“Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning. Whether at work or at home, the goal is to engage in activities that are both personally significant and enjoyable. When this is not feasible, make sure you have happiness boosters, moments throughout the week that provide you with both pleasure and meaning.” —Tal Ben-Shahar
For the June brief I want to introduce you to three women who have given me reason to smile over the past three months. Mazda, Marikate and Amy are all friends, but they are also business owners in the Philadelphia region. The reason for my happiness? Their ability to transition their businesses during the quarantine without skipping a beat.
Mazda Miles, CMM is the founder and CEO of Perfection Events. They specialize in the design, planning and production of meetings and events for corporations, associations, non-profit organizations and the public sector. So, as you can imagine, Mazda had to think quick find ways for her clients achieve all their objectives while social distancing. Since ‘strategy’ is the foundation of all their preparation, Mazda was able to seamlessly pivot to the virtual world. By using technology (and I am not talking Zoom), and keeping in close communication with her clients, she was able to bring live elements to virtual events and keep Perfection Events, her staff and her clients happy and healthy.
Mazda is an inspiration, not only for her ability to shift her business model on a dime, but because she has the confidence to launch a new endeavor during the pandemic. What determination! You can check out her mentoring for women website here.
Reinventing herself was nothing new to Marikate Venuto but during the quarantine she found that expanding on current photography services would help her, and others, get through this. She started her business twelve years ago, specializing in event photography for non-profits, corporations, fundraisers, conferences and trade shows. Golf outings are her sweet spot and it didn’t take long for her to realize that wasn’t happening this spring. She shifted to family porch portraits (socially distanced) and then started creating custom note cards for me from the photographs I asked her to take of my beautiful garden. If you know me, you know I love to send (and receive) note cards.
Marikate thinks of her camera as a tool, and her talent is capturing the very best angle and lighting of people and their treasured property. I think her talent is being willing to modify, change focus (pun intended) and keep going.
Amy Ragsdale, dhB (decent human Being) is a local jewelry designer… my personal jewelry designer. She specializes in one of a kind, hand crafted work, but realized that during the quarantine folks might not be as interested in purchasing as they would be in purging. That’s when she started heavily promoting her Jewelry Box Make Over. It didn’t take a pandemic for me to take advantage of this service, Amy’s been cleaning, fixing and redesigning my jewelry for over ten years. She designed postcards offering this service and sent them out to drum up business and keep in touch with her clients. Read about this sustainable and ‘feels like Christmas morning’ service here.
These three women, small business owners with dream big attitudes, are an inspiration to me. Talking with them about branding, being resourceful and mentoring makes me smile. And it also encourages me as I reinvent Jane Barr Horstman. Stay tuned!
Read about the power of a smile here.
In brief: now is a great time to encourage each other, support local businesses and find ways to keep smiling.
Click here or on the photo at left to watch a video about what Jane Barr Horstman is about.