Guest Post: Platform-Building for Women in the 21st Century

My good friend and colleague Jan Phillips wrote this for Huffington Post recently. When I read it, I was touched, moved and inspired to share it here. What’s disturbing is this pattern has been at play for what seems like centuries to hear it told. It’s time for a change and we are the ones.

Take it away Jan:

Fifty years ago, Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, sparked a women’s movement that rocked the world. It was about “the problem that has no name.” They didn’t know what to call it back then. But today, ask any woman if she’s ever felt silenced, and chances are she’ll say yes. Cultures have been silencing women for centuries, and as a result, women’s voices and creations are under-represented everywhere you look.

In the US, women make up 51 percent of the workforce and hold 16.1 percent of the board positions. While 85% of the nudes in a museum are apt to be female, only 5 percent of its artists are. Only 5 percent of the film directors in the U.S. are female. While women are 51 percent of the population, we hold 17 percent of the seats in Congress. Of the 500 largest corporations, 4.2 percent have a female CEO. Of those who’ve gained eminence in science and writing, 1 percent have been women.

In a recent study of male and female art students at the San Francisco Art Institute, the question was asked: Do you think of yourself as an artist? 67 percent of the women said no and 60 percent of the men said yes. When asked the question, in comparison to the work of others at the Institute, is your work particularly unique or good? 40 percent of the men and 17 percent of the women answered yes. And when asked In comparison to the work of others at the Institute, is your work inferior? the percentages were reversed: 40 percent of the women felt their work was inferior and 14 percent of the men agreed.

In a year long study from 2009-2010, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) examined every politically-themed book that The New York Times Book Review critiqued. FAIR reported that 95 percent of US authors reviewed in the publication were white, and 87 percent were male.

Doors are never going to just open up to a new reality for women. In order to create a culture that is balanced and fair, where the power and voices of women are equal to that of the men, then it is our job as women to make that happen. We are the suffragettes of our times, the ones who create the events that ignite the public and personal imagination, that free our creative powers, that cause another wave of energy and potential to wash over our world.

My Livingkindness Foundation is sponsoring an event to do just that. It is 3 day symposium for women to bring together art and activism, creativity and spirituality. All women are invited to come to the well, to feed their souls, to be inspired by the artistry, the genius, the social reach and impact of their fellow creators. It is a forum for all of us, no matter where we stand in relationship to the arts — for we are each other’s mirrors and witnesses. We are satellite dishes receiving each others’s signals and symbols.

Yesterday as I was explaining the event to someone, I described the feeling many of us have had upon hearing of someone’s success or achievement: “If she can, I can.” It’s like that, I said. We’re inspired by each other. The woman picked up on it right away and said, “Oh I get it: it’s an “If she can, we can weekend!” Exactly.

We’re giving $1000 Art & Activism awards to four women who have had a significant impact on American culture: Pulitzer nominee poet/ writer Linda Hogan, from the Chickasaw Nation, Grammy-winner Joanne Shenandoah, from the Iroquois Confederacy, and June Millington, co-founder of the first women’s rock and roll band in the country and her partner Ann Hackler who co-founded the Institute for Musical Arts which trains young women in the art and business of music-making.

Also appearing will be Inocente, a nineteen year old artist who lived as a homeless undocumented immigrant who found the arts both healing and redemptive. The documentary about her life, Inocente, won this year’s Academy Award for Documentary Short.

There are a variety of EVE talks (Expressing Values that are Evolutionary), salons in writing, photography, social networking, platform-building, crowdfunding, digital campaigns and art immersion experiences in photography, painting, movement, ritual and digital storytelling.

For more info, http://www.livingkindness.org/Livingkindness/Events.html

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The NEW Feminine Online Business Model

While researching my theory that the OLD masculine online business model is becoming less effective by the day – and there’s a NEW Feminine Online Business Model emerging and being nurtured by Fierce Feminine women entrepreneurs (like Lisa Manyon’s observation of a New Marketing Model)…

…I happened upon this book published in 2004 (8 years ago!) called Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott.

I was captivated by the foreword by Ken Blanchard (One-Minute Manager is probably how he’s known best) and sucked into the “free” first chapter. Which hasn’t happened in a VERY long time. (nowadays, free chapters are usually about as exciting as watching paint dry)

It got me thinking about what I’m calling the New Feminine Online Business Model, because the subtitle of the book is “Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time“.

ONE Conversation at a Time.

Not a thousand. One.

The New Feminine Online Business Model is based on having an Online Conversation That Matters, then going out and finding the small group of people that it matters TO. And letting them know you are listening, so they can talk.

And I’m chuckling, because if you really think about it, like she says in her subtitle, you can truly only have ONE conversation at a time online, at work, or in life.

Doesn’t matter whether you have thousands or even millions of “followers” on Twitter, “friends” on Facebook, “connections” on Linkedin, “circles” on Google+…”collections” on Pinterest…

One at a time, my friend.

So the next time you find yourself obsessing over your Klout score, or the number of people in your Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin network, think about singling out just One.

And reach out and have a conversation with that One. See what magic may happen.

My most successful conversations have all begun with just One.

Google Books sample below. Read it for yourself.

Enjoy~!

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Thought Leaders:How to Start a Movement & Get Your First Follower in 3 Minutes

Throwback Post Day! Here’s a post I did in 2011 that I think is even more relevant in 2013.

I found this video in a leadership lesson, on an online learning site. I almost passed it up because I wasn’t looking for this topic – it just popped up in the search for the other keyword.

But I reminded myself that insights (thinklets) on thought leadership come in the most obscure ways sometimes, ESPECIALLY when you aren’t looking for them.

So what does a 3 minute video on dancing have to do with thought leadership, launching a movement and getting YOUR first follower?

Watch this video – it’s a study in human sociology at the least. You’ll see the “light of insight” flip on when you do.

Enjoy – it’s Edutainment at it’s finest…FUNNY!

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Visionary Thought Leadership (Or The Art of Original Thinking)

Jan Phillips wrote this white paper in 2006, using Michael Stelzner’s white paper on… “How to Write a White Paper” (thanks Michael …designed to help market the book she was writing for 9th Element Group, our angel-funded, short-lived “business of thought leadership” consulting company.

You can download it RIGHT here:

Visionary Thought Leadership. (PDF, opens new window, no registration required)

I think it’s time we revived it, let me know what you think when you read it,  it’s obvious to me now that we were way ahead of our time.

Enjoy the read, and if you like it…

You’ll LOVE the award-winning book companion book we published titled “The Art of Original Thinking: The Making of a Thought Leader”
(Amazon.com and in bookstores too)

Also, go check out Jan Phillips and tell her what an amazing predictor she is… (well, I guess we all were – we all added content and insight).  You’ll love her site.  Tell her Michelle Price sent you.

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The Science of Getting Rich for Women Solopreneurs

A while back, I became inspired to take my favorite book – The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles – and translate/create a version written in the feminine for women solopreneurs. This book was the first metaphysical book I actually read and put the teachings into action.

The results have been nothing short of amazing. I manifested everything from two laptop computers (in the early 2000′s no less) to my final escape from Cubicle Nation. That was 10 years ago…

Thought I’d excerpt the Preface for you here:

There are certain laws which govern the process of acquiring riches; once these laws are learned and obeyed by any woman, she will attract wealth with mathematical certainty.” -Wallace D. Wattles, The Science of Getting Rich (paraphrased )

The foundation of this book is based on The Science of Getting Rich, which was written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles, one year before his death.

This compilation – The Science of Getting Rich for Women Solopreneurs was created by two dedicated women solo entrepreneurs –Michelle Anton and Michelle Price.  They were in search of a personal mastery book that met the needs of women solopreneurs who own and operate service businesses who desire to shift from solely trading time for dollars to creating more value from their intellectual property for themselves and others through their books, ebooks and information based-products.

They have combined their real world experience from the school of hard knocks, their expertise in Fortune 50 AND small business entrepreneurship, and added a dash of grass roots research to help women entrepreneurs everywhere prosper.

All too often they have found that females don’t have access to the contacts and shortcuts shared and enjoyed by men in “the old boy’s network”.  Their main goal in editing The Science of Getting Rich into The Science of Getting for Women Solopreneurs was to provide an extraordinarily effective and efficient method for women interested in gaining wealth: one that preaches against competitive economic practices, instead concerning itself with the cooperation and betterment of the world.

Visit The Science of Getting Rich for Women Solopreneurs TeleSalon to sample the audio version.

Be sure to let me know what you think!

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