It is often said that necessity is the mother of invention.   I want to honor some of our unsung sheros who invented things we use everyday.

Marion Donovan was a young mother in the post-war baby boom era. Tired of the leaky cloth diapers she invented the disposable diaper. Marion made her first prototype using a shower curtain.

Manufactures said Marion Donovan’s product wouldn’t work. Undeterred, Marion went into business for herself.  Many years later she was able to sell her business for $1 million dollars.

Next time it rains you might find yourself thinking of May Anderson.  Back in 1903 she was granted her first patent for a window-cleaning device that could clean rain, sleet or snow from a windshield using a handle inside the car.  By 1916 windshield wipes became standard equipment on all cars.

Bette Nesmith Graham is one of my favorite stories.  She never intended to be an inventor; she wanted to be an artist.  After World War II ended, she was a single mother with a child to support.  As an executive secretary she took great pride in her work, and sought a better way to correct typing errors. She recalled that artists simply painted over their mistakes, so why couldn’t she?

Bette used tempera water based paint and colored it to match the stationery she was using.  With a small watercolor brush she dabbed that on any typing mistakes she made.  He boss never noticed.  Soon another secretary saw the new invention and wanted a bottle.  She called it “Mistake Out”.

In 1956 Bette started her homed based business, Mistake Out, which she later renamed, Liquid Paper. By 1967 it was a multi-million company. Bette Nesmith Graham believed money to be a tool, not a solution to a problem. Graham sold her corporation for $47.5 million. She set up two foundations to help women find new ways to earn a living.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

I just heard that internet searches for “spring cleaning” are up over 183%.  I am not surprised.    I think a lot of us are ready for a fresh start.  And our closet is a great place to begin!

I’m a gal that loves order and organization. For me the bliss of spring cleaning is not just about getting to organize my home, but also donating the things we don’t need. I am a firm believer that as we let go of the old, we open the door to receive the new. Try giving away things with an abundant attitude and watch what happens!

Whenever I clean out my closet I do so with a happy heart, because I know each and every piece of clothing and pair of shoes is going to be put to good use.  No need to cringe when deciding whether or not to give up that perfectly new sweater you never wear.  Find a great charity in your area and spread the joy.

Free yourself of old baggage—literally and figuratively—that may be hanging around in your closets.  I promise you’ll find it liberating!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

Several years ago I was talking with a woman I considered invincible. She was an athlete, a woman who ran marathons, went backpacking alone, and climbed mountains most of us only view from the ground. I was telling her how much I envied her courage and lack of fear. She looked at me and smiled, and then told me something I have never forgotten; she was afraid too.

It was an amazing revelation to me. The people we admire for daring such courageous feats are really no different than us. The difference isn’t that they aren’t afraid and we are–the difference is that they move forward anyway.

I keep this quote hanging on my bulletin board, “When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” Audre Lorde.

Go ahead dare to be powerful!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

The way we spend our time is ultimately the way we spend our lives.

What do you always think about doing, but don’t actually do?

What does your heart desire? Have you always wanted to run a marathon, take a trip to the land of your ancestors, take a photography class, learn to speak another language, plant a garden, write your history, or volunteer at a local charity?

Commit to making this be the year you actually do it! The reality is we make time for whatever is truly important to us. If it is really a priority we find, carve out, and create the time.

The way we spend our time is a reflection of our priorities. How will you be spending your time?

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

Apparently I am a slow learner.  For several weeks I have been referring to a situation as a pain in the ass.   I like a drama free zone, and it has been anything but around here lately.  One of those times, whether on the home front or at work we all want to look back on—not be in the middle of.

I know better.  I write about, talk about it, and truly do get the power of our words.  And here I have been week after exasperating week going on and on about what a pain in the ass this situation is.

Blame it on lack of sleep, blame it on a moment of weakness, blame it on oops I did it again, but you know how this story ends…  guess who has a pain in the ass?

That’s right boys and girls I am now writing about the literal pain in my ass — the flare up of my sciatic nerve.

Who feels like a horses ass now?

Lesson learned.   Note taken.  A painful reminder that our words have power.  Change of plans, from here to forth I shall be saying, wow I am so lucky to be learning so much from this exciting process.  I am sure it’s all working out exactly as it is meant to be.

Giddy Up!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

I often hear women and men question whether or not they have what it takes to see their idea through.  People frequently come to me for advice about how I found the courage to follow my passion and start my own company.  The fact is many people are selling themselves short.

If you are raising kids, you are already using the very same skill set you will need to run your own company.  The demanding life of a parent is excellent training ground for being a CEO.

1. If you can manage children, you can manage employees

Ask any business owner to tell you their top challenges and inevitably managing employees will be high on the list. Raising children will give you lots of relevant practice!

2. You have already been a CFO

Creating a budget for your family prepares you to manage financial plans for your business. Continuing good financial habits and discipline is critical as you raise your next baby.

3. You have the hours down

Owning your own business is a 24/7 commitment and it usually takes a long time to reap what you sow.

4. Take the sticker chart concept and move it to the boardroom

If you apply the same Gold Star technique to your leadership style, you are going to do just fine!

5. Now you have help!

If your kids are old enough, give them the gift of coming to work with you sometimes to see how a business works.  Teach them the valuable skills of entrepreneurship.

6. Creating the company work schedule will be a piece of cake

After organizing multiple soccer practices, dentist appointments, back to school nights and dance lessons, putting together a simple office schedule will be no problem at all. And now you have Excel!

7. Any parent of a toddler has had plenty of practice with negotiation

So you can thank your two or three year old as you negotiate contracts and work out sweet pricing deals for your business.  Remember where you honed those skills when it comes time to set their allowance.

8. Parenting is really networking 101

Being a mom or dad forces you to network and that skill will be invaluable for your business.

9. Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-o to a tree

Patience is a skill that can’t be taught, but must be acquired for both parenting and business building.  Raising kids helps you acquire more patience than anything else in life.

10. Treat projects like Lego’s

If you have ever watched kids building a Lego contraption you have witnessed the ultimate teamwork.  Bring that same level of collaboration and enthusiasm and success is bound to follow.

11. Don’t forget to sleep like a baby

I recently heard Arianna Huffington say the best way to get to the top is to sleep your way there!  Literally!  Her advice is to get a solid 8 hours of sleep a night if we want to be effective in our businesses.

12. Set a good example

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

One of the things that was really important to me after starting my first business was continuing to eat dinner together every night as a family. During the early years it was a real challenge and we had to get very creative. We literally moved our kitchen table down to the office. We also ate out a lot—okay more than a lot. You know you haven’t cooked in a while when you yell, “come and eat,” and the kids all jump in the car. But to us it wasn’t nearly as important what or where we ate, as it was that we ate together.

Early on, my incredibly-ahead-of-her-time mother-in-law taught me one of the most valuable lessons on this subject: use paper plates. Linda used paper plates at almost every meal except Sunday dinner—and even then sometimes she would just whip out the Chinet. At first I thought this was a bit odd and frankly uneconomical, even a little indulgent, but after I had my own children I realized just how smart this woman was. I can’t begin to tell you how much of my sanity has been saved by paper plates. (And before I get letters about my wastefulness, please keep in mind we recycle, and all of the water I am saving by not running the dishwasher everyday!)

Seriously, paper plates are a mainstay at our house. I will never forget my then seven-year-old daughter Harlie coming home from having dinner at a friend’s house and reporting that “it was really strange… Lauren’s Mom ironed the napkins and then we had to eat off these hard plates. I didn’t like it.” I tried to explain that some people do things differently than we do and that is okay. But Harlie still couldn’t figure out why in the world you would spend so much time cooking dinner, ironing napkins, and then washing dishes. She was baffled that Lauren’s mom not only cooked so many different foods (think four-course meal), but that she also took the cuisine out of the pots and pans and served them in entirely different bowls. After years of seeing the spaghetti go straight from the stove top to the table at our house, this was simply beyond her comprehension.

Of course hearing this, I immediately started thinking that I was a terrible mom. However, immediately it was what Harlie said next that put things back into perspective for me. She said “All Lauren’s Mom did was work in the kitchen, and when we asked her to play Uno with us she couldn’t because she had all of those dishes to wash.” As quickly as my mind went down the path of unfit mother I realized that, in my child’s world, having time to play a card game together was far more important than what was being served and what it was being served on! It also dawned on me that for my daughter paper plates were (and are) just “normal.”

The point is adults should take lessons from children on adaptability. Kids are amazingly resilient and don’t have nearly as many expectations as we adults do.

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

The other day I was trying to untangle a bunch of necklaces that had become twisted up together in one big ball of knots.    After about twenty extremely frustrating minutes on this mess it became quite clear to me that the harder I pulled on each chain, the more ensnarled it all became.

Half an hour into this tedious mess I decided to just relax and work each chain with patience.  Slowly I began to tug at the ball of knotted up necklaces, winding each chain up, back, around and gently through until at long last it was free from the twisted up pile.

It dawned on me when I finished the project, just how much this process is like life in general.  When we try to force things, pulling too hard in the wrong direction, life fights back.

When we relax and go with the flow, life tends to unfold just how it is supposed to.

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

Often, after I have shared a personal story during a speech or workshop, women approach me, expressing a deep sense of gratitude for my willingness to reveal my warts and all. The discovery that they were not alone in their imperfections was like water on dry ground for these women. You could almost hear their collective sighs of relief, You mean I am not the only one?

Women today face more challenges than ever—accompanied by feelings of being overwhelmed and spread much too thin. More and more of us are raising our hands and speaking up, telling the truth about how we feel. And as we do, other women are saying, “Me, too! Oh, thank God I’m not the only one!”

As we become more open and honest with each other—more willing to admit maybe we don’t love being a mother every single day—maybe we can’t remember the last time we actually had time to shave our legs—maybe our white picket fence life didn’t turn out the way we thought it would—maybe we aren’t rock stars at work every single day—maybe it is okay to say we are each doing the best we can—even if sometimes the best we can do is mediocre.

Slowly we are starting to realize we are not alone. That is why I wrote Oh Thank Goodness It’s Not Just Me! A celebration of the circle of strength women share— the common experiences in all our lives. The undeniable fact is that there is comfort and reassurance in knowing we are not alone.

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

For a long time, I was really just a two dimensional person. It was all about work and family.  For many years it stayed that way.  I had to cut out just about everything else. But I think I am wiser now.  I am trying to find more balance in my life.

I always thought of balance as a state of peace and stillness. However, I have a new concept of what balance means now. I believe that balance is really more like walking on a balance beam. You’re always making little movements here and there to stay centered and stay on the beam. You’re never completely still.

I understand there will never be such a thing as perfect balance in my life.  Instead, I’m constantly re-adjusting my schedule and shifting my priorities.

As long as we keep finding our center, making small adjustments, and walking the straight and narrow I think we are going to stay on the beam.

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

They say don’t sweat the small stuff, but maybe it is the small stuff that actually matters.

I have been thinking about all of the weight we give to the big decisions in life. How much pressure we place on ourselves to make the right choices when it comes to deciding on a career path, buying a car, whether we should hire this person or that person, picking a place to live, and other big moves.

Think of all of the time and energy we put into the big decisions in our lives…

Yet we virtually ignore the small decisions in our lives. We hardly give a second thought to all of the tiny matters throughout the day. Whether or not to stop on our way to work for that $5 cup of coffee, or pick up that magazine at the checkout stand.

Maybe the decisions we aren’t making are the very ones that are deciding the true direction our lives take…

Many people ask me how I got the start up money to launch Femail Creations, the catalog company I founded from the ground up many years ago. It pretty much came down to French fries.  When I say that people tend to look at me like I am crazy. But it was the simple choices, like giving up fast food and going to the movies that allowed us to save every penny we could and ultimately helped me get Femail Creations off the ground.

Sometimes it is as simple as skipping that side order–and believe me that is the true definition of delayed gratification for a girl who loves her French fries!

More and more I have come to believe it is actually the small seemingly inconsequential decisions that make up the fabric of our lives.

It’s the small stuff that matters, always has been, always will be.

Small decisions lead to big dreams!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

An amazing thing always seems to happen when a group of women get together —we discover we are not alone.

For some reason women always feel like we are the only ones who, fill in the blank…. have the inability to remember someone who we met just a week ago (thank you Laurie for letting me know I am not the only one!), or have who adult kids living at home that you can’t get to move out (there are apparently more of you with this problem than without), or have switched careers in your 50’s or 60’s and feel lost.  Whatever it is, you are not alone.  And there is power in sharing our stories.

Time and time again when I am with a group of women inevitably, I hear the statement, Oh Thank Goodness, It’s Not Just Me! That is the genesis of why I wrote the book.

You and your girlfriends will enjoy this little movie!  http://tinyurl.com/29jsdu4

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

I would like to publicly apologize to my Dad.  Back in the day, when I was growing up I used to think it was down right cruel of my father to hide his stash of Pepsi from his kids—especially this kid!

He had gone so far at one point he actually started locking his favorite soda, cereal and candy in a drawer in his filing cabinet.  At the time I thought it bordered on child abuse.  A few decades later I realized it was nothing short of the desperate act of a man simply trying to enjoy a cold soda.

Having now endured the torments of my own children I have what one might call “perspective” or “clarity” — others might refer to it as “crow pie”!  As I too have resorted to my own desperate acts as a parent. If you were to visit my home today you would find my own stashes.

Just the other day I literally laughed out loud as I reached for my stash of chocolate, swedish red fish and Diet Dr. Pepper.  My Dad would be so proud.  My hiding place not only has a lock—but is refrigerated!

You taught me well old man!

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

Ladies what is the deal?  More and more of us gals are starting to wonder out loud why it is okay for men to walk around like Sasquatch while women get dirty looks if we show up with a tiny bit of stubble on our legs.

We are expected to fight nature and wax, shave, tweeze and otherwise electronically torture ourselves into sleek hairless creatures.  Why is their hair okay and our hair somehow unacceptable?

I am simply getting fed up with this notion of demanding increasingly less and less hair on women while men get to wander around perfectly comfortable with their five o’clock shadows, their Andy Rooney-like eye brows and their hairy backs!

My friend, who shall remain nameless—okay it was Doug—told me that he thinks women should all be getting Brazilian waxes. Oh really? Ladies, lets start suggesting all men get the Guyzilian wax!  A past issue of Men’s Journal says this is a sign of the apocalypse—well guess what guys—we thought the same thing when Brazilian waxing became trendy!

When traveling in Europe much to my delight I discovered that women there were lounging at the beach eating carbs, avoiding razors and enjoying themselves! Hmmm… I think they are on to something!

They say all fashion is cyclical. So when is that full length swimming suit
coming back?

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®

A while ago I was searching all over my house for a certificate I needed to find.  It was an important document so I thought it might be in the safe.  Yet as I started pulling everything out of the safe, I had to laugh.  What is in my safe wasn’t legal papers or fancy jewelry.  My safe is filled with photo albums and old home movies.

It’s something my husband has teased me about for years.  We have ended up with bigger and bigger safes so I could fit more and more pictures and things of sentimental value—not monetary value, but irreplaceable items.

So as I searched for this document, which alas wasn’t even in the safe, I had the pleasure of looking at old photos and flipping through the pages of baby books and such.

The things in my safe are the items I most treasure and want to protect.  For those are the things that represent what truly matter to me.

What do you value and what to keep safe?

Lisa Hammond
The Barefoot CEO ®