{by Maya from ThinkMaya}

My title is indeed inspired by the movie Julie and Julia – such is my own relationship with Margaret Rudkin!

This past weekend, I stumbled upon the story of Margaret Rudkin – the lady who founded Pepperidge Farm. It was the right story that came along at a perfect time – one I needed to hear and one that I could relate to at multiple levels.

Thus was born, in my head, the story of “Maya and Margaret” – my effort to tie in my own story of how my startup and my life today came about with Margaret’s story of how she founded Pepperidge Farm from a little loaf of bread ….

It is better unplanned …

It is 2 years and 2 months since I formally quit my job at a big company and moved to Seattle. I had imagined nothing of what my life would be. A couple of months off with the kids in the summer and back into corporate life was my plan. What can I say? Plans change. A 3 month old and a 20 month old with a broken arm and an extreme case of stranger anxiety caused me to slow down a bit.

As much as I dreaded being a mom 24*7 with no job that I can completely rely on to get that much needed break and distraction everyday, I decided to do it anyway. While I worked to help my daughter with her hand and get over her insanely acute stranger anxiety, my own need for a breather slowly sucked me into this online world.

{by Michelle Lamar from V3 Marketing}

It’s been 11 years since my mom passed away. But there are still days that I start to pick up the phone—to try to call her with a question—and my grief washes over me like it was yesterday.

My mother was a classy lady. Like many women in her generation, she raised a family and juggled work at a time when it was not the norm. Mom stood for all of the stuff that the feminist movement stood for but she did it wearing pearls and a dress. My mother did what she could to bust through and live life on her own terms, for the good of her family. My mom was a businesswoman who was involved in several different companies. She started her last business, an import-export company, when she was 60 years old!

Modern mothers need to unite and support one another, because balancing work and family is very tough, especially in this economy. I love to hear about strong women and Pepperidge Farm founder Margaret Rudkin has an awesome story. Margaret was one mom of three who just happened to start a business—in the Great Depression!

Margaret was a 40-year-old-mother of three young boys, living in Connecticut on Pepperidge Farm—named for an ancient Pepperidge tree that grew there.

The family faced many challenges during the Great Depression—but as parents, one of the most difficult challenges was dealing with the severe allergies and asthma of their youngest son, whose condition made him unable to eat most commercially processed foods.

Based on the advice of doctors, Margaret put her son on a diet of fruits and vegetables and minimally processed foods.

Then one day Margaret decided to try baking him some all-natural stone ground whole wheat bread with vitamins and nutrients intact. At a time when puffy, aerated white bread dominated the market, many skeptics—including her son’s doctor—didn’t think it was possible to bake nutritious bread that was also delicious

Margaret proved them wrong and then some.

{Originally published on Mamapreneurs, Inc.}
first appeared on Blog Nosh Magazine on July 7, 2008

-I have insomnia and I’m tired.

-I work 7 days a week but Mondays and Fridays are my FT kid days during the summer.

-E-mail is the best way to communicate for me; if you leave me a voicemail, you honestly might not get a call back. If you leave me an e-mail, you will definitely get a response.

I tell you all this not because you are my friends, my family, my colleagues or my clients (although you may be one or all of these things): I tell you this because being transparent about who I am as the owner of three companies and as mama to two kids is essential to the success of my businesses and peace in my personal life.

Being a mamapreneur means that my businesses don’t just rely on the products or the services, they rely on the entire brand package—and that includes me as the owner. As mamapreneurs, like it or not, we ARE the brand.

When I meet with mamapreneurs who want PR help but tell me they can’t mention their kids in any press releases or bios, or when mamapreneurs say they have to lie about their odd work hours because their clients wouldn’t understand, I am more than disappointed. Maybe it was growing up with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as my hero, but I’ve always felt that we have a responsibility as women not to conform to the rules but to help MAKE the rules. As a mamapreneur, I feel immense pride in being part of this amazing group of women who run businesses and raise families. I came from the corporate world where I’d pretend I didn’t have a life outside of the office persona, to the life of a mamapreneur, where personal and business often gets all tangled up. Why? Because I am the boss.

It doesn’t matter whether you work from home or are the owner of a multi-billion dollar company with thousands of employees: you are still a mom who runs a business, you are still the one who calls the shots. You have a family at home. To pretend that part of your life doesn’t exist when you’re in business mode is doing a disservice not only to yourself, but to the entire business world and to your fellow mamapreneurs in general. Once I understood this, accepted and embraced it, I found the balance, the harmony, the peace I have always been searching for. It’s right there, if you’re willing to let go of traditional corporate thinking and just BE YOU.

One of the reasons I chose to make Mamapreneurs, Inc. an S-Corp instead of a non-profit was because I know that American corporations can do better. We CAN come back to a time when corporations aren’t looked at as mega-monsters, but as teams of individuals who are working to make the world a better place. My goal is to have Mamapreneurs, Inc. model what corporations SHOULD be. Mamapreneurs Inc. is about following through with family friendly policies and not just maintaining rhetoric on paper for appearances or awards. We’re about supporting the success of employees and members as moms, women and as business professionals. Here, working toward your version of success is important, but in doing so you don’t have to pretend to be the perfectly glossed CEO or the perfect mom.

{Originally Published on Learned on Women}

To feed both my quick hit Tweets (I’m @AndreaLearned) and longer blog posts, I survey the many marketing-related news stories on a daily basis. Today, I found plenty of food for thought. Two articles in the same MediaPost newsletter caught my eye: 1) a story of Swiffer doing promotions at the much-buzzed Blogher conference, and 2) the story of Target sponsoring “staycation” events. Those news bits brought to my mind the broad continuum of marketing to women (over which the pendulum regularly swings) – from pinky, pink-ness to transparency – all in one place. Fascinating!

The background on those two tales -

(Visibly pink pitch) P&G’s Swiffer appealed to the girly side of female bloggers by sponsoring a pre-event Blogher lounge, SocialLuxe, which was described this way in Karl Greenberg’s MediaPost article:

As part of the partnership, P&G and Swiffer will offer guests manicures, pedicures, something called “clean-tinis,” and the first-ever BlogLuxe Award presentation — awards given by bloggers to bloggers — to recognize outstanding efforts in the blogging community.

(Full-on transparent approach) According to MediaPost’s Sarah Mahoney, Target is leveraging awareness of the bad economy/staycation trend to appeal to women and families trying to have fun with less money this year by:

…sponsoring a long list of local art events, offering 2,200 free days at more than 100 museums, theaters and cultural institutions throughout the country.

One approach resonates with today’s culture and the other seems lost in never-never land. One is relevant to a lot more women for a longer period of time and one is fun for a small amount of women who may well not remember it a few days later. One encourages/embraces a larger trend toward experiencing the wonders of your own “backyard,” and the other is counter to the more sustainable sensibilities that a lot of the members of its target market exhibit in their real and daily lives.

{Originally published on Tim Sanders’s Blog Sanders Says}

Google Business Truths

By Melizzard | November 7th, 2008 | Category: BN Channel Business, Featured 1, Monday 1 | 2 comments

{Originally published on Brand Autopsy}

While reading Bill Moggridge’s DESIGNING INTERACTIONS, I became aware of the “Ten Things Google has Found to be True.” It’s Google’s corporate manifesto from the early 2000s and it’s a very worthwhile read. [Maybe you've already read it and I'm just late to the party. If so ... then my laggardness is showing--sorry.]

Google’s ten things it has found to be true are:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

You can (and should) read all the support prose in the manifesto as I’m just gonna share snippets from a few of the more universally meaningful tenants.

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
“From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site: The interface is clear and simple; Pages load instantly; Placement in search results is never sold to anyone; Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction. By always placing the interests of the user first, Google has built the most loyal audience on the web. And that growth has come not through TV ad campaigns, but through word of mouth from one satisfied user to another.“

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