What an uproar! Did someone just call young women athletes 'nappy headed hos?"
If you haven't heard or read about it, a radio personality used this term when referring to a woman's basketball team that became a major contender for the NCAA women's basketball tournament, but lost in the end. Vivian Stringer is their coach and mentor.
But she got my attention when I saw her response to the name calling. She was a good model for women on how to confront adversity with the right attitude and look like a winner. Her dignified response to the man and the frenzie caused by his remarks was superb.
Facing a negative situation with confidence, she publicly called for accountability from a well connected and influential man. What made me admire her response was how she could have used the media interviews to verbally slap back, but didn't. She responded with dignity and grace.
For a number of years now, American women seemed to have taken a step backwards in getting the respect they deserve. Women have been called all kinds of unflattering and insulting names in songs, magazines and television shows.
Unfortunately, I feel the real problem is that we allowed it. We should have put a stop to it long ago...and I mean ALL women should do this. The only way to be respected is to have enough respect for yourself and your gender by taking a stand when needed.
Thank you, Ms. Stringer, for being such a great role model.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Women Who Travel For Business
I'm stuck in an ice storm in Dallas and can't get out.
Stuck in a hotel with nothing to do. I began thinking about women who travel on business.
Have things changed for them in the last 25 years?
According to statistics, 42% of all business travelers are women. So we're increasing in numbers. That led to an interesting phenomenon. Now the hotels provide more women friendly items such as lotion in the bathroom.
We've still got one barrier though. That is overcoming our fear of going to the bar or restaurant by ourselves.
For some reason this doesn't seem to bother men, so you see them standing around, talking to strangers and enjoying companionship. Most women are totally intimidated by it....sometimes with good reason.
We, too, might like companionship when we're alone in our travels but we don't want men hitting on us. We're also not as confident about starting up conversations with people we don't know in that setting. Men seem perfectly comfortable just sitting there. Not us!
Seems this might be an interesting and enlightening challenge for hotel chains that want to attract women. How can you help your women business traveler to enjoy her hotel stay or travel experience more.
How about if we collaborate and think up ideas, then send them in to companies who might want ideas that help them build their client base through attracting women travelers?
Speak up now....send me your favorite suggestion for a woman friendly travel idea that a company could provide. If we get a few, we can send them in to companies that might take action and we might just begin to change the experience to a better one for women business travelers.
Stuck in a hotel with nothing to do. I began thinking about women who travel on business.
Have things changed for them in the last 25 years?
According to statistics, 42% of all business travelers are women. So we're increasing in numbers. That led to an interesting phenomenon. Now the hotels provide more women friendly items such as lotion in the bathroom.
We've still got one barrier though. That is overcoming our fear of going to the bar or restaurant by ourselves.
For some reason this doesn't seem to bother men, so you see them standing around, talking to strangers and enjoying companionship. Most women are totally intimidated by it....sometimes with good reason.
We, too, might like companionship when we're alone in our travels but we don't want men hitting on us. We're also not as confident about starting up conversations with people we don't know in that setting. Men seem perfectly comfortable just sitting there. Not us!
Seems this might be an interesting and enlightening challenge for hotel chains that want to attract women. How can you help your women business traveler to enjoy her hotel stay or travel experience more.
How about if we collaborate and think up ideas, then send them in to companies who might want ideas that help them build their client base through attracting women travelers?
Speak up now....send me your favorite suggestion for a woman friendly travel idea that a company could provide. If we get a few, we can send them in to companies that might take action and we might just begin to change the experience to a better one for women business travelers.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Test Your Happiness
Anticipating the new year is fun because we look for a new beginning.
But why is it that we feel we need a new beginning? Is it because we've been trained to believe that we're not perfect enough and that we need improvement.
All the diets, exercise programs and new years resolutions won't help if we don't fix one thing first. That one thing is our ability to be happy. Are you ready to experience real joy and happiness?
If so, then you must do one thing. That is, be happy in the present moment. That means NOW!
Today I heard an excellent interview with a woman who is an editor at Prevention Magazine. She talked specifically about happiness and how we can achieve it. Here's some of the best points she made:
1) Positive Thinkers are Happier. Optimism and happiness are directly correlated because optimists feel more hope for better things to come. Scientific research has actually proven that those who are optimistic versus pesimistic on average are much happier.
2) Optimists make more money. Research demonstrated that when a group of over 900 people were tested and given scores for their ability to be optimistic, the correlation in terms of money making was an additional $33,000 for each 1 point increase on the scale over the average.
3) Self reflection can actually lead to less happiness! Though it may be counter-intuitive,
when you stop to consider your happiness, you are actually internally trying to find out what's wrong in your life in order to evaluate if you are really happy. It leads to thinking about what's wrong, rather than what's right. So her point was that it's better to just stop focusing on it and get out there and enjoy the present moment!
Her solutions for becoming more happy?
1) If you are pesimistic and a worrier, stop and take your worry to the extreme. Think of all the bad and possible outcomes from the first worry to the silliest extremes. For example, if you are stuck in traffic, you might take that all the way to "I'll lose my job, and then I'll end up on the street and I'll be a begger for the rest of my life and my family will disown me and I'll starve to death!" You'll begin to realize just what a time waster worrying can be and you might even go the other side and consider all the positive outcomes of the same event.
2) Fake it till you make it. Even if you don't FEEL happy, ACT happy! One study put 50 people in a room and split them. Half were told to ACT happy, regardless of how they felt. At the conclusion of the study they then reviewed the happiness scores of each person. Those who had ACTED happy actually felt happier and ranked themselves as feeling happier than those who did not pretend to be happy.
OK, so what does this have to do with Secrets of Successful Business Women?
In answer, I'll ask you a question that you might want to reflect upon this new year.
"Exactly by what criteria do you judge happiness?"
Is it money or power? Or is it the ability to feel good, to feel joy, in the present moment?
Wishing you and yours the very happiest 2007!
Warm Regards,
Roxanne
But why is it that we feel we need a new beginning? Is it because we've been trained to believe that we're not perfect enough and that we need improvement.
All the diets, exercise programs and new years resolutions won't help if we don't fix one thing first. That one thing is our ability to be happy. Are you ready to experience real joy and happiness?
If so, then you must do one thing. That is, be happy in the present moment. That means NOW!
Today I heard an excellent interview with a woman who is an editor at Prevention Magazine. She talked specifically about happiness and how we can achieve it. Here's some of the best points she made:
1) Positive Thinkers are Happier. Optimism and happiness are directly correlated because optimists feel more hope for better things to come. Scientific research has actually proven that those who are optimistic versus pesimistic on average are much happier.
2) Optimists make more money. Research demonstrated that when a group of over 900 people were tested and given scores for their ability to be optimistic, the correlation in terms of money making was an additional $33,000 for each 1 point increase on the scale over the average.
3) Self reflection can actually lead to less happiness! Though it may be counter-intuitive,
when you stop to consider your happiness, you are actually internally trying to find out what's wrong in your life in order to evaluate if you are really happy. It leads to thinking about what's wrong, rather than what's right. So her point was that it's better to just stop focusing on it and get out there and enjoy the present moment!
Her solutions for becoming more happy?
1) If you are pesimistic and a worrier, stop and take your worry to the extreme. Think of all the bad and possible outcomes from the first worry to the silliest extremes. For example, if you are stuck in traffic, you might take that all the way to "I'll lose my job, and then I'll end up on the street and I'll be a begger for the rest of my life and my family will disown me and I'll starve to death!" You'll begin to realize just what a time waster worrying can be and you might even go the other side and consider all the positive outcomes of the same event.
2) Fake it till you make it. Even if you don't FEEL happy, ACT happy! One study put 50 people in a room and split them. Half were told to ACT happy, regardless of how they felt. At the conclusion of the study they then reviewed the happiness scores of each person. Those who had ACTED happy actually felt happier and ranked themselves as feeling happier than those who did not pretend to be happy.
OK, so what does this have to do with Secrets of Successful Business Women?
In answer, I'll ask you a question that you might want to reflect upon this new year.
"Exactly by what criteria do you judge happiness?"
Is it money or power? Or is it the ability to feel good, to feel joy, in the present moment?
Wishing you and yours the very happiest 2007!
Warm Regards,
Roxanne
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Spread The News About Great Women-Friendly Companies
Have you ever had a great experience with a company that seems to go out of it's way to make your shopping experience, your service or your workplace the best?
We are trying to recognize companies that have done a great job of helping women as customers and as employees. We put out a survey and got quite a few responses.
This company took the prize for this month. And we can see why!
FranNet is a company that is on the move helping men and women entrepreneurs find just the right franchise business. With consultants around the US, they have grown extremely fast and women are enabled to succeed as both clients and employees with their consulting program.
As one person put it " I have worked for FranNet for over three years and have been promoted within the company to an equal level with male VP's, as a Director myself, within the organization. A woman was appointed as our President/COO in August, which was a first in our industry, long dominated by male leaders."
Another reader said "FranNet! Because it is one where women are both welcomed and where they do extremely well. "
I think that's great that they give women an opportunity to find the perfect business and also give women a way to act as consultants to help others. It's especially nice to see that a woman heads this up.
Congratulations go to FranNet and President Jania Bailey on a job well done!
We are trying to recognize companies that have done a great job of helping women as customers and as employees. We put out a survey and got quite a few responses.
This company took the prize for this month. And we can see why!
FranNet is a company that is on the move helping men and women entrepreneurs find just the right franchise business. With consultants around the US, they have grown extremely fast and women are enabled to succeed as both clients and employees with their consulting program.
As one person put it " I have worked for FranNet for over three years and have been promoted within the company to an equal level with male VP's, as a Director myself, within the organization. A woman was appointed as our President/COO in August, which was a first in our industry, long dominated by male leaders."
Another reader said "FranNet! Because it is one where women are both welcomed and where they do extremely well. "
I think that's great that they give women an opportunity to find the perfect business and also give women a way to act as consultants to help others. It's especially nice to see that a woman heads this up.
Congratulations go to FranNet and President Jania Bailey on a job well done!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
How rocks can change your life
If you don't know the story of the 3 rocks, let me tell you...
This story is about just how busy we think we are and what we can do about it. Because one of the most common complaints I'm hearing from business women is that they are just "too busy". They are tired of being tired.
The story of the 3 rocks is based on a science experiment.
Get a 3 cup jar and pour 1 1/2 cups of sand in it, then 1 cup of gravel then 3 nice size rocks, then 1/2 cup of water. Can't get it all in very well can you? Because the sand and gravel takes up all the room.
Instead, put the large rocks in first. Then put the gravel in. Then add the sand. Then add the water. It's amazing, but it all fits.
The moral is to figure out what the rocks are in your life. Those are the things most important to you.
Put them first, then add the "gravel" which is the secondary things, then add the sand and water which are the little things. You'll find that the little things take care of themselves and if they don't you haven't missed much. But if you leave out the big things, you will miss most of the things that are most important in your life.
Do it today. Write down your rocks, then your gravel, then the sand. See what happens when you put the right things first.
This story is about just how busy we think we are and what we can do about it. Because one of the most common complaints I'm hearing from business women is that they are just "too busy". They are tired of being tired.
The story of the 3 rocks is based on a science experiment.
Get a 3 cup jar and pour 1 1/2 cups of sand in it, then 1 cup of gravel then 3 nice size rocks, then 1/2 cup of water. Can't get it all in very well can you? Because the sand and gravel takes up all the room.
Instead, put the large rocks in first. Then put the gravel in. Then add the sand. Then add the water. It's amazing, but it all fits.
The moral is to figure out what the rocks are in your life. Those are the things most important to you.
Put them first, then add the "gravel" which is the secondary things, then add the sand and water which are the little things. You'll find that the little things take care of themselves and if they don't you haven't missed much. But if you leave out the big things, you will miss most of the things that are most important in your life.
Do it today. Write down your rocks, then your gravel, then the sand. See what happens when you put the right things first.
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