Supernatural Botanicals

     Barbara Turf is the first woman CEO of Crate and Barrel.  In an economic time when Linens n’ Things filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and other high end cookware retailers, like Williams-Sonoma, has revised its revenue guidance downward, Crate and Barrel seems to be forging straight ahead, largely due to Turf’s leadership.

Turf’s career has certainly been a Cinderella story, or sorts.  After all, she went from walking through Crate and Barrel’s doors in Chicago 40 years ago to interview for a part-time sales clerk position, and landed the job.   Today, she is their first women CEO.

Although women in business leadership were a rarity at that time, Turf displayed incredible courage when she found she was making less money than one of her colleagues.  She brought it to the owner’s attention, and got a raise on the spot.  (We hope to see less and less of this thanks to the Fair Pay Bill that President Obama just passed.)

Via Pink Magazine, Turf shares with us 5 Success Secrets:

1. Work a little harder, get a little tougher, and you’ll reap rewards. Women are such a powerful and important group of decision-makers and consumers, and it’s more important than ever that we make our voices heard as leaders.

2. Life/Work balance can be achieved, but you must have the desire and be very energetic, because you have to put a lot of effort into work and also have energy left over.

3. As leaders and business owners, it’s always a good time to look to the future. We at Crate and Barrel believe that the best ideas often come from the next generation.

4. Success isn’t about money or the power you have. It’s about staying true to who you are, to your gut, and being happy.

5. Do what you love and the successes you achieve will just be the icing on the cake.

Mondays are a perfect time to reconnect with your inner positive self, and to look at your goals.  Instead of typical Monday Mayhem, perhaps we should look Monday straight in the eye and feel confident because (A) we are learning to be fearless leaders and (B) creating a plan for your life and career makes the walk through the corporate lipstick jungle far less fearful.   Be inspired by women like Barbara Turf.  Learn from their trial and tribulations.  One of my favorite quotes, by another fearless woman leader is, “When you know better, you do better.”  Maya Angelou.

Here are five great selections to give to yourself, or a friend this holiday season.  Everyone loves a great read, and more so, everyone starts to think about ways to improve their life this time of year (think New Year’s resolutions!)  Here are a few of my favorites.   Extra points if you can turn someone on to the love of reading.  One of these great books will get a non-book-reader headed in the right direction. 

   Quiet Mind by David Kundtz.   More than a meditation book, Quiet Mind is a series of reflections that can illuminate every aspect of life. It offers readers guidance on using the moments between activities, which the author calls “stillpoints”.  As opportunities to focus on becoming more fully awake to who they are. “These times are the ‘spaces in between’ the events of your life,” writes Kundtz, “spaces often lost, or worse, filled with anxiety. And these spaces in between are just waiting to bring you the calmness and clarity that an over-demanding schedule steals from you.” A welcome respite for anyone whose gear shift is perpetually in overdrive, Quiet Mind is an invitation to rest, find peace, awaken, and remember. It offers deceptively simple wisdom to help readers sharpen their senses and make room for life.

    Instant Karma by Barbara Ann Kipfer.  Help others. Help yourself. Be a better person, and make the world a better place. Using the wisdom of the East to instruct and inspire, INSTANT KARMA is a universe of things a reader can do, right now, to accumulate good karma. And, like pennies going into a piggy bank, each is a seemingly little thing-but feed the bank day after day and feel it grow richer and happier.  Created by Barbara Ann Kipfer, the author whose books-including 14,000 Things to Be Happy About, 8,789 Words of Wisdom, and The Wish List-have 1.2 million copies in print, INSTANT KARMA is a compulsive, densely packed, chunky little book of 10,000 or so suggestions, wishes, thoughts, and the occasional heartening quotation.

   It’s Up to You by Karen Casey.  It’s Up to You invites readers to do three simple things: meditate, pay attention, and make choices to change their lives–for a few minutes each morning and evening, one principle a week for twelve weeks. As we reflect on Casey’s insight into the insidious ways we create misery or drama, try to impose will, and suffer needlessly, and as we follow her gentle prompts to make different choices, we begin to see that we can change just about anything in our lives by taking these small steps. Nothing could be simpler, and nothing could be more effective. Or as Karen Casey puts it, “Progress is guaranteed. Perfection isn’t expected.”

   Easy Green Living by Renee Loux.  We are what we eat, but we also are what we use to clean our homes, pamper our skin, and decorate our rooms, according to Renée Loux, accomplished raw food chef, award-winning author, and host of Fine Living TV’s Easy Being Green. In her new book, Easy Green Living, she applies her whole-foods philosophy to home, garden, and beauty routines.  Renée Loux demonstrates that being green at home is easy, affordable, and better in every sense of the word. She discusses the daily choices we face that can keep the home, personal care, and beauty routines free of toxins. She exposes the dirt on cleaning products and common hazardous ingredients and reveals her recommendations for greener options, including her “Green Thumb Guides” for choosing non-toxic, eco-smart, and human-friendly products. Peppered with compelling and inspiring facts, Easy Green Living is full of “5 Step” lists, products and recipes for green cleaning, helpful charts, safer choices for every room, and inspirational advice so we can save the planet–one cleaning spritz at a time.

  The Girls’ Guide To Building A Million-Dollar Business by Susan Wilson Solovic.  Featuring interviews with daring, powerhouse women like Gayle Martz, President & CEO, Sherpa’s Pet Trading Company, and Taryn Rose of Taryn Rose International, Solovic offers frank advice and hard-won lessons including:
-Taking emotions out of the workplace.
-Make business decisions based on what is best for the company, not on your personal feelings.
-Thinking big and bold.
-Believe that you can be successful and be willing to announce your intentions to the world.
-Managing for growth.
-Hire the right people and discover the best ways to keep them.
-Never being afraid to take a chance.
-Boost profits by taking financial risks.

Inspiring and unflinching, The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business shows women that not only do they have the power to earn more money and control their financial destinies – they deserve to.

“Find out how to get paid for doing what you love.”  Oprah Winfrey on inspiration.