Pam designs custom pieces that act as windows in time and reflect old world craftsmanship, dedication, and attention to detail. Venetian Décor does not promote the trapping and killing of animals but works exclusively with vintage fur coats to ensure that these historic resources are refashioned into useful and appreciated products.

According to Pam:

“Our mission is to imbue a little corner of your life with some old world magic and elegance by re-purposing vintage items and giving them a modern twist. My love of beautiful vintage fur coats and French furniture inspired me to create this line of products for you to enjoy for many years to come.”

A Little Bit of History Preserved

Her signature pieces are beautiful one-of-a-kind furnishings and throws made from vintage fur coats and buttons just like great-grandmother owned.  “We are based in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, where the pioneer spirit of early fur trappers and adventurers still whispers through the spruce and fir at night, and the hopes of gold-seekers echo down the wild rivers.” For Pamela, working with re-purposed fur coats and vintage rhinestone buttons and jewelry is a chance to imagine a moment in time in a world of horse-drawn buggies and mink capes to bring a touch of old world elegance into the busy modern world.

Pam came up with the prototypes for Venetian Décor in her home studio, an 800 square foot space where she also sells her creations. She uses Italian made and imported French furniture as well as antique French furniture for her pieces. The soft Italian made leathers, natural silk fabrics and ribbons, plus natural down cushions and wool are the ultimate in eco friendly materials.

Her first big break came from an Interior Design Show in Vancouver, BC where she showcased her wares. A writer profiled her business and featured a two page article in the Vancouver Sun newspaper with photos, and the official buzz began. The writer tackled the animal rights issue and deftly wrote that re-purposed fur means that no animals have died today. It also means that no faux fur, with its own environmental issues including pollution and petroleum based synthetics are being manufactured for these artistic creations.

Pam has her own philosophy about using vintage fur:

“I truly believe that I have found a final resting place for these animals. It’s a way to say that we appreciate you and respect you.

Whether you believe in Pam’s vintage fur credo or not, kudos are due to this mompreneur that has created a viable business she is passionate about.
Venetian Décor has was featured in a high profile article in the Beverly Hills Times magazine. Pam hopes this will introduce her brand to celebrity clientele that could really put her on the map. The Venetian Décor signature style is a blending of shabby-chic, eco-chic, French, Boho and refined but relaxed glamour styles blended together for a one-of-a kind design.

The Challenges of a Working Mother

Inspired by her own creative mother who was a ceramics artist, Pam feels a great sense of accomplishment with her new business venture. She still loves being a mother but finds this new work fulfilling and it gives her a sense of purpose so she can now put herself first. Her husband and family have been very supportive and enthusiastic and her daughters even lend a hand with her pieces.

With a new beginning in her 40’s when her kids are about to leave the nest, Pam is ready to succeed in her new business but admits there are challenges. She is a one woman show and shared that her responsibilities as a wife and mother don’t change with her new business so now she has two full-time jobs!

Without financial backing or business loans available to her, Pam used her savings to purchase the start up materials including reproduction furniture from Italy. She reinvests her profit into the business and keeps her overhead low by working from her home studio. Her husband is a professional in the building industry so he has been helpful as a resource for some basic business fundamentals but Pam has been on her own to learn the trade of the interior design industry. She advises other budding entrepreneurs to do their research about trademark, company name and logo first, and then focus on your product.

Waste Not, Want Not

Inspired by shabby chic queen, Rachel Ashwell, Pam is building her brand on the historic preservation of vintage furs as a way to honor the history of each piece with a new life. Re-purposing has become vogue in the art, interior design, and fashion world so Pam is capitalizing on the “waste not, want not” approach. Since vintage fur can last up to 100 years, her creations make sustainable sense, economically, environmentally, and socially.

Pam was featured on the Canadian TV show Urban Rush and she was recently approached by a jewelry designer to sell her pieces in their store. These baubles are a favorite of celebrities, Tori Spelling and Anne Heche so Pam hopes that they might also consider buying one of her pieces. If you have an heirloom fur coat that you want re-purposed, consider commissioning Pam to make you a custom piece that will live on for years to come.

While Pam is living a new dream with her own business, she is also establishing a practice of re-purposing and recycling items to create new furnishings. This business woman with a conscience feels like a butterfly that has just begun to spread her new wings

Pam’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Don’t overwhelm yourself with a new business, take baby steps and preserve your inner peace.
• Follow your heart and do something you are passionate about.
• Be sure you have a good resource team (family, mentors, etc.) to back you up.
• Go for it because you have nothing to lose by trying.
• Do your homework in setting up your trademark, company name and logo.

Favorite Quote: “You will never know if you don’t try.” Pam Beattie

Resources:

Venetian Décor http://venetiandecor.ca/

Fur Council www.furcouncil.com

If you want action, you need a plan! Goal setting is the best way to turn resolutions into results. It’s time to define your objectives in practical and measurable terms so you can hold yourself accountable and get the results you really want.

First, you need to identify what you want and then you need to develop a road map to get there. Research tells us that when we set measurable goals, we are more likely to achieve them.

The SMART system is a very useful strategy for goal setting. Define your goals to meet the following criteria:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Achievable

R – Realistic

T – Timely

In order to be specific, achievable and realistic, your goals need to be concrete, concise, and attainable. Instead of saying – “I want a new job this year.” You need to specify “I want a higher paying job with more challenges in the marketing industry that allows me to play to my strengths.” Now you are ready to work towards getting something very precise and this focus will help in your job search process.

You must frame your goals in such a way that you can measure your progress. For example, plan to keep a log of the informational interviews you have conducted, network contacts that you have developed, and job applications that you have made in your field. If you can measure it then you can reflect on the progress you have made and ramp it up accordingly if you have not yet achieved the end goal.

Give yourself a reasonable time frame to achieve your goal. It’s unrealistic to suggest that you will land your perfect job in a week. So, break it down into smaller baby steps and focus on adding 5 new network contacts within a month, attending 2 professional development events in the next few weeks, and participating in a job shadow experience before the end of the summer, for example. It’s gratifying to accomplish short term as well as long term goals so break things up into smaller and more easily attainable goals along the way towards your ultimate goal.

Keep notes, a journal, a spreadsheet, or some sort of tracking system to hold yourself accountable so you can track your progress and reward yourself for all of your accomplishments along the way. Check in with yourself regularly or tap into your resource team and ask someone in your circle of trust (a coach, a friend or colleague, etc.) to be your accountability master if you believe that you won’t be strict enough yourself. Having someone check in with you might just be the nudge you need to move forward.

So get out there and set some SMART goals!

Jo was successful in the sciences and in the British system under Margaret Thatcher; she was paid to attend university (free tuition plus a stipend) and earned a BSc (Hons), a degree with honors in Psychology. While Jo was stimulated intellectually, she yearned for a more creative outlet. So she left England and headed to New York City to reinvent herself and test-drive a new world.

Millinery Mania

For two years she explored her artistic side, working a total of 17 different jobs from modeling to jewelry making and restaurant work. She taught herself how to cook and sew and she discovered a passion for making hats. Her millinery creations took off and Jo hit the big time when her hats were picked up by the exclusive three Bs department stores in New York City: Barney’s, Bergdorf Goodman and Henri Bendel, and soon after, 70 stores worldwide.

While the hat business was successful for a good while, Jo’s artistic wanderlust led her to try additional opportunities, styling props and creating environments for photographers. In her bones she knew that she did not enjoy working for other people in a corporate or structured environment. She longed to be her own boss and match her creative talents with her scientific skill set. Friends asked her to consider designing a bar for them back in London and that was the beginning of Jo Laurie Interior Design.

Values of a Dual Citizen

Jo enjoys the best of her American and English worlds as a dual citizen and her design firm is home based in the USA to capitalize on the significance of New York City on the global stage. She shared with me her frustration about the American system of a typical two-week vacation allotment for most employees in an organization and thus, she really values being in control of her own time as her own boss.

This globe-trotter doesn’t live to work but works to live. She subscribes to the continental work philosophy of enjoying six-plus weeks of vacation annually. This is the norm in Europe, Australia and Canada but it saddens Jo that most American companies offer only a paltry two-week vacation period. There has been significant research that indicates European executives are more industrious per hour, as they are more rested mentally and physically. This translates into better productivity on the job. Jo is in touch with what she values and has made priorities in her life accordingly to live these principles.

The Reality of Being Your Own Boss

Jo has come a long way from her millinery days and established a multi-discipline design company, with projects ranging from corporate and hospitality to high-end residential. Located in downtown Manhattan, she has been operating internationally for over 15 years, and has developed an extensive portfolio of award-winning projects.  As an interior designer, she has developed an understanding of the specialized needs of her clients worldwide by creating visually stimulating surroundings that produce unique, flexible, and functional environments.

But success does not come easily and even though Jo prioritizes multiple-week vacations each year, she works around the clock to keep her business thriving. Ninety-five percent of her business comes from referrals and satisfied customers. Her website is a powerful marketing tool and offers a delicious taste of the types of interiors Jo has created.

Her personal Board of Directors includes an old friend who has a very successful architecture firm who helps Jo navigate the business side of interior design.  This mentorship has helped Jo identify and market her special sauce in the design arena. Another friend developed her website, brand, and identity.  Her team is rounded out by an accountant, a marketing specialist, and another friend who has achieved great success in the financial industry. Jo has assembled a great resource team.

Dollars and Sense

While Jo is flexing her artistic muscles, she must always be concerned about the nuts and bolts of the business. Like many creative individuals, her first passion is the creative process, which in itself was not initiated by the desire to make money. With the help of some good mentors, Jo has seen a steady increase in clients as the businesses continue to grow – even in the recession. Cultivating new business is a constant need, so she also adheres to a realistic budget and a business framework that keeps her in the black.

The recession has hit the design industry as a whole, and for Jo, it has made cultivating new business more important than ever. She is always prepared to take a risk and try new things to make her business viable. Inspired by her grandmother, who always told Jo to go for it, she believes that taking a risk forces you to go to the next level. According to Jo, “You must continue to take risks to build your business and your dream. When you fail, you pick yourself up and start again because that’s what it’s all about.”

The Belle of the Bar

While Jo has achieved international recognition for her pub and bar interior designs from Sydney to London and beyond, she remains grounded in what is important to her. Personal life situations have helped Jo put it all in perspective, keep her focus on what is important in life, and to truly live what she values.

Jo continues to travel internationally to build her clientele and her inspiration for new designs. This straight-talking modern Englishwoman, whose formal education is steeped in the empirical sciences, has found a way to blend form, function, and art to build a business that meets her values and her passion. I have every confidence that Jo will continue to grow her career in different directions because blended within her inner scientist is the true temperament of an artist.

Jo’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Unorthodox is good – don’t be afraid to be different.
• Get other people to do what you can’t so you can concentrate on what you love and what you do well.
• Develop a resource team of experts to rely on when you need assistance. It’s a worthy investment.

Quote: “Your generation of women should do because you can!” – Jo’s Grandmother

Resources:

Jo Laurie Design www.jolauriedesign.com

LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/jolauriedesign

Upworld www.upworld.com/jolauriedesign

Her friend handed Carol a copy of the protocol and said “This works – I am living proof!” His concern was that it would never be patented because it was all-natural and he feared that it would never make it to clinical trials due to lack of funding and serious interest by the medical community. Carol’s friend died shortly afterward of liver damage sustained during the five year growth of his tumor but his body was cancer free.

Clean out Your Junk Drawer

The cancer treatment protocol remained in Carol’s desk for 7 years while her career took several different turns. Carol quit the computer company where she had worked for eight years and started a publishing company and flourished, publishing her sixth book with her new company following five others with a previous publisher. But the cancer protocol sitting in her desk drawer kept haunting her and eventually prompted her to seek out the scientific library where the protocol was archived. Carol is quick to point out that she is not a doctor or a scientist but she got so involved in the research, she started telling people that she was working on a cure for cancer. Nobody laughed, and many offered to help.

Eventually the networking stars aligned and Carol was introduced to a pediatric oncologist, who used to work at the FDA, the NCI, and a major pharmaceutical company. She was experienced in fraud detection and interested in alternative treatments and has been guiding Carol’s research ever since. Today Carol is incorporated and the President of her own company: Sky Blue Pharmaceuticals, LLC. She is seeking funding to conduct a Phase I clinical trial for the cancer treatment protocol.

A Sense of Urgency

It’s not often that you meet someone working on a cure for cancer. I asked Carol if she was excited to get up every morning to work on this profound new career path and she said that she is extremely focused but also feels a sense of urgency to accomplish her goal.

“I went to a memorial service last summer for a friend’s daughter. She died after her breast cancer recurred. I was re-acquainted with her two high school children – their Mom had baby-sat for my younger son. I left with a renewed sense of urgency to make this cancer treatment protocol a reality.”

Everyone knows someone who has been affected by cancer. According to the National Institutes of Health, 562,000 deaths from cancer were projected for 2009. Every minute, of every hour, of every day, someone will die of cancer and Carol Covin is on a mission to cut that number down to size, knowing the ones she misses will be somebody’s loved ones.

The mission to cure cancer sounds noble but how does a non-scientist even begin to tackle this herculean task? Initially, Carol set aside $5,000 from money she inherited from her mother to hire a consultant to assess her scientific literature review. Carol had gone to the National Library of Medicine on the campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to gather information that had already been written on this topic and read the citations of those sources to educate herself and others on this approach.

Her goal is to find out if the treatment works and if so, to tell people about it. Ultimately she wants to take the treatment to market. But before she can do any of this she must take the protocol through clinical trials, to prove that it works in order to make a claim that it has some effect on cancer.

The Sky Blue Pharmaceuticals team of two includes Carol and the pediatric oncologist who is guiding her research efforts. Carol has not yet had access to grants so she is relying on private funding, and clinical trials are not cheap. Ultimately, she hopes a pharmaceutical company will offer to license her product and take it to market but the Phase I, and possibly Phase II clinical trials must happen first.

Trials and Tribulations

The cancer treatment protocol will be taken by the patient in the form of a pill for a 30-day regimen. It takes about three to six months to manufacture the pill and the full Phase I clinical trial will take about a year with 1-2 months of treatment and then observation, and follow-up testing. The recipe and production of the protocol will cost approximately $500,000 and another 3 million dollars to facilitate the clinical trial.

Carol has a business plan and a line item budget and she is looking for investors to help underwrite the cost of the clinical trial. Venture capitalists will be pitched after the trials, so for now, she is living off of her 401K which looks more like a 201K in the current economy.

She is networking like mad connecting with entrepreneurs and women’s business organizations as well as people who are living with cancer. Sky Blue Pharmaceuticals is truly a labor of love since there is no money coming in for Carol but she considers this her full-time career and she is committed to meeting her goal of bringing this protocol to market.

Carol has learned that you need to identify what you need and then ask for it. This was a lesson that took a while to sink in but Carol can say with confidence now that her life has purpose and she is unflappable in the face of adversity.

Assembling a resource team was crucial for Carol and she works with a team of advisors who are helping her make the clinical trial goal a reality. She is learning the art of fundraising and is perfecting the subtleties of “the ask” since at the end of the day, what she needs most is financial support.

Seek and You Will Find

Research has become one of Carol’s top transferable skills these days. She found an online message board and unearthed discussions among people who had tried the protocol. She posted a message to ask if they were willing to be interviewed about their experience, and, if possible, supply supporting medical documentation. This has resulted in 15 case studies, including seven who supplied medical documentation, from people who had actually utilized the protocol successfully to treat their cancerous tumors. This information is now documented in a brief that will be part of the clinical trial application.

This particular protocol is unique because it is a treatment for cancerous tumors and not a preventive measure. But preparing for government application for a clinical trial has been a lesson in patience and perseverance. Carol has a 50-year plan for the rest of her life that she breaks down into 10-year chunks.  She predicts it will take 8-10 years to get the protocol to market and she is in it for the long haul.

No One Else is Going to Do It

In the last nine months, Carol has added another advisor to her team and is talking with a law firm about a promising road map to a patent. She also won the STEM Award (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) from a case study she submitted to George Washington University’s Business School, The Hot Mommas Project and presented a poster on the project at the Annual 2010 Multinational Development for Women in Technology (MD-WIT) conference.

Nobody expects a software engineer to cure cancer but Carol has taken this on as a personal mission. She has always put herself into challenging situations and thrives on intellectual stimulation. While some people are dubious about her efforts to cure cancer, more are applauding her and sharing personal stories of people in their lives affected by cancer. These connections have offered Carol hope and inspiration to tackle the monumental challenge she has dedicated her life to pursue.

Blue Skies

Carol left the security of a steady career to pursue a very risky venture because it speaks to her heart. Many years ago, her husband had a cancer scare but he is alive and well today. Carol lost a college roommate to cancer who left behind three young children and there are countless others who have been robbed of life by this selfish disease including the colleague who gave her the business launching protocol.

When someone asks Carol Covin at a cocktail party “What do you do for a living? – she answers with confidence “I am working on a cure for cancer!” And she really means it.

Carol’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Reflect on how you want to make a difference in the world. What is the imprint you will leave?
• Look to the end goal and keep your eye on the prize.
• Assemble a great team early on.

Quote:

“Identify what you need and then ask for it!” Carol Covin

Resources:

The Hot Mommas Project: Case Study. “No One Else Is Going to Do It.” STEM Award 2010

http://www.hotmommasproject.org/caseview.aspx?id=266

The Hot Momma’s Award Presentation, GWU School of Business

www.slideshare.net/HotMommasProject/2010-awardspresentation-hotmommasproject

We know that networking is not just about finding a job but building your circle of friends, mentors, and colleagues as part of your personal Board of Directors. If you are in a job now or developing a business you should be thinking ahead about the ways you want to move forward and how the people on your resource team might play a role.  Building trusting relationships takes time and earning the opportunity to ask your network for support is not instantaneous, or a given.

Former President, Bill Clinton was famous for keeping index cards with notes about each new person he met daily. His forward thinking attitude helped him build a strong network even while in college as he planned for his future political career. Known for his ability to connect with people and form a personal bond, Clinton utilized his index card system to recall important facts about people he met.

I encourage my students and clients to write notes on the back of business cards they acquire to remember specifics about people. This can be especially helpful after an interview when you are composing a thank you note.  And when it comes to stewarding your network, you should write thank you notes and follow-up with phone calls intermittently to show your sincere appreciation, even when you are not seeking their assistance.

As an experiment, start logging the new people you meet each day and jot down a few notes about them on an index card, à la Bill Clinton. At the end of the week reflect upon the number of new contacts you have made and take stock of these new members of your community. From the UPS delivery person to the new client at work, this is how you grow your network one person at a time.

Angela Jia Kim, CEO and Founder of Om Aroma & Co. and Co-Founder of Savor the Success has built her business on the Give, Give, Get rule when networking. Nothing is more of a turn off than someone who is in it just for themselves. When you are a genuine networker and operate from a position of authenticity people are more apt to help you. After all, business is all about human interaction so considering how you can help others will increase your personal capital.

Paying it forward is not just applicable to networking.  I have interviewed 100+ women across the country for my career transition book and the majority of them talk about their commitment to giving back. Whether it is volunteering your time and expertise or donating a percentage of targeted proceeds towards a worthy cause, generosity and the spirit of community is being celebrated on a grand scale.

Careers are a life long journey and we’ve all had people that were instrumental in helping us along the way in good times and in bad. Make an effort to be conscious about how you are helping others because what goes around really does come around. It may require some new mindsets, behaviors and strategies, but at the most basic level, all it requires is that you make a choice. By giving back, you just might be a role model for someone else and help make the pay-it-forward behavior the norm for everyone.