Happy Open House!

It's come and gone and it was a Happy Open House! Thank you to all the great friends that stopped by. Let's hope I'm able to keep it as neat & clean going forward and find the sales and administrative support needed to grow to the next level.

As with all things, there is a time to transition. As we move into our great new space, I transition from my SCORE advisor, Judy Murphy, to our new Advisory Board starting 11/27. Judy has been a fantastic resource during the last year of starting up. Her sage advice has kept me moving forward and warned me of the obstacles so I didn't feel as bruised when something didn't go as I envisioned it. I wish her well as she works with the future clients that will have the pleasure of meeting her. Thanks, Judy, for hanging in there!

I'm looking very forward to assembling the Polish Your Star board of advisors for our first meeting at 11/27th Women on Boards event. They will be announced in detail closer to that date. In the meantime, I have the task of clearly setting out board roles and helping ensure that their valuable time is well spent. With their collective wisdom and energy, I'm positive that this will be a prosperous year for us all! The trick, in my mind, will be maintaining the trust of my female clients and not jeopardizing it with fast growth that runs counter to our values. Particularly, I think of all the advertising to women that plays to their fears, guilt or insecurities.

My clients all have exactly what they need in them. So why would they want a coach? Because they are wise enough to recognize the value of having someone remind us of our value when we forget, when we can't see the forest for the trees, or when work with others that minimize our value or play by different rules. Since the business landscape was created by and for men, the need to counterbalance that influence to be heard is even greater. Gosh, I love my job!

Looking forward to speaking to the Women's Leadership Network at 3M tomorrow, TTDC and Feed My Starving Children on Thursday. Have a great week!

My vision... What's yours?

As I sit in the business office at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis and check emails, I find my self reflecting on the great women I've met here and about town as well as my vision for myself, Polish Your Star and women of tomorrow. First some of the women at the club:
* Maryna Chowhan, our fearless BNG committee chair and fearless business woman
* Cathy Clairmont, committee member and speaker at this mornings breakfast - truly a leader in her industry helping families dealing with memory loss
* Nicole Mittendorf - on channel 5 at 6 a.m. this morning at the same time she's working out - brings multi-tasking to a whole new level (Also winner of Top Women In Finance award, featured in Finance & Commerce along with another winner Karen Myers and new FWI president Regina Barr.)
These are but a few of the amazing women I am getting to know and admire. I look forward to meeting and recommend more in the years to come. We will be vibrant members of the business community only if we support each other. There is place enough for us all to succeed.

For myself, I want to live comfortably with a happy and healthy family, to travel, to use my talents, skills knowledge and abilities fearlessly to make this a better world, to be challenged and engaged by my life's work and to leave a financial legacy that continues to empower women world wide. What is your vision for your life? Writing it down, checking your actions against it and making decisions based on your vision are powerful steps toward achieving it.

For Polish Your Star, I envision a growing, profitable company with a mission to empower women by providing the tools that help women grow the economic pie. I hope through the process to also refocus business from marketing to women by holding up unrealistic and antiquated images of who they are and "should" be, to marketing to the intellect and emotion of what individuals can do to make this a world a more peaceful and vibrant environment for all to grow and flourish. Nothing in for-profit says don't do good in the world, but that's the way its perceived by many. You can make a profit and make this world a better place, they are not mutually exclusive. Let's lead the way! What is your vision for your business? Have you written it down, checked your actions against it and are you making decisions that match your vision? If you're not sure, ask your clients and business advisors.

For women of tomorrow, I envision a world in which we don't allow others to pigeon-hole our desires, don't pit women against other women who make different life choices, and don't excuse half of the population from responsibility for the care of dependents, whether children or elderly. I envision a world in which we value equally all contributions of effort and time toward making this a better world (whether its tied to a dollar sign or not.) I envision a world in which both genders have an equal place at the leadership tables - whether in for-profit, non-profit, academia, political, or government sector. And in which decisions are based on empowerment and growth, rather than guilt, obligation or fear. What is your vision for the world? Write it down, check your actions againsat it and make decisions that match it.

I can't wait to see what we create!

If a tree falls in the forest...

As I continue my blog, I'm reminded of the question "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Similarly, if a blog is written but no one reads it, does it make a sound? I'm told by women I trust and respect that getting a blog out there is worthwhile, so I persevere. If you hear any of this, please do add a comment so that I know there are others in the forest.

Lots coming up for Polish Your Star this week - I'm speaking to the Life Leadership for Women Manager's at St. Thomas on Wednesday and hosting the Polish Your Star/Betty Albitz table at the Top Women in Finance event before heading to Appleton, WI for an alumni board meeting. (I just wish all the office furniture was in place as ordered so I could attend to all of this without distraction.)

Here are a list of upcoming events:

· November 1st—Co-hosting the Polish Your Star/Betty Albitz table at Top Women in Financing event put on by Finance & Commerce. Congratulations to Nicole Mittendorf, also a member of the BNG committee at the Woman's Club, and the other women leaders making their mark!
· November 8th—Polish Your Star sponsor’s the Breakfast Networking Group at the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis.
· November 12th—Open house at new corporate headquarters from 3—6 p.m.
· November 13th—Julie Moore Rapacki speaks to 3M Women’s Leadership Network
· November 14th & 28th—Friends of Polish Your Star networking lunch
· November 15th—Feed My Starving Children volunteer event.
· December 12th, 19th & 26th—Friends of Polish Your Star networking lunch
· January 11th (Fridays over lunch) and 15th (Tuesdays over breakfast) - When Stars Align Express series begin.

Hope to see you there!

Mavericks at Work

I just saw a great presentation by Polly LaBerre about "Mavericks at Work" hosted by LifeScience Alley and sponsored by Larsen. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Polly LaBerre was a phenomenal speaker and great story teller. Her talk reminded me of specifically why I started this business - because business discussions often fail to acknowledge that collaboration, innovation, and right bright brain thinking is practiced by women leaders who often go un noticed or unrecognized because there numbers are few, they are not in your face with their "maverick-ocity" or, if they are, they make us uncomfortable and challenge our notion of what a leader is (A middle aged or older, slightly graying man who is over 6 feet tall.) As with Daniel Pink's book " A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers will Rule the Future," it distresses me that the mind sets described are stereotypically female and yet women are still not being called out as models for the behaviors, recognized for their contribution, calling out each other for their valuable contributions or supporting each other in an environment that requires them to take on at least two jobs - being a woman and a man. It's the elephant in the room.
What we aim to do at Polish Your Star is to call out that elephant and recognize the great contributions of women like Polly LaBerre (CNN), Liz Rammer (LifeScience Alley) and Catherine Gillis (Larsen). Because I don't know Polly, I can only guess that she is able to more easily recognize the Mavericks because she is as one herself. Like many women, she has to make her own way in a field highly dominated by men. Men who often want to ignore the differences in the way men and women are perceived in the workplace and pretend it's all "gender neutral" when all the evidence in front of us tells us it is not. We wonder why more women aren't leaders of organizations. We ignore that we raise them and expect them to be different than stereotypical leaders and yet punish them when they behave like women and when they behave like men. If you don't think that is still the case, check out Catalysts Foundations' recent study at www.catalyst.org - "The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t." It's my dream that calling out this elephant in the room will help other women recognize it, challenge it themselves, be their best self at work, and support other women being their best selves, whether it makes others comfortable or not.

Well wishes to California & Star sightings

Heard from a couple of friends out in California today that they are impacted by the fires out that way. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone dealing with the uncertainty and turmoil the fires are causing!

I'm looking forward to seeing my friend Cheryl Leitschuh present at the MN CPA's Caffeinated Conversation tomorrow a.m.. Cheryl is not only a highly experienced executive coach but also the chair of the AICPA's Work/Life and Women's Initiatives coach. As I started Polish Your Star last year, I was fortunate to be introduced to her through a few network resources (from Betty Albitz to John Stavig to Floyd Adelman to Cheryl and from Calllie Camp directly to Cheryl.) Not only have I had the pleasure of meeting all of these wise people along my path but having met Cheryl has brought even more wonderful people into my life. Check out her great new website and blog at http://www.career-future.com/portal/. I just learned of the updated, swanky new site when I went to validate her website. What a pleasant surprise. Hope you enjoy it too.

If you're not already booked for it, check out this year's Top Women In Finance on November 1st, hosted by Finance and Commerce. I'm fortunate to have met a couple of this year's winners through my membership at the Woman's Club and sit on the Breakfast Networking Committee with Nicole Middendorf. Congratulations, Nicole Middendorf! www.helpingyouinvest.com. Stop by the Polish Your Star/ Betty Albitz table to say hi!

Want to meet some of the great up and coming women in the twin cities? Join us at a Friends of Polish Your Star lunch. Get to know what great services and products other women are offering and support their businesses & careers. Register at www.polishyourstar.com or email to info@polishyourstar.com.

Have a great week!

Mothers going back to work

Here are some tips for mothers going back to work:

1. Keep it simple. When you’re thinking about re-entering the work force it can be easy to see the job search data, advice and resources available and become overwhelmed. Focus your efforts on defining:
§ 3 skills you excel at and love to use
§ 3 special abilities you have
§ 3 types of knowledge you have developed
§ 3 ways you can help a company increase its profits or reduce its expenses by using your unique skills, abilities and knowledge and
§ 3 employers or industries you are most interested in and want to learn more about.
2. Increase your self confidence by educating yourself. Remember the move from kindergarten to grade school? It seems daunting when you approach it but before you know it, you’re teaching new students the ropes. Educate yourself about the employers or industries you are interested to decrease your anxiety and increase your self confidence.
3. Check out all the great online resources for writing a resume or ask your friends in the field to share their resume with you as a model. It can be as simple as name a few jobs you are interested in and then doing a google or other online search for “resume computer analyst”, “resume sale association,” “resume VP Marketing.”
4. Know the market rate for the job you’re after - If you don't already have a pulse on this information, check out online resources such as www.salary.com and www.cbsalary.com, or ask a trusted advisors or trade association representatives. If you don’t know the value of the job to employers, the employer may question whether you really have the skills, ability and knowledge you claim.

You can reach me, Julie Moore Rapacki, at 952-484-6461 or julie@polishyourstar.com, www.polishyourstar.com.

Sunday stop by

It's Sunday - done with Yoga and off to the Art Crawl in St. Paul soon. Just stopped by to pick up my calendar for the coming week. (I'm trying to leave my lap top at the office for a while and keep it from home. Mostly because I don't want to carry it around all the time and so Mackenzie/Joe stop thinking I'm uninterruptable at home. I'm devoted to the business but they are my top priority when I'm with them.) Everything always to seem to take longer than I expect. Time to get out of here & enjoy the day, as soggy as it is. J

Busy Friday - Productive?

It's been a busy Friday. Every day I ask myself, has it been productive? I can only hope and trust my instincts. As my friends remind me, it takes about 18 months to develop a customer base in this business. I'm doing a lot of fertilizing these days and hoping that this Spring's fields will be full. At the same time, the "magical thinking" me wishes I would just show up with the phone ringing off the hook and the blog comments a flying. I'm dreaming big and reminding myself that every "no" is one step closer to a "yes." My successes today: 1.) I connected with friends/former colleagues from Best Buy; 2.) I took advantage of the flexibility that my schedule allows to get some errands done; 3.) We sold a house and made a 25% return on investment - good even considering that the real estate market is in the dumps; 4.) helped a client with a solution to getting the care she needs and 5.) following up with potential clients. Have you taken the time to reflect on your successes today? this week? this month? this year? When you're a high achiever, you owe it to yourself to recognize where you've been and help it fuel you toward even more success. Enjoy the day!

I'm back...

Ok, I just learned something new. If you hit the wrong button on my lap top, you can delete your entire blog entry. Argh...Day two, take 2...A friend mentioned that she found my comment
"wish i had something like this when i was just starting out" intriguing. Let me elaborate. When I first started my career, I began in an hourly job filing employment files. I heard a lot about the $40k starting salaries, back then a lot of money, but couldn't find one of those. So, like many things in my life, I just charged in and figured I could do it. My mom, a working mother, would advise me "don't stay late unless they see you doing it" and "don't expect them to recognize your work without your telling them." That type of advice just stuck in my craw. It wasn't until much later, after many books and experiences that I realized what she was getting at in her blunt fashion. In many cases, men and women come to work with completely different sets of beliefs and baggage about work and their roles. Being able to identify those beliefs, come from their point of view and work within or around them, can make you more successful and less stressed out. Regrettable, I also learned that this often meant that you were adapting your style to men and not the other way around. It also means that many women get used to being ignored, overlooked or resentful. Check out "Women Don't Ask" for great insight in to the research in this area. Reading it, was a catalyst that motivated me to start Polish Your Star and provide the tools to change the dynamic so many have come to accept. More later... In the meantime, check out my friend Wendy Blomseth of InBeaute's studio at the St. Paul art crawl this weekend. Tell her Julie sent you. Hope to run into you there!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Julie Moore Rapacki of Polish Your Star. This is my first entry and my first attempt at using this medium. I'm eager to start this adventure and look forward to hearing from you.

Here I go...We've moved into our new office at 6800 France Avenue South, Edina, MN. I'm looking forward to our open house - tentatively schedule for 10/17 and everything being in line for that to happen. It's been a rocky start - our furniture wasn't delivered and scheduled and then when it arrived it was missing pieces, panels, table legs and chairs. Thank goodness I'm a pretty flexible and patient person. My new friend Julie Ann Segal of Metro Interiors will be coming over Friday to help us with a design consultation before we invest in more pieces.

Our Friends of Polish Your Star lunch begins in a couple of hours over at the Women's Club. In the meantime, I'm busy making sure my current clients get the information they need to succeed while working on developing new business. I knew it would be a challenge to go direct to my customers - women - rather than their employers. The most difficult part is reaching them when they're working all the time, getting another degree, caring for their children or parents, and/or traveling the world and don't think they "should" need help or that they can spend money on a coach. Oh, how I wish I'd had a resource like Polish Your Star available when I was working in corporate America. As it was, I had to search out books and online coaching in Texas to help me manage it all. Thanks, Carol!

Enough, I have to get back to work. Look forward to seeing you at future events. News to follow.