Christmas Charisma

Your local Christmas curmudgeon got her veneer cracked the other day. Donna Chaney invited me to a Women's City Club luncheon, and I don't like to miss a chance to spend time with a good friend like Donna. Nor do I like to miss a chance to visit the historic Blinn House, the Club's home at the edge of the Fuller Theological Seminary campus.

So I expect and receive a nice meal, a cup of coffee and the company of smart, entrepreneurial women. We're munching away and having a proper chat when in come these adorable kids in their charming costumes and I think, "Ah, well, there goes the conversation."

Pitch pipe gives a quiet note and BAM! These junior musical geniuses sing out Christmas carols old and new in such glorious, four-part harmonies that I actually put down my fork and shut up to listen.

I agreed with the woman next to me that they had to be college kids because they were too good to be any younger. Wrong. They're the Crescenta Valley High School Charismatics Chamber Choir, and they are super.

Of course even talented high school kids are not going to sing with that kind of precision without a lot (a lot!) of rehearsal. Wrangling that is their conductor, Mr. Shannon W. Mack. If you want to talk to him about having these charismatic cherubs serenade your Christmas soiree, contact him at smack@gusd.net.

Re:Launch

Once upon a time you learned a profession, you got a job, you worked hard at that career and you retired with a pension at the age of 65.

THE END.

And I do mean, "the end." It's the end of that kind of career. The internet and the recession have radically changed the workplace and we have to change with it. We will have several careers in our lives. Many people who've been laid off or downsized (same, insidious thing) have turned to entrepreneurship or small business ownership. Many of us come from a background of working for companies that had departments for accounting, planning, marketing, IT, acquisitions. Now we run all the departments. At least I do.

Did our 20th century educations prepare us for the 21st century work force?

You may remember last year I participated in a Business Builders' Boot Camp. I loved it and promised to let you know if there was another. Now the same people who ran Boot Camp are holding a two-day strategic planning retreat March 4th and 5th at the Historic Blinn House, home of the Women's City Club of Pasadena (pictured above). Men are most welcome, by the way.

The retreat is called Re:Launch, as in relaunch your business. Donna Chaney, of Chaney Financial Services (my one and only advertiser!) and Lilli Cloud, marketing and personal branding expert at bluefeet, are the warmest, most engaging business aces you will ever have the pleasure of learning from. And for their Friday lunch speaker they've got Karen E. Klein, the Smart Answers Columnist from Bloomberg  BusinessWeek, Q&A Columnist of the LA Times Business section and all-around business brainiac.

You can waste time and money figuring this stuff out as you go, or you can learn it all at Re:Launch. For more information, click the links. Or contact Lilli Cloud at 323-466-3518 or lcloud (at) yourbluefeet.com

I think I'm in the wrong career. I should be writing ad copy.

Tomorrow: I'm excited to host Pasadena Daily Photo's first ever guest post! Stop by and meet Altadena author Des Zamorano.

Stairway to A Secret

If you're willing to get off the main path, Lower Arroyo Park will give up its secrets. Stone walls, steep trails, hidden stairways and more lie waiting in the underbrush along the walls of the Arroyo.

I've sometimes wondered if these human-made bits might be traces of Busch Gardens. The walls, maybe. Some are old, elegant and overgrown enough. But I suppose this simple stairway is too pedestrian to belong to so grand a memory.

Still, what's it doing there? Why stairs on a woodland path? Where did they once lead?

Don't answer. I prefer the mystery.

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Today I welcome a new advertiser, Donna Chaney of Chaney Financial Services. See the purple and blue ad over there on the left? Click on it to set up a free consultation with Donna to start planning the life you want--not just when you get old, but right now. I know Donna personally. She's tops.

Honoring the Best in Business

Last Friday I attended the 11th Annual Women in Business Legislative Update and Awards Luncheon--not my normal milieu, as I work in the arts. But if you've been following Pasadena Daily Photo you may remember I attended a Business Boot Camp at the Women's City Club of Pasadena. An artist has to be a business person after all.

Business Boot Camp was created by CPA and Financial Planner Donna Chaney, pictured at left. At Boot Camp, women participated in bi-weekly workshops led by a variety of business leaders from bankers to entrepreneurs to marketers, and even ourselves when we had skills to share. We got so much out of it a few of us decided to nominate Donna for this year's Empowerment Award, and she got it!

Donna's unique idea, and her dedication to making the experience available, empowered many local women to start a new business, enhance an existing business or bring more viable practices to our work. Donna deserves her award and many of her Boot Campers were there to cheer when she received it.

With Donna is Tamika Farr, Executive Director of the YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley, who was honored as an Outstanding Non-Profit Executive Director. Under Ms. Farr's direction, the YWCA has expanded and increased by 20% the number of community members it serves, increased community partnerships by 50% and procured new program funding resources. I haven't actually met Tamika. She and Donna were talking, I took the photo then she disappeared. I think she likes me.

The luncheon was presented by State Senate District 21, State Assembly District 43 and State Assembly District 44 and hosted by Senator Carol Liu and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, both of whom welcomed the huge crowd with brief speeches. I think they knew the main attraction was the awards.

25 outstanding businesswomen were honored, and it was inspiring to cheer them on and witness their triumph. One woman can do many things--build a business, build a family and/or build a skyscraper--and when a woman achieves the heights in her field it makes us all look good.