These Are a Few of My (Oprah's) Favorite Things 2021

The list is here!  Discover all of Oprah's favorite things for 2021 – from sweaters, to jewelry, to kitchen items and beauty gifts.

Check it out. 

Women Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Travel Space

Entrepreneurship is a challenging road, but the number of small businesses with women leaders is growing. 

There's data to suggest that female-founded companies outperform their male counterparts, made even more impressive by the fact that women only secure 2.3% of venture capital funding. 

The travel sector is also growing with female entrepreneurs, and here are eight that are changing the industry with their businesses.

Let Pamela Slim Help You Find New Customers

Pamela Slim has a new book out that you don't want to miss: "The Widest Net – Unlock Untapped Markets and Discover New Customers Right in Front of You."  

The Widest Net is a step by step method for building a thriving business. You can pre-order now and get these bonuses:

• The Widest Net Workbook
• The Widest Net Method Ecosystem Mind Map
• An invitation to The Widest Net SUPERclass, a virtual workshop to create your 12-month marketing plan using the Widest Net Method. 

Go after those customers now!

Screenshot source:  https://pamelaslim.com/the-widest-net/

Tip of the Week: Create a Signature for PDF Documents On An iPhone

Hello on-the-go women business owners!  As more official papers are being turned into PDF documents, you may be asked to sign one electronically while you’re away from your computer.

If you’re using an iPhone, it’s actually not all that difficult; you can create a signature and reuse it by using the iPhone’s built-in Markup tool.

Ready.  Set.  Learn how to do it.

Be Anyone You Want to Be

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved

This Halloween, you might take a step outside the box and dress up as a powerful figure to make a statement. Whether that statement is about gender inequality, race relations, Covid or climate change, there’s a woman out there breaking barriers. Why not pretend to be them for a day? 

Halloween is the one day you can be anyone you want to be.  Here are five unconventional, last-minute costume ideas that you can easily D-I-Y with clothes in your closet. Word of caution: these looks are reserved for trailblazing women. 

The sky is the limit.  Enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Black Women Entrepreneur Excellence

The Women's Entrepreneur Leadership Lab (WELL) is a network of Black women business owners that facilitates peer-supported growth by fostering relationships that build community, collaboration, confidence, and capital.  It set out to address the lack of support Black women founders receive as entrepreneurs by banding together and creating a community to support each other.

Data illustrates how far funding needs to progress to support Black women, who accounted for 42% of net new women-owned businesses, while only being 14% of the female population from 2018-19, according to the 2019 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data, and extrapolated forward based on Gross Domestic Product data.

Learn more to participate and recommend to others.

The Female Consumer Is Under-Represented in the Brand and Marketing Landscape of Spirits

In Christopher Marquis's research for his recent article on Karen Hoskins for Forbes and her work at Montanya Distillers to make the alcohol industry less of a “boy’s club," he was told that women in leadership positions frequently have their expertise questioned and people mistake them for someone other than a leadership figure.

According to Mr. Marquis's article:

The alcohol industry is known for being dominated by men. For instance, in 2018, only “4% of C-suite positions in wine and spirits were held by women” and women in the industry continue to face sexual harassment and abuse.

At Escape From Corporate America, we hope Mr. Marquis has an opportunity to interview Dr. Sonat Birnecker Hart, President and co-founder of KOVAL Distillery to learn even more how women who are smart, confident and experienced in the spirits industry can and do succeed.

Read the full article:  Women Entrepreneurs Are Transforming the Spirits Industry.

Forget the Seat At the Table and Just Do the Work That Needs To Be Done

Women often say, “I want a seat at the table.” For many business women, especially business women of color, a seat at the table is a hard-earned symbol of success in a company. 

So, what if instead of longing for a seat at the table, we flip it?  Reflect on what a seat at the table means to you and how you can flip the table to be more inclusive, open, and exactly what you envision it to be.

If you can't do that, I invite you to forget the seat at the table and just do the work that needs to be done.  Go after your own true vision of growth, success, and progress and that might just be starting your own business.  Go for it!

Stop Waiting For Perfection

Is this you?  

Because I was waiting. I was waiting to have more money in my pocket. I was waiting to be in a relationship, so we could go together. I was waiting until I was thinner. 

After years of putting off her dream, entrepreneur Kristy Carruthers took action and made it a reality, traveling the world and building a successful career in the process.

Stop waiting for perfection and get on with your life.  Take action.  Make it happen.

Take Risks, Empower Entrepreneurs and Work Together

Venezuelan-born Carmen Busquets was a pioneer investor in the fashion tech space, cofounding Net-a-porter and putting her money behind companies including Farfetch, Moda Operandi and Lyst. 

Busquets is also an entrepreneur herself, starting her retail career while she was still studying at the University of Miami and, in the 1990s, founding Cabus, a multibrand luxury fashion retailer in Caracas.

She was particularly proud that Cult, an online beauty retailer founded by two young women in 2007, was well-run — and profitable. Indeed, Busquets’ passion lies in taking risks, empowering entrepreneurs and encouraging them to keep an eye on spending, pursue profit and work together with a sense of mutual respect.

Learn more about Busquets goal to seeing women become the executive leaders that they are capable of being.

What You Can Do to Attract Funding

Inspired Capital co-founder Alexa von Tobel talks about three ways (below) the entrepreneur turned investor suggests getting the attention of VCs.

1. Communicate your passion.
2. Prove that you're ready to learn.
3. Don't focus only on the money.

Read all her comments here.

Unmeasured Strength and Resilience

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Remembering 911, we go back to a post we published about Lauren Manning and her book, "Unmeasured Strength," which is about how Lauren's life on September 11, 2001, changed forever. She tells the story of survival and transformation.

It's only fitting to repeat it.

The photo above is a 911 decal from my Dad's car window.  He passed away in 2011 but I saved the decal and affixed it to a window in my home.  Over the years, the flag's bright colors have faded but our memories of 911 are quite vivid.

Let's all honor the fallen and heroes of September 11, 2001.

Entrepreneurial Obsession by Laurel Delaney

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Here are 13 ways to create a brighter future for your business.

Turning Limes to Limeade

Here are a few lessons you can learn from 5 global entrepreneurial icons who changed the face of American culture. Despite their early challenges, they managed to make their own way in life. We can learn from their endeavors and find opportunities in the unlikeliest places.  This is an article I [Laurel Delaney] wrote for American Express several years ago yet I still find in inspiring to read.  Hope you do, too.

In going after a dream, exercise unbridled enthusiasm until you achieve it.   So do something unusual to manifest your own latent entrepreneurial capabilities:  start a juice stand, backpack to India or sell a sketch to a neighbor.  

You never know where it will lead.  

How to Get a Good Night's Rest As a Business Owner During Tough Times

One of the key questions I always ask business owners:  what keeps you up at night?

Being a small business owner and a formally trained facilitator (e.g., Women Presidents' Organization Chicago Chapter Chair since 2003), I decided to take a different approach and asked 20 presidents of small businesses in marketing, interior design, insurance and a variety of other industries what’s allowing them to get a good night’s rest.

Here are the highlights of what they shared. 

Thought Leaders Who Knew Steve Jobs

©2011 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Like millions of other people, I have been a fan of Steve Jobs for more than three decades.  Use all Apple products.  Read every book on Steve.  So when he passed in 2011, I felt this inner urge to glean any lessons I could from him. I wanted to find out what made this man so great. Why was he so cool? Is it possible to integrate his brilliance into our work ethic? How can we make the world a better and more inspiring place to live?

In attempting to find the answers to these questions, here’s what I discovered from Steve himself, and thought-leaders who knew him.

Hire More Entrepreneurs and Grow

What would you do if you were at the beginning stage of an enormous snowstorm that showed no signs up letting up?  Surely, to get ahead of it, you’d grab a shovel and start shoveling or jump in your car to buy the last snow blower on the floor.  Well, in our current economic mess due to the global pandemic, the solution is right in front of us, too.  

Hire the best and brightest entrepreneurs (yes – that’s us!), and put them to work!  Who else is going to try something new that will shake us out of these tiresome doldrums?  

Here are ten things entrepreneurs can do that make them smart power resources.

Never Slip Into Mediocrity

Achieving high performance in tough times, especially during a global pandemic, is a serious challenge small business owners face. The ultimate goal may be extraordinary business performance, but you can still get worried, comfortable and slip into mediocrity. 

For example, many people thought at the start of the pandemic - and this too shall pass.  So they waited.  And they waited.  And then they realized they would be waiting and basically doing nothing for nearly two years.

To obliterate status quo, do you have what it takes to become a high-performance leader even during the toughest times?  Ten traits characterize the people who do.  The key is to never slip into mediocrity and do nothing.

10 Questions to Ask (and Answer) to Achieve Bold Innovation

I have always felt that growth and profits come from some form of calculated risk.  You, too?

The essence of making revolutionary changes is taking risks. Bold risks produce bold innovation; they launch new products, services, and companies; they improve workplace conditions for employees; and they may even end up changing the world.

Here are 10 questions to ask (and answer) to help guide you and your organization to achieve bold innovation.  This is an article I [Laurel Delaney] wrote for American Express more than a decade ago and it still applies to today's world.

Don’t reinforce the old ways of doing things.  Continuing to take risks is an important part of achieving bold innovation.  

Think On Your Feet

To profit and prosper in any year, think on your feet, look for fresh conceptual insights all around you and practice a little spontaneous innovation (expression).  It can foster a climate in which we can make a difference and have an innovative impact within an organization. 

As we go forward in 2021, think carefully about your strategy for innovation in your business.  The genesis of every new product, business or service offering is a concept: an idea for something you believe people want and will buy at a price they can afford to pay you for the work needed to produce it.  Concepts can arise out of anything at any time.  I think of it as spontaneous innovation, which occurs in every aspect of our lives.  Some might refer to it as spontaneous expression, and it’s typically a moment that can’t be repeated easily.  

In this article I [Laurel Delaney] present four (4) examples.