by Samantha Ettus
1. Be Open Source
Introduce contacts, never hoard them.
2. Master the Firm Handshake
Because wet noodles always flop.
3. Don’t Trash Talk Others
It makes people think that they are next on the chopping block.
4. Always Offer Your Business Card
They are still used and more on Forbes…
When Marissa Mayer was announced as the new Yahoo! CEO yesterday, there was a collective wow. A 37 year old woman! An engineer! Another role model – in Silicon Valley, a place in dire need of more women in top positions. And then a little part of me got greedy and thought, can you imagine if she were a mom too? We could watch as she juggled and managed her inevitably hectic life.
But then last night news broke that Marissa Mayer is six months pregnant. This is too good to be true! Why should we care? Because women all over this country who seek employment while pregnant worry, obsess and hide their growing stomachs with the valid fear that they will be discriminated against. And now Yahoo! has hired a six months pregnant woman to run their 20 Billion dollar company.
One Yahoo! employee I spoke with more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Leaving your family before dawn on Monday and returning home late Friday to be there for short weekends is not the reality for most working moms. Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece in The Atlantic describes a life in the White House that is most akin to a tour of duty in the military. Would we listen to a soldier who just returned from Iraq tell us that there is no such thing as work life balance?It would be insane.
Slaughter irresponsibly uses her personal extreme to evaluate working motherhood as a whole.
In Olympic gymnastics or ice skating we “throw out” the high score and the low score because they are thought to represent the extremes of more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Last week was the end of year Parent’s Day at pre-school. The teachers playfully interviewed each four year old with a few questions including: “What does your Mommy do while you are at school?” and “What does your Daddy do while you are at school?” I had a work event so my husband attended for both of us and he called me when it was over. He was disturbed.
He reported that the answers for what the dads do were almost unanimously: “Goes to work” and the answers for what the moms do during school were: “Goes to yoga. Meets her friend for lunch. Shops.”
One day later my oldest daughter’s Kindergarten yearbook arrived in the mail. It is a beautiful book with a page devoted to more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Every working parent has one – that day when their home life and professional life are on an unstoppable collision course. In the past, I have profiled other women’s stories of professional/personal collisions. Mine comes today.
Because I missed my daughter’s Kindergarten fall play for a prior work commitment, I had her spring play etched in stone. Thursday, May 31. When my friend Tory Johnson called a few months ago to ask if I could speak at her Spark & Hustle conference on May 31st, I immediately responded, “School play!” Then I took a closer look and realized that the play was in the afternoon and the speaking engagement was in the morning. So, I agreed to speak at Spark & Hustle at 10am.
I was still uncomfortable that I had touched the pristine school play day. And even with the two plus hours between the conference and the play, I felt anxious about Los Angeles traffic and any unexpected delays. But every time that thought popped up, I quickly put it more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
With mothers on the mind, I asked five moms who manage thriving careers – as an editor, actress, entrepreneur, radio host and reporter, to share their secrets:
Alison Brod, PR Firm Owner, Mom of 2
Bonnie Fuller, Editor, Hollywood Life, Mom of 4
Mel Robbins, Radio Personality, Mom of 3
Katie Rosman, Wall Street Journal Reporter, Mom of 2
Kelly Rutherford, Actress, Gossip Girl, Mom of 2
If you didn’t work, you…
Alison Brod: “This question I can’t comprehend because I can’t imagine not working.”
Bonnie Fuller: “wouldn’t be able to express myself creatively.”
Mel Robbins: “would drive my family insane.”
Katie Rosman: “would be looking for more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Hilary Rosen should be apologizing for what she didn’t say – not for what she did.
I once met Mitt Romney at a fundraiser I was invited to by a friend of mine who has always been involved in his campaigns. I had attended many political events but this one was unlike any I had been to before. The difference? I was one of four women in a room full of more than 200 people. It was startling. When more than 50% of voters are women, why was his campaign ignoring them?
And now here we are, years later, in a debate about Mitt’s wife, Ann Romney, and Democrats are tripping over themselves to apologize and make amends for a misworded statement made by one more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
No excuses. It is time for working dads to get home to dinner.
Any mom will gladly swap stories about the brutally difficult but critically important part of their family’s day known as dinner/bath/bedtime. But where are the dads? The answer is all too universal. Even women who are on the cusp of a business breakthrough themselves or are already pulling in significant income, will likely say, “He needs to be at the office.”
I know this to be wrong. And now I have further proof; the person responsible for making sure the trains run on time at what is soon to be the most valuable IPO in history is saying it too. Sheryl Sandberg leaves work at more on Forbes…
by Samantha Ettus
Each time I have worked with Olympic athlete, Summer Sanders, I have been inspired by her life as a former gold medalist turned TV personality and mother. In this interview, she shared with me an unusually candid look into how she manages her life as a working mom.
You and your husband both work. How do you manage it together?
It took a while to find our dual career groove, but I have to say we really focus on Team. Erik and I stopped keeping score a long time ago because it never leads anywhere positive. When we get overwhelmed we try to refocus on family happiness as our goal.
How do you cope with mommy guilt?
I used to have really bad mommy guilt. I would cry and my heart would actually hurt. Last winter, I would tear up when I saw a pillow pet in the airport when I was traveling for work. Now I don’t feel the more on Forbes…