostafa President and Chief Executive Officer of Entourage Systems, Inc. Winner of GW’s 2008 Award for Distinguished Entrepreneurial Achievement.Asghar Mostafa is an experienced entrepreneur with an extensive business and technical background. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Entourage Systems, Inc., which breaks the cost and technology barriers in education to bring affordable, upgradeable, exciting textbooks and content to our students. Mr. Mostafa has spent more than 25 years creating and building category-breaking technology companies. Prior to Entourage Systems, Inc., Mr. Mostafa served as founder, President and CEO of Vinci Systems which designed, manufactured and sold interoperable Broadband Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) and founded Advanced Switching Communications, Inc. (ASC) in October 1997 with the goal of revolutionizing global communications network architecture.

Barbara Kasoff Co-Founder, President and CEO, Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc. (WIPP).Barbara Kasoff is currently the President and CEO, and Co-Founder, of Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc., a non-profit, bi-partisan public policy advocacy organization with over half a million members including 45 business organization, educating and advocating on economic issues for women in business. She has also owned and managed Voice-Tel of Michigan, Voice-Tel of Central Michigan, and Voice Response Corporation. Barbara is an active supporter for small businesses, and women and minorities in business in particular. Barbara also serves on several corporate and non-profit boards.

Cynthia Good Cynthia Good is the CEO, founding editor and co-owner of PINK.Cynthia Good is the CEO, founding editor and co-owner of PINK. During her last quarter-century in journalism, she has worked passionately to make a difference in the lives of women and their families. Cynthia has launched two magazines, PINK and Atlanta Woman – both winners of the Magazine Association of the Southeast’s highest award, the Grand GAMMA. Previously, Cynthia anchored and reported the evening news at TV stations across the country. She also created her own television show, Good for Parents. She has written six books in all, including Words Every Child Must Hear and Vaccinating Your Child.

Donna Messer Canada’s leading expert in networking. President of ConnectUs Communications Canada.Donna is President of ConnectUs Communications Canada. She also Chair for NexPro (Business Development Bank of Canada). She winner of International Leader Award and Honorary member of the Rotary Club. She is a keynote speaker, workshop coordinator and seminar leader. She works with many associations to help add value to their groups through networking. Donna also works with colleges and universities to help them expand their networks and helps students find placement. She offers workshops to many government programs, whose goal is to help the unemployed help themselves.

Ellen Mishkind Thrasher Director, Office of Entrepreneurship Education, the U.S. Small Business Administration.Ellen M. Thrasher is the Director for the Office of Entrepreneurship Education, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). She serves as an advocate for entrepreneurial development through a variety of management and technical assistance programs and services designed for small business success. Ms. Thrasher also directs the Office of International Visitors, a courtesy service to foreign visitors and dignitaries showcasing for international visitors the “American small business model.” Previously, she served as Deputy Associate Administrator for the Small Business Development Center program. Ms. Thrasher is active in numerous civic and community organizations, including the Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts Alumni Leadership Board and she serves on the Advisory Board for the National Women in History Museum.

Karen Kerrigan President & CEO of Women Entrepreneurs Inc., Founder of Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.Ms. Kerrigan is President and CEO of Women Entrepreneurs Inc., a nonprofit business association that helps women business owners succeed through education, networking and advocacy. In 1994, Ms. Kerrigan founded the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a prominent and respected advocacy and research organization with more than 70,000 members nationwide. She was listed on the “Best Friends in DC” list for small business owners in Feb 2006 issue of Inc. Magazine. In May 2005 The Hill newspaper called Kerrigan “the hardest working woman in show business.” Her commentary, analysis and written work have appeared in many of the nation’s leading newspapers. She has appeared on ABC`s Nightline, The McLaughlin Group, CNN, CNBC, and Fox News Television among others. She has been a guest on hundreds of radio talk shows.

Lisa Osborne Ross Senior vice president of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide.Lisa Osborne Ross is Senior Vice President of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. She provides strategic counsel to clients like United Way of America, NIH and the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. As evidenced by her positions at the White House Women’s Office and the Glass Ceiling Commission, Ross cares deeply about the needs of women and people of color. In 1997, Ross and a diverse and committed group of women helped establish the Washington Area Women’s Foundation (WAWF). Currently serving on the Honorary Council of WAWF, Ross stresses the importance of focusing on young girls in need. Ross is also an active member of Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, where her family attends services and her children attend the school.

Marc Silverstein Nationally-known host of Food Network and Discovery shows. Founder and CEO of On the Marc Media.Marc Silverstein owns his media company, On The Marc Media, which specialize in marketing and public relations, video production, news release writing and distribution, media training and crisis management. Marc is nationally known host of The Best Of on Food Network and Go Ahead, Make My Dinner on The Discovery Channel. He’s a multi-talented, much on demand personality.

Mark Lowell Ordesky Founder, Court Five Productions. Film producer. Credits include Lord of the Rings Trilogy and Golden Compass.Mark Lowell Ordesky is founder of the Court Five Productions. Mark was an executive producer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and played a key role in their production. Other credits include The Golden Compass. Previously, in 1996, he helped successfully introduce Jackie Chan to U.S. audiences with the breakout hit Rumble in the Bronx. From 1998 to 2002, following the acquisition of the Oscar-winning Shine, Ordesky was president of Fine Line Features, then the speciality-film division of New Line Cinema. Mark was honored by the Chi Phi Fraternity at the 143rd Congress held in New Orleans on June 21st, 2008 with the Walter Cronkite Congressional Award. He supports the Anti-Defamation League as a Regional Board Member and Chair of its Entertainment Industry Committee. He is also a board member of the American Cinematheque.

Myra Hart Harvard Business School Professor (retired), founding officer of STAPLES.Myra Hart is a retired professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School. Myra Hart’s research and teaching focus on high potential entrepreneurship with an emphasis on the development of critical resources and relationships. She has developed more than 60 HBS cases and teaching notes. HBS has recognized Professor Hart with the Apgar Award for innovation in teaching and the Greenhill Award for faculty leadership. Prior to joining the faculty of Harvard Business School, Hart worked in the retail industry. In 1985, she joined Tom Stemberg as one of the four founding officers of Staples, the Office Superstore. Prior to that she was Director of Marketing for Star Market, a division of Jewel Companies.

Sameera Bazaz SAHM (Stay at Home Mom), MBA, JD, CPA, former PWC & McKinsey consultant and Freemarkets Business Unit Leader.

Sharon Oliver Cofounder of Meany & Oliver Companies, a commercial real estate brokerage. Commercial Realtor of the Year Award Recipient.Ms. Oliver co-founded Meany & Oliver Companies Inc. in 2004, which provides brokerage, consulting and investment services primarily to landlords in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. Ms. Oliver is a graduate from Goucher College with a B.A. in Economics and an MBA from The George Washington University. She had numerous Professional Affiliations and Awards from Greater Washington Commercial Assn. of Realtors including Realtor of the Year 1997, President in year 1997, and Top Regional Developer Agent of the Year 2004.

Shashi Bellamkonda Head of Social/New Media Strategy at Network Solutions.Shashi Bellamkonda works for Network Solutions as the first-ever Network Solutions “Social Media Swami.” He helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to listen to and interact with its customers. For this effort Network Solutions® with Livingston Communications won the 2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management/Corporate Division. A prolific Twitterer, blogger, and product innovator, Shashi loves technology, testing new things and helping people. A self-described “Internet junkie,” Shashi has presented previously on “How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss” and “Social Media tools for Small Business.” Shashi’s life’s mission is to be helpful to others and achieve dreams in installments.

Stacy Debroff Nationally acclaimed parenting expert and bestselling author. Founder and CEO of www.MomCentral.com.In 1997, Mom Central founder and president Stacy DeBroff left a successful career as a lawyer and founder of the public interest advising office at Harvard Law School to write books for parents and spend more time with her own two children, now ages 13 and 15. She went on to become a nationally acclaimed parenting expert and bestselling author of The Mom Book Goes to School: Insider Tips to Ensure Your Child Thrives in Elementary and Middle School, SIGN ME UP! The Parent’s Complete Guide to Sports, Activities, Music Lessons, Dance Classes, and Other Extracurriculars, The Mom Book: 4,278 of Mom Central’s Tips for Moms from Moms, and Mom Central: The Ultimate Family Organizer.

Susan G. Duffy Assistant Professor of Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Simmons College.Susan is an Associate Professor of Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Simmons College. Susan Duffy is recognized as a source of thought and initiative in advancing entrepreneurship, developing innovative education programs, and delivering system-wide value in diverse organizations. She earned her Ph.D. from The George Washington University (GWU) in Management and Organization, a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition Science from the Pennsylvania State University. While completing her doctorate, Susan was a faculty member of the GWU Department of Management where she served as the Executive Director of the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) and the Director of the GWU Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) initiative. In 2006 WEL was recognized as the 2006 National Model Specialty Program in Entrepreneurship Education by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. In her role as the Executive Director of the ICSB, Susan worked with an international team of researchers, policy makers, educators and service providers dedicated to advancing entrepreneurship and small business worldwide.

Susan M. Phillips Dean of the George Washington University Business School and former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.Dr. Phillips is Dean and Professor of Finance at The George Washington University School of Business, a position she has held since 1998. She was a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from December 1991 though June 1998. Before her Federal Reserve appointment, Dr. Phillips served as Vice President for Finance and University Services and Professor of Finance in The College of Business Administration at the University of Iowa from 1987 through 1991. She is a director of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm Life Insurance Company, State Farm Companies Foundation, National Futures Association, the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the Chicago Futures Exchange. Dr. Phillips also is a trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation.

Susan Wilson Solovic Founder and CEO of SBTV.com. Best-selling author: The Girl’s Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business.Susan Wilson Solovic is the CEO of SBTV.com, the Nation’s only online television network dedicated to the growing small business segment of the U.S. economy. Solovic began her professional career as a television news anchor and reporter for NBC and CBS affiliates. Subsequently, she joined a Fortune 100 company where she was named Vice President, Director of Corporate Marketing of an international asset-based lending division. Solovic is the author of the popular books, The Girls’ Guide to Power and Success and Reinvent Your Career: Attain the Success You Deserve and Desire. Additionally, Solovic hosted and produced a series of national satellite television broadcasts for women business owners in the United States and Canada and she helped to create a targeted investing program for a national brokerage firm.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time #15a: The Press Release Backstory

Didn't you hear about the new reality show? Toddler Renovation.

So here is really what is going on the morning of announcing  judges for The Hot Mommas Project.

MUSIC: Can’t get M.I.A.’s Paper Planes from Slumdog Millionaire out of my mind, so, that’s the song to which the following events are set.

5.50 am

I get up, log on to www.1888pressrelease.com (a supposedly free press release service) only to notice that the the press release I uploaded last night has been “rejected”. We are newsworthy, don’t have links in the release. What gives?  I pay $10 to upgrade my account. We’ll see if this magically gets our press release published. My guess is it would be the same at www.Free-Press-Release.com.

5:50 am – 7:00 am

My 5 year-old son is obsessively asking me, “Mommy. Where’s my robot?”

I have no picture for 3 or 4 for our judges. I told Achin to put up an avatar for them. It’s not there.  Semi-pathetically, I begin combing through proofs from my wedding a decade ago, because one of the judges – Adriana Alarcon Efrach – was at my wedding.  I try to get a grip and prioritize.

7:00 am

Peapod arrives. Our dog goes nuts. My husband leaves for an early meeting.

I have a headache.

7:41 am

I am going upstairs to take my only headache cure, an Advil / Tylenol combo, and I know I’ll come back downstairs to unicorns and butterflies and everything magically being okay. The judges page will be up, as will our press release.

7:56 am

Back downstairs.  Waiting for drug cocktail to take effect. Coffee in hand. Good. Kids “cleaning” bathroom. As part of this, my son has successfully negotiated away from me a LUSH bath fizz ball thingy because he says, he just “needs a quarter of it.”  (Apologies to Stephanie Gresham, the incredibly wonderful Senior Secy at the Department of Management who gave me that bath ball.)

7.59 am

I look back on www.888pressrelease.com. Well, well, well – isn’t this interesting that after paying, my press release is magically “pending.”  Karen Kerrigan, one of our judges, is going to blast this to all her sources so hopefully that will help compensate for the fact that we have no PR firm, although, there is Racine Tucker-Hamilton at GW and DON’T GET ANY IDEAS people…she’s ours.

8:10 am

Okay, Achin was supposed to finish the judges page or tell me by 8 that he couldn’t do it so I can plan my day. I go upstairs to find my phone, do a bunch of other stuff, and come down without my phone.

8:14 am

I go back up to get my phone. I have made the grave error of putting it on “silent”, which means an archaeological dig is likely going to ensue. Naturally, I find my phone on top of a pile of clothes on top of the hamper.

8:15 am

Shockingly, or not, the press release is magically “approved” on www.888pressrelease.com after paying $10.  [12.18.09 UPDATE: 1888PressRelease refunded my $10 and re-released the press release! So, I officially love them. The traffic is crashing our site, almost.] Achin texts me to say the judges page will be ready in an hour.

8:26 am

I hear my daughter upstairs, now with Nat – our babysitter and surrogate big sister – saying, “Supew girw to da wescuuuuu!” For those of you who do not speak “Toddler”, this means “Super girl to the rescue.” While I generally consider working at home a couple of days a week (when I’m not at GW) to be a disaster, there are moments like this that are too cute.

8:45 am

The painter arrives. Oh, did I not mention this? Yeah. Have our painter/handyman coming today to fix some of my son’s handiwork from the summer (pictured at top of post). This was highly dumb to plan this for today.  When my husband says, “Let’s just keep it simple,” I am almost certain this is NOT what he means.

10:34 am

After a lot of back and forthing, we’re ready to go. I’m going on Twitter to announce the judges.

PARTING THOUGHTS:

Because it would be a tad inappropriate to place this in the next, more educationally-oriented link, the themesong for the next post will now change to THIS. We.Are.Pumped. These judges are THE REAL DEAL. Good brains. Good people.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time #14b: Confessions and Reflections

This is the second of two posts reflecting on what has worked, and what hasn’t, since conceiving and implementing the Hot Mommas Project case study competition. See first Confessions and Reflections post.

It ain't pretty. Computer + Face Mask = Fake Relaxation

Pictured here, I am “relaxing” with my computer open.  Quite unsightly on a number of levels. First confession: I may be a part time working mom physically, but I am full time-plus mentally. I am constantly thinking about the project. I’m freaking exhausted. I seriously think I have carpal tunnel in my shoulder.

What keeps me going?

Comments like this:

“Thanks for making me feel like I matter.”

“I am writing my case to be a role model for my girls.”

Shout outs to our case writers here.

*****************************************

What is this, where I am, who are you? If this is your first time here, this is the insider’s blog for The Hot Mommas Project. We are a women’s leadership project housed at the George Washington University in DC and have an audacious goal of becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone.

Yes – business junkies – I am refusing to use the term BHAG because it makes me somewhat nauseous. Sorry Jim Collins.

*****************************************

Now, onto a commentary on the second half of the posts-to-date about the Hot Mommas Project journey.

#6 Help Arrives – Disappointing. This person left. I feel this internal voice sometimes like the “I’m melting!” voice of the Wizard of Oz witch.

# 7 How to Implement - The central point of this post was to show how Esther (first intern) and I were getting things done. In theory, a lot of this information is right on. In practice, I have found much tweaking is needed. FOCUS is clearly the most important takeaway. Just when I think the team and I are focused, we get more focused. We are now all focused on a single number each week. That number is published cases. Then, we back into how to make that happen. It is a challenge. The team is comprised of students. They have classes and it is very, very hard. Last week was our first big success.  More in Management and Leadership.

#8 Sponsorship - All the tips mentioned by Julie Silard Kantor from NFTE in this post are right on.  One thing I was a bit naive about  – or had sort of forgotten – is how much time it takes to raise money.  Time time time. Time to do proposals. Time to follow up. I feel crushed under the weight of the fundraising to do list. And, without a bunch of funding, we can’t really pay for someone else’s time.  I have raised money before, but, it’s just the time. I don’t have it anymore. So, sponsorship seeking efforts have been majorly back burnered. Again, the focus is on getting case studies written because that is what we can show to sponsors and say “See? This is worth funding.” The first funding we got fell in our lap, and that was after having a very close partnership with GW for years. It was not an overnight thing.

# 9 Networking our Brains Out – The central point of this post is really how we took a big leap, got on a plane, and headed out to BlogHer. Getting involved with the blogging and social media community has been one of the BEST things we’ve done. It made me realize our project really is the intersection of curricula (specifically, case studies) and social media.  This also talks about some podcasts I did for SBTV.  When we look at hits on our site or our blogs, it is pretty clear where they are coming from.  My two cents would be: Get out there, do the podcasts, look at the hits and see if traffic is coming from those sites. If not, don’t do it again. At the very least you have some content to which you can link. We’ve created a buzz page with all the links to podcasts, coverage, etc. Shout out to PinkHeels, We-Inc, WPO, Alltop, and the amazing and motivated bloggers and entrepreneurs who never cease to amaze me in their genuine efforts to help us get the word out about this project. Jennifer Moore, Lydia Fernandes, Julie Weeks, Karen Kerrigan, Susan Apgood, Barbara Kasoff , Horace Robertson, Tanisha Douglas are  just a few of the people THIS WEEK who are tirelessly helping spread the Hot Mommas Project word.

I’ll say it again: Shout outs to our case writers here.

#10 How to Get Press and Buzz - All of the stuff from this post works.

Good surprise: Twitter is unbelievable.  I’m convinced Twitter is comprised of the overachievers of the social media world. Also,  Peter Shankman of HARO said it was okay for us to submit a query. We got LOTS of nominations and some of our first case writers out of that.

Bad surprise:  I am a bit surprised that we have gotten NO COVERAGE from HARO reporters. We’ve probably written to 20 different reporters.  We’ve had a few “I’ll keep you in mind for future stories.”  Some reporters don’t write back at all. I guess this is just the way it works?

#11 Top 7 Low/No Cost Stuff to Use in Business - Here’s an easy one: I still like all of this stuff.

#12 SEO and Link Love - The main point of this post was to describe search engine optomization techniques. There are lots of others. This is just what we learned at a BlogHer DC conference. We are still not quite up to the looking up key words and letting that guide the naming of our posts. However, I find one of the most effective things for driving traffic (for us) is advertising blog posts at places like Twitter and Facebook (Hot Mommas Project group).  Other places we’re trying to post include Shine, BlogHer, and Powder Room Diaries (from Success in the City).  It is very clear where the traffic comes from. For instance, Twitter works. Shine – we’re not sure.  BlogHer and Powder Room Diaries – we’re just getting started with that.  I invest in Twitter, however. I really like it. I am not on BlogHer or Shine that much which could be a factor. Again, all of this is about 1. Trying stuff and then 2. Looking at blog and site hits and seeing if it’s working. Specifically “incoming links” and searches that folks do to arrive at the site.

#13 Leadership and Management - This felt like a fight I had to fight everyday. Just last week, I felt as if we were over the hump. How, why?

a. Let the numbers be the bad guy. We finally came up with a simple system that worked for everyone (a grid),  we projected measurable goals out several weeks, and we’re either on track or off track on these goals in our meetings. We then discuss “why?” (What’s working, what’s not) and that becomes my agenda for following up with the team during the week. I think I got so caught up in Cameron Herold’s Top 5 concept that I abandoned old principles I used to use with other teams, and taught to clients. That’s not saying that Backpocket COO stuff doesn’t work. It clearly does. It’s just to say you have to make it your own and have the patience to do that. The Goals, On Track, Off Track system is great and works. Below is an example of the grid we use.  Excel doesn’t paste well here, but, you get the general idea.

KATHY	GOAL – 100 cases
		Emails/Contacts	Commitments	Published cases	STATUS
Starting total				15
26-Nov	2-Dec	250	20	2	On track – above goal by 2.
3-Dec	9-Dec	250	20	2	Target this week:
10-Dec	16-Dec	250	20	5
17-Dec	23-Dec	250	20	5
24-Dec	30-Dec	250	20	10
31-Dec	6-Jan	250	20	10
7-Jan	13-Jan	20	5	10
14-Jan	20-Jan	20	5	10
21-Jan	27-Jan	0	0	25
	TOTAL			94	50 = conservative, 100 = stretch

b. Cheerlead (is this a word?) toward results. We had our first success last week: The intern marketing efforts resulted in published cases in our case competition. I kept in close touch with the team around their goal for the week, the status, and where they were in reaching out to case authors. One intern texted this: “Right now I’m waiting for people I’ve emailed to get back to me.”  I wrote back, “Don’t passively wait. Follow up, send additional information, see what the status is.” That helped. Now, with some results under their belts, we’re building on a culture of positive energy and success.

#14 How to Do A Business Model – Mike Morris’s tool for building a business model is still the best I’ve seen.

PARTING THOUGHTS

Time – there’s never enough, so, get over it. The real challenge is this: Time, time, time.  There are so many different things I could be doing. Setting up speaking engagements, sending press releases, etc. It goes down on the list because the team and I have decided the NUMBER ONE priority is GETTING PEOPLE TO WRITE CASES.

Cheerleading. I once heard a successful CEO say his most important job was being a cheerleader to his employees. This week, I really came to understand what that means. After countless hours strategizing, implementing, evaluating, then RE-strategizing, RE-implementing, and RE-evaluating we had our first success last week: The interns’ marketing efforts resulted in published cases in our case competition.

Patience. I was not very patient with the process of finding the right solution and rhythm with the team and achieving results.  It felt like a struggle. It kind of sucked. Now, with the first major successes under our belt (successes as WE are defining them which is published case authors in the Hot Mommas Project library), I look back and it seems to make sense. But, the journey is not always fun. You have to have a high pain threshold. I am a pretty optimistic person, too, but am desperately afraid of failure once I mentally commit to something.

The next post will be on our judges who will – as The Bloggess says – BLOW.YOUR.MIND.

Nominate a role model to write their case study TODAY at www.HotMommasProject.org.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time #14a: Confessions and Reflections

Helping me fight the fight every day: Starbucks

Here is a little review of what held true and what didn’t for the Hot Mommas Project journey since March (when this insider’s blog was started). Things that turned out not to be true – that was not by design.  I think I was just hopeful. You know, like, “Here’s how we’re going to do this. YEAH!” Then, reality unfolds.

Reality comes in many shapes and sizes, including that of my 5 year old who is sensitive and sweet and brilliant and challenging and has been struggling in his school.  Reality comes in the form of my mom – a healthy former aerobics instructor – who almost died in April and has spent 2 of the last 6 months in the hospital.  Reality comes in the form of a team that has other priorities because they are students.  Reality comes in the form of a slow economy and my incredibly limited time, both of which have impacted my ability to raise more funds.  A big part of reality is that things change.  You can adapt and move on or struggle and kvetch.  I think I’ve done a little of both.

*****************************************

What is this, where I am, who are you? If this is your first time here, this is the insider’s blog for The Hot Mommas Project. We are a women’s leadership project housed at the George Washington University in DC and have an audacious goal of becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone.

*****************************************

Confession time: What’s working, what’s not – thoughts and reflections.

#1 The Art of the Start - This post outlines why I wanted to kick the Hot Mommas Project into high gear after it had skulked around academic settings since 2002.  My motivations have not changed at all.  It is why I continue to fight.every.day for my goals. It is a fight. I have 2 kids, I have a husband, he is a crazy entrepreneur too, we have A LOT going on. If I didn’t feel strongly about what I was doing, I would not have enough energy to fight this fight every day. Some people call it balance. To me, it is a fight. It is not easy.  It is annoying when people try to make it seem like it’s easy.  But, I am motivated by everything listed in this first post to keep marching on.  Status: Still holds true.

#2 Triage - In this post I assess my time, and complain about how difficult it is to play mom, nurse, and business woman.  It was a good, honest look at my time and how I was spending it.  It was really, really important – and a good first step – for me to take a HARD look at my schedule.  I would recommend this mentality for any part-timer or mutlitasking maniac who wants to start a business or take something to the next level.  To this day, I still don’t know if I can pull this off working part time. I’m trying. Hard. Status: Successfully got some stuff off my plate. Social stuff has taken a backburner to Hot Mommas Project which, eventually, is going to be bad for me. I am trying to reverse that anti-social pattern now.

#3 THE PLAN -  A lot of this is a total crock. The history and pre-steps are accurate, but the planning process totally does not work for my team.  I have focused the team on ONE NUMBER per week. Then, I have the more detailed “master plan” in my mind, and just feed them tasks throughout the week.  So, to summarize: The plan is “hit this number” and then “everything else.”  P.s. The number refers to NUMBER OF CASES PUBLISHED (in our case study competition, which is live right now).  P.s.s. I still like the billion dollar traits mentioned at the bottom of the post and continue to think about that a lot, especially with regard to the Hot Mommas Project relationship with GW.  It has – single handedly – been one of the best things for us given our constrained resources (time, and money). Status: One number, everything else.

#4 The Productive Amoeba - This post talks about the attempts – sometimes failed -  to move things off my plate to create time for the Hot Mommas Project. Hmmmm, deja vu? This is a big deal for moms with little people and big people tugging at their metaphoric skirts.  It is a big deal for dads who want to do the right thing and have quality time with their kids. It is a big deal for all people who are searching for their passion. Whoever you are, there is a lot out there to divide up our mental real estate. This post also talks about the process of prioritizing and sticking to goals. In looking back, this is actually a really important lesson. It exemplifies the daily fight. Focus, prioritizing, and the willingness to constantly learn and reexamine. Status: SSDD.  Contantly have to assess time, prioritize and focus. It’s like a mental martial art – but, in business.

#5 Emergency Broadcast - This was a low point. It was after my mom almost died. I was really thinking, “Why am I doing this?” A quick turnaround was engineered.  Again, it was about fighting the fight.  Here is a story I have not told before.  When I was admitted to business school, I was petrified. I had spent longer trying to GET INTO the school than I would spend AT the school. I had never attended a private school before, either, and thought everyone would be better, smarter, etc.  My mom got me a gorgeous piece of art when I got admitted. It was a 12″ x 12″ black shadow box, with a cream background, and what looked like a abstract Native American figure with various mixed media. At the bottom of the artwork was written, “She showed no fear when the battle came.”  It helped me remember to find the strength.  It is why Morten Fadum, the artist of this gorgeous artwork, is a sponsor and is providing this exact same piece of art to the winner of the case study competition.  Status: My mom is alive. Morten Fadum is a sponsor. Somehow these two points go together.

She Showed No Fear When the Battle Came

PARTING THOUGHTS

I’ll discuss the rest of the the posts another day.  In looking back, I see the first couple of months were spent assessing my time, getting organized, assessing my time some more, overcoming obstacles, and fighting every day to reach a goal and gain momentum or – as VCs would always say in the late 90s – “traction.”  My three big lessons from this time are:

1. Fight every day. Be willing to fight the fight to get what you want. It is what pulled me through the many every-day, and extraordinary, challenges that came up and will continue to surface. You’re not going to fight hard for the thing you rate a “B” in your mind. It HAS to be an “A”. I’m convinced this is why people hate their jobs. They think it’s a “B,” but bosses across America want them to do an “A” job. If you have pride, you do an A job despite this. These are the workers folks are looking for when they say “I need to find good people”: Someone who will do an A job no matter what because of their internal motivations.

2. Be flexible, but not too flexible. Things change. You have to adapt. How do you know when you’re changing/flaky vs changing/smart? I guess the litmus test I’m trying to use is: Will the change get us closer to success? So, clearly someone needs to have a clear definition of success in the organization. Luckily, I have a pretty strong vision for the short term of the project.

3. Organized does not mean efficient. In looking over these posts, I feel I spent a lot of time “getting ready to get ready.” Maybe that is just my mental process. However, I look back and think, “Geez – will you get on with it?” I know I tend to be conservative to try to mitigate risk. However, sometimes you just need to close Outlook tasks and get out there and hit the pavement.

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time #14: How to Do a Business Model

The Hot Mommas Project is making CLOGS, but not the kind you think.

The Hot Mommas Project has no business model. Is that wrong? Okay, maybe that is not totally true. We have 5 out of 6 parts of a business model.  The clincher: We’re missing the economics.  So, to rationalize this – I have decided there are two primary ways to look at business models. This can be summarized as:

A. What I teach my students at GW.
B. The “Because it would be cool” theory.

A. Okay, let’s first start with what I teach my students about business models. One of the best business model tools out there is a 6 part process constructed by a team at Syracuse led by Michael Morris.

The 6 parts of the business model – in layperson’s terms – according the the Michael Morris paper are:

1. How we create value – what you do/make and put out there in society
2. For whom – okay, this one is self explanatory
3. Internal comp advantage – operational efficiencies or processes that make you better
4. External com advantage – how folks outside the company know you’re better
5. Economics – how you make money
6. Exit strategy – what is your exit from this business, is there one?

This is an incredibly back-of-the envelope description of the paper by Mike Morris and his team, but, you get the general idea.  There is a grid at the back of the paper I have students fill out using various business examples. First, we start with a seemingly non-businessy example. Mine is Lord of the Rings. I hand out a summary about the filming, the tax advantages they gained filming in New Zealand, how they filmed it all at once, how they locked in the stars for all three in doing that, the rights to the book, the cult following, and some other stuff. Then, using information we just know – because we walk upright and have cable – the students talk about how the movie makes money.  That’s fun. That’s when they realize they know more than they thought about business. Last, is the exit strategy part. This is a zinger. LOTR really shows students how movie makers put in a TON OF MONEY for something that they HOPED would make a ton of money back in a relatively short period of time.  There is, however, no way to be sure.  What does this sound like? Uh?  Venture Capital?  So, the movie industry has been doing this for a loooooong time before VCs became the Britney of finance.  Mark Ordesky was one of the LOTR producers and we have talked about collaborating on this curriculum, which would be cool. Which gets me to my next point.

P.s. Don’t confuse business model with business plan. Here is a good piece on business plans.

B. The “because it would be cool” business model.

I started the Hot Mommas Project because it was needed (See first post, and blog brief or about page).  I also thought it would be cool. People had, and continue to have, all sorts of ideas for how the Hot Mommas Project can make money. However, I am pretty much just forging ahead with what fills a need in women’s education. Exposure to role models correlates with women’s professional success. So, we provide role models on paper so the stories of those leaders can be read anywhere, anytime, free.  (Side note: We used to sell the cases, but, that was a pain.)  Family and work life balance is a HUGE issue globally impacting the supply and demand side of employment. So, Hot Mommas Project cases address the personal lives and backgrounds of case protagonists are discussed along with business lessons such as the 4 Ps of marketing and what have you.  All of this is geared to be taught in a classroom, so educators are preparing the next generation of workers with the toolkits that research – and reality – shows they need. I am not sure how we are going to make money to be honest. I’ve thought of a coaching network with exclusive access to our data. I’ve thought of workshops and conferences. I just don’t know. All I know is I’m doing the right thing by starting this initiative and I’ll let the case readers tell me what they need.

I am intrigued by the term “CLOG” – which I made up the other day – since what we are producing is a hybrid between a case study and a blog. So, maybe we’ll be the inventor of CLOGS, but, a clog we can all be proud of and not just associated with bell bottoms and unattractive hair styles. Here is a sample CLOG (the kind we are building).

Others who I perceive have a “because it would be cool” business model:

Guy Kawasaki and www.Alltop.com. Here is Guy on Twitter.  More on Alltop. Even MORE!

Peter Shankman and Help a Reporter Out. Here is Peter on Twitter. More on HARO.

Both of these guys are successful and intelligent. My guess is they don’t get involved in much of anything that won’t ultimately make scads of money.  However, at the outset they appeared very personally connected to their ventures and doing it because they though it would be cool….not just for money.  Is this true guys? I would love to know and will forward you this post.  Clearly there are big markets for both areas in which Guy and Peter are involved. Ted Leonsis, friend of the Hot Mommas Project, won’t get involved in a market under 10 million clients.

The Hot Mommas Project is involved in the education market, specifically written products which is a $15 billion dollar market globally.  Can you help us brainstorm a financial model for the Hot Mommas Project?

Building a Million Dollar Business Part Time # 13: Leadership and Management

Here is another installment in the Hot Mommas Project path to becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Can it be done? We’re here to figure that out. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone. As you’ll learn below, we need to get 200 women to write their cases by January 31, 2009. (We are double checking – now – that this is REALLY the number we need to achieve. Oy. I hope it’s not. More on this later.) This blog post is on management and leadership because:

1. I’ve read a lot about this area (hasn’t every business junkie?)

2. As discussed above, I’ve been going through some semi-useful OTJ training lately.

3. Heard Cameron Herold speak, former COO of 1800GotJunk, and I plan to regurgitate a lot of what he says with which I agree.

Management

The Team

This is who I’m managing right now. Pictured here Achin Jain, Esther Leff, and Kaitlyn McAuliffe. We’ve recently added Ximena Iacono, primarily because her name begins with an “X” which is really cool.

***********************************

INTERLUDE

[Music starts: Marvin and Tammi rocking out to "Aint No Mountain High Enough"--because that's what's on Kaitlyn's iTunes right now]

First, let’s have our interlude about self-management, perhaps the hardest management of all.

9.00 – 9.45 am – Extensive conversation with director of my son’s school. Don’t ask.

10.00 am – Back home, at computer. The team and I need to get 200 women to write cases by the end of January. [Voice inside my head] “My number one priority today is to do this blog so Kaitlyn can work her social marketing magic and drive people to www.HotMommasProject.org to write their cases.” I click on my email inbox to find notes from Cameron Herold’s talk to EO.

10.53 am – “What was I looking for?” I spent the past 53 minutes cleaning out my emails. Bad girl!

[music stops]

11.10 am – My window of opportunity is lost. I have to start prepping for a client meeting.

3.00 pm – Back from client meeting. Open email in box again to look for Cameron Herold notes.

[music starts]

4.23 pm – I’ve spent the past 83 minutes finding a new photo for www.HotMommasProject.org. Bad, bad girl!

[music stops]

5.30 pm – It’s time for a call with Esther. I have spent the past 67 minutes texting with Achin about the website, emailing with Esther and Kaitlyn about their tasks, emailing with Jennifer Moore (of Pink Heels), answering student questions via email, and posting stuff for my course on Facebook.  

[Music starts]

That’s management folks. It’s balancing, powering through, doing what needs to get done….and, if you miss one goal, you clean up real fast. I prioritized things above the blog because – well – they were more important. Including the next event.

5.45 pm – Both my kids run into my home office naked and laughing. I inform Esther our conference call is officially over. I think she says “okay.” Am hoping I didn’t hang up on her.

11.00 pm – In bed with computer. Husband is next to me in bed on computer. Blog is STILL not written. Watching Skins get spanked. Trying to resist Twitter. Feel like this: “Must.Pick.Brain.Up.Off.Floor.” (Said in Frankenstein voice – Go Mary Shelley!)

END INTERLUDE

*************************************

What’s the big deal about management and leadership?

People talk about management and leadership all of the time because it’s hard. Really hard. I realize now I was a very spoiled manager. I’ve walked into situations in the past where killer teams had been picked or were part of a machine-like recruiting process. I’d manage them, and think I had something figured out. Even my past teams of Hot Mommas consultants (see first or second post on this) were pretty plug and play. They had all been senior executives and what not. On top of it, they were moms so – by definition – they could run a small country. Now it is a whole different ball game.

So, what’s really been a bad idea? The following things have been a bad idea:

1. Hiring a warm body – In the past, I have hired warm bodies. Someone says, “I want to work with the Hot Mommas Project” and I would say, “Great!” Those days are gone. (This is not true for you Liz and Meredith!)

2. Going with less structure – I work with a lot of students. Structure, structure, structure seems to work best for me and for them. (Examples below).

3. Not praising or encouraging – These people are not slaves, they are people. I see a lot of entrepreneurs treat employees badly. This is namely because they treat themselves like badly.

So, what’s been working?

The top 3 list.

First, here is the Top 5 list basic principle which I learned from Cameron Herold.

1. Always have a sense of the top 5 most important tasks you’re working on.

2. Write it down.

3. Carry it with you. Review it throughout the day.

5. Spend the last 5 minutes of each day making a list of the top 5 priorities for tomorrow.

6. Be accountable – Every day, an email should be waiting for you in your inbox from your staff with their top 5 from day before and what they hit or not and why.

THE TOP 3 LIST – our version of the above. (In a total contradiction to an earlier post, much of the team works virtually. Also, my team is part time because they are undergrad and MBA students.)

1. On your desktop have a document which says has the following: Top 3/On–Deck/Accomplished. Our Top 3 are focused on a specific goal or outcomes (measurable), and each week the actions change to meet that goal or outcome. It is immediately clear from the updates if weekly actions support a Top 3 item or not. These are our major goals right now.  Hit the following case number (number of written cases on site):

Kathy – 100 (How: Partners, personal network, HARO, Twitter, Facebook, PR, events like the American Mustache Institute Stache Bash and BlogHerDC. Earlier post =full scoop)

Esther – 40 (How: Partners with social media/women’s groups, personal network, PR, events, Twitter)

Ximena – 30 (How: Academic/faculty focus, e.g., “assign case writing to your students”)

Kaitlyn – 15 (How: Personal network, bloggers)

Achin – 15 (How: Personal network, bloggers)

If anyone out there has other ideas for us, please post here. P.s. We have no money. We spent it all on @djuth from FMS (We love you Dave! You’re worth it! ) I am so busy with the above goal have no time to raise money and am almost completely relying on GW’s development department.

2. Monday the Top 3 list is sent from the team to me.

3. I spend Monday to Wednesday coaching the team on the list and supporting them. I do this via email and/or phone. Email really takes a long time unless the list is pristine. We’ve worked a lot on that, strangely…formatting, business writing, info I need to know.

4. Wednesday is a team meeting. Since Monday through Wednesday was spent on task management, I try to focus the mid-week meeting on a discussion of results and visioning (e.g., This is where we’re heading).

5. Friday – Another update is sent. The team is cutting and pasting their list for the week, and beginning to project their top 3 for the following week. Coaching takes place via email on Friday and over weekend (when some of my team members catch up on some of their work, especially if it was mid-terms…which is was last week).

6. Rinse repeat.

7. Motivation and inspiration. Esther also mentioned that having goals, and reaching them, is inspirational/motivational/etc. So, I send out frequent updates with things that are happening. “XYZ just said they’d be a judge.” or “Look what this case-writer said!” or “This company just signed on to provide prizes.”  I put FYI in the subject line so the team can filter. We also did the a version of the “can you imagine” wall described below after last Wednesday’s meeting.

Esther’s wants to see Hot Mommas Project become a datasource of women-friendly companies.

Kaitlyn’s wants to get the Millionaire Matchmaker, who she loves, to write her case.

5 things to do to build a company and wrap up:

Kaitlyn has suggested I do shorter posts, and post more frequently…so, I’m taking her advice. Before I sign off, here are a few leadership nuggets from Cameron Herold – 5 things to do to build a company:

1. Painting a picture – Visualize the future of your business and communicate it to employees. Show them an example. Share it. It is not about “how.” Example: The “can you imagine wall” at 1800GotJunk where staff wrote creative ideas and dreams for the business. Here is Cameron Herold’s painted picture.

2. Great people - Like Jim Collins says, “Get the right people on the bus.” Use Top Grading by Brad and Geoff Smart plus a scorecard (letter grade for employees every 6 months). Example: Group interview process at 1800GotJunk focused on core concepts: “Do I like them and do they fit?” The goal is to raise the average skill set of the group with the hire.

P.s.

- The Dream by Matthew Kelley. If you care about your staff’s dreams, they’ll go through brick walls to help you.

- At 1800GotJunk, all employees get 5 weeks vacation. Wow!

3. Reverse engineer the future - Look at every sentence of the painted picture and say, “What can we do to make this come true? What are the missing pieces?” Rank in terms of urgency and impact. Use a spreadsheet in conjunction with the painted picture to clearly see the complexity of the future. Example: 1800GotJunk asked, “How many trucks will we need in x years? What are the bottlenecks? Have we called the truck supplier?” They did. It changed their supplier relationship and way they did business. Numbers also gave them the ability to think about people they needed to hire. They were growing 3 or 4 percent a week. We did this the other day when we mapped out, numerically, how many individuals we’d need to contact to make our case goals. It was an eye opener.

4. Meeting rhythms – Plan your work. Work your plan. Example: 1800GotJunk has a very regimented process for running meetings. The basis are:

a. All meetings have a purpose and a maximum of 3 desired outcomes.

b. No agenda, no attenda – If there is not an agenda, no one will come.

c. Book for half of the time you need – You’ll get it done. This didn’t work for us Wednesday, but will keep trying.

5. Technology Accelerators – Accelerate performance through technology. Examples: Buy staff lap tops, not desktops (Employees will work additional hours for free at home). Have 2 to 3 monitors up at one time for time savings (clicking between screens wastes time). Blackberries and iPhones at blackberryguy.com (Manage the blackberry, don’t let it manage you.) Turn off notifications. Buy headsets (www.headsets.com). Have wireless in the office. The list goes on and on.

At the end of the day, Cameron believes that the secret formula is an equation: Focus, faith, and effort. Read more in his book BackPocket COO.

PARTING THOUGHT:

Since I’m giving our promotional card to everyone ranging from my Zumba instructor at Golds to strangers on the street, I feel it would be hypocritical not to give you the plug as well.

The Hot Mommas Project is an award-winning women’s leadership initiative housed at the George Washington University School of Business. We’re building the world’s largest women’s case study database which will be free, online, and available to women, girls, and educators worldwide. Read this for detail. Read promotional postcard for short attention span version. Go to our main site and WRITE YOUR CASE! Be a Role Model…Tell Your Story…Help Others…Get Published.

HEY! If you, or someone you know is a role model whose story could help women and girls, and could be taught by educators in classroom, email us and include “nomination” in the subject line. Click here to see how cool it is to be nominated.