SubscribeTopic: Mentors
Kelly Cutrone’s Assistant Has A Death Wish Apparently
Wow. This guy has some nerve to steal from Kelly Cutrone, one of the toughest women in fashion. Yesterday the People’s Revolution founder tweeted, “One of my old assistants is getting arrested this week for grand larceny – stealing money from People’s – cannot wait – revenge is sweet.” The former assistant’s name is Brunson Stafford and he apparently stole money and samples from People’s Revolution. More »
Executive Suite: CEO Angela Jia Kim On Why Dreaming About Your Career Is Overrated
Angela Jia Kim is the founder and CEO of Om Aroma & Co., an organic skincare line with a boutique spa in Manhattan’s West Village. She’s also founder and CEO of Savor the Success, an online network for female entrepreneurs that boasts 20,000 members. Oh, and she started her career as a professional concert pianist. When I spoke with Kim by phone last week, I got a glimpse into how she gets it all done: She is intense. She talks a mile a minute, she has a million plans and a million plans to achieve those plans, and she has a knack for smart self-promotion. She’s now working on a program she calls M.A.N.I.F.E.S.T Method, an eight-point plan designed to help users achieve their goals with “vision books,” peer support, and other tools. Kim spoke with me about launching her businesses, starting her day at 4:30 am, and why she thinks dreaming big is overrated as a career strategy. More »
Career Lessons From My Mother: 6 True Stories
In celebration of Mother’s Day today, we thought we would talk to some real women about career lessons they learned from their mothers. From taking risks, to launching a startup to picturing someone on the toilet whenever you are nervous, here 6 true and inspiring stories. More »
Anna Wintour Softens Her Image With A Pitch Perfect (And Funny!) Appearance On Colbert
Anna Wintour may be the perfect talk show guest and not the ice queen we thought she was. The usually quiet and serious Vogue Editor was all smiles and jokes when she appeared on The Colbert Report last night. She managed to gently rib Stephen Colbert while brilliant explaining what fashion means to her. More »
Teen Against Seventeen’s Photoshopping Makes Notable Ally: The Mag’s Former Editor
Seventeen magazine may have hoped to shut down 14-year-old Julia Bluhm‘s request for authentic images with a nicely worded “no,” but the conversation surrounding Photoshop is still ongoing. Even though the magazine has announced no further plans to meet with young feminist, Julia’s petition continues to grow with now over 66,000 signatures demanding one unphotoshopped photo spread a month. Seventeen‘s editor in chief famously – and laughably — refused to even admit that the publication used photoshopped images. But a former editor of the magazine has since teamed up with Julia, sharing her own story of why she eventually quit the magazine.
The Jane Dough‘s Amy Tennery reports that DeDe Lahman, a former editor at Seventeen and now bakery owner, offered the following statement asserting that girls should be better educated on how these images are manipulated: More »
‘Complete Trust’ & Other Blessings Of A Mother-Daughter Business Team
Reusable sandwich bags. It was a simple idea that turned into a fast-growing entrepreneurial endeavor for Sherrie Smith and Ciara Cates.
Just in time for Mother’s Day, we at The Grindstone decided to sit down with this impressive mother-daughter duo to talk about family business and how they make it work so well.
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Hillary Clinton’s No-Makeup Look Is A Total Power Move
Have you heard today’s big news? Hillary Clinton has been appearing in public wearing glasses and not very much makeup. Just a bit of lipstick! Hope you were sitting down for that one. Ever since the conservative Drudge Report put a photo of bare-faced, glasses-wearing Secretary of State at the top of its front page yesterday, the media have been abuzz over her new look. Even Hillary herself weighed in.
Is the lesson here that older women’s looks are scrutinized more than older men’s? Definitely. Is it that Clinton’s stress-free attitude about all this is admirable? Absolutely. But it’s also that Hillary Clinton has officially, without a doubt, become one of the most powerful people in the world. Because only the most powerful people can ditch fashion norms and get away with it.
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Video: Martha Stewart Gives The 2 Broke Girls Great Entrepreneurial Advice
Last night on the season finale of 2 Broke Girls, our favorite show about struggling entrepreneurs, Max and Caroline make an elevator pitch for their cupcake business to the one and only Martha Stewart….in a bathroom (watch the clip below). Though this was mostly done for comedic appeal, this was a great example of what it takes to make it as an entrepreneur. Martha even told the girls, “When you’re in business for yourself you have to take every situation as a business opportunity,” she tells them after they admit it is inappropriate to be selling their product while at a party…and in a bathroom. But Martha is right. More »
Are Mark Zuckerberg And Sheryl Sandberg The Greatest Team Ever?
Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg may give Fred and Ginger a run for their money. Not in terms of dancing skills, but in terms of being great complements for eachother in how they do their jobs and working together to run one of the world’s most successful and important businesses ever. And they say the secret to their relationship is that Sheryl is okay with being the number two at the company. Though she is one of the most ambitious women of her generation she is satisfied with the fact that she will never hold the CEO post at Facebook. More »
Learnvest CEO Alexa von Tobel Said Raising Money For A Startup Is ‘Most Gruesome’
Alexa von Tobel, CEO and Founder of Learnvest, said raising money for her startup back in 2009 was one of the most gruesome experiences ever . She told Marie Claire Editor in Chief Joanna Coles, at a Women in Business event last night hosted by the magazine, that it took her six months but she raised $1.1 million in seed funding from executives at Goldman Sachs. With that money she was able to launch LearnVest. More »
Confidence Plus A Mentor Equals Entrepreneurial Success For Women
When it comes to the decision to venture out into the world of starting a business, women are less likely to take the leap into entrepreneurship than men. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, “male entrepreneurs in the United States outnumber their female counterparts 3.5 to 1.”
What do some women have that encourages them to jump right in while so many others consider the possibility yet continue to sit cautiously on the side lines? More »
Four Sisters, Two CEOs, Two Executives: One Amazing, Super-Intense Family
How’s this for a family business: Campbell’s Soup CEO Denise Morrison (on the right in this photo) and her little sister, Maggie Wilderotter (left), are both CEOs of huge publicly run companies, and two other sisters are executives, too. (Wilderotter runs Frontier Communications, a multi-billion-dollar communications company.) Morrison talked with Wall Street Journal reporter Lauren Landro this weekend about how women can bring their social skills into the boardroom, and why she needed a not-so-gentle reminder from a mentor to focus on relationship-building, not just profits. More »
Anna Wintour Is In Full Micro-Manager Mode For The Met Costume Ball
Tonight is the annual Met Costume Institute Ball and the queen of the fashion industry, Anna Wintour, is in full micro-managing mode for her staff. According to Women’s Wear Daily, the Vogue Editor in Chief has asked all the editors to wear pink dresses. But just to make sure everyone looks up to Vogue’s standards, Anna required editors to take pictures of themselves in their dresses, with a few different hairstyle options, and send them to her. More »
Newly Cool Hillary Clinton Says She Wants To See A Female President, But It Won’t Be Her
Hillary Clinton’s popularity hit a 20-year high a few weeks ago, and she’s had a whirlwind year of cultural coolness, but that doesn’t mean she’s thinking about running for president again. She told an audience this weekend that while she wants to see a female president in her lifetime, it won’t be her. Come on, Hillary, pleeeeeeease?
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What Businesswomen Can Learn From Meghan McCain & Sandra Fluke
Whether you agree with her politics or not, Meghan McCain has an amazing point to make about working women and the need for us to support one another. She might have been referring to women politics but I think that ladies of the corporate world should take note as well! More »
Gilt Groupe’s Alexis Maybank Tells Us She Still Worries About Failing
What would the world be like today without Gilt Groupe? How would we shop? Imagine being responsible for a business that changed the way many people shop. And when I say many I mean the 5 million members of Gilt Groupe that have helped make it a $1 billion company in just four short years. But Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, the founders of Gilt, don’t have to imagine what that would be like because they did it.
The two women met while in business school and bonded over their love for shopping at New York sample sales. They wondered if they could bring the excitement of exclusive sample sales to the internet. And then like that, Gilt Groupe was born! Oh, if only it were that simple. Though Gilt Groupe is considered an overnight success, there was a ton of hard work and some struggle involved. Luckily, we were able to talk to Alexis Maybank about that amazing journey. You can read more about the entire Gilt Groupe evolution in her and Alexandra’s new book, By Invitation Only: How We Built And Changed the Way Millions Shop (available in stores now.)Alexis talked with TheGrindstone about the secret to working with a partner, the importance of female entrepreneurs and never resting on your laurels. More »
Executive Suite: How One Woman Transformed From Chemist To Bourbon Taster
Maker’s Mark VP of operations Victoria MacRae-Samuels is the only woman to hold that title at any bourbon distillery. That’s a distinction she earned through 20 years of experience in the industry, beginning as a research chemist and rising through the ranks. She talked with me yesterday about moving to Kentucky, working for a company that respects women, and having “sip bourbon” on her daily to-do list. More »
Take A Cue From Hillary Clinton, Let Humor Help Your Career
Hillary Clinton is laughing her way into America’s hearts. The politician with the highest approval rating in the country is showing that hard work combined with a little humor is the best way to success. Just look at the adorable rejection letter she sent to Jason Segal. And we thought we couldn’t love her any more… More »
9 Dream Commencement Speakers for 2013
On Friday, we announced this year’s notable commencement speakers, including Oprah, Michelle Obama, and Katie Couric. That got us thinking: who are our dream speakers for next year? Here are our 10 dream commencement speakers for 2013. More »
‘Real Simple’s’ Kristin van Ogtrop On Why You Should Always Have A Plan B
This week we were lucky enough to sit down with Kristin van Ogtrop, the Managing Editor of Real Simple Magazine. Since taking that position in 2003 the magazine has achieved popular and critical acclaim and has received six National Magazine Award nominations in the category of General Excellence. In addition to leading the magazine, van Ogtrop oversees all brand extensions, which have grown to include a robust website with unique, daily content; tablet editions; special issues; books; licensed products; and mobile apps.
Van Ogtrop also writes a personal blog, Adventures in Chaos, on realsimple.com and is the author of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom (Little, Brown, 2010).
Before joining Real Simple, van Ogtrop was Executive Editor of Glamour and has also held positions at Vogue, Travel & Leisure and Premiere. Van Ogtrop received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in English from Columbia University. Kristin lives in the New York suburbs with her husband, who is also a magazine editor, and their three sons and a small zoo of animals. More »
