Our Book Launch Party

OK Girls. We actually figured out how to post a photo on our blog and we couldn't be happier. Here is a shot of us at our book launch party for The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear. The party took months of planning but thankfully it went well enough to inspire this blog on five tips to throwing yourself a succesful party:

1. Great music is key! Make yourself a mix or get a DJ. Don't be afraid to play it loud especially if you want dancing. Kim was blasting it at our party and it got everyone out there. Even people that shouldn't be on the floor.

2. Have someone do your make-up for you. It makes a difference and when you do it yourself sometimes it's hard to get a party look when you are used to doing an office look. Also, since you are the host...overdress! You want to look spectacular.

3. Create some signature drinks for yourself. If you like them sweet, go for it! It's your party.

4. A fun mix of people and encourage +1s because you meet people. Invite a few people that you feel really comfortable around. They can be your touchstone if you have a wave of shyness.

5. HAVE FUN. When we decided not to worry who was going to show up (or how much it all costs!) and just enjoy ourselves we had a blast. People kept saying to us 'you guys seem like you are enjoying the party'. HELL YES! It's OUR party.

So if it's your birthday, have a party. Feeling blue? Have a party. A little bored with your social life these days? You got it...send out some invites, buy a dress, put out a spread and throw a party!

Book Tour is Crazy Business

Hi Ladies!

So here we are in the Girls Guide offices for a pit stop while on our book tour. We had a few days in Chicago, DC, Philadelphia, Madison CT., Seattle and took the red-eye back from San Francisco today/last-night (quick aside: nothing makes you feel older than taking a red-eye). Next week we're going to Boston, the week after that Los Angeles and San Diego.

WOW book tour is hard. To appreciate how ironic it is that we wrote that, you have to know that in our other life as publicists we sent hundreds of authors out on tour and rolled our eyes if they ever complained. About anything. Bad hotel? Suck it up! Delayed flight? Read a book! They were on book tour, everyone wants to be on book tour why complain? Well...we are NOT complaining but we will say that book tour is hard. Although we are doing some great things while out there and we love the women we are meeting.

Most of the women that are coming to our events are looking for advice on how to face and get the most from a milestone moment. They are ready for a raise, a promotion, a new career but just are not sure about how to start. We think you start with having a good attitude towards change. If you see yourself as someone in-progress then you are open to new ideas, people and opportunities. As we are considering asking for a raise and/or promotion, quitting our job or starting our own business it is important to be open to change because that's really what you are facing.

We wanted to share a few stories from a few of the cool women we have met that will hopefully inspire you a little bit to have a positive attitude about change and please write a comment if you have a story to share:

We met a woman at our Philadelphia booksigning that is seriously considering moving to Australia to open a plus size shop. Apparently, there are very few shops that cater to larger sizes and she is ready to change her life. Oh, and it's summer there.

Someone told us at our DC booksigning that feels that she has never been appreciated for all of the hard work she does and after the workshop committed to start keeping track of her accomplishments for her next review. This was a big step for her because she said in her 15 years of work she never spoke up in a review and always just accepted the cost of living raise she was given. Remember, that is often under 5%! So she is changing into the girl who asks and that's pretty exciting.

A woman at one of our Seattle events told us that she wanted to break into another industry even though she had put in 10 years in her current profession. When she shared this with the group, two of the women there offered to help her craft her resume and get her a few informational interviews. Cool!

We had a caller during one of our radio interviews who asked us what to do if you work with a bunch of unsupportive and back-stabbing women. We told her that you can only change your piece of the world so vow to do it differently. She agreed.

So change can be exciting. We grow through change. And change can make things better for girls at work.

OK on to planning for our Boston leg. Hope to see you there (see MEET for the where and whens of it).

We Are Now Joiners

Today is the first day since our book launched that we have had an opportunity to blog and we wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU CHICAGO. We were lucky enough to have Chicago be the first stop on our book tour and it was a good one. Thank you to Gini Dietrich who invited us to speak to the local chapter of the PRSA (we're coming back to Chicago soon) and to Mary Ann Diel who hosted us at the Skokie B&N (have your daughter call us) and a final shout out to Marie Hale brought us in to speak to the local ewomensnetwork luncheon.

The great thing about being out here on the road is that we are meeting some amazing women. It is reminding us what this is all about...when given an opportunity and the right environment, we can help each other. That networking doesn't have to be gross and uncomfortable. You don't believe it right? How could networking be anything but dreadful? Well, we have now had seven events where the women in the room walked away with job opportunties, contacts and new friends and it wasn't painful. It was just fun.

We believe that success is about people...who you know, who you meet and who you build relationships with. But for networking to really work there has to be some click factor and a willingness to connect with other people. For non-joiners (like we used to be) this is a challenge. Figuring out how to put yourself out there comfortably isn't always easy.

What we are finding as we are hosting these workshops and New Girls Network events is that we are creating an environment that is comfortable for us and for the women that come. When talking about careers at the start of the workshop, we share our big fat mistakes and ridiculous fears and that makes it ok for others to open up. And since succesful networking involves people with something in common, our talks are luckily attracting women who share our mission to help other women. If you are interested in joining us then check out the MEET section because we are hosting Kicking Your Career into Gear workshops (most of them free) in SF, San Diego, Seattle, NYC, LA and Boston. We would love to meet you.

The upshot is that we believe that women are changing the rules of how business is being done. And if the new way of networking involves a glass of wine, some great snacks, gift bags, honestly and support, we're joiners.

2008 is FINALLY Here!

As soon as the clock struck midnight last night I issued a major sigh of relief followed quickly by a few jumps for joy. I don’t know about you but 2007 was a really hard year. Nothing horrible happened so I feel ridiculous even complaining about it, but it was a challenging twelve months. It seemed to take so long for things to come together and when they finally did they were never what we quite expected. It also seemed especially difficult juggling everything. Usually energized by a full plate, I felt depleted most of last year. Not sure why that is, and I refuse to believe it’s because I am getting a tiny bit older. So, moving onwards and upwards, I am really looking forward to this year. On New Year’s Eve, I received an email from a friend who wrote “Hey, 2008 rhymes with great and I'm feeling it!”

I am feeling like this is going to be one fantastic year for women and their careers. No matter what your politics are, we do have a woman who is a serious contender for President of the United States and that’s a BIG deal. On the GG front, our new book, The Girl’s Guide to Kicking Your Career into Gear is launching on January 15th with an appearance on the Today Show (scary!) followed by several weeks of touring. It’s going to be hard being on the road, but as you may know, we love meeting you in person, hearing about your workplace successes, challenges and big changes. And as two girls who have been restaurant managers, television producers, sandwich makers, publishing executives, authors, pr managers and entrepreneurs—we know all about career change.

Being on television is fun but we are mostly looking forward to giving our Kicking Your Career into Gear Workshops around the country. Most of them are going to be free, open to the public and catered (who doesn’t love snacks!) so we hope you will join us. Look at our Meet page to see where we’re going. We decided with this book tour instead of just talking about the where, when and how’s of writing the book that we would offer something more at our signing. So for those of you who are planning on making 2008 your career year, then you might be interested in hearing what we are going to cover in the workshop—asking for what you deserve, playing workplace politics, the common fears that may be holding you back, defining your own success, how to change the structure of the job or when it’s time to start something new.

Speaking of starting something new, after our tour we will begin writing book four. I can’t believe we have even more to say about women at work but we do! This one is on working mothers so if any of you want to chime in on this topic give us a shout at caitlin@girlsguidetobusiness.com. We would love to consider you for an interview! In the meantime, a VERY Happy New Year to all of you and we hope to see you over the next several weeks!