if the shoe fits: a review of Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie

I bought my first pair of TOMS last year.  I chose the black canvas, and wound up traipsing around Western Europe in them.  With each step I took through the back alleys of Venice and cobblestoned streets of Berlin, I silently thanked TOMS founder (and Chief Shoe-Giver) Blake Mycoskie for engineering such a soft shoe that was easy to pack and – bonus! – a do-good piece of footwear I was proud to own.  So when his book, aptly titled Start Something That Matters, appeared on my desk at work from my boss, no less, I was excited to dive in. The appeal of TOMS, I realized as I flew through Mycoskie’s 185-page tale of finding passion, profit and meaning, is in its simplicity, both in the company’s product and its underlying philosophy of One for One.  When you buy a pair of TOMS, Mycoskie donates another pair to a child in need – One for One.  In fact, when you buy a copy of Start Something That Matters, a new book is provided to a child in need as well.  TOMS is one of the fastest-growing shoe companies the world has ever seen, and for good reason – there really is a certain kind of beauty in its sheer ease of both style and philanthropy.  I think that in times like these, the simpler the concept, the better.  That goes for shoes and giving.

There isn’t anything earth-shattering in Mycoskie’s book – let’s know this.  But again, sometimes things aren’t meant to be earth-shattering in order to have an impact.  TOMS shoes themselves aren’t all that fancy.  They’re made of cloth, more or less.  And yet, TOMS has sold over one million pairs of shoes and given that same number to underprivileged children in more than 30 countries.

In Start Something That Matters, Mycoskie offers his readers six core lessons he learned while building his shoe empire from such innovative organizations as charity: water, FEED Projects, and (local shout-out!) the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure.  He writes in a fairly engaging voice, and I finished the book in a few days.  If you have, say, Malcolm Gladwell or Seth Godin on your bookshelf already, I doubt you’ll find anything super-mad-crazy-inspired or pivotal in Start Something.  But if you’re looking to flex your entrepreneurial muscle for the first time, or you just want to know how your red TOMS got to be on your feet, go on and pick this up for a quick and generally satisfying read.  Mycoskie, ever the minimalist, lives on a boat.  If there is anything to be taken away from his story, it’s that simplicity, simply put, works.  If the shoe fits, wear it!

Carving Your Path- event wrap up post

Last Monday we held an event: Carving Your Path, with Andrea Scott of skoah & Deanne Schweitzer of lululemon. The event focused on finding or creating a workplace based on your values and passions, and creating goals to achieve personal and professional success. We had a great time at the event and you can check out our full take-aways here or check out the tweets under #CYP. One of the things we really value at our events is hearing from our awesome attendees on how it went, what they loved, and what we can improve for future events! We've compiled all the feedback (thank you all so so much for taking the time to provide it, we had 95% of attendees provide their thoughts) and have gone through it- follow this link for the full list of all the feedback points given (we like to be super transparent with our events- after all, that's how we make sure we & you can hold us accountable to keep improving!).

To summarize:

• you loved our speakers and the topic we talked about, some great take-aways came out of it
• the atmosphere & feel of the event was super comfortable and open
• next time, we need to make sure the space we hold our event at is comfortable for all and everyone can see & hear clearly
• keep thinking about how we can balance the length of the event with providing additional networking and interaction activities
• always include the answer to the questions of "how" to apply what we're learning (I'll throw it out there and say that asking someone from a prospectus company out for coffee will tell you a lot about their culture- just ask them what they think the company's goals, mission, and priorities are- you'll learn lots!!)

Thank you for joining us for another great YWiB event! :) we can't wait to see you at future ones and as always, if you have any questions, please give us a shout! And if you're interested in hosting your own YWiB event, check this out.

meet our Beyond Pink 2012 co-chairs!!

we're so excited to share that our new co-chairs for Beyond Pink 2012 are.... Janelle Chung & Iva Gatcheva! 

this phenomenal duo comes from two different backgrounds- Iva completed her Bachelor of Arts at McGill, majoring in Political Science and English Literature. Since then, she's been the Project Coordinator for TED Conferences, webmaster for Y.E.S., and worked with the department director at the Engineering Student services.  Janelle is finishing her Bachelors of Science in Behavioural Neuroscience with a minor in Commerce. Last year she co-chaired the Beyond the Bsc. Conference (inspired by her time at BP2010), coordinated a 3-Course Connection Dinner conference, and interned at the Burnaby Mental Health and Addiction Clinic.

As part of the application process, we asked each applicant to submit a "creative" piece. We loved the ones these girls came up with! Janelle showed off her creativity & tech skills by creating a BP2012 Inspiration Board on Pinterest, and Iva wow-ed us with her hidden poetic skills by writing a poem about BP2012!

We also asked the girls to fill out the YWiB {my story} and we loved some of their answers and could tell right away, they would get along! Check out some of their answers below.

Q: what is your retreat?

A: snowshoeing at a North Shore Mountain (Janelle) | a mountain hike and crisp air any day (Iva)

Q: childhood ambition?

A: to learn how to fly (Iva) | to be a physicist (Janelle)

we're incredibly excited to welcome Janelle & Iva to the team and we know they will bring back the magic and make Beyond Pink 2012 full of surprises! if you're interested in getting involved, keep your eyes on our blog- opportunities to join their team and lend a hand with BP2012 will be posted in a few short weeks!

chatting with...cybele negris

Cybele Negris learned to juggle at grade 7 camp.  Okay, maybe not, but she certainly does keep a lot objects in the air!  Cybele is a founding partner and President ofWebnames.ca - Canada's original domain registrar and a one-stop convenience for the online needs of individuals, small businesses, nonprofit organizations and corporations. Cybele has diverse experience in both management and operations, including prior directorships and officer positions in several public and private companies. Before Webnames.ca, Cybele ran her own management consultancy, working closely with crown corporations and private companies.  Cybele has been a recipient of numerous awards: Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women (2011), Business in Vancouver's Influential Women in Business Award (2010), PROFIT W100 - Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs, (2004 to 2011), Finalist, YWCA Women of Distinction (2006), Finalist, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific (2005); and Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 (2003).

name three people you'd like to have a dinner party with. Richard Branson – he’s the epitome of entrepreneurial spirit and has fun doing it! I think he’d be a blast to hang out with and learn something from at the same time.

Depeche Mode – You’ve got to have entertainment at a dinner party so I’d love to have the whole band, but if not, then at least lead singer Dave Gahan!

Martha Stewart – Why not have the queen of entertaining at the party? I’d have her (and her team) take care of the planning, cooking, all of that. When it comes to the art of delegating, I say why not delegate to the best?

the path your career has taken hasn’t necessarily been linear – you tried a variety of different roles and industries, and ultimately wound up working for yourself.  what would you say was the biggest challenge you overcame, and how did you do it? I always had the confidence and the work ethic to get the job done no matter what the challenge was. Whether it was a new role, a new project or something I had never done before, I’d figure it out along the way. But the one thing that was always a huge issue for me was public speaking. I did not (and still don’t) like being in the spotlight. This fear was an impediment to me taking on leadership roles, speaking in front of the media or at public speaking engagements. I took the Dale Carnegie course many years ago and one of the keys to becoming a better public speaker is to just keep doing it. You need to get out of your comfort zone. It took many years and it is still not my “comfort zone”. I got to the point where in the past few years I was doing about fifteen a year and then last year it became even more than that…I think I did about eight in one month. Whether they are dynamic and engaging or not, I have huge respect for anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak.

you are the co-founder and president of the very successful Webnames.ca.  would you say there is an increase in the number of women working in the IT/web sector?  what can women bring to this industry? When I was President of Wired Woman Vancouver in 2006/2007, we saw our membership rising in terms of women who were looking to pursue careers in technology. However, many of those were in areas of marketing or graphic design rather than in systems or coding/software development which continued to grow but slowly. And the number of women in executive levels in technology were few and far between. Anecdotally, I’m not seeing a huge change since then.

Women can bring a lot to this industry. I hear often that women are more detail oriented or are better able to multi-task. I don’t like generalizations like this. I know plenty of men who are great in these areas too. What I think women bring is more diversity and another pool of talent who in the past may not have chosen technology as a career path. I would encourage young women to look at technology as a fun, high-paced, exciting and engaging career and not be afraid of the “lack of women” in the industry as an impediment. Look at it as an opportunity to stand out.

besides running your own company, you’re also a prominent member of the Vancouver business community and a mother.  how do you find balance between all the balls you juggle? I learned to juggle in grade 7 camp!  But seriously, I get asked this question about “finding balance” probably more than any other. Besides running Webnames.ca, I’m Vice-Chair of Small Business BC and I’m also on the board of two other organizations, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and the Small Business Roundtable of BC. I was also on another board (the Vancouver Economic Development Commission) up until about a year ago and also chaired the annual Canary Derby (a charity event bringing together the Vancouver technology community to build and race soapbox cars to raise money for early cancer detection). And yes, I am a single mom of two young children and as part of the sandwich generation, helped my mom take care of my ailing father who passed away last year after a decade long battle with cancer.

So to me balance seems like this unreachable concept yet, if you put your priorities right and have the right team of people behind you to support you, then it is all doable. I’m known for not needing a lot of sleep (for many years I would sleep 2, 3, 4 hours a night for extended periods of time). I don’t watch TV and all my free time is spent on quality activities with the children. The rest is just time management. I do have a spread sheet where I have columns for each company/organization/activity I’m involved in and then line items in priority order of what I need to accomplish against each one every week. This helps me keep organized and not drop the ball on anything.

Every once in a while, you do end up with times of imbalance and your body will tell you. I ignored these signals for years but I am slowly learning to listen to my body more especially as I get older. After all, I need to be here for my kids.

why do you think YWiB and the YWiB philosophy is important for young women in the community? Networking, education and mentorship are key ingredients for success and YWiB facilitates all of these. I have personally seen YWiB in action having been involved as speaker, panelist and advisor. When you attend an event such as the Beyond Pink Conference, you can see, feel and breathe the energy in the room. Simply put, I recommend YWiB to every young woman I meet.

Carving A Future with Core Values & Goal Setting

Last night, 50 YWiB’ers joined Lululemon’s VP of Global Brand Deanne Schweitzer and Skoah’s Andrea Scott for an evening of exploring the future possibilities when you have a number of established core values and set goals.

Core values, defined as a set of moral guidelines to which you base your decision making on, rather than on societal pressures or perceived expectations. By creating a set of core values, ideas or behaviors that guide your life, you bring purpose, direction and happiness to yourself and to those around you. Skoah’s Andrea Scott so beautifully described her personal core values and how they have helped her shape her very successful business. They have also given way to another set of professional core values that Skoah operates upon:

1. Listen to Understand – Everyone has a right to be heard. Naturally, people talk more about themselves when they are uncomfortable, to compensate by showing others they know what they are doing.  However, in most situations the best thing to do is to stop talking and listen.
2. Give Your Energy to Others – It’s impossible to have positive energy all the time, but it is possible to be honest to those around you at all times. Ask for help and get support if you’re having a difficult day.  Just because you’re having a hard time, doesn’t mean everyone else has to either.
3. Create a New Experience – Certain jobs can start to be repetitious, so make an effort to create a new experience with everyone you meet, rather than just a scripted response. By saying something that is unexpected allows others to really think and communicate what they really want or need.
4. Pursue your goals passionately.
5. Be Indispensible – No matter what your role is, you’ve committed to it, so be the best you can be so it can elevate you to the next step.

How much time have you spent thinking about what guides your decision making process? When you set goals for yourself, are you coming from a place of kindness, or are you making them for the sole purpose of “looking good?”

Lululemon’s Deanne Schweitzer spoke on how to create core values and goals with this simple illustration:

Make decisions based on “above the line thinking," rather than “below the line."  Come from a place of kindness and virtue rather than superficiality. She suggested 6 points to consider when making goals:

1. Possibility – The ability to stand in nothing and create.  Let go of the past because it’s impossible to create a future if you let your past hold you back.
2. Vision – Where do you envision yourself in 10 years? If you were on your death bed, what would you want to be remembered as? Set your goals and core values based on where you see yourself at this time.
3. Balance – Set goals for Personal, Health and Career. If you are too heavy in any one of those, you will feel out of balance.
4. Have BIG, HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOALS.  When you think of them, you should get goosebumps.
5. Format – Goals should trickle down from your vision and should be quantifiable. How will you measure their success?
6. Integrity – How will you incorporate your goals into your daily life in order to achieve them? Set a completion date, tell someone, be accountable to your goals.

Fortunately for me, I have defined what my core values are, but I have never written them down before to truly articulate what they mean to me:

1. Honesty – Be true to yourself and be true to others, will you be proud of it tomorrow morning?
2. Be Present – Give someone your time by truly listening to them, rather than just nod politely as you make lists in your head. Appreciate what you’ve been given in that moment.
3. Egoless – Be humble, be kind to yourself. Accept that something may be unreachable today, but not necessarily tomorrow.
4. Be Indispensible – Give it all you got and people will truly see your worth, but only if you see it for yourself, first.
5. Show Compassion & Be Mindful – We all have a different reality, and experience situations independently. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

I encourage everyone to take the time to define what is important to them, and live by their core values.  If you have clearly defined them for yourself, finding the path to success isn’t too far behind! Let your core values help in your every day decision and goal-making.

There were many GREAT quotes from the night, but here are just a few:

“… find someone that you can empty your filing cabinet with”

“… when you find the right fit and core values in the company you are in, you will love what you do… find the right seat on the bus.”

“balance is different for everyone, define it for yourself” - Deanne

"when I was in my 20s, I wish I had spent more time thinking about what gets me going in the morning"- Deanne

"Possibility - the ability to stand in nothing and create"   - Deanne

"Be indispensable - take everything u can from your role & give everything you can. That will elevate you to your next role" - Andrea

There were also a few book recommendations by our speakers.  If you want to read up more about core values and goal setting, check these out:

Strength Finder by Tom Rath http://strengths.gallup.com/110440/About-StrengthsFinder-2.aspx

LinchPin – Are You Indispensible?  by Seth Godin

The Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracey

Good to Great  by Jim Collins

Last but not least, a great big THANK YOU to Deanne Schweitzer and Andrea Scott for the time they took to inspire so many of us!

HIRING: The Master Money Guru

YWiB is on the look-out for energetic & ambitious team players who are full of heart & excitement to further the goals of our organization.  if financial reporting is your game, make YWiB your name!! we want YOU to join our team of amazing, inspiring, passionate and professional ladies as our Master Money Guru, or treasurer, the title is negotiable!

to be selected you must dream about financial statements and talk in numerical coding! (kidding!)

what we do look for are ladies who are constantly willing to learn, awesome to work with and thrive in a passionate and creative team dynamic.  specifically for the YWiB treasurer you need to have prior experience with book-keeping and basic accounting as well as a desire to learn more about not-for-profit finance, accounting and financial reporting.

if this sounds like you (or a friend!) please let us (or them!) know!

full posting can be found on our website under "involvement opportunities"

chatting with...michelle rupp

Michelle Rupp is an entrepreneur and founder of her own business, a certified Executive Coach, and an active member of the non-profit community in Vancouver.  As Principal and founder of Lighthouse Leadership, Michelle Rupp brings over 20 years of diverse business experience to her work as an Executive Coach.  Prior to her professional transition into leadership development, Michelle was a communications and marketing specialist in her role as Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications with a leading North American investment firm.   During this time, she was recognized as an innovative and results-oriented leader with excellent presentation and interpersonal skills.  Michelle was also a speaker at YWiB’s Beyond Pink Conference in 2010, and is a huge cheerleader and supporter of the YWiB philosophy.  We chatted with her in between the end of a workday and what she believes to be one of the most important parts of her life – dinner time with her family.  Read on and you’ll see why. name three people you'd like to have a dinner party with. normally with a question like this, i would name what i call “the usual suspects,” like mother teresa – pivotal change agents who’ve had a profound impact on humankind.  but because i am a working mother with an equally busy husband and two very athletic teenage boys who i’ll soon be launching out into the world, i’m going to bestow this honour on my family: my husband and two sons.  Sometimes dinner is a movable feast – we’ll eat at 6 pm one night or 9 pm the next, but it’s very important to me to have that time with everyone.  We check in with each other and spend time together.  It’s important.

what's the harder job: executive coach and founder of your own company, or mom/wife in a house full of boys? it’s really a constant balance between the two.  I couldn’t choose, and i wouldn’t want to, because i love what i do, and i wouldn’t be who i am without my professional life.  Conversely, I wouldn’t be who i am if i weren’t a mother.  i do know that my family is a priority, and that juggling that and my work is the best adventure i’ve ever embarked on.

who do you admire most and why? I would have to say my mother, who raised my sister and i on her own from when i was 13 years old.  We lost our father in an accident, and after that my mom took on the roles of both parents.  She was and is a fantastic role model, someone i have tremendous respect for and who taught me the importance of family and is a shining example of what a person is capable of in the face of adversity and tragedy.  Even now, at 83, she’s still running around like she’s twenty years younger!  She’s an inspiration.

advice you would give to someone wanting to start her own business? Surround yourself with great people.  Know yourself – find out what you’re good at, and perhaps more importantly, what you’re not that great at, or what you don’t like.  From there, build a community of people who can help you out with that stuff!  For example, I’m not a financial guru, so one of the first things i did was get myself a good bookkeeper.  I’m also not incredibly detail-oriented at times, so I found an excellent administrative assistant.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help, because it can be lonely when you’re trying to start a business.  Find mentors – people love to be asked for advice and feedback.

as chair of the minerva foundation and a speaker at YWiB’s Beyond Pink Conference in 2010, what is the greatest success you’ve witnessed working with young women in the community? i think the greatest gift i’ve been given as someone who is part of the YWiB community is seeing the profound level of confidence in the young women who get involved.  Everyone is so talented, and has so much energy and passion for contributing to the world around them.  When i spoke at Beyond Pink, I thought maybe the excitement was there because it was a conference, and that kind of environment breeds ideas and dreams – not necessarily execution.  However, after the event was over, I saw – and continue to see – follow through.  I see action and results.  It’s amazing.  That’s probably the greatest success I’ve witnessed.

why do you think YWiB and the YwiB philosophy is important for females in Vancouver (and beyond)? I think YWiB and all those involved really do have the potential to change the face of leadership in BC – not just in getting women in more leadership roles, but changing the way that leadership is done.  There is tremendous value in the way women lead.  The loads we carry and how we do that transfers from our personal to professional lives all the time, and I think that can change our communities and our places of work.  it already has.  YWiB celebrates what women can achieve together, and it’s an incredible model for all females to pattern themselves after.