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Your Personal Board of Directors
By Darya Allen-Attar, Broads Circle Founder
September 2011

Over the last couple of years through relationships expanded as a result of Broads Circle, I have formed a personal Board of Directors.  You know, a little group of people who as Keith Ferrazzi says, "have my back."  I highly recommend that you create such a group for yourself.  Think about it this way: it takes a village to help you succeed, and a personal Board of Directors can help you get there!
 
As for who should be on your Board, look close to home: friends, colleagues, professionals and family members.  Who do you admire and who has information that can be valuable to you?  Picking the right people is really tricky.  It took me a while to figure this out.  Before I was able to choose my Board members, I had to get to know myself on this issue first.  No matter who you choose, it is absolutely necessary that you always keep one thing in mind: those serving on your metaphorical Board are doing so because they care about you and your future.  Like the Board of Directors of a company, your personal Board of Directors need to have the right mix of necessary elements.  Taken from the Caroline Dowd-Higgins study and book: Look for the connector, the accountability master, the shoulder to cry on, the dreamer and the mentor to sit on your Board.  They can be 5 different people or just a couple of people who possess all five characteristics.
 
The Necessary Elements:
     •  The Connector - The person who is well-established in the community, respected in their field, and most importantly,
        seems to know everyone worth knowing.
     •  The Accountability Master - This person will hold you to task and give you the gentle (or not so gentle) nudge to get
         you moving towards your goal.
     •  The Shoulder to Cry On - Sometimes you just want someone to listen to your woes, sympathize with your situation, and 
        not make you feel bad for having the occasional pity party. 
     •  The Dreamer - The dreamer thinks big and they believe in you in a big way, motivating you to accomplish goals that
        once seemed beyond your wildest imagination.
     •  The Mentor - This person has your back and pushes you to be your best.  This is a person you trust and respect and
        whose guidance has already led you to success!

To your success,
Darya

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Broads Circle 3rd Anniversary
By Darya Allen-Attar, Broads Circle Founder
July 2011

Broads Circle celebrated its 3-year anniversary with a reunion event on July 13th, with the Marketing Me lunch.  Three years ago in July, Broads Circle hosted its very first meeting and the topic of the event was “Branding Yourself” and our speaker was Joy Chudacoff.  Joy has since become a member of our Advisory Board, and she moderated this marketing event lunch for us.  We had a record turnout for this event and an expanded workshop version is in the works.  The topic is important because women tend to be worker bees, and forget that real power and money comes from driving revenue and growing capital.  Marketing drives revenue and that means Money.  We forget that it is not how brilliant and hardworking you are that gets you ahead -- it is how you market all that you do.

A piece that David Darst sent me this week reminded me of this.  Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, gave a fabulous commencement address at the Barnard College graduation.  As you may know, Barnard is mainly a girls’ school, and Sheryl gave those girls some straight talk about gender equity and goals to strive for.  She sited many studies, but said three things that as a woman and mother of a daughter, I found interesting (the following points are based on her commencement address):

1.  Studies show that Success and Likeability are positively correlated for men, but negatively correlated for women.  As women get more powerful and affluent, people like them less. So as a natural response, women don’t reach because they want people to like them.

2.  It turns out that studies show that male college graduates are more ambitious than the female graduates, and women in the workforce generally underestimate their performance.  People with less ambition don’t reach, and if you underestimate yourself, others are far more likely to underestimate you.

3.  Studies have also shown that 15% of all top jobs in corporate America are occupied by women.  Surprise, surprise, if you are not conditioned to want money and power, are less ambitious and underestimate yourself, is it any wonder that only 15% of top jobs are occupied by women (even though 50% of the workforce is female)?

After those depressing statistics, Sandberg closed with the following comments and set a challenge for the women in the crowd, loosely quoted here: “I suggest that Leadership belongs to those who take it. Do not lean back, lean forward!  Put your foot on the gas pedal and keep it there until you get your share of the Money and Power!!  Fortune favors the BOLD!”

We will be giving out awards this fall, and we are looking for Bottom Line Broads -- women who are focused on Money and Power, and drive revenue and grow capital. We also look forward to getting to know our terrific new members at our private dinner this fall for members only!  Have a great August, as Broads Circle will take a break from our newsletter in August and return in September.

To your success,
Darya

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Special Membership Offer for C-Level Women in Middle-Market Companies
By Darya Allen-Attar, Broads Circle Founder
June 2011

This month I want to share with you that I have joined the corporate board of Mann Healthcare Partners, a private local company founded by someone you may know from Broads Circle, Carla Mann Woods. As founder, CEO and Chairman of Mann Healthcare Partners, Carla brings her 20 years of experience in the development, marketing and distribution of life science products to this new venture. It is exciting for me to be involved at the corporate board level with Carla's new start-up company that focuses on high tech life science!

Broads Circle is committed to Money and Power for women, and that includes support for women-owned businesses. If women want to benefit from an increased share of global capital, they must increase their participation through active involvement and support for growth capital opportunities. Our Buy the CEO Spot event in May discussed this topic in depth, and presented a lesson on how women who know a business can partner with capital providers to buy a company and lead it up the value chain!

In the spirit of getting more women leaders involved with Broads Circle, we would like to extend an offer of free membership to women who are C-Level at middle market companies (positions like CEO, CFO, Controller, CIO). Kim Christensen (kim@broadscircle.com) can help you qualify referrals to Broads Circle for the free membership offer.

We are happy to announce that we have some great new members:
  •  Renee Becker, Esq., Counsel, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
  •  Andrea Belz, PhD, President, Belz Commercialization Consulting Group
  •  Alice Cardenas, Executive Director, Alice Cardenas Consulting Company
  •  Chris Hagemann, Director of Finance, Sunkist Growers
  •  Rochelle Moulton, CEO, Rochelle Moulton & Team, Inc.

You can view member bios on our Leadership Profiles website page. Later this summer, there will be an opportunity for members and past speakers to gather at a private dinner event. If you are not a member, and have not been to a Broads Circle event, please join us for our Marketing Me event this summer or any of our terrific events this fall. Have a great start to your summer, and see you in July!

To your success,
Darya

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Buy the CEO Spot
By Renee LaBran, Partner, Rustic Canyon/Fontis Partners, LP

Whether because of a glass ceiling or other reasons, women may find themselves wondering what else they can do to obtain the CEO title. Or maybe they have been a CEO and want to figure out their next move.  In these situations, few women think about “buying” the spot. What do I mean by that? As a private equity investor, we look for strong operators to back. These executives come to us with a company that they have identified to acquire and are looking for investment capital.  These executives are almost always men.

Where are the women?  I believe that there are a number of reasons for the dearth of women seeking to do a private equity backed acquisition. For one thing, women are less likely to take risk than men.  Buying a company is risky, no doubt about it.  But it can also reap big rewards, personally and financially. Second, women tend not to be as self-promotional as men, and you have to be willing to put yourself out there with a high degree of confidence when you go ask someone to invest millions of dollars into your plan. Finally, women tend not to be connected into private equity networks in the way that men often are.  Continue reading...

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The 2nd Annual Women In Green Forum
Will Celebrate Female Leaders In Sustainability
By Jaime Nack, President, Three Squares Inc.

Is President Obama’s emphasis on green jobs in his stimulus legislation–$55 million in funds directed toward developing green training programs–a 21st-century version of the New Deal? If yes, is it a gender-neutral New Deal?

According to labor statistics, the answer is “no.” It turns out that a disproportionate number of “green” jobs are in fields traditionally dominated by men, especially in the alternative energy area. A study by the United States Conference of Mayors found that half the projected new green jobs are either in engineering (12 percent women) or in the men-dominated professions of law and consulting. Most of the rest are in industries dominated by men (where women are 25 percent or less of the workforce): manufacturing, construction, agriculture and forestry. Some reports show that jobs in these fields often pay 20 to 30 percent more than jobs in traditionally women-dominated fields, and frequently have better benefits, greater career training and advancement opportunities and higher reported levels of job satisfaction.  Continue reading...

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Concierge Menopause Doctor Celebrates 5000 Facebook Fans
Patients don’t normally look for a doctor on Facebook, but times are changing.

By Dr. Shira Miller, Founder and Medical Director, The Center for Integrative Health & Wellness

The concierge medical model continues to evolve as baby boomers turn to concierge specialists like Dr. Shira Miller to specifically help them with their menopause or aging.  Dr. Miller is dedicated to helping motivated men and women stay youthful and productive as they age, and to provide the kind of customer service that is rarely dreamed of in today’s medicine. Concierge doctors have become increasingly popular as go-getter patients seek doctors who make the time to really listen, answer questions, and be accessible.

One of the major ways physicians acquire patients (and most patients find doctors) is by referral through insurance companies or government programs. Similar to other concierge doctors, Dr. Miller doesn’t work with insurance companies and so she must earn her patients through word of mouth or advertising.  The cutting-edge bio-identical hormone replacement therapy she uses for the treatment of menopause and her age management services have gained exciting popularity using an unexpected form of marketing: Facebook.  Continue reading...

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Take Your Career to the Next Level
By Darya Allen-Attar - Broads Circle Founder
May 2011

If you are a C-level woman at a middle market company, you need to attend our Broads Circle Buy the CEO Spot event. Women COOs, CTOS, CMOs, and CIOs often can run the business they work in and know, but lack the access to capital to buy that business out.  Our panel of experts will show you the MONEY and tell you how it’s done on May 26.  Join us at this very important Broads Circle event which features Renée LaBran, one of the most senior women Venture Capital partners in the country.

Want to be on a for-profit corporate Board, but not sure how it’s done?  Join us for our Broads on Boards lunch on June 1.  If you have the resumé, CPA, MBA, industry expertise, or specific domain expertise, you may have a path to the boardroom.  This 2nd Quarter Broads on Boards lunch series event features Dick Poladian, who serves on three corporate Boards — Western Asset Management, Occidental and Public Storage. Also meet Ron Buckly, who serves on the Boards of Tekelec and Ixia.  Mark Hiraide, a securities attorney who served with the SEC enforcement division both in Los Angeles and DC, will moderate and also comment for this panel.

Broads Circle wants to help you get to the next level, by providing you with opportunities to make connections that will allow you to achieve your goals.  We need to know more about you and also reach more women who work at Fortune 500 companies.  Tell us what we can do to help you — your feedback is much appreciated!  Continue reading...

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The “Forward Thinking” Boardroom
By Fay Feeney - Broads Circle Advisory Board Member
May 2011

On June 1st, we’ll be having another “must attend” outstanding program for Broads on Boards.  Yes, I’m a little partial because Dick Poladian and I have been colleagues since high school.  It is a special kind of pleasure to see one of my Culver City classmates make it to the big time.  I’m not only a life-long fan of Dick’s but so thrilled that he’s joining us to share the perspective of how he made it into a Fortune 250 boardroom while still in his 50’s.  In a recent issue of Directors & Board the cover story was “Are Boards Too Old?”  According to Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc., age ranges for the S&P 500 directors in their 50’s represent 29.2%.  Under-40 directors represent 5.3% , and I’ll let you do the math on directors 60 and older.

Being open to a diverse perspective includes having age as a factor.  At any age, the measure I consider is a willingness to refresh knowledge and not relying on solely on experience in a rapidly changing, 24/7 globally connected world.  I’ve included a recent post from www.riskforgood.com where we execute on “strategic board management” plans for board chairs to lead the “forward thinking” boardroom.  Please register for the June 1st event and join the conversation!

The “Forward Thinking” Boardroom
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to help corporate board chairs take “intelligent risk.”  Their role is more complex than ever and the time available to lead has placed heavy demands on meeting regulatory compliance issues.  Read more...

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The Silver Bullet to Avoid Class Actions
By Olivia Goodkin - Broads Circle Premium Member
May 2011

One of the worst economic threats to companies today is the class action lawsuit. Class action lawsuits provide employees and former employees with a weapon for aggregating small individual claims into a large lawsuit that plaintiffs’ lawyers are eager to pursue.  These lawsuits are expensive to defend, and are rarely covered by employment practices insurance.  Furthermore, until two weeks ago, agreements by employees to waive the right to bring class actions—and to instead arbitrate their individual claims—was against the law in California.

On April 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion.  The case discussed whether a consumer’s arbitration agreement with a company such as AT&T could properly include a waiver of class-wide arbitration or lawsuits.  The Court found that existing California law was preempted by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and that, if an arbitration agreement subject to the provisions of the FAA was otherwise valid, a consumer could be forced to arbitrate his or her individual dispute without the benefit of the class action arsenal.

The big question for employers is whether AT&T Mobility applies to arbitration agreements between employers and employees.  I believe that it could, if the arbitration agreement otherwise meets all of the legal requirements in California.  Read more...

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Smart Women Create
By Joy Chudacoff - Broads Circle Advisory Board Member
May 2011

Women are the most creative beings on earth. You have inspiring ideas and daring dreams, however it can sometimes be a challenge to get the dreams out of your head and onto paper so you can design a plan to make it happen. Most likely, your “to-do” list is overflowing and your Big Idea hasn’t found a way to make it to the top of the list.

In my work with women, finding time to create is often the biggest obstacle they face. They can see in their mind what they want, however it’s essential to take that next step of designing a plan of action for it to become real. Once they embrace a plan to create their Big Ideas, Dreams and Goals into the world, they gain momentum and things begin to happen very fast.

I’m going to share a few solutions I use when I’ve got a burst of creativity or a new program or product that I want to get out into the world.

Whether you have a book inside of you, a new program you want to create for your business or maybe you have an idea for a new business you want to start, here are 3 solutions that are guaranteed to work every time:  Read more...

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