I have moved my blog to my company's website. Please join me in our new location! I look forward to hearing from you.
http://www.zoefoods.com/blog/
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Table Tricks
Since we just moved to a new house, we received a terrific house-warming gift (not including the very delicious homemade cupcakes from a neighbor, and my husband thought no one does that anymore) – but a deck of cards of questions appropriate for the whole family called Table Topics. To follow on to my blog from the other day about getting your kids to eat what is in front of them, the best way to achieve this is to not talk about what they’re eating!
Forget reverse psychology or any other tricks of the parent trade. Just get your kids involved and thinking about something else and having a real dialog. Even my four and five year old girls can participate in the questions posed by Table Topics. The best part about it – dinner has not only become relaxing, but entertaining! I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is to have a lively dialog with your pre-schoolers and spouse.
Table Topic: What do kids know more about than their parents? It’s not just princesses and groovy girls, it’s what any good manager, psychologist, or believer in the “The Secret” would tell you – believe in your children and treat them in the way that you would like them to behave and those dinner-time woes may just fall by the wayside.
Forget reverse psychology or any other tricks of the parent trade. Just get your kids involved and thinking about something else and having a real dialog. Even my four and five year old girls can participate in the questions posed by Table Topics. The best part about it – dinner has not only become relaxing, but entertaining! I can’t begin to tell you how much fun it is to have a lively dialog with your pre-schoolers and spouse.
Table Topic: What do kids know more about than their parents? It’s not just princesses and groovy girls, it’s what any good manager, psychologist, or believer in the “The Secret” would tell you – believe in your children and treat them in the way that you would like them to behave and those dinner-time woes may just fall by the wayside.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Secret: When Opportunity Knocks
If any of you have read the book, The Secret, you’ll know what I’m talking about. I don’t want to get all “new agey” on you, but, I really think there’s something there. We attract what we believe and what we want. So I believe there’s truth in the old adage, “be careful what you wish for.”
In all honesty, Zoe Foods has been a roller coaster ride for the last eight years. If anyone had ever told me it would be so hard to start a business and turn it into a success, I would never have believed them in all of my naïve optimism. More stories on this topic, but I’ll save them for another day.
If Zoe were a cat, the company would be in its ninth life. The company is small, and is going through a difficult time with consolidation in the grocery industry, Whole Foods Market's discontinuing brands to make room for their private label products, product challenges, management challenges, etc. All of that said, we have some really exciting opportunities coming our way, and I can see that the light at the end of the tunnel and is not an on-coming train, but rather daylight. So hold on for the ride…
I leave for LA tomorrow on a 6:30am flight (I’ll be up at 4am – ugh) for some sales meetings in LA with my VP sales and some of our brokers, and a meeting with Jackie Warner of Bravo’s show Work Out, and the founder of Sky Sport Spa. Now there’s an entrepreneur for you! Despite the obvious differences between our companies, from my research on her, we have a similar philosophy – make a difference in people’s lives via a healthy lifestyle. So the roller coaster ride continues with interesting opportunities at every corner. Stay tuned… And yes, I did work out this morning and felt the burn (while my kids darted in and out of my bedroom and my dog pranced around with his bone in his mouth).
In all honesty, Zoe Foods has been a roller coaster ride for the last eight years. If anyone had ever told me it would be so hard to start a business and turn it into a success, I would never have believed them in all of my naïve optimism. More stories on this topic, but I’ll save them for another day.
If Zoe were a cat, the company would be in its ninth life. The company is small, and is going through a difficult time with consolidation in the grocery industry, Whole Foods Market's discontinuing brands to make room for their private label products, product challenges, management challenges, etc. All of that said, we have some really exciting opportunities coming our way, and I can see that the light at the end of the tunnel and is not an on-coming train, but rather daylight. So hold on for the ride…
I leave for LA tomorrow on a 6:30am flight (I’ll be up at 4am – ugh) for some sales meetings in LA with my VP sales and some of our brokers, and a meeting with Jackie Warner of Bravo’s show Work Out, and the founder of Sky Sport Spa. Now there’s an entrepreneur for you! Despite the obvious differences between our companies, from my research on her, we have a similar philosophy – make a difference in people’s lives via a healthy lifestyle. So the roller coaster ride continues with interesting opportunities at every corner. Stay tuned… And yes, I did work out this morning and felt the burn (while my kids darted in and out of my bedroom and my dog pranced around with his bone in his mouth).
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
How many more bites do I have to take to get dessert?
Am I the only mom that hears the same thing over, night after night at the dinner table? And by the way, it’s not, “mmm, this is delicious.” How about the litany of complaints ranging from: “It’s too spicy. “I won’t eat the tops of the broccoli, mommy, just the stem.” “Will you count how many more bites I have to eat to get dessert?”
Ugh – dinner used to be relaxing. After a long day at work, my husband and I need dinner to be more relaxing, but even more importantly, we want our girls to learn to eat a variety of foods and to enjoy eating healthfully. As hard as this can be after a long day at work, we persevere. With the increasing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, and the number of girls that have eating disorders, we realize how important it is that we teach our kids to try new foods and to know when they are hungry and when they are full.
Once the girls had some teeth, my husband and I decided that our family would all eat the same thing for dinner – i.e. no specially made meals, no chicken fingers (“mommy, I didn’t know chickens had fingers!”), and no noodles with butter. Although dinner isn’t as relaxing as we might like, our girls are learning. They eat chicken, fish (I didn’t even eat fish until college!), red meat, pork, and pasta of course, along with a variety of vegetables, fruits, and the requisite daily treat.
So hang in there, teach your child to enjoy lots of different foods, tastes, and textures, always include at least one thing in their meal that you know they will enjoy that’s good for them, and pass the ketchup on your way out by leaving it in the fridge.
Ugh – dinner used to be relaxing. After a long day at work, my husband and I need dinner to be more relaxing, but even more importantly, we want our girls to learn to eat a variety of foods and to enjoy eating healthfully. As hard as this can be after a long day at work, we persevere. With the increasing rates of childhood obesity and diabetes, and the number of girls that have eating disorders, we realize how important it is that we teach our kids to try new foods and to know when they are hungry and when they are full.
Once the girls had some teeth, my husband and I decided that our family would all eat the same thing for dinner – i.e. no specially made meals, no chicken fingers (“mommy, I didn’t know chickens had fingers!”), and no noodles with butter. Although dinner isn’t as relaxing as we might like, our girls are learning. They eat chicken, fish (I didn’t even eat fish until college!), red meat, pork, and pasta of course, along with a variety of vegetables, fruits, and the requisite daily treat.
So hang in there, teach your child to enjoy lots of different foods, tastes, and textures, always include at least one thing in their meal that you know they will enjoy that’s good for them, and pass the ketchup on your way out by leaving it in the fridge.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Be Yourself & Be Fair
I just read a blog on the Wall St. Journal site about “The Benefits of a Feminine Leadership Style” (http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/06/09/the-benefits-of-a-feminine-leadership-style/#comment-14448). Here are my thoughts:
I have worked for both "good" and "bad" bosses of both sexes and thus, don't think it is gender that makes someone effective or successful in managing other people. So what does make someone a good manager of people? From my experience it is whether they have the capability to be fair when put to the test, and if they are authentic.
In the eight years I have been running Zoe Foods, an all natural foods company that produces cereals and bars, I am sure that I have made all types of management mistakes. But, the two things that I have always done is to be myself and make every effort to be fair. As a result, I believe I have earned the respect of my employees and shareholders, and if the company can produce excellent products that live up to their claims, the company too, will be successful.
As a mom and an entrepreneur, I find the same is true with my family and children, as at work. The main difference - my employees don't have tantrums - usually ;)
I have worked for both "good" and "bad" bosses of both sexes and thus, don't think it is gender that makes someone effective or successful in managing other people. So what does make someone a good manager of people? From my experience it is whether they have the capability to be fair when put to the test, and if they are authentic.
In the eight years I have been running Zoe Foods, an all natural foods company that produces cereals and bars, I am sure that I have made all types of management mistakes. But, the two things that I have always done is to be myself and make every effort to be fair. As a result, I believe I have earned the respect of my employees and shareholders, and if the company can produce excellent products that live up to their claims, the company too, will be successful.
As a mom and an entrepreneur, I find the same is true with my family and children, as at work. The main difference - my employees don't have tantrums - usually ;)
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
A Momtrepreneur’s Answer to the Question: “What Do You Do?”
I was just at a new parents’ meeting for my children’s new school. All very exciting, but I admit that I did have an ulterior motive – meet some mothers of the other girls in my daughter’s pre-K class to arrange some play dates over the summer. That way, my daughter would have a friend at her new school. Sounds easy. It turns awkward when I explain that I won’t actually be at the play date because I work full-time, oh, but my girls’ nanny will be there.
This of course leads to the question: “So, what do you do?” Now you think this would be easy to answer, but there are so many options... I work in the natural foods industry, I run a natural foods company, I could even say that I started a natural foods company and run Zoe Foods. Or, I could just say that I’m an entrepreneur. Nothing seems to roll off my tongue because I don’t work for someone else in the way that most people do. I don’t leave it all behind when I come home at night; the day’s challenges and goals are always brewing in the back of my head, and of course the bottom line is always part of my consciousness.
How do I explain in a casual situation what I do for work when I’m an entrepreneur who adores her family and being a mom? I’m at the school function aren’t I? I’m present. My life’s work just goes in two directions: (1) my family, and (2) my job.
Building a company is hard, growing a brand that can make a difference in people’s lives with all natural, nutritious and delicious foods is harder, but raising your kids to be kind, respectful, considerate, and loving people? Isn’t that the toughest challenge of them all? And that’s the task that I outsource on a part-time basis! Now where’s the sense in that?
After five years of deliberating on these questions, I’ve come to the conclusion that we are all here on this planet to achieve different things and that being an entrepreneur and a mom are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most moms are entrepreneurs! Entrepreneur (n.) a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. In my book, a family is certainly an enterprise, and no one will deny that raising a family takes a lot of initiative, tons of effort, and contains risk!
How a woman balances her roles is as varied as the number of women who choose to take on both work and family. Maybe I’m only dreaming that I can do both at once and do both well, but I don’t think so. I really believe that I can, and some of the cool stuff that is taking place at Zoe Foods right now and with my kids is proof that I am beginning to achieve the goals that I set out for myself.
So in answer to the question “What do you do?” I think next time I will say I’m a CEO – Common Everyday Over-achiever* of all things ranging from kids’ play dates to doctor’s appointments, and yes, Zoe Foods.
Note: I would like to attribute this very clever definition of “CEO” to Kris Kaplan, a fellow EO (Entrepreneur’s Organization) member, and clearly, another CEO.
This of course leads to the question: “So, what do you do?” Now you think this would be easy to answer, but there are so many options... I work in the natural foods industry, I run a natural foods company, I could even say that I started a natural foods company and run Zoe Foods. Or, I could just say that I’m an entrepreneur. Nothing seems to roll off my tongue because I don’t work for someone else in the way that most people do. I don’t leave it all behind when I come home at night; the day’s challenges and goals are always brewing in the back of my head, and of course the bottom line is always part of my consciousness.
How do I explain in a casual situation what I do for work when I’m an entrepreneur who adores her family and being a mom? I’m at the school function aren’t I? I’m present. My life’s work just goes in two directions: (1) my family, and (2) my job.
Building a company is hard, growing a brand that can make a difference in people’s lives with all natural, nutritious and delicious foods is harder, but raising your kids to be kind, respectful, considerate, and loving people? Isn’t that the toughest challenge of them all? And that’s the task that I outsource on a part-time basis! Now where’s the sense in that?
After five years of deliberating on these questions, I’ve come to the conclusion that we are all here on this planet to achieve different things and that being an entrepreneur and a mom are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most moms are entrepreneurs! Entrepreneur (n.) a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. In my book, a family is certainly an enterprise, and no one will deny that raising a family takes a lot of initiative, tons of effort, and contains risk!
How a woman balances her roles is as varied as the number of women who choose to take on both work and family. Maybe I’m only dreaming that I can do both at once and do both well, but I don’t think so. I really believe that I can, and some of the cool stuff that is taking place at Zoe Foods right now and with my kids is proof that I am beginning to achieve the goals that I set out for myself.
So in answer to the question “What do you do?” I think next time I will say I’m a CEO – Common Everyday Over-achiever* of all things ranging from kids’ play dates to doctor’s appointments, and yes, Zoe Foods.
Note: I would like to attribute this very clever definition of “CEO” to Kris Kaplan, a fellow EO (Entrepreneur’s Organization) member, and clearly, another CEO.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Slowing Down the Course of Time – Do Less, Not More
Last week was my girls’ last week of school. On the last day, the school had a sing-along and a picnic. During that time the kids ran around and played. At age 3-5, they do not really comprehend the full import of the day – that many of the 4 year olds, and all of the 5 year olds will be attending different schools in the fall. They are at school five days each week till noon, and then during weekly playdates, and birthday parties every couple of weeks. Then, school is over. Everyone’s lives are about to move on in very different directions. The parents of course were all in awe that their babies had just finished pre-school or pre-K and how quickly the year had whizzed by.
I discussed how quickly the time has gone by with one dad and soon discovered that he held the same opinion as that of my husband: the faster we run, and the more we take on, the faster time goes by. So does that mean that the converse is true? If we do less, time will slow down?
Sounds crazy but at 42 years of age, there’s still so much I want to see, do, and experience in my life and with my family that I cannot imagine how I will squeeze it all in. (Even that sentence was long just to get everything in!) There’s just so much fun to be had and many wonderful people to meet.
My wise yogi friends seem to have figured it out by being in the moment. The thing is, I am in the moment. There are just so many wonderful moments and they all whiz by so quickly. Why is it that when you’re little and your birthday is only a month away it seems like forever, and now that I’m almost 43, my 40th birthday celebration seems like it was yesterday?
I discussed how quickly the time has gone by with one dad and soon discovered that he held the same opinion as that of my husband: the faster we run, and the more we take on, the faster time goes by. So does that mean that the converse is true? If we do less, time will slow down?
Sounds crazy but at 42 years of age, there’s still so much I want to see, do, and experience in my life and with my family that I cannot imagine how I will squeeze it all in. (Even that sentence was long just to get everything in!) There’s just so much fun to be had and many wonderful people to meet.
My wise yogi friends seem to have figured it out by being in the moment. The thing is, I am in the moment. There are just so many wonderful moments and they all whiz by so quickly. Why is it that when you’re little and your birthday is only a month away it seems like forever, and now that I’m almost 43, my 40th birthday celebration seems like it was yesterday?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
