Posted by Sloane Berrent in Girls, Tech on February 10, 2010 | Comments
Photo courtesy of Ken Yeung
I’m utterly honored this week to find myself on Forbes Woman’s list of 20 Inspiring Women to Follow. I look at the list of the other women included and am wowed by them and their passion, drive and accomplishments. If we are the sum of the people we spend the most time with and the circles we’re in, then I am in good company!
Big thank you to the author of the post, Halle Tecco for being a big supporter of mine. I simply can’t wait to see where we all are a few years from now and Halle certainly deserves to be on the list in addition to authoring it.
From the introduction:
Research from the Harvard Business Review last year showed that women get less love on Twitter than men. While the random sample of 300,000 Twitter users showed that men and women follow a similar number of Twitter users, men have 15% more followers. “This is intriguing,” the authors noted, given that there are more women than men Twitter users: 55% to 45%. Further, men are almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman while women are 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman.
What can be done about this? We can start by seeking out and following more women on Twitter and other social networks. Below are 20 absolutely inspirational women who are tweeting up a female storm.
In celebration, I created a Twitter List featuring them all that you can follow HERE.
Where do I start with Shelley Cohen? Let’s see. I could talk about how I was completely enamored with her from the first time we met, in Washington DC through her longtime friend Melissa Fitzgerald and how the three of us talked into the night about Africa, Uganda, helping children there and the nonprofit the two founded, Voices of Uganda. I could mention that when I said I was going for the first time to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in 2008 that Shelley was quick on the forward button, sharing invites and insider information to help guide me through the madness and overwhelming sensation that the DNC holds. But I think if I had to choose, I would talk about Shelley’s deep commitment to her family and instilling a sense of service to her daughter and a sincere desire to make the world a better place. A longtime resident of Washington DC, Shelley is active on nonprofit boards including the National Wildlife Federation and works for a green sustainable energy company, Ameresco. A huge thank you to Shelley for this interview. It’s one of my favorites.
And of course, the birthday wish interviews have been running daily for two weeks. Huge thank you to all who participated. I have a few more to post next week and the BIG news is I also have a delivery date for my own Cause It’s My Birthday campaign for malaria nets in Ghana. So stay tuned, much more in the birthday sphere to come. Plus actionable tips to do a birthday fundraiser of your own!
The Shelley Cohen Birthday Wish Interview:
1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your birthday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?
FOR MY 40TH BIRTHDAY (MARCH 2, 2008), I HAD A HUGE PARTY AT A LOCAL HOTEL CALLED 15 RIA. IN LIEU OF GIFTS, I ASKED PEOPLE TO DONATE TO VOICES OF UGANDA. I PUBLICIZED IT VERY WELL AS PART OF THE EVITE, AND INCLUDED LINKS. I WAS NOT ON FB AT THIS TIME. I DID NOT HAVE A FUNDRAISING GOAL, BUT I PROMISED TO MATCH WHAT WAS RAISED. THE PARTY RAISED ABOUT $1000, AND I MATCHED IT!
FOR MY DAUGHTER SIENNA’S FIRST BIRTHDAY ON MAY 29, 2009, WE ASKED THAT PEOPLE BRING FOOD ITEMS FOR THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN IN LIEU OF FOOD ITEMS. WE COLLECTED 5 HUGE BOXES FULL OF FOOD!
2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?
FOR THE 40TH BIRTHDAY, I JUST USED CONSTANT CONTACT (I SENT MY INVITE SEPARATELY)! NOT ON FACEBOOK THEN. FOR SIENNA’S BIRTHDAY, I USED EVITE.
3) What have you done for past birthdays?
HADN’T DONE SPECIFIC FUNDRAISERS FOR BIRTHDAYS BEFORE. (more…)
Today’s birthday interview is bringing it home to New Orleans where I’m interviewing Shercole King, an all-around woman about town with a bunch of cool projects under her belt including GoodNOLA,Minority Weirdos and New Orleans Tech. I had the chance to catch up with Shercole and her birthday campaign to benefit the New Orleans Women’s Shelter. What I like most about Shercole’s campaign is that this was her first time and while the bar wasn’t set too high, she was really thoughtful about how to engage her friends and community. This interview really shows, to me, that our birthdays can be anything we want them to be if we just put it out there in the Universe.
Here we go, big thanks to Shercole for participating in the birthday interviews.
1) Tell me about your birthday and fundraising campaign. When was your birthday? Was it a milestone? What was your inspiration? What nonprofit did you partner with? Did you tell them in advance? What was your fundraising goal (if you had one) and did you reach it?
My birthday was December 4th. Not really a milestone, I made 27. My inspiration was the fact that I have everything I want and need for the most part and I just wanted to help others. I felt this was a great way to do it. The nonprofit I partnered with was New Orleans Women’s Shelter. No, I didn’t tell them in advance just went on a spur and started it up. My fundraising goals was just $270. I reached my goals, I actually exceeded I was excited. In the end I made it to $320.
2) Did you use online tools? Did you have a birthday party in person? What was your way to connect with people and tell them about this?
Yes, I used online tools. I used Facebook Causes, my Facebook profile, and my twitter accounts. No, didn’t have a birthday party. I mainly connected with my friends via social networking encouraging them to help out with this cause.
3) What have you done for past birthdays?
Past birthdays, I haven’t done much. This was my first birthday doing a fundraising cause. (more…)
Last month I started a series called “$5 or 5 minutes = 1 Way to Make a Difference” and I got an incredible response. It seems like there are a lot of way to give back online that are SIMPLE and EASY, but it can be hard to find them. So here’s my helping hand with 6 “Look, there’s a quick and easy way I can make a difference TODAY.” I present you with the 2nd edition of how you can give back either with a donation, your time or the click of a button. Simple yet meaningful.
I could say, “In the spirit of the holidays” but I think you and I both know this kind of behavior – getting into the habit of helping others – doesn’t have an expiration date or time or year, it’s evergreen.
Some of the opportunities below do expire, so act today!
1) VOTE. L’Oreal’s Women of Worth campaign highlights women in the community making a difference. In addition to all of the finalists having $5,000 donated in their name to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, the nominee with the MOST votes by end of day Tuesday, November 24th, will receive $25,000 for their nonprofit of choice.
I voted for Halle Tecco, an amazing woman who was a Kiva intern this summer and I met at my Kiva Fellowship training. She started a nonprofit called Yoga Bear that provides yoga mats and studio time for cancer patients and survivors. All of the women nominated are worthy of the grand prize, but if you want my recommendation, vote for Halle & Yoga Bear HERE.
2) TEXT. DONATE via your cell phone: text FEED to 90999 and your phone company will donate $5.00 to Feeding America! Your donation will provide 35 meals. Feeding America’s provides food to more than 25 million low-income people facing hunger in the United States every year, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors. With a network of over 200 food banks serving all 50 states, more than 2.5 billion pounds of food and grocery products are distributed annually.
*UPDATE – An anonymous donor is MATCHING all texts to YOUR TEXT is now worth 70 meals!*
Great campaign by MashCast. See their flash mob to raise awareness at the top of this post. Follow @mashcast on Twitter for more information about this campaign which runs through the holidays. Make any additional donations HERE. (more…)
While meeting and visiting borrowers during my fellowship with Kiva, I came across Sabiano Nido who just had the cutest story about her and her husband that I wanted to share in this outtake. I’m looking through many many videos that I have yet to post and I’m flooded with emotion over how much I miss the Philippines, the women, the people and the feeling like I was giving back all day, every day.
You could call it delayed reverse culture shock. I’ll write more about that to come. In the meantime, here’s a little video that makes me smile.
Main Entry: spon·ta·ne·ous
Pronunciation: \spän-ˈtā-nē-əs\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin spontaneus, from Latin sponte of one’s free will, voluntarily
Date: 1653
1 : proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
2 : arising from a momentary impulse
3 : controlled and directed internally : self-acting
4 : produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous
5 : developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
6 : not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural
The day after the Cause It’s My Birthday finale in Los Angeles, a good girlfriend of mine hosted 8 ladies for brunch at her place in the Hollywood Hills. All fabulous, professional, intelligent, gorgeous and tremendous ladies I’m privileged to call friends. Most of them NOT on twitter, not reading my blog, not super in social media. From a lawyer to interior designer, MBA candidate to nonprofit, water resource management to public relations, we all just sat around and caught up on each others’ lives. That included job and boys and professional goals and it was crazy because to some extent, I’m really used to friends in the digital and online space knowing a lot about me. That can be from my blog, to Flickr, to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter – part of my whole “deal” during my Kiva Fellowship was to share and make everyone feel like they were involved and knew what was going on and so to sit around a group of girls and kinda have to start from scratch was interesting and fun and challenging in a way too to recall so many memories but condense them succinctly – after all 9 is a LOT of girls and a lot of talking we had to fit in. In the back of my mind was the fact that I now only get to see these girls once every few months and that a few of them are some of my best friends. The friendships we both work hard at, the ones I cherish, the ones that don’t come along every day.
So we sit there and we laugh and gossip and flow from one topic to another the way girls do. My one very close friend had an exciting announcement. She said she had been asked, and said YES, to go on a spontaneous trip to Paris that upcoming week with a guy she had met once. To keep the story short (and get to the point of where I’m going with this post) I’ll just say they met on a plane about 5 months ago, he had just recently ended an engagement, she was ending a very serious relationship and they just sort of started emailing. (This is not a secret story about me, I swear). And emailing some more. He lives in Europe mostly, she lives in Los Angeles and it wasn’t an intense amount of communication, but enough. He had called her the week before about maybe going to Italy to do something or another and she thought about it and suggested Paris.
Why? She had never been. Just about a month ago, finally broken up with her epic boyfriend of her 20’s and moving forward with her life she had heard a quote that stuck with her. It was “MAYBE YOU’RE EXACTLY WHERE YOU SHOULD BE RIGHT NOW.” As in, stop looking forward and stop looking back and just be. She thought about what she wanted in the now and what she wanted was an adventure. To visit Paris. To do something spontaneous.
Turning to us, she asked, “Is this crazy? I mean should I really go?” (more…)
My friend Erica O’Grady and I sat together one February morning while we were both squatting in the “Tech Hostel” or more officially “Paige Craig’s beach apartment.” She said to me, “You really should have a blog. It’s a piece of you online.”
“I know, I know. I have a URL. I just haven’t set it all up yet.” I answered. See, I have blogged before. A lot actually. I was a blogger and then Lifestyle Editor for LAist from 2004-2008. I understood how a blog gains traffic and builds an audience. I also had for a long time wanted my own place on the web. I just was overwhelmed with a full-time job at a startup where I was online all the time anyway, LAist on the side, friends, boyfriend, yoga, hiking, dog, LIFE and when was I really going to blog? I journaled. Almost every night in my moleskin. Wasn’t that enough?
“No,” Erica said, “You really should just do it.” It just so happened Jonathan Dingman was also sitting around that breakfast table and said, “I can help. I can set it up for you. I can do whatever you want.” In addition to be a SEO wunder-kind and Wordpress guru, J. also has a few blogs of his own like GInside and I really knew that in order to get myself off the ground, I would need help from friends. I’m savvy, but I don’t know how to set up a blog. Once set up and running, I’m a little better, but I admit hand-holding was required. (more…)
Alexa, Joey and I volunteering at the LA Food Bank.
This is a guest post by my good friend, Alexa Brandt. Alexa recently left Step Up Women’s Network (of which I am a huge fan and supporter) to enter Babson’s MBA program in Boston. After four years at Step Up, Alexa has a lot of fans and her farewell email was one of the most inspiring I’ve received in a long time.
Alexa sent her 14 Commandments for Getting Ahead and Career Reflections to friends, coworkers, Step Up members and the countless people who look to her as an endless source of energy, creativity, open heart and desire to make the world a better place. With her permission, I’m reprinting that email here.
And now I give you…
Career Reflections: 14 Commandments for Getting Ahead by Alexa Brandt
During my four years at the national women’s organization Step Up Women’s Network, I had the opportunity to work with and learn from some of the brightest women executives in the country. Upon departing the organization to pursue my MBA, I am eager to share 14 commandments that have helped me get ahead in my career. I hope these tips will provide you with fuel for your professional advancement.
1. Dream jobs do exist. Understand your gifts and search long and hard until you find a role that puts them to good use. I speak from experience and will always be grateful for the phenomenal opportunity I was granted to play a small role in building Step Up Women’s Network into one of the most sought-after women’s networks in the nation.
2. Be an active community member – it pays. Find your cause, organization, or community group and get involved. Inevitably you will feel more connected, learn new skills, and build lasting relationships. Get started at Idealist. Once you find your organization, make friends with the staff and members of the board of directors. These individuals hold the keys to the best volunteer roles and event invitations.
3. Have a great business idea? Secure your web presence by purchasing the domain name for $10 a year at GoDaddy (I personally own seven). Build a free website at Yola.
4. Get connected. Every Friday go through your email inbox and send LinkedIn and Facebook requests to each new contact you have communicated with that week. Learn great insights on developing relationships by subscribing to expert Keith Ferazzi’s newsletter. (more…)
I simply had to share this compelling, tragic and unforgettable story from a Kiva partner in Srebrenica, Bosnia about a borrower at Zene za Zene who was brave enough to tell her story to Milena Arciszewski, a Kiva Fellow who served her first placement in Bosnia, another in Kenya and is now here in the Philippines at another partner, Community Economic Ventures, Inc.
When I hear stories like this, first-hand, through pictures, videos or words, my heart just aches. The pain that some people experience in this world is fairly unfathomable. We are all more lucky than we could ever imagine.
I don’t usually say this, but please think about a way to give back today. It doesn’t have to be to Kiva. It doesn’t even have to be money – just be kind to a stranger. Do something nice for someone. We need to find more ways to be kind to each other.
Of course…if you wanted to make a loan on Kiva, go ahead. It’s super easy to do you know.
Translation from Kinaray-a (local language of Antique region on Panay Island in the Philippines):
Hi I am Bernadita Dayo and I have a farming business and a pump boat. I really feel great because I was able to have a business from the loan I made to ASHI. I feel very happy because I was able to attain all of my needs with the help of ASHI and I have less worries because I have a business. Thank you Kiva.
Bernardita's Kiva Profile Picture
The crazy thing is I knew her before I even saw her. Bernardita that is. I had made a loan to her on Kiva before I knew I was even going to be a Kiva Fellows in the Philippines. I was moved by the kind look on her face the crisp green grass around her and so I pressed: LEND NOW.
And yet there she was. Walking down the path towards me. I recognized her immediately from her profile picture.
If you read my blog, you might have noticed I have a bit of a soft heart. So when I saw her, I don’t know what came over me, but I started to feel the tears well in my eyes. It was about her – but what really got me – what that in that moment I felt like I was stepping into the picture on the Kiva website. On the web we look at pictures and it’s just an IMAGE in front of us. But when the actual picture is taking place it is capturing just a moment in time.
The second before the picture takes place and the second after there is movement. There are sounds and smells and voices crossing left and right. There is life in pictures and that snap of a camera just tackles a split second of it.
So I could see not only what she saw looking into the camera and over the shoulder of the camera holder – the small gathering of huts, the waves crashing on the beach, the sounds of the tricycles and jeepneys furiously passing by, but what was to her left and right – the adjacent fields, the other people working the earth, the children skipping from school in their freshly pressed uniforms. I had stepped into her picture.
Standing there with Bernardita, she took me by the arm and led me to her pumpboat and talked about her life, her challenges, her successes and it was like stepping into a picture. She walked me through her home and down to the beach where a fishing net was being pulled in with the daily catch. She gave me a window into her life. Her biggest hopes? To turn her hut of bamboo into a house of stone. Can you imagine if that is your life’s dream? Her second biggest hope was to send her children to college. The cost of simple books, uniforms and tuition can often be too much to afford for many in poverty.
And I gave her a window into mine. How my mother is an entrepreneur and I grew up seeing her struggle to be the top provider for the family but also be a mom to me and my sisters. I told her that I too have my own business. I told her I too had hopes and dreams for the future that I was really striving for.
She cried telling me part of her story and her struggles. She lives right on the beach in a little barangay and the storms are strong in rainy season and there is always a threat of her house being washed away or blown over by the strong winds. Twice in her lifetime she has lost her house and had to rebuild. She cried telling me that rice fields alone weren’t enough to sustain her family and through a loan with ASHI she has been able to buy a pump boat and her husband fishes in the early morning (4-9am) and that extra income really allows her family at least to not have to worry about food.
My tears matched hers. The heart of a Filipina is soft after all and looking at Bernardita being so honest with me and not holding back, well how could I imagine not letting myself go and just wanting to stay there and hold her hand all day and learn more about her. (more…)
