Happy December! In this new piece for the Learning Care Group, I dug deep and discovered that the gifts of unconditional love and acceptance would top my boys’ lists this season (even if they don’t know it). The piece was inspired by Dr. Brene Brown‘s new book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead. I’d love to hear you thoughts on it!
How Will You Stay Sane This Holiday Season?
November 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I love the holidays, but like many moms, they can stress me out. In a piece I wrote for the Learning Care Group, I share some of my favorite tips for remaining calm during the holiday season. One reminder that works for the holidays, and every day: Breathe! What’s your best tip?
Community Is Our Power
October 17, 2012 By 1 Comment
Today our friend Patty Lennon over at Mom Gets a Life has some thoughts to share about how women can leverage their natural ability to socialize. Read on …
By Patty Lennon
When I was little, and my mom was bored, we’d pack up the old stroller and head down the street to visit a neighbor. Back then it seemed those visits were all about us kids. Now that I’m a mom, I realize those visits to neighbors probably kept my mother sane.
Today most of us don’t live in that kind of neighborhood. We find our communities other ways: in schools, places of worship and even on meetup.com.
One of the greatest gifts we have as women is our ability to leverage socializing. We raise money, change school policies, change public policy and have parks built — not with brute strength but with strength in numbers.
When I decided to launch the Mom Gets A Business Conference, many experts guided me to go out and seek sponsorships from big brands with deep pockets. I didn’t buy it. Don’t get me wrong. I love deep pockets, but I knew an easier and quicker way was to call upon the community that led me to launch the Mom Gets A Business Conference – moms.
Last week I launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to do just that. I’ve been thrilled by the support and funds flowing in from regular, everyday not-deep-pocket moms.
We hit 20 percent of our goal on Day One. The “experts” were surprised.
I wasn’t. Of course we did well – we are moms, serving moms and being supported by moms. There is nothing we can’t do. Life can feel overwhelming for many moms, especially in our current environment.
If you are in need of a little support, go figure out a way to be with your community. Talk. Ask for help. Give help.
It can be scary to reach out. We face rejection. But community is how we get things done. This is our power. And right now, the world needs our unique form of power!
Patty Lennon is the CEO of Mom Gets A Life and the founder of the Mom Gets A Business Conference. If you’d like more information on the conference or how you can support her crowdfunding campaign visit: www.supportmombiz.com.
Hollee to Speak in Columbia, Missouri
September 27, 2012 By 1 Comment
Calling all Good Enough Is the New Perfect fans in the Mizzou area! Hollee will be speaking at The Women’s Network luncheon meeting on Oct. 18 and would love to meet you in person. Details are available here.
We Were Supposed to Have It All … Instead, We Learned to Multitask
August 9, 2012 By 1 Comment
Our generation was told we could be anything — and we heard, “You must be everything.” And so we became multitaskers, ferociously and relentlessly. We learned to boast about how much we could do at once, how we could schedule a parent-teacher conference, respond to a client email and 1-Click order the latest parenting book from Amazon, all while listening in on a conference call from the sidelines of our kid’s soccer game. We built businesses while we were breastfeeding and learned to use Skype to be two places at once. History and technology opened the doors to Having It All — but no one told us that “all” is something we’d have to define very, very carefully.
This week in Crain’s Chicago Business, Becky writes about Having It All — and how, once we rethink what that means, the relentless multitasking will subside.
Read more here, and share your thoughts. How do you curb the urge to multitask your way through life?
Clogged Pipeline: Women Aren’t Choosing Law School
Here’s Hollee’s latest from the ABA Journal, on why women are choosing careers other than law. Statistics show that the number of women entering law school has been on the decline over the last decade, and at some schools, women are fewer than 40 percent of entering classes.
Lawyer-moms often tell us that law is one of the most difficult professions for work/life balance. Do you agree?