Forging Relationships

Connecting with other women in business is food for my spirit. During the last two months, I have attended two conferences that renewed my energy and provided inspiration to reach for a higher plateau during these difficult economic times.

In September, I headed to Boca Raton, Florida for the "Count Me In" Leadership Conference hosted by Office Depot at their new headquarters. For three days, I was immersed in workshops and surrounded by 108 inspiring women who were discovering ways to grow their business to million dollar enterprises. I had match-making meetings with amazing companies like Power Purchasing, Scripps, and Office Depot-- all potential customers for KleenSlate! I came home filled with ideas and possibilities.

Last week, I attended the Astra's 13th Annual Workshop, Match-Maker, & Awards Dinner: Connect 2009, Start Local-- Go Global. The name Astra comes from the Latin ad astra per aspera which means rising to the stars through difficulty. These days call for just that kind of attitude, and the women and corporations at this event were finding ways to build economic bridges between women entrepreneurs and major corporations.

I presented a workshop on the value of doing one's homework and the preparation necessary for successful engagement when approaching big corporations with a business idea. Because I walk my talk, I was matched with Robert Half International, Apple, and AT&T. Making certain that I had a comprehensive understanding of these companies' values and needs was a critical component to finding a way to add value to their business. I pitched our Partners in Education Program and our patented dry erase products. I was able to explain to these big guys how they might enhance their branding through promotional products that I could provide.

Most importantly, I forged new relationships--without a doubt a key feature in the successful development and promotion of one's inventions and business.

Weird (Funny) Inventions

Some inventions are too funny for words. Check out this video of Weird Clothing Inventions.

I bet that made you laugh. Do you have your own odd ideas for inventions? Care to share?

Writing & Inventing

Last week I retreated to a cabin in the High Sierra, with my co-writer Patricia Harrelson, to work on The Right Sisters. It was an energetic, productive, and at times, comical experience.

We immersed ourselves in the lives of eight women inventors, reviewing transcriptions of our interviews with them, researching and fact checking key points, talking in depth about the common and unique themes among them, and eventually reading and revising the drafts we have written of their chapters. What occurred to me as we worked was how similar the writing process is to the inventing process.

The are both creative endeavors that require deep and meaningful attention and action. Patricia and I talked at length about each inventor. We hiked to the river and to a giant rock pile, notebooks in hand so we could record the insights that came to us. We stretched our bodies in yoga poses and our understanding of each woman deepened. I remember the talking, thinking, walking, and stretching that went into developing KleenSlate and my erasers and paddles.



A little humor is essential to both processes. Our cabin was funky. It was very old and tilted on the foundation, so we slept and wrote on an angle. A skunk family had nested under the cabin all winter, so that during the heat of midday a pungent scent wafted through the floorboards. At night, we had a regular visitor, a critter who made a rukus in the little kitchen, nibbling on fruit we'd left on the table and knocking pans off the stove. These discomforts seemed to feed our process rather than detract from it. We giggled at our cockeyed computers sitting on the table and shone flashlights into the kitchen at night trying to "catch" the critter in its beam.



We never caught sight of him, but we caught much more. The essence and flavor of the women inventors who have so wholeheartedly shared their stories with us. It is going to be a GREAT BOOK!

Google Alert for Women Inventors

I'm always interested in anything that has to do with women inventors. In fact, I have a Google Alert set for anything connected to inventors in general and women inventors in particular. (check out Google Alerts to stay on top of news in your field)

That's how I learned about WOMENTORZ a website scheduled to launch in six weeks. Their site is designed to build a network of women inventors. In fact, they are advertising for help with beta testing.

I don't know these gals, but I sure like their idea. Check out the site and decide for yourself if it is something you want to pursue.

High Tech vs Low Tech Inventions

We live in the technology age, and I’m right up there with everyone else enjoying the benefits of high tech inventions, such as Skype and my Iphone. I’m well aware that technology can change lives. That’s why I eagerly read an article by Jennifer Lawinski entitled “Five Inventions That Will Change Your Life.”

The funny thing is that when I read this article, I suddenly wanted to shout about the value of low tech inventions, particularly mine: the two-sided dry erase paddle.

The article described something called the cognitive radio—a communication device which is a cross between a walkie-talkie and a palm pilot. This high tech handset would allow communication during a disaster when the power is out and phones, including cell phones, and the Internet are not working.

As I read about the cognitive radio, my head starting screaming, “It’s paddle time!” I imagined folks sitting on roofs in a flooded out town. They held paddles pointed skyward with critical messages: “5 people here!” or “baby & disabled grandma.” Helicopters hovering overhead radioed this information to the rescue boats. KleenSlate paddles save the day!

I love technology, but let’s not forget that low-tech devices can be life savers too! How do you see KleenSlate saving the day? Or what about your low-tech invention? How will it change people's lives?

Proactive Business Relationships

I’m so grateful for the solid business relationships I’ve established since first inventing the eraser for dry erase markers. Among the first of these important relationships was meeting and working with Michelle Payne.

I met Michelle at a NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) California Chapter meeting. Michelle was smart and engaging, and when I learned that she did business coaching, I signed on.

Because Michelle lived more than 90 miles from me, we did most of our work via the telephone and email which saved time and money because we didn't have to travel. She helped me write my first business plan and taught me about things like pricing and the cost of goods. One of the best things we did was role playing exercises. She would play the buyer and I would be the seller. Practicing my pitch with Michelle on the phone was invaluable.

Michelle has moved on from business coaching to using her substantial skills to develop a non-profit organization called Parent Driven Schools. Last week, I was able to support Michelle’s new enterprise when KleenSlate was one of several sponsors at the premier of a documentary film about revolutionizing education by empowering parents. Check out the Parent Driven Schools website to see how you can involved.

Michelle embraces the idea of taking a proactive role no matter what your endeavor, be it building a prototype, writing a business plan, or securing the best education for your child. She’s part of my network of business relationships. I’m grateful to her and delighted to support her.

Fun Facts from Everyday Edisons

Everyday, human beings deal with problems. Inventors see problems and their minds click into action to seek a solution.

For example, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals because he hated wearing two pairs of glasses.

Everyday Edisons, the award winning PBS series, documents this problem solving process by closely following inventors as they develop an invention. For the past couple of years, I've had the privilege of participating in the casting calls for Everyday Edisons. What a privilege it is to hear from people across the country who have inventive minds.

The program developers know that inventors find inspiration in hearing about other inventors. Not only have they created an awesome television program, they also have a newsletter that includes inventor updates and casting calls.

Here are a few fun facts I gleaned from the most recent newsletter:

Melting ice cream inspired the invention of the outboard motor. It was a lovely August day and Ole Evinrude was rowing his boat to his favorite island picnic spot. As he rowed, he watched his ice cream melt and wished he had a faster way to get to the island. At that moment, the idea for the outboard motor was born!

The Band-Aid was invented by a Johnson & Johnson employee whose wife had cut herself. Earl Dickson's wife was rather accident prone, so he set out to develop a bandage that she could apply without help. He placed a small piece of gauze in the center of a small piece of surgical tape, and what we know today as the Band-Aid band-aid was born!

My favorite invention story is one that I think epitomizes the thinking of so many inventors, that is the desire to make the world a better place:

British-born Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, but he never made a cent on this invention which revolutionized the computer world. In 1989, he envisioned a way to link documents on the Internet using "hypertext" so "surfers" could jump from one document to another through highlighted words. Berners-Lee decided not to patent his technology because he feared that if he did, use of the Web would be too expensive and would therefore not become used worldwide. He passed up a fortune so the world could learn and communicate.

To learn more about inventors, tune into Everyday Edisons AND go to their website and subscribe to the newsletter.

Networking Leads to Match-Making

I can’t emphasize enough the value of networking. In my opinion, networking is the most powerful activity you can engage in if you are an inventor or entrepreneur.

That’s why I recently attended a Match-Makers Meeting hosted by the National Association of Women Business Owners. I went with express intention of meeting people who might influence me and my company, and I was NOT disappointed. One of the women at my table was Imelda Alejandrino, the CEO of FirstStep Marketing. Imelda and I hit it off immediately. She was engaging, smart, and absolutely full of wonderful ideas about developing my business. She was just the person I was looking for, someone who could breathe new life in KleenSlate.



I took her card. FirstStepMarketing focuses on assisting the marketing efforts of small start-up companies. Last Friday, I met with Imelda and her staff for a three-hour brainstorming session. The work was vigorous and inclusive, fascinating and energizing. Together we took an in depth look at KleenSlate from a variety of vantage points. We made lists and diagrams on the white board, using KleenSlate markers and erasers, and I took pages of notes. One specific activity that all small start ups need to do is a SWOT exercise, listing:

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

I identified the companies/brands I liked and shopped. They asked me to explain what I liked about these companies. Then they flipped that information around and made me look at how what I valued in other companies was emerging in my own company. We worked like this all afternoon until I my brain was spilling with new insights and awareness about KleenSlate and how I wanted to position myself in the market. The team at FirstStep will use information from our brainstorming session to draft a proposal regarding how to REFRESH the look of KleenSlate.

By putting myself in a place where I could meet people, being open to new experiences, and following up, I met Imelda Alejandrino and her partners. Now KleenSlate is getting a new branding/marketing strategy with a clear direction and an eye for the future.

Nothing beats networking!!

Name Three Inventors

“Name three inventors,” I asked of my 8th grade language arts class more than 10 years ago when I was still teaching.

Hands went up and I called on students, who named Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and the Wright Brothers—well known inventors. I wanted the students to dig deepr, so I said “Name a woman inventor.” Not a single hand went up despite the fact that they all knew that I had invented the attachable erasers I was using on the whiteboard. After a moment, one student raised his hand. “Yes, Steven,” I said.

“I don’t think there are any women inventors,” he said.

My mouth dropped open; I was speechless. Though I’d often told the kids about my adventures while inventing the eraser, Steven did not view me as an inventor. When I regained my voice and questioned the class further, it was clear that that none of them could name a female inventor. This simple question opened a much bigger one for me. I realized that I couldn’t really give a satisfying answer to my own question. I had met several women in the course of working to get my eraser patented, but I didn’t know of any women inventors beyond these few.

I decided that it was imperative that I be able to promptly answer this question myself, especially if I wanted my students to be able answer without hesitation. Research, however, offered a bleak picture. There were no books on the library shelves about women inventors. Further investigation revealed that few had been written. Then I stumbled upon a used copy of Mothers of Invention: From the Bra to the Bomb, Forgotten Women and Their Unforgettable Ideas written in 1988 by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek.



The authors say in their Preface that they wrote the book as “attempt to resurrect from the cracks of history the names and stories of remarkable women who changed the world –and were promptly ignored by it.” From this fascinating and thoroughly researched book, I learned about Sybilla Masters who invented a corn refining machine in 1793. The patent was issued to her husband because women were not allowed file in their names back then. I learned that Margaret Knight invented the flat bottomed brown paper bag in 1870, a product still in use today. The book is filled with stories about women whose inventions range from practical to scientific, from frivolous to serious. The stories also describe the obstacles that women inventors have faced since the dawn of human history. Reading these stories was a true eye-opener. When Vare and Ptacek followed with a sequel in 2002 called Patently Female: for AZT to TV Dinners, Stories of Women Inventors and Their Breakthrough Ideas, I bought it immediately.


These books have motivated me to write my own book about women inventors: The Right Sisters. In future posts, I will tell you about the women inventors I’ve met on the pages of these books as well as in real life. I hope you’ll pass their stories along. My wish is that to expand reader's awareness so that if you are asked to name a woman inventor, you have names bursting forth: Marie Curie, Claire McCardell, Amanda Theodosia Jones, Kate Gleason, Wendy Steele, Julia Rhodes.

Saving the World One Invention at a Time

Inventing is as old as human kind. When we were kids, we learned about the impact of the wheel on the growth and development of human life. While the wheel had dramatic effects for humans, smaller inventions were similarly significant.

Dr Michael Petraglia, an archaeologist from the University of Oxford, recently published a paper in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that describes how one early invention enable humans to adapt to environmental change. He discovered tiny stone blades, less than 4cm long, in South Asia. The blades were probably inserted at the top of wooden shafts and used as spear-heads or arrow tips.They were light and portable and could be produced in large quantities.



Climate was changing rather drastically at this time, turning colder at the onset of the Ice Age, causing much of the landscape of South Asia to become quite inhospitable. Despite the challenging environment, the genetic findings of Dr. Petraglia’s study reveal that Asian populations actually increased during this period. He speculates that the tiny blade contributed to the survival of the hunter-gatherers because they allowed humans to hunt at a greater distance from their prey and thus with less risk.

While your invention may not enable the survival of the human race, don’t underestimate its usefulness in society. For instance, I know my paddles can save thousands of dollars in paper for individual schools. Multiply that by many, many schools and my invention has the potential to make a HUGE impact on the world.

Tell us how your invention will impact the world.

Pitching Your Idea 2- Speaking Up

Wanda Plimmer, who is featured in The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories, was an actress before she was an inventor. Her skills as an actress have served her well in presenting her idea to others. After Wanda invented her Nursing Nest, she decided to pitch it to a large company.

In the Right Sisters, she tells this hilarious story about getting through to the “right” person.

I called the corporate headquarters and told them I had a product that I wanted to present to the person responsible for buying breast-feeding pillows. The receptionist told me to send them a sample and they would take it from there. I insisted that I needed to talk to the buyer, but she said she couldn’t give that information and ended the call.

I waited a few minutes and called back, disguising my voice in a twangy, southern accent: “I’d like t’ speak t’ the person who buys breast-feedin’ pillas?” The operator seemed about to transfer me, but I stopped her and said, “Couldja just gi’ me her name?”

“Marcia Costello,” she said,

“Oh, thaaank you, honey,” I said and she patched me through. I reached Marcia’s assistant, and when I told her I wanted to present my product to Marcia, I got the same instructions: “Just send us a sample.” So, I said, “Thank you, very much,” and ended the call.

A few minutes later, I called back a third time, using yet a different voice. I said, “Marcia Costello, please. This is Wanda Plimmer from Peaceful Peas.” When I finally got to speak to Marcia, I felt like I’d reached the great Wizard of Oz. I told her I had five products that I was ready to present including the Nursing Nest.

“I can’t see you for another three weeks,” Marcia responded.

Keeping my voice level in the face of this thrilling news, I said in a very businesslike manner, “That will be fine. What time is good for you? I had assumed a totally different persona from the ones who busted their way through by phone.

Wanda used her talents to good advantage to get through to the right person. However, most of us have not been actresses in a previous life, so getting up the nerve to talk to people about our ideas is sometimes a tough thing to do.

If you lack confidence in the public speaking arena, I recommend that you get help from those who are more expert and practice what you learn. For example, Lisa Marshall offers some wonderful guidelines on her podcasts at The Public Speaker. Check them out.

And please let us know your tips for overcoming public speaking angst.

Pitching Your Idea 1- BEFORE the Elevator Pitch

So you have this truly wonderful idea for an invention and you’ve actually begun to think about how you make it a real thing. Maybe you are drawing pictures or maybe you are already fooling around with creating a prototype. It goes without saying that soon after the moment of inspiration; you will find yourself in describing your idea to someone.

At that moment, you are pitching your idea for the first time.

From this moment on, you will pitch your idea again and again as you try to get help creating a prototype or try to find investors to help you get it manufactured.

To get what you want, you have to be ready to pitch your idea. That means that you have to think about what you want to say.

In the business world, there is a lot of talk about the “Elevator Pitch,” so called because it compels you to be able to describe your business plan to a stranger in the time it takes to ride in an elevator from the 1st floor to the 7th floor. The rationale is that a concise, carefully planned and practiced pitch is more likely to be successful than a stumbling, disjointed delivery.

Makes sense, right?

But my experience is that way before you reach the business plan stage, you have to pitch your idea, describing it to people who will help you in your inventor journey. For instance, you may ask your brother-in-law to loan you money to get started or you find at a meeting explaining your idea to the local inventors group.

I’m talking about the time BEFORE the “Elevator Pitch.” You aren’t actually pitching a business yet, but you are headed in that direction.

So I recommend creating a concise description of your invention as soon as possible:

Write it down;
1. Edit it; make it 25 words or less;
2. Use simple to understand words;
3. Make it sound compelling;
4. Then practice saying it. Say it so many times, that you are dreaming the words.

Here is my description the attachable eraser for a dry erase marker:

KleenSlate's eraser cap will fit on your dry erase marker. It's much better than using your finger. Would you buy a pencil without an eraser?

With this description ready to pop out of your mouth, you will be ready for ANY encounter. You never know when you will meet someone who can further your journey.

And you will have the first step of your “Elevator Pitch” ready to go.

Inventor Beware!

Did you know that 1 in 3 inventors have spent from $8000 to $12,000 on scams that claimed they would help the inventor get his/her product to market? Such scams, traps, and raw deals are rampant. Of the 8 women I interviewed for my book, The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories, four of them told stories of buying into such scams.

So inventors BEWARE!

My friend Louis Foreman, the Executive Producer of the award winning program “Everyday Edisons,” offers this advice: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”



The most important thing you can do when you first get started is lots of homework! Always carefully research anyone offering to assist you in getting your product to market. Check out the reputation of any person, company, or organization BEFORE you spend a penny.

I’ve found the United Inventors Association (UIA) to be particularly useful. They offer a terrific 10- part miniseries entitled “What Every Inventor Needs to Know” in which the first episode is all about avoiding scams. Obviously, UIA recognizes what a problem scams are for inventors.

Check out UIA. You can subscribe to UIA for free and get a monthly newsletter as well as access to the mini-series.

And remember to always do your homework!

Naming Your Business

Early on, a friend who owned a business said something that stuck with me. “Get a name and put it on everything.” If I was going to put the name of my business on everything, I knew I had to decide exactly what I wanted in a name.

When I came up with KleenSlate, I knew it was right. I was starting over, changing careers at mid-life, so the name was relevant to me personally. At the same time, the world was moving away from chalkboards toward whiteboards. I felt like the old term for chalkboards—slates—fit once again, and using it as my company name could help bring it back into fashion. I changed the spelling of clean because I thought the misspelling signified the need for erasers. I was having the time of my life and when I said KleenSlate, it made me smile. “This is good,” I thought. “When I tell people about my product, I will always smile.”

Since then I’ve read what experts on branding have to say about choosing a name for a small business. It boils down to 4 essential considerations. Choose a name that:

• is easy to spell and pronounce,
• describes what you do
• distinguishes you from others
• will bring you business.

By carefully thinking about a name for my business that related to well to both my invention and myself, I also managed to stick to these rules. I love the name of my business; it still makes me smile.

What are your questions or thoughts about naming your business?

Philanthropy-Giving Back

Ever since I started KleenSlate Concepts, I’ve looked for opportunities to help others as a way of acknowledging the help that has propelled my inventor journey. For instance, I frequently donate product to schools locally as well as across the country and internationally.



I learned about philanthropy from my mother as well as from the generosity of others. When I was a kid, my family lived in Mexico while my parents did graduate work. Because they were going to school, they had to get resourceful about how to earn money. Mom started selling homemade granola to the local super market. It was soon a reasonably lucrative enterprise. When we were ready to move back to the States, Mom turned the business over to our housekeeper. She taught her about business, especially bookkeeping, and she introduced Maria to the store manager as her business partner.

When I was a single mother at 20, I realized that an education could get me out of poverty. I enrolled in the local community college, Columbia College, where I applied for and was awarded various scholarships. The generosity of people who established these scholarships helped me through tough times. The gift not only helped me financially, but it also boosted my self-esteem because I felt like someone believed in me.

That’s why I’ve chosen to donate a portion of the proceeds from The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories to fund a scholarship at Columbia College for women like me—young women in difficult situations who recognize that education is a way out of poverty.

My mother’s generosity was a significant influence in my life. Philanthropy is as important to me as the more practical issues in the inventor-entrepreneur life—things like patents and manufacturing and promoting.

I’d like to hear how readers are repaying the help they’ve received during their inventor journey.

The Birth of an Idea- Part 2

Wanda Plimmer is the inventor of the Nursing Nest, a device that supports a nursing baby. Wanda is one of the inventors featured in The Right Sisters.

Wanda's idea for the nursing nest was born following an emergency C-Section to deliver her first child. She describes the conditions that prompted her invention this way: "My incision hurt, my lower back hurt, my shoulders hurt, and I had Carpel Tunnel from holding him up for so long. I was falling asleep sitting upright on the bed in the middle of the night, and twice I dropped him onto the bed. I couldn’t believe how unsafe I felt dealing with this tiny baby when I was exhausted and hurting."

Inventors often create out of a sense of frustration. Many people feel like there has to be a better way when frustrated, but inventors use that feeling as their source of inspiration.

Wanda was terribly frustrated after the birth of her son as she tried to nurse him. She turned to books and health care practitioners who explained that she could nurse laying down if she used blankets to prop her baby. But even though this helped a lot, she was still frustrated. Here is a excerpt from The Right Sisters describing her moment of inspiration and what she did about it.

The only problem was that for each feeding when I needed to reposition to the opposite breast, I had to shift all the blankets and pillows that I had arranged. One night about midnight as I was nursing Joel Walter, I had this sudden image of what I needed to make this work so much better. I got out of bed as soon as the baby fell asleep and went to the kitchen to find the electric carving knife. Then I grabbed a slab of foam that I happened to have. I didn’t know exactly what the end product was going to look like, but I had a good sense of the shape it needed to be. That night, I created the first prototype for the Nursing Nest.

The thing that distinguishes inventors from other dreamers is their pro-activity. When they imagine a solution; they get to work to make it happen as Wanda Plimmer did. Tell us how you were pro-active in bringing your idea to life.

The Birth of an Idea-Part 1

Folks are often curious about when, where, and how an inventor first gets an idea for an invention. That's one of the questions I asked the women inventors whom I interviewed for the the book I'm writing: The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories. Their answers to these questions illustrate the creative mind at work on a very practical level.

I thought my blog readers might enjoy reading a few excerpts from The Right Sisters that zero in on the birth of an idea. Here is a short segment describing the moment when I got the idea to make my first invention:

My younger son Joe wanted to make a gift for his basketball coach. “Mom,” he said, “Can you help me make a dry-erase board with a diagram of the basketball court? And can we get some markers with erasers on the end? Coach is always erasing with his hands and then he wipes his hands on his pants and he’s covered with black smudges.” My fingers were also black at the end of the day as were my fellow teachers because we used our hands to erase rather than reach for the block eraser. I went on the Internet to look for a marker with an eraser, and I quickly discovered that there was a 1.8 billion dollar marker business, but not one company had designed an eraser to go on the end of the pen. Joe and I both had the same thought: A person wouldn’t buy a pencil without an eraser, so why buy a marker without an eraser? Right then I thought, “This is it! I’ll invent an eraser and I’ll take it to market.

Little did I know the challenges that lay ahead that would change my life forever. Best of all, that little eraser helped send Joe to college!








Stay tuned for more excerpts from The Right Sisters. And please if you have your own story about the birth of an idea, drop us a note in "Comments."

Michael Jackson, Inventor

Yesterday, millions of people said good bye to Michael Jackson. His death was shocking, especially to those of us who spent years listening, dancing, and working out to his music.

For several days following his death, stories about Jackson filled the airways, revealing many shocking, as well as amazing, details of the man’s life. As people gathered for his memorial service, I followed the story on NPR and learned this surprising fact: Jackson had a patent. He was an inventor!

Of course, we know he created extraordinary music as well as dance steps, but he also invented and patented a system related to dance. According to “Discovery News,” the title of the patent was: “Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion.”

It's a system that consists of a special shoe that has a hitch designed to attach to a projection in a stage. When the shoe engages with the component in the stage, the performer can lean forward beyond his or her center of gravity. (To see a video of the shoe in action, click the link above.)

The creative mind comes in many forms: scientific, practical, and artistic—and clearly the boundaries are fluid. Having always appreciated the creativity of the man, I can’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction at having this small connection with Jackson’s legacy.

Homework is not a 4-letter word: Preparing to Meet with Corporate Buyers

If you are in the San Francisco area next Tues., stop by the Mascone Center and say hi! WBENC (Women Business Enterprise National Council) will be hosting their Annual Conference: The Bridge to Quality . Check out the web site for more information: www.astrawba.org/wib_2009
Wendy Steele from Tapewrangler, http://www.tapewrangler.com, and I will be giving an enlightening workshop June 9th from 4-5:30 at the Moscone Center, Gateway Ballroom room 103. "How to Prepare to Meet with Corporate Buyers" Come by, pick up some tools and tips and learn about how certification can move your business to the next level. Hope to see you there!

The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories

I will not beat myself up over not writing in my blog. My writing time has been absorbed finishing a book that was started 2 years ago! The Right Sisters: Women Inventors Tell Their Stories should be ready to go to press in August and released in Late Sept or early October. It has been a fascinating and inspiring journey interviewing 10 amazing women inventors. I am honored to be telling their stories and I look forward to sharing them with you. My mother's artwork inspired the cover while her encouragement and support throughout my life gave me the confidence I needed to make this happen. I love you Mom!