Forget About Sex—Let’s Talk About Hair
By · CommentsPost by Frances Cole Jones, contributing Women On Business writer
For those of you scratching your heads (Sorry, I’m in a punning kind of mood) at the title—and the topic—of this piece, here’s a newsflash: many, many people spend as much (or more) time thinking about how they’re going to wear their hair at their presentation as they do thinking about what they’re going to say at their presentation.
(And while I will admit the preponderance of these conversations tend to be with women, I have had in-depth hair conversations with my male clients, too.)
My trouble is that I can think of few people in the world less qualified to talk about hair than myself. Mine mystifies me, which is why I outsourced the whole project to my wonderful stylist, Dickey, and why I sat down with him recently to get the answers to some of your most pressing questions:
Straight or Curly?
Dickey’s specialty is textured hair, which is how I ended up in his chair. What we’ve both observed from our work with hundreds of clients is that there are certain professions that prefer straight hair— for example, finance, telecommunications, business/strategic consulting. For whatever reason wearing your hair straight makes them feel you are more in control of your information.
Up or Down?
Those with long hair struggle with the “Up or down?” question. In this realm we have one hard and fast rule, and a few recommendations:
- Rule: I don’t care which you choose—and I’m sorry if I sound like your mother– but GET IT OUT OF YOUR FACE. Nothing is more distracting than having your bangs in your eyes, wisps trailing near your mouth, etc.
- General recommendations: Again, more ‘controlled’ professions are going to prefer a more ‘controlled’ look. If you’re worried you look young for your age, putting it up will give you far more authority than wearing it down.
Long or Short?
This often comes down to face shape, hair texture, etc. (For example, if your face is small, big hair isn’t going to serve you.) The most important thing, however, is that you look like you chose your style—rather than having it look like something you defaulted to in College and never gave another thought. After all, you don’t want to it to look like you could—with a quick outfit change—be serving chicken wings and beer in Any College Town, Anywhere USA.
Anthony Dickey is the founder of HairRules. He believes many women struggle with the one-sized fits all approach to hair care, but if there was more focus on an individually prescribed, texture-specific approach women could execute whatever style they wish more confidently. Hair Rules is a unique, texture-specific approach to hair care- giving women options to wear their hair any way they choose, via healthy, responsible methods. For more go to www.hairrules.com.
When We Become Leaders: Happy Ever After??
By · CommentsThere is a great image I once saw of someone climbing the ladder of success only to find it was attached to the wrong building; at the top were broken windows and a roof that needed replacing. It’s not always the way we think it will be.
I was reminded of that when I was telling my five year-old grand-daughter a new rendition of Cinderella. Life is not always as we expect it to be. Arielle requested a story that would be about her heroine, Cinderella, after she had married the prince.
I looked down at the pair of UGG boots I had just taken off, sitting near the door and the story just flowed. Cinderella was bored with her position, all pomp and no power. She decided she wanted to go hiking in the cold winter and came back from shopping with a new pair of UGG’s.
The prince shrugged, he was too busy with the state of the state to bother with fashion. However, the queen was furious that Cinderella wanted to wear such cumbersome shoes. I was just about to have Cinderella succumb to the queen’s demands to return the UGG’s. I was curious to see how my granddaughter would react, when she chirped up with “its okay grand mom, she should keep the shoes, after all it’s her body and she can wear whatever she wants!”
I really did see that a new generation of young girls is growing up to have internal strength and not buy into the fairy tales as easily as I know I did as a kid. I also gave kudos to my daughter for helping keep a balance between fairy tale beliefs and emerging leadership that begins with internal conviction.
We are all learning to be authentic, true to ourselves. If we can see that we are all works of art in process and that change comes each time we say “Yes” when we mean yes and “No” when we mean no, we are on the route of authenticity and integrity. I think this path may be a bit easier for younger generations. Just know we are paving the way.
Develop Your Own Advisory Board
By · CommentsPost by Jane K. Stimmler, contributing Women On Business writer
I read an article recently about the many benefits which accrue to companies that form advisory boards. Though not to be confused with Boards of Directors, which have specific fiduciary responsibilities, advisory boards are neither accountable nor do they have decision-making authority. They can, however, be valuable in a number of ways. In essence, advisory board members are chosen, based on their expertise, to give advice. It’s a good idea and it struck me that if companies do it – why not individuals? Wouldn’t each of us profit by assembling a team of advisors for the “me” brand?
It doesn’t have to be anything formal. It really comes down to the idea of proactively selecting a few people who you can call upon to be helpful as you move forward in your career, and regularly staying in touch with them. The first step in creating your own advisory board is to determine the areas in which you need and want input.
Do you need help with political savvy? Presence and style? Leadership skills? Communication? Connections? Career management? Negiotiation? Think about the top three to five areas where you need help based on feedback you’ve received or categories in which you know you’re weak. Rank the attribute you would be most interested in learning more about as number one – and so on.
Then you’ll want to think about the people you know who possess knowledge and expertise in these areas. If you’d like to do better in your communication, for example – ask yourself who has communication skills you admire? Or if you want to meet people in your field – who is the best networker you know? These can be people inside or outside your company, a former – or even current – boss, males or females.
Once you have a list of possibilities, consider who would make a good “advisory board” member. Qualities to consider are – is the person approachable? Would he or she be honest with you? Is he or she open to mentoring? Does he or she appear able to make the time to get together? Now that you have identified your potential advisors, you’ll need to plan your approach.
The most direct way to approach a potential candidate is to speak to her or him in an informal setting. Let the person know you would like to seek advice on a particular subject and ask if this is agreeable. Make sure you indicate how much time this will involve – and that you are respectful of his or her schedule.
Now you are ready to have your personal advisory board! How you manage your experts will determine how helpful they are to your growth. Stay focused on what you need – and what is realistic – and make the most of this opportunity!
What do you think? Please join the conversation!
Skinning the Cat
By · CommentsIn present day business, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I’m not sure who the sicko was that coined the phrase, but I get the gist of it; not everyone needs/uses the same techniques to accomplish the same goal. Being a person who marches (and sometimes skips) to the beat of her own drummer, I totally get that concept. Not only do I want to do it my way, I want the flexibility to change my way if my way isn’t working the way I think it should be.
What’s interesting about the saying regarding our poor little feline friend is that like everything it has more than one interpretation:
- there are more ways than one to achieving the desired result,
- there are many ways to skin a catFISH, which was shortened to “cat,”
- performing a type of gymnastic exercise, involving passing the feet and legs between the arms while hanging by the hands from a horizontal bar (ouch) and
- actually skinning and turning a hide in-side-out to dry out well, a cat skin
The point is that there are rarely only two options to solving any one thing and even more interpretations. But many times I see people limiting their own potential by presenting only two choices such as, it’s either this…or it’s that! And I say now is always the right time to introduce “the other” and then again “another” as far as options are concerned.
Limiting your options, for obvious reasons, limit your results. So often you hear the term “think out of the box,” but that saying has gotten so over used that people have begun to think that their one or two options are really out of the box thinking. In reality, having only two options can be terribly limiting. What is truly an out of box experience is more like moving outside of a comfort zone, taking a few chances, maybe even moving beyond what most people might attempt.
Albert Einstein summed it up best when he said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Chances are, when you’ve deduced the solution down to only two choices, you’ve used the same “head” that got you into the mess in the first place. I’m gonna say that me and old Albert had some things in common…and at this particular moment it might only be our heads…rather our hair; I got caught in the rain tonight and it’s a bit on the Einstein side right now. Anyway, besides our wild hair, I have a wild hair about problem-solving. It’s more aligned with the whole skinning the cat thing and turning things inside-out and backwards.
If you begin your problem-solving process from the desired result and work backwards, you’re more likely to uncover perspectives that you wouldn’t have seen using typical methods. It is similar to an old trick in radio we used to use called back-timing where you would program your music and segments from the top of the hour backwards so you hit the :00 of each hour with perfect timing! That’s also my wild hair approach to problem-resolution. It’s not about knowing what exactly the desired outcome is, but more like knowing what you want it to look and feel like then moving back from there. It’s not the theory of relatively, but it is all relative. Every problem has many solutions that will result with varying outcomes, and one thing we know for sure is that there is more than one way to skin a cat…or a fish…or a gymnastic move…or a problem!
Free Speech
By · CommentsIt’s an old, stale trick. You call a well-know crowd pleaser you’d like to have as keynoter for your next event and ask her if she believes in “free speech”. When the answer is a predictable “yes”, you offer her the opportunity to come and deliver a speech – for free!
Dee Dee Myers, Suze Orman, and Sarah Palin do not have to travel around the country to give free speeches. They are handsomely compensated, whether for personal income or for charity giving. Speaking is their job and kudos to them for getting paid for what they’re good at. That’s the way it ought to be.
But, when we look at speaking as one of the three legs of a personal marketing plan (see March 7 and February 28, 2010 posts), then getting paid is not the objective.
It has often been said that if you are a speaker, you ought to publish a book and if you are an author, you ought to develop a speaking strategy. Very true, but let’s not confine our thinking to these two activities.
Among my recent clients have been a sales executive with 3 decades of global experience, a sustainability expert who is a whiz at using technology to link an enterprise’s disparate departments together, and a rocket scientist (a real one!) who speaks the language when it comes to complex partnership strategies. All three are in front of audiences frequently, none is a paid speaker, all are furthering their employers’ businesses and their own careers when they accept and execute speaking or paneling engagements.
Every time Peggy Parks, an Atlanta-based international image consultant accepts a “free speech” invitation, she attracts clients for wardrobe consultations, personal shopping expeditions or etiquette training.
When Barbara Giamanco addresses a conference break-out session’s audience, she encounters attendees who open corporate doors for her Social Media training business.
No matter whether your business is web development, cheese making, financial consulting or arranging cruise vacations, if you have the talents and skills to tell a story, there are audiences for you out there. And after they have heard from you, some will hire you to do their web site revamp, buy your cheese for their new restaurant, let you set up a savings and investment plan for their family or book an exotic cruise for their next birthday.
But if speaking does not work for you, then remember there is also writing and networking. Select the practice that best suits you and exploit it. As I’ve already said earlier: marketing is simple – you’ve just got to do it.
Why I Chose to Become an Entrepreneur
By · CommentsPost by Veronica Eyenga, contributing Women On Business writer
People choose to become entrepreneurs for many reasons. For women, those reasons run the gamut and encompass everything from the need for more schedule flexibility to experiencing a glass ceiling.
In my case, I was unsatisfied working for someone else. I had a desire to be my own boss and lead my own company. I followed my dream, and today I am the President and CEO of a successful marketing and accounting firm outside of Baltimore, MD.
I know why I chose entrepreneurship, but I wanted to know why some of you did. Here’s what I learned from some of my fellow female entrepreneurs:
Ramona Russell, Uptown Liz: Ramona started her company, which promotes products from companies whose proceeds go to charity, after losing her sister, Liz, to breast cancer. Through her company, Uptown Liz, Ramona has been able to create a legacy for her sister and help others at the same time.
Sue Wilkowski, textSAT: Sue started textSAT after her daily SAT review texts to her own children were picked up by their friends. Today, Sue’s SAT tips are written by award-winning educators and sent out daily to streamline and supplement students’ SAT review processes.
Carrie McKean, Scarlet Threads: Carrie started Scarlet Threads in 2009 as a way to help impoverished Chinese families. The company’s core visions of Work, Dignity, and Beauty become a reality by allowing Scarlet Threads seamstresses to work from home, according to the needs of their families. By allowing seamstresses to work at their stated cost of labor and sharing a portion of the profits, Scarlet Threads benefits the communities as well.
Katie Goodman, GoodLife Eats: Katie began her food blog, GoodLife Eats, as a way to marry her two loves – food and family. Through her recipes, stories, and food photography, Katie found a much needed outlet for her kitchen creativity and more opportunities than she could have imagined possible. Today, Katie writes for Paula Deen Online and Craftzine.com while her own food blog serves as a supplemental source of income.
Eileen Parker, Cozy Calm: Eileen began her company, Cozy Calm, as an answer to her disability. After struggling in countless jobs, Eileen, who is autistic, decided to start her own business manufacturing and selling Cozy Calm weighted, hugging blankets. In the year and a half since the business opened, Cozy Calm has continued to grow and Eileen seems to have found her true joy.
These are just a few of the reasons why other women have become entrepreneurs. What about you? Why did you decide to take the leap? What convinced you that it was time to strike out on your own?
Tell us your story in the comments!
