Gano Life Style Part 2

Stella & Dot Founder Jessica Herrin: I'm 'Living My One Precious Life In Accordance With My Values' The Huffington Post | By Margaret Wheeler Johnson Posted: 08/28/2013 11:12 am EDT | Updated: 08/28/2013 12:32 pm EDT

Why do you do what you do? [When I was running WeddingChannel.com], we were fortunate enough to be featured on Oprah. [The episode] was all about pursuing your passion to find your fortune and develop a business. [Afterward] all these women reached out to me and said, "What advice do you have for starting a business?" At that time, I honestly felt like I didn't have a good answer. It may have looked good from the outside, but I worked every night and weekend. I had a created a business that ran me versus me running it. With Stella & Dot, the idea was, "How could you have the amazing elements of being an entrepreneur without having the high cost of capital to start it?" I became obsessed with reinventing the idea of flexible entrepreneurship. The modern woman had changed since home-based entrepreneurship had been thought up a hundred years ago. I think women deserve a better answer for, "How can I lead a life [at] the intersection of all the other roles that women play in their lives and being an independent accomplished professional?" We need careers that can ebb and flow around our life. I do what I do because it's a complete passion project, and I'm utterly convinced that it needs to exist. What work would you do if not this? I would do this. With Stella & Dot I have found my calling. I've done other things that have been commercially successful, but it's not enough. It left me wanting more, and that feeling of wanting more led me down this path. What we do really matters. We empower women. Is there still a glass ceiling? Have you hit it? Glass ceilings still exist in corporate America. I started my own business and became my own boss, [so] nobody's holding me back but me. There is no ceiling. I [also] believe [I haven't hit it] because I have never acknowledged that being a female would be a barrier for me. I've never thought to myself, I can do anything a man can do. I've just always thought I can do anything. Do women have an obligation to help other women at work? One hundred percent. Because women are still trying to navigate the dual responsibility of being the lynchpin of all matters in the home and achieving career[s] worthy of their brains and ambition, we need each other's help. I have a VP of strategy right now on a two month sabbatical in Uganda. That's not easy and convenient for the rest of the company, but we're going to make it work because that's [who] we want to be. Mentoring her isn't just about, "Here's how you can broaden your skills and broaden your career." It's about providing an environment that says, "I get it. If you don't have QT with your kids, you're going to drop out of this work force. So were gonna be a company where somehow that can work out." Please contact me for information on how you can own your own home based business.