Thursday, July 31, 2008

How We Lead Matters


Tomorrow is an historical event. The Executive Girlfriend's Group is going to convene for the first time, but it won't be the last.

And we will be talking about a lot of things. Some seemingly mundane, some downright trivial, some really deep.

The overriding subject will be that "How we lead matters".

This is the title of a new book by Marilyn Carlson Nelson. She is an icon in our industry, the leader of Carlson Companies until just recently when she handed the baton off to Hubert Joly, the first non-family member to run the Company since it was founded in 1938 with a $55 loan.

I am so looking forward to the interaction of this group. I believe we will make a difference. Not just in our companies, but in our families and in the people we come in contact with.

I do believe that how we lead matters and every day I strive to become a better leader and to show my beautiful 10 year old what really matters as she becomes a woman.

Viva Girlfriend's Day!

Chicke

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

National Girlfriend's Day


So here's a bit of trivia. August 1st is National Girlfriend's Day.

Seriously. It's ok, I didn't know either until Peter Shankman of Help A Reporter Out (HARO for short) told me this morning.

Isn't it cool though that we picked August 1st for our first Executive Girlfriend's Group call?

I am looking forward to this telephonic confab of all my favorite women from the travel industry.

If you are reading this blog and are a C-level executive or report directly to a C-level executive in the travel industry, please send me a note and I'll add you to the group. Sorry, no boys allowed!

Check us out on Facebook. EGG on FACEbook! Gotta love that!

We'll be moving to a new community site soon. I'll be announcing our new sponsor shortly!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Will have to talk to Rob at Google.....

I am in Denver enroute to the TIA Board Meeting in Vail tomorrow. I am sponsoring an event. It should be fun. I believe Google is a sponsor as well. I thought I'd try Google AdSense on the bottom of the blog (unobtrusive there.....) and I had to laugh, as there is an add for poultry equipment.... very funny until I realized that they took the EGG group literally! I will have to tell Rob Torres. He'll get a kick out of it.

Ah well, at least I'm learning! Any of you that are online advertising wizards, I'd love to pick your brain one day. I'll owe you a glass of wine at the next women's event!

Hope everyone is having a good day. I'll be back home on Sunday.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Why Egg and Why Now?

I am a 50 year old extreme entrepreneur (code word for haven't had a regular paycheck in 2 years). I have a pretty terrific life. Beautiful house on a marina in Florida, palm trees. Peaceful and serene. Really nothing to complain about and plenty to be thankful for.

As of next Wednesday I will have been married 18 (mostly glorious) years to Michael and have a beautiful 10 year old daughter, Kiera and an 8 year old son that we adopted from Russia when he was three. His name is Sergey.


I am the CEO of the Solutionz Group (the sponsor of the Executive Girlfriend's Group) and the founder and CEO of LeisureLogix. I'm working on the formation of a cool charity for kids, known as Kids for Humanity. My husband has two early stage businesses, HotelsByHospitals.com and he just started selling cute little scooters that get 80-100m
pg. That business is SunshineScooterz. Whew...... and what do I do in my spare time?

My passions are writing, speaking, helping companies and individuals grow and my faith (see my personal blog if you are interested in the spiritual side of me).

I work at home, as does my husband. While I actually love having my office in the house, I "don't get out much". Also, since I've been a workaholic for the better part of the last 30 years, most of my friends are women that I've met in or around the travel industry, so I only have a few close friends locally here in Tampa.


So, on Friday I was talking to one of my best friends who agreed that it is great to have someone to "unload" with and clear the decks with at the end of the week, even if it is just to remind each other that good, bad, happy, sad, frustrated or fat, we are there for each other.

I've been blessed to be a part of family as I was growing up that was the personification of unconditional love. My parents believed in me no matter what. Belief (aka faith) is a powerful tool. I've also been incredibly blessed with my close group of girlfriends that have seen me through two pretty challenging years with the new company and the priviledge of being associated with some pretty incredible women that I
would like to know better.

So I decided to form the Executive Girlfriend's Group and start the EGG call every Friday at 430pm ET, beginning August 1st.


Now I know that you won't all be able to make it every week, but the beauty of it, is that it is something that you can drop in on when you are available and we'll love you even if you can't.

Get a comfy headset so you can do the call hands-free. I know many of you live on conference calls. We'll schedule a discussion "vignette" on one of the weekly calls to talk about the entrepreneurial life where meetings and conference calls are a choice!.

This blog will capture many of the insights discussed, but never, ever any private information, so if you miss a call, you can read the blog and comment.

There are a couple of key tenets for the group:
  1. What is said on the EGG call stays in the Executive Girlfriend's Group. Period. Trust and respecting the group's privacy is implicit in your agreement to participate on the call.
  2. Be on time. If you are going to participate in the call, please be on the call when it starts. We will be using a toll free conference call line (sponsored by my consulting firm) and it is disruptive to get in to a subject and have people beeping into the call).
  3. There are a lot of differences between us, whether our political or spiritual affiliations. Some of us are risk takers and others need a lot of security. Let's cagree that this is not the forum for controversy or criticism. Loving acceptance and nurturing is the order of the day girlfriends.
  4. Some of us are moms and grandmothers, others chose not to have kids or have remained single. Some are corporate and some are entrepreneurs and others between jobs. That isn't normally a barrier, but if we find we need to have special calls or events to cater to a specific subsection, we'll do it!
Like the beautiful decorated eggs in this Spring floral arrangement, let's celebrate our differences and grow closer together through open dialogue and support.

My DREAM for this group is to have a spring getaway and a winter getaway retreat for rest, relaxation, rejuvination and reflection. A few of us from the Executive Women's forum (a TIA TravelCom event each spring) have pondered Havana as a possible destination for the first one. Our resident executive Cuban, Annette Hogan has just rejoined the Solutionz Group, so perhaps we'll start thinking about that! We'll see!!! Stay tuned.

Oh, and I just reconnected with Renie Cavaleri of Aspire who is just releasing her new book called "The Official Girlfriend Getaway Guide". She is helping me out on the LeisureLogix/RoadTrip Wizard by allowing us to build "adoptable" trips to match her recommendations. I will let you know how to order the book when it comes out and will post the link to the trips when she gets them posted.

You'll receive an evite to the first call, which is scheduled for August 1st at 430pm ET. It is my hope that you'll tell your admin (if you are lucky enough to have one) to block this time as a standing meeting. Fly home or shut down early on Fridays. You'll be happier for it. It isn't like you don't put in enough hours already.

If you have someone that you think should be included in the group/call, drop me a note. I'll also set up a group in Facebook so that we can leverage their invitation network capabilities.

I look forward to it!

Chicke

CEO Solutionz Group and founder of the Executive Girlfriend's Group
www.solutionz.com
chicke@solutionz.com
813-925-0789