February is National Heart Disease Awareness Month, so show your support by taking part in Go Red’s Wear Red Day. Go Red for Women, an organization leading the fight against heart disease for women, has made February 6 the day to show you care. Wear red and be chic and supportive all at the same time. If you don’t have any red, don’t fret! Here are some great red pieces that are guaranteed to make your voice heard without saying anything at all.

	These sterling silver earrings showcasing the signature Go Red for Women red dress from ShopHeart.org are great for the office or a night out on the town. Being heart-conscious never looked so fabulous!
	This red and black 100% silk scarf from ShopHeart.org is the ultimate accessory. Show your sophistication and wear it around your neck, or tie it around the handle of your purse to give your everyday handbag a little spice.
	This Heart Wings Tee from ShopHeart.org is a must have addition to your wardrobe. Pair this cotton/poly burnout tee with blue jeans and sneakers and you have the ultimate day outfit. Switch to black skinny jeans and some black heels and you have a flirty outfit perfect for evening.
	Protect your feet from nasty puddles with these Kamik rain boots from Zappos.com. These playful red boots are just what the doctor ordered for those cold and soggy days.
	Calling all handbag addicts! If you ever saw yourself as someone not able to pull off red, then this Treesje Asher leather satchel in Lipstick from Clutch is the bag for you. This handbag with braided leather handles and dark nickel hardware is sure to compliment any look.
	The Eros Ring from Swarovski is ideal for those who prefer a simple yet elegant look. This two-in-one rhodium ring is embellished with red Siam crystals on both the top and bottom. Wear the two rings together or separately–either way, you’re guaranteed to make a statement.

Check back here on Friday February 6th for more information about preventing heart disease.

Everybody always asks me, “How do you do it? How do you run this business and keep it all together while getting out there and creating new relationships all the time?”

Let me introduce you to my team.

First of all, I have the greatest husband! He understands women and really gets my business. He is there for me every step of the way. I couldn’t do it without him.

Then I’ve got the best bookkeeper. She keeps it all together without me worrying if it is done right.

My in-house team of Lilla and Amanda keep the day-to-day operations moving along smoothly. Sometimes they work at home from their laptops, and sometimes they come into my basement office. Lilla is the glue that holds us together, and Amanda makes it all look good. Talented girls!

I am learning to outsource. Working with an outside sales team, partnering with people to pull off events, and lots and lots of interns.

Collaborating with like-minded people is also my favorite thing to do. I am always looking for fun people to do projects with. Everyone has a different talent to get us to the end result that we all agree on.

We love meeting fabulous women. We think joy is a pretty sweet deal. And as much as we’ve tried to hold ourselves accountable to all our resolutions and goals, doing it alone is not exactly working.

It’s a good thing we heard Molly Hoyne of Stratejoy speak last week about her Tune In, Turn Up Workshops! She gathers a group of women together one night a week for four weeks to put our lives on VIP project status. We write, listen, figure out what it’s going to take to rock our world and leave with a plan of action. Molly says it’s a combination of accountability, camaraderie, and flexing your “big dream muscles” that create the magic.

We’re not sure what kind of shape our “big dream muscles” are in, but we’re willing to give it a shot.

Stratejoy’s next Seattle session starts February 4th and runs every Wednesday for 4 weeks. Joy, here we come! Click here to learn more and register.

Follow your heart. Do your passion. How many times have you heard this? It seems like it took me 20 years to figure out I could actually do this.

I thought I had to wear all the hats in my past businesses. Manage people, create the vision, pay the bills, figure out how to pay the bills, manage more people, organize what we were doing each year, negotiate leases, work with the banker, take the garbage out, come up with new ideas, ship products out, hire and fire, and on and on.

I never stopped to ask myself, “What am I doing? Do I like what I am doing?” There was no time to think this way; there was always the next crisis. Then I found myself one day without girlfriends and hanging out with like-minded women. I finally slowed down long enough to realize that was insane.

So I started over and re-invented myself and tried to do the opposite of everything I had been doing for the last 20 years. What did I love? What did I light up about?

Shopping. Spa-ing. Girlfriends. Community building. Hanging with like-minded people.

Hence CRAVEparty was born and I have been on a very happy roll for the last seven years.

What is your passion and how do you figure that out?

Just as we suspected, Michelle Obama ROCKED her Inauguration Day wear! The chic sheath created by Isabel Toledo worn for the presidential swearing-in ceremony was a breath of fresh air. Her stunning white chiffon Inaugural Ball gown designed by 26-year-old Jason Wu made us swoon. We can’t wait to keep tabs on this fashion maven for another four years!

In other related news–we love this article from Bonnie Fuller (Magazine Executive and Former Editor-In-Chief of US Weekly, Glamour and Cosmopolitan) about what Michelle and Barack’s public displays of affection mean for us as a country. Check out some choice excerpts below:

“Frankly, a lovey-dovey duo is just what we need right now, especially when the affection appears completely real — not the least bit fakey-fake. After all, the euphoria and the love fests that the country feels right now for the Obamas is totally genuine, and, like all lovers, we want to know that we can be truly, madly and deeply loved back. If Obama can feel that way about his wife — and his daughters — then we know he’s capable of feeling that about us, too.

Here’s the thing: a lot of us didn’t feel that our last president loved us very much. And in fact, he seemed awfully focused on himself, not us. Whatever his private feelings for his wife, Laura, he never performed such a public display of affection ever, let alone on the night that would set the tone of his presidency.

I think last night’s nookie — on one level — said a lot about how the Obamas were a “real” and loving couple, and their romance and marriage will be strengthened by the intellectual challenges which they will face together.

On another level, it says our new president is a “sharer” — he unselfishly shared the limelight with Michelle. When he embraced her, it made it easier to believe in his spoken commitment to leave behind
divisive partisanship in exchange for a new era of inclusiveness.

But boy, is he ever setting a high bar for husbands across the country, too!!”

It’s all about creating relationships. But what is the best way to establish them? Organic is all I can say. You never know when and where your next relationship will be formed. You have to get out there and expose yourself and start meeting people in all sorts of ways.

My favorite way is to walk and talk. It is hard for me to sit in a coffee shop and talk for hours. Creative juices really fly when you are walking and talking.

I love the incubators that I facilitate. I get to sit with eight to ten women for four weeks, a few hours each week, and brainstorm for each other. You never know who you are going to sit with and how you are going to help them or they you. Magic happens. The power of putting a bunch of women in a room to help each other is amazing. I watch the relationships that form and issues solved every week.

Who are you cultivating relationships with? Be creative!

“Fail fast” is one of my business secrets for entreprenesses. Whether you are starting a business or launching a new idea within your existing business, I like to promote the fail fast method. Just do it (like Nike says). Get it out of your system. Quit thinking about it, writing a business plan for eight years, excel-documenting until your eyes blur. Pretend you are in the business and go out and try it on. Make a business card and get a domain name and get running to see if it will fly.

One of my ideas was wowcookies.com. I was in the cookie business at the time and won an award for the best cookie in the nation. So I got a bright idea to start an online business shipping cookies that make you say WOW! I got the business card and domain name and went to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco.

I failed this business in a weekend. First of all, I found out there are tons of cookies that are great but they don’t make you say WOW. Plus the few WOW cookies of the world would not drop ship for me. Reality was frustrating and I moved on to my next idea. Thank goodness I didn’t spend a lot of time and money on this business before I launched and found out in one weekend it wasn’t going to fly.

Prototype. Survey. Pretend you are in business. Fail Fast! You might just succeed.

One of our New Year’s resolutions is to make a concerted effort to reconnect with friends we care about, but have lost touch with due to location, busy lives etc. We found this fantastic, quick article featuring Dr. Robin Smith from Oprah.com on the subject.

Reconnecting with Old Friends

In this fast-paced world, it’s hard to find the time to reconnect with old friends. Dr. Robin says she’s guilty of pushing aside contacting friends because of her busy schedule, but has recently decided she’s going to make a concerted effort to get in touch.

Are there people in your life who you really do want to connect with, but life keeps happening and weeks, months and years go by and you still haven’t reached out? “Real love, real connection, somehow is so
powerful, it is so big, and it is so real, that even when…years of time has passed, it doesn’t dilute, it doesn’t diminish the connection that is there,” Dr. Robin says.

Think about the people in your past who really matter. Dr. Robin says no matter what the reason is that you decide to pick up the phone and reconnect, just let the reunion occur. “Whatever allows the moment of
reunion to happen—who cares?” Dr. Robin says. “Just let it be. Let the reunion begin today.”

Remember Ally McBeal and her theme song? I believe every entrepreness should have one for fun. Mine is Flashdance…

What a feeling…

Take your passion and make it happen…

I can have it all! I am dancing for my life…

Nothing but a dream…

Every time I am feeling a bit low I play that song and my spirits lift immediately. A few years ago for my birthday I invited my girlfriends to a loft and had a Flashdance Festival. We learned to dance the Flashdance song clad in leg warmers and ripped sweatshirts. We took a test on what are your five top passions and got our toes painted silver. I like to create memories and build relationships at the same time.

Annie Leibovitz says, “Music on a shoot isn’t just background. It raises the mood, sets a tone. The right music at the right time elevates the situation. Music can make or break a shoot.”

What is your theme song?

As you put your New Year’s workout plan into action, consider the nine moves Web MD has singled out as the least effective. These exercises may not deliver the results you desire, and may even cause injury. Watch this super informative slideshow here.

Learn to work out the right (and fun) way with these CRAVE-approved fitness gurus:

Pilates Plus
1010 NE Broadway, Vancouver, WA 98660
360.574.7800

Exhale Studio
1083 Cambie St, Vancouver, BC V6B 5L7
604.689.2446

Bodycenter Studio
126 NW Canal Street, Suite #320, Seattle, WA 98107
206.633-4800