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This week on the Chic Perspectives Show I had on Julie Sue Auslander  President, Chief Cultural Officer of cSubs, LLC (CSMS), Lindsey Peddar founder of Beauty Ticket and BeautyTicket.com and  Jacqueline Edelberg Author of How to Walk to School

First in line was Jacqueline Edelberg who wrote the book, How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Renaissance (Foreword by Arne Duncan and Afterword by Rahm Emanuel).

Jacqueline has been the driving force behind the Nettelhorst School’s dramatic turn around, a story that has been featured on Oprah and Friends, NPR, CNN, 60 Minutes, Education Weekly, and in the local Chicago media.

A community organizer, writer, and nationally recognized fine artist, Jacqueline has led workshops for the Community Schools Initiative, Northside Parents Network, and Chicago Public Schools on how public schools and reformers can improve public education.

Her influential book has a very simple message: Every kid, in every community, deserves a great neighborhood public school. Jacqueline led eight moms in a Chicago diner to make our dreams come true. They succeeded because they treated the school like a business start-up.

The Library journal had this to say about the book and the blueprint it lays out.:

“This is a fascinating account of the collaboration between a public school principal, Kurland, the parents of young children considering her elementary school, and the community that transformed a failing public school into an outstanding and revitalized one. In the face of disastrous, widespread public school system failures across America, parent dissatisfaction, and teacher despair, the Chicago-based Nettlehorst School’s success story is a beacon. Edelberg, one of the Nettlehorst parents, and Kurland offer educators hope that change can happen in any public school, given the right mix of parent-teacher patience, willpower, community involvement, pluck, creativity, collaboration, and ability to overcome adversity. They provide a blueprint that schools can use for revitalization projects, detailing, for instance, how to procure donations from area businesses and to ask questions that will get answers about difficult educational problems such as coping with dysfunctional and unsatisfactory teaching. VERDICT: This book is essential reading for all elementary school parents and teachers, especially those who have lost their faith in the American public school system and are looking for ways to improve it. Here are solutions and inspiration.”

You can take a virtual tour to see the transformation @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPZr6BYJSGc

Jacqueline shared her about when she and a friend ventured inside Nettelhorst, their neighborhood’s underutilized and struggling public elementary school, the new principal asked what it would take for us to enroll our children.

Stunned by her candor, we returned the next day armed with an extensive wish list. The principal read our list and said “Well, let’s get started, girls! It’s going to be a busy year…”

They were eight park moms who galvanized neighborhood parents and then organized an entire community to take a leap of faith, transforming a challenged urban school into one of Chicago’s best, virtually overnight.

If eight park moms could pull their little neighborhood school out of its twenty-five year nose-dive, surely other driven parents could do the same thing.

Jacqueline’s work is sparking the possibilities for a national grassroots school reform movement that would pull us all out of the giant mess we’re in, now wouldn’t that be something?

Check out the whole story at www.howtowalktoschool.com
or listen to NPR’s Chicago Matters piece:
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=2055
or her other NPR interview:
http://kcurstream.umkc.edu/walt/WALT_1-13-2010.mp3

and “Never doubt that a group of small thoughtful citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”–Margaret Mead

Next up on the Chic Perspectives Show was Emerging Entrepreneur Lindsay Pedder, CEO BeautyTicket.com

Laid-off from an executive position at a premium skin care company (and seven months pregnant), Lindsay used her new found time, beauty background and business school education to start BeautyTicket.com a discount site for Premium Beauty Brands.  BeautyTicket.com  just celebrated its first anniversary and is projecting aggressive growth for year two.

Lindsay talked about

While not quite as risky as being an entrepreneur, being an employee is risky too

Network, network, network

A good business plan is key to understanding what you are trying to do

Follow the business plan but allow for flexibility

Know how you are going to make money

Understanding the market, the customer and the space is key to being competitive

It was harder to start without investors but worthwhile in the long run

If you have a partner make sure it is the right one

The family work life balance is more intense as an entrepreneur but far more rewarding

www.BeautyTicket.com

Twitter @beauty_ticket

And finally was Julie Sue Auslander is an established women business owner, bordering on Expert, (25 years of success) in the Professional Services arena.

Julie Sue Auslander is President and Chief Cultural Officer of cSubs, LLC (CSMS), where she guides Inc. Magazine’s 5000 to reduce their spends 15-20% on publications, memberships, site licenses and online services.

Julie spoke with a unique perspective and wit on innovation, leadership, targeting a market, building a customer base; customer loyalty, systematizing processes; the emotions of hiring and firing, taking risks, overcoming fear, and the personal growth that comes with business growth.

Julie has created an employee/client centric eco-system, through an internal culture that fosters total team engagement, believing if given what they need to succeed, her team would channel their own efforts toward a high quality customer experience.

Formerly, Julie Auslander presided over her prior company’s liquidity event to a public company, overseeing a $14 million budget. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Center for Women and 50 Top Women owned Business in New Jersey.

Julie is an expert blogger on FASTCOMPANY (www.fastcompany.com/blog/julie-auslander/company-you-keep). She earned her MA and M.Ed from Columbia University and most recently, was awarded a scholarship to the 2008 tuck-WBENC Executive Program at Dartmouth College.

Julie talked about what makes her company unique: As a woman-owned company, we have found many innovative ways to support the needs of families and honor the individual as we continually inspire growth in our business by serving our clients. Regardless of the challenges experienced in the difficult situations encountered in business life, we actively manage our thoughts, feelings and actions to attract what we want and what our clients need.

At cSubs, we continually recreate our business from an intention of serving. Our strategies used in sales and marketing feel right because we under promise and over deliver. Wanting more from life, working less, finding deep satisfaction, making more money and having fun while accomplishing our goals is our way of life.

All of us at cSubs are rewarded for listening to our inner voice and feeling you’re part of something bigger than yourself. This notion of having a business serve its employees and its customers with ethics that live in our actions not on our mission statement, has become the foundation of my company’s mission and the reason for its success.

Julie Sue Auslander, M.ED, WPO, WBEPRESIDENT / CHIEF CULTURAL OFFICER of CSUBS | Subscriptions Simplified
jsauslander@csubs.com_ www.csubs.com Visit Julie’s blog: http://csubs.com/blogs/jsa
A Service of CSMS, LLCA Nationally Certified Women’s Business Enterprise

Thanks everyone for listening and thank you again to my fabulous Chic Entrepreneur guests.

Remember – Heel to Heel We Rise.

Tune in again next week for more Chic Perspectives on women succeeding with style.

Elizabeth