Tag Archives: Women

How long is the Christmas Season?????

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Today we are one week away from Thanksgiving!  My family will be celebrating on Saturday as is our custom with lots of family and friends, made even better by the addition of 2 new husbands, 1 step son and 1 little baby girl!  It’s been quite the year for our family!

There was a time that the Christmas season started AFTER Thanksgiving now the commercials start in October, the Hallmark Channels started running nothing but Christmas movies the weekend BEFORE Halloween, and stores have been advertising “black Friday” deals all month!

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t Christmas shop all through-out the year, but let’s be real…time is passing too fast as it is, let’s take one holiday at a time and focus on enjoying each as it comes and stop rushing through the years…enjoy each season as it comes.  Let’s enjoy Thanksgiving for now!  Me?  I’m looking forward to celebrating THANKSGIVING!

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Vicki Reed

 

Get out and VOTE!

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It is finally ELECTION DAY!  I’m sure that, like me, you are not only grateful for the RIGHT TO VOTE, but that the television commercials, yard signs, news reports about who will win…are going to be over today!  It seems this has been the longest election ever!  I’m tired of the bashing, the Facebook posts and the sponsored Facebook election posts…I have Election Exhaustion!

I don’t care who you voted for, only that you exercised your right to VOTE.  Today is going to be a very long day…at the end, we will have a new President…and the next round of media will commence through the inaguation before the next President can get down to work.  I suspect this will be the most scrutinized President in history…I, for one, will live with the decision of the people…and pray for our Country.

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Vicki Reed

Landing On My Feet…

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Thanks to a fantastic group I belong to, Business Women Connect, and it’s CEO/President Shelly Aristizabal (author of “This is your Year”), I had the opportunity to meet Alison Martin-Book, author of “Landing on my Feet…Learning to Lead through Mentoring” a couple of weeks ago.  What an inspiring story she had to share!

From the jacket:

Despite many years of working to achieve equality for women in the workplace, the gender gap is still very real.  Women are emerging as leaders in the workplace, but most often are not making it into the C-suite. Cultivating mentoring relationships and sharing knowledge and experience with others is an important piece in the overall strategy of advancing women leaders.

This book contains contributions from executive women leaders for a variety of industries and an account of how mentoring can impact lives and careers as well as a toolkit for cultivating your own mentoring relationships.

At the end of many of the chapters are questions designed to make you think about where you are in your life, goals that you have set and met or not met, what you want to do, who you want to be and who you are.  My favorite section of the book starts in chapter 2…Mentoring Lesson # 1:  Deciding What You Want Personally and Professionally.  Okay, so I know what I want on a professional level, but struggle with the balance in my life…I don’t know what I would do with myself if I’m not working!  Alison shared her “bucket list” or “100 things I want to do before I die”, very interesting and has me thinking about what I want to do beyond build a successful real estate business…I still haven’t come up with the answers, but will share as I work through it!

Alison is someone to admire and learn from, I really connected with her book and the story she shared, I have identified some deficiencies in my own story and am formulating a plan to move myself to the next level in my business and my life…Thank you Alison for writing this inspirational book and Shelly for making it possible for us to meet Alison and be inspired by her story.

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Vicki Reed

Women Like Us…

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Yesterday afternoon I had the honor of attending the Women Like Us Foundation Afternoon Tea and Speaker Series Annual Fundraiser.  What a wonderful event!  Many of the ladies in attendance took the “Tea” theme to heart and were dressed in their finest…right down to the pearls, hats and gloves!  More important than the fashion at the event was the message.

For those of you not familiar with the Women Like Us Foundation, it is the passion of a great woman named Linda Rendlemen, author of Women Like Us: Real Stories and Strategies for Living Your Best Life.  This annual  inspirational tea and speaker series was created by Linda and Dr. Sally Brown Bassett to expand on the theme of the common threads which run through women’s lives. Our stories are singular, but our passions are shared. After the initial success of the book, the Women Like Us Foundation was created to inspire and empower women and under-served girls to make a difference globally and locally.

The speakers were fantastic, first up was Madeline DiNono, Executive Director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and her message was very thought provoking – I had never thought about it, but am now looking at television and movies in a bit different light.  Changing the Status Quo:  Female Characters in Popular Family Films and Television very enlightening!  Madeline Di Nonnois the Executive Director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the only research based non-profit working with the entertainment and media community to improve gender diversity in children’s entertainment through research based programs. More on Madeline Di Nonno and Geena Davis Institute.

Our Keynote Speaker was Jessica Fellowes, Author of The Chronicles of Downton Abbey.  While I’ve not watched the program, enough people I know are completely enthralled!  She spoke about The Women of Downton, Women of Today.  Jessica is the #1 best-selling author of The World of Downton Abbey—which features new insights into the stories and characters, social historical context, sketches, on-set photos, and research for the production team—and its follow up, The Chronicles of Downton Abbey—an evocative combination of story, history, and behind-the-scenes drama from one of the world’s most popular and beloved shows. She is the niece of Julian Fellowes, the creator, screen writer and executive producer of the popular PBS series.  Jessica spoke on the historcial evolvement of women and the importance of evolvement in teen girls as it relates to future accomplishments in our world. Click here for more on Jessica Fellowes.

This event was amazing, many of the young women being served by this organization were in the audience and such and inspiration.  While facing my own financial struggles right now, I gave a small gift to the organization and was rewarded by winning one of the door prizes!  This is not why I gave, but am so grateful to be a recipient.  There were no programs like this available in my small hometown I know how much I would have benefited all those years ago and much of their program I have tried to teach or be to my beautiful nieces…I hope some sliver has been as meaningful to them as what I experienced yesterday.

Linda, continue your good works, you and yours are making a huge difference in so many lives.

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Vicki Reed

This is your year…

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There are so many self-help, self-improvement, books on the market, it’s tough to know what books are the right ones for you or even where to start!  I am so blessed to have Shelly Aristizabal in my life and her willingness to share her trials and tribulations is extraordinary, yet she is one of the most positive people I know.

She was lead to buy and become CEO/President of Business Women Connect (BWC) when it’s founder Linda Rendlemen elected to focus her energies on her Women Like Us Foundation.  As part of the re-launch of BWC, I attended the first meeting in Indianapolis and have had an opportunity to be part of the focus group for it’s continued success…so much fun and so many things happening, changing, what works, what doesn’t.

Shelly Aristizabal is one of the world’s leading Community Commerce Executives, an author, speaker, coach, and a passionate student in the area of personal development and achievement. A product of the success principles she teaches, Shelly is committed to sharing the basic life skills and lessons of success with women through Business Women Connect.

In addition to working to expand BWC (now in Indianapolis, IN; Naples, FL and Atlanta, GA!) Shelly is committed to encouraging others to design and pursue the life of their dreams everyday and  has enjoyed her mission to discover her own true purpose and to live a more meaningful life. This journey has lead her to trust God completely and follow her heart. In addition to BWC, she blogs, speaks, writes and is a published author of a wonderful book “This is Your Year”!

“This is Your Year to Design and Live the Life of your Dreams” has a page for each day of the year, it is truly inspirational and motivational to spend 15 minutes each morning to read, ponder and hopefully…do the action items as you think about your life and the changes you want to make.

Shelly and what she is doing for us is inspirational, check out the book, it really will help this be Your Year…

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Vicki Reed

Who are your Role Models?

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March is Women’s History Month and today is International Women’s Day, when we take time to appreciate women’s contributions to society. I strive to lead by and set an example for my five beautiful nieces, to make certain they know they can do anything they choose…the road might not always be easy, but the rewards are worth it!

I grew up on a farm in Madison, Indiana, but I always knew I wanted…more, but I could never define “more”.  My beautiful, strong mother set a great example for me.  I was fortunate to have grown up knowing two other amazing women, my Grandmothers.  Between Mom, Granny (Mom’s Mom) and Mamma (Dad’s Mom), I learned so much about life, love, cooking, and well, just living.  I didn’t choose the path that was expected, I could have married, had babies and stayed on the Farm, but they instilled a certainty in me that I could do anything I chose…who knew that it would be a Realtor, changing careers in my late 40’s is something I never expected, but am thrilled that I did and while my Grandmother’s have gone (Granny 28 years ago and Mamma only recently) I’m so fortunate to have my Mom, never wavering in her faith that I will succeed.

Fast forward to today…the strength of the friends I surround myself with (both women and men) astounds me. From those I’m closest to in The Group, My Clients, my fellow Keller Williams agents and the people I have met during my journey…I am so blessed  to have them all in my life.

Who inspires you?  Do you live your life as an inspiration to others?  Click here to see a great MSN slide show on the women who inspire them…who would be on your list?

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Vicki Reed