Alright - It's Official. I am going to be a Mom!

I've had oodles of ambition my entire life, but it wasn't until just recently that I realized what it might
all be for!

 I am plain and simply meant to be a mom. 

That's why I have this brain, these skills, this education. I'm supposed to use it to LEAN the heck IN and afford a family!!!

I started babysitting at 12. My ability to be maternal was innate. New moms everywhere hand me their infants and feel safe. Toddlers reach out for my hand shortly after we've met and teens and I definitely get on quite well. For goodness sakes, I even think of my students as my 'kids'. My desire to nurture is profound.

But when I got unmarried, I thought I'd certainly have to put the pursuit of motherhood on hold. You need a guy for that right?

So then I dated - and dear God we all know.... 

I dated and dated and dated. 

In fact... I sorta wrote the book on dating .... and I did actually meet someone. I then fell for that someone but the timing was wrong. Chemistry, while off the charts, couldn't override that sense of dread that he just wasn't ever going to be my mate.

I could have just stuck around treading water hopefully for the happily ever after. And then I would have ended up in my forties, single, broken hearted and without being a mom.

So that's not going to happen. 

Here's what's going to happen instead. 

A life full of confusing romantic heartbreak is hardly a good goal. 

A life full of children and love and impact is far better.

I've Got A Major Crush on Triathlete, Entrepreneur, Story Telling Mom Jes MaHarry

I've got a major guru crush.....

A few weeks ago I clarified my goals and set forth making a vision board. I am going to figure out how to turn my ideas, my words, my stories and my ability to inspire and educate into an empire. I am also going to seriously compete in an upcoming triathlon. I am going to do this because I want to be able to afford a healthy home for some precious little ones.

I want to be a story telling, empire building, mom!

And then I met a woman who's done precisely that!


Meet iconic jewelry designer Jes MaHarry, the artist, triathlete, philanthropist, mommy who worked in a flower shop, as a waitress and now has massive empire built on pretty sparkly inspirational fancy things. Taking a passion to help people and marrying it with a creative way to convince the Sundance Catalog to carry her jewelry, Jes MaHarry shares with Zhena Muzyka how she is building something good one precious bauble at a time. Produced & Directed by Summers McKay

When you have a chance to find new role models, it's incredibly special. You get to re-imagine your future. I have always had a lot of ambition, but without clarity of purpose - it seems to get stuck. I am now decidedly unstuck. I have a goal and a reason for it.

This weekend, take some time to unwind and make lists of what you want for your future and your present. Pull some pictures out of magazines and start collecting images for your own vision board. What do you really want out of life? What will make you happiest? How will you find joy?

If you don't know for sure 
what you want your life to be, 

find a new role model!

 

Triathlete, Entrepreneur, Author, Mom

I'm going to pull out that year old manuscript of Naked with Chanel No. 5 and get to work on what the book is really about.

Sunny with a chance of Blockbusters? 

I think so.

Sharkbait, Breathe In - Breathe Out and Strength & Courage

This morning I started training with Tower 26......

I swear.... I'm not delicious!!!

I've set out to actually compete in the upcoming Nautica Malibu Triathlon, (instead of just show up and play in the water, then on a bike, and then walk really really fast on the strand like I did last year). I want to place in the top 5 of the women's mountain bike division in the International Distance. (1.5K Swim, 40k Bike, 10k Run)

So I signed up to train with a group of insanely in shape and kick ass elite athletes. This morning at 5:30 AM, I pulled into the parking lot of Ocean Park and the ocean. I wrestled my - not so in shape shape (because of all sorts of reasons from desperate job searches, to sprained ankles, to flus, to not having a gym, to well - just not putting it first) into my surfing wetsuit and walked stiffly like a wobbly sea lion pup to the tower, amidst a sea of over 150 graceful dolphin types.

For those who don't spend a lot of time in the ocean, a surfing wetsuit is thicker and puffier and makes one look like a delicious seal, while a swimming wetsuit is far closer to a shark warding off dolphin's skin.

We jogged for a mile down the beach, headed into the water out about 500 yards and then swam the mile back.. well.... if it were only that easy.

My heart pounded on the jog down, my thick suit squeaking and shooshing with every stride. I chanted,  

"Breathe In - Breathe Out

      Breathe In - Breathe Out"  

and I made it. 

Then, I swam upstream and felt like sharkbait... the slowest seal pup in the herd, as the dolphins dashed past. I chanted

"Strength & Courage" 

with every single stroke and I made it. (nearly last, but I made it in time for the cool down).

When my friend, the previous winner of the ENTIRE Nautica Triathlon, asked me how I felt, I responded,  

"Great, terrified - but great. 

I'll get lighter, faster and stronger."

And that's what it's really all about kids.

Give that scary thing a try. 

State your intention. 

Take a leap. 

BE BOLD.

That's a lesson I learned from this week's guest on Inspiration Inc. Audrey Cavenecia. ENJOY

Entrepreneur & Branding Expert Audrey Cavenecia and Zhena Muzyka discuss the founder's dilemma. Entrepreneurs when presented with the opportunity to sell their company must choose partners they can trust and develop relationships that can evolve with the business. Cavenecia is currently working with Oracle's Larry Ellison on the development of Hawaii's 6th largest island, Lanai. Discovering how to build a business that changes the face of a community and an entrepreneur who has the courage to reinvent is what Inspiration Inc. is all about.

You keep asking to be legitimate. Why don't you feel like you already are?

"You keep asking to be legitimate. Why don't you feel like you already are?"

That was the question my Executive in Residence coach asked me the first time we met when I started business school. I was a couple months into studying and I wanted a legitimate seat at the table to negotiate as an exec in the entertainment industry. I literally felt like there was no way anybody would take me seriously as the peppy cheerleader type. I felt that way mostly because I'd surrounded myself with a lot of people who didn't.

When Sasha Strauss asked me that, I was stunned. I didn't go back to class that afternoon. I walked around campus in tears. Was I actually already legitimate as a story teller, as a producer, as a leader?

So then I started writing what I wanted to write. I started telling stories that I wanted to tell. I started making a clear business case why content that's good for the world would be good for the brands that supported them. I started making a business case for doing good, being kind and for inspiration.

I started working with people and teaching skills that could make non profits sustainable, businesses socially responsible, and demanding those around me see their role in the economic community as a critical part of what can and will change the world. Business skills and the next generation will change the world. I want to be part of that.

Yep, there have been ups and downs. Yep, there have been a few rough goes and not everyone has bought into the business of inspiration, but then there are the days that everything clicks. Today is one of those.

My program at UCLA is growing and there is an extraordinary class of students who will enroll in just a few short weeks and their careers will be launched. My show, Inspiration Inc has launched and people really like it.

And I had the chance to direct an interview with my friend, my Executive in Residence, my mentor - and this time, we had the chance to talk about what makes him one hell of a leader. 

Movie Making - Intern Staking - Story Telling Dreams

I started my career in this industry as an intern. At 17 years old I scored my very first internship working at the soap General Hospital as a receptionist and casting intern. After all, I babysat for one of the actresses and since she trusted me with her kids, the show could totally trust me with their fan mail, which I dutifully answered for a hot sweaty summer.... on a typewriter.

The following summer, I moved up to a rad gig at Paramount Studios. I also babysat for an important person over there and thus was granted a phenomenal gig at the burgeoning new business on the studio lot..... Paramount Digital Entertainment. I was there at the start of StarTrek.com, EntertainmentTonight.com and Clueless.com! It was 1997.

I showed up on my first day wearing a red dress and earned the moniker, Summers Reddress (an ode to VIACOM Chairman Sumner Redstone) and have started most jobs and had most important meetings in a red (or other brightly colored) dress since. I cannot believe that was 16 years ago.

The next summer I worked at the actual series Entertainment Tonight and was such an annoyingly optimistic know-it-all intern ended up being unknowingly parodied in a film I produced thirteen years later.

The D-Monster

Back then I knew I wanted to inspire people by telling stories using this wild and crazy new thing called the Internet. Back then, I believed in fairy tales.

I'm now Facebook friends with my former bosses, the kids I babysat for and their parents. Now I use the internet to inspire people by telling stories. Now, I still believe in fairy tales.

So that's why it is my incredible honor this week to share our latest episode of Inspiration Inc with the ever mystical Zhena Muzyka as she interviews the fascinating, outstanding, playful, ass kicking 27 year old movie exec turned CEO Shara Senderoff - who might just be combining all those things I love most - Internships, Fairy Tales and Inspiration.

Enjoy my friends. 

Please be inspired and please share the inspiration.

Why Lean In is a Must Read & Tinkerbell is a Should Watch - FOR EVERYONE who is or has a mother, sister, daughter or wants a wife!!!!

Last weekend, I inherited a grown up car.

I've owned two cars. The first, a 1988 325I Silver Blue BMW convertible we called Baby Blue and I drove her from the age of 16 to 27. We drove up and down the Cali coast to and from Berkeley and then to and from anywhere I could go - singing Life is a Highway for my most formative years, and I learned early -  

I wanna drive it. All night long!!!

The second, a 2005 AWD black 92x Saab, was called the Black Booty because her trunk was almost always packed with adventurey stuff. "Summers, do you live in your car?" 

The answer, "no." but there is no doubt at any given moment I might need spin shoes, bungee cords, a tent, a LOT of beach blankets, roller blades, fins, a change of clothes, extra running shoes, a bikini and raisins.

Not apocalypse readying ... impromptu adventure readying.

Last weekend, I landed in a Prius. An insanely generous gift from my dad who was ready for a new car and sold Black Booty and moved my "I Feed the Bears" decal from the front window to my new front window, and sat in the Prius.

She doesn't have a moon roof. She's silver. She's very grown up.

At the same time I landed in my new grown up car, I finally had time to listen to Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. It seemed like a good way to bond. I download and listen to audio books on 3x Narrator Speed. It makes things more efficient and I think there's a chance it's making me smarter to listen really fast.***

(*** totally unproven theory)

Here's what I learned in my new grown up car with the uber fast VO of Lean In:

1) Now more than ever it's time to put the pedal to the floor 
and drive this highway of life. 

2) Especially because I'm a girl, it's time to lean into each bend in the road.

3) Now more than ever, it's the time to encourage those around us 
to find their lead foot. 

Ladies, let's drive!

Hearing the experiences of Sheryl while she drove head first into her career and motherhood reminded me of so much that I've grappled with when looking at the rear view of my own curvy road.

Did anybody else know Sheryl married way too early and it didn't work out and then she got married again and seems to be doing just fine!?!?!

Does anybody else know that there was a moment when she realized painfully that being smart made her less likeable and that she dumbed herself down for the sake of a boy and...... (hush) for the sake of some girls?!?!?!?!!

Or that we are all more likely to hold off on raising our hand and instead be demure, because modesty is a quality lauded in girls and aggressive is bad.... but not so much in boys?!?!?!?

Does anybody else remember the day someone told her not to brag or to be bossy and it made her afraid to take charge and lead and be acknowledged for her accomplishments?!?!?!?!

Because OMG I do!!

Succeeding in whatever endeavor you are faced with isn't easy. We must take our natural given talents and excel accordingly. This is where Tinkerbell comes in.

A friend of mine (ok ok ok ok, yes I'll admit it's #34) worked on Tinkerbell and I'd never actually seen it, until this afternoon. After getting all fired up driving up and down PCH to meetings listening to Sheryl, I needed a day at home doing bills. Guess what was there on Netflix?

Why yes, it's a fairytale about a fairy who wants to be extraordinary.

There's this fairy, her name is Tink, and she's really good at certain things, but wishes she was something different. She wishes she could do all sorts of other things, instead of excel at the things she's got God given talent to do. So she tries, she screws up, then she revisits her skills, learns new ways to use them, and figures out how to kick tail with what she's got.

And darlings, that's precisely the point of Lean In. 
You are who you are. 
You have what you need to excel. 
You don't need to sit on your wings and be afraid to fly.

I'd like to think of myself as Sheryl in that first year in Silicon Valley or Tink when she is trying to suss out what to do with a bolt. I've got this. 

If you ARE or KNOW a woman, if you have or are a daughter, if you interact with chicks at any point and are the least bit educated......

YOU MUST read/ listen to Lean In. 
It is simply mandatory. 
You need this frame of reference.

(and if you have an extra 90 minutes some Sunday afternoon, you should probably watch Tinkerbell)

I'll see y'all on the drive..... in my sorta grown up car.

Yep... there had to be flowers and flip flops on the bumper. I'm not all that grown up.

Time for TV4 Startups!! One Kings Lane Susan Feldman & Zhena Muzyka Talk Biz

Ever have a website you check daily... because there is something there you absolutely MUST HAVE. (Even if you never buy it because you are like totally entirely broke after getting your MBA and sorta just making ends meet...) Well for me that's One Kings Lane. 

The founders, both fellow UCLA Anderson alums are a fascinating, kind and innovative pair of total POWERBLONDES. Here's a great interview with one of em with my friend Zhena Muzyka! (Oh yeah, and I directed and produced the show, so that's cool too.)

Wonder what took One Kings Lane from 0 - $450M in four years? Co-Founder Susan Feldman chats with Zhena Muzyka of Zhena's Gypsy Tea about timing, strategy, competition, kindness heart and luck on building their business. Have a look! It's a good way to start your Friday.

No - I WON'T work FOR you! Who do you think you are?

A while back when I was beginning to collaborate on a new venture with a successful leader, there was the requisite 'get to know you' phase. Sure we had had plenty of coffee and more than enough cocktails to be sure we shared a vision and a goal, but it was still new. Having never worked on a project together, this leader didn't know my skills nor I theirs. (yes being gender neutral means being grammatically incorrect.)

At one point I had been asked to proceed without understanding the logic behind a decision I didn't like. The leader said to me,

"I realize you've never worked for me before. 

Other people who have would follow me off a cliff!!" 

The moment was remarkable.

I was at a point in my life and in my career where I didn't want to ever work FOR someone again, instead I was ready to work WITH someone. I was ready to take risks, calculated risks, and wanted to dive head on into the project. BUT I was not following anyone anywhere, let alone off a cliff.

Long discussions with trusted friends revealed I wasn't so crazy for that desire. It was time to take my seat at the table not as the enthusiastic cheerleader and hardest little worker ever, but instead as the collaborator, the fighter, and a leader in my own right.

This morning, post way-too-early-to-be-photogenic-deep-sand-sweat session with a fellow thoughtful fighter, I was trolling internet business news and I came across this article by J.T. O'Donnell, Career & Job Search Expert | CEO of CAREEREALISM Media.

Click to read or follow this link:
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130409130222-7668018-top-performers-never-work-for-a-company?trk=prof-post

Turns out Top Performers Never Work "FOR" a Company. It's a quick read and a great reminder.

Seems like I should have maybe just started out with the confidence of a collaborator. Skills learned all along the way were part of what I was getting out of the deal and my employers were getting a pretty darn good little asset every day I showed up!

Yesterday morning, I attended a conversation about impact marketing at Tory Johnson's Spark & Hustle convention and met a ton of inspired and productive entrepreneurs. Last night I attended yet another career panel at UCLA for undergrads. I really do have a cool job. This particular one, held at Anderson was for Women in Business and I was excited to hear the questions from the coeds about finding mentors, developing leadership skills, and crafting careers. There is a wicked ambitious and thoughtful generation about to enter the work force and companies are about to have a whole lot of great people ready to work WITH them.

Today, realize you already are a leader in your own way.  

Today, realize you can get as much as you give and you deserve to. 

Today, take on those humpday curves with strength and confidence and kick some tail!

On Friendships - There is a Golden Rule

Friendship is a two way street. Giving, receiving, sharing and caring makes for the healthiest and best kind of friendship. Be careful not to be someone who wants to be friends only with people who can help you and be careful not to only have friends who want something from you. Give generously, love kindly and most importantly offer respect to yourself and to others.

There is a golden rule. 

Looks like we're starting something good! Sneak Peak at Inspiration Inc!

Guess What's Coming!!!!!!!!

Cool stuff can happen. Cool stuff happens every day. In particular, I like it when cool stuff happens to me and people I care about. For many years I've said I wanted to tell stories that inspire, empower and create change and finally thanks to a lot of hard work and collaboration with some pretty awesome people, we are on our way. 

Inspiration Inc. a series developed with my colleagues and friends at TV4 Entertainment Inc and my dear friend and mentor Zhena Muzyka is about finding game changers, influencers, ideas to reality makers who are changing the way the world and business works for the better.

So thank you to everyone who is supporting, has supported and wants to support this endeavor. I am pretty sure we are starting something good.

Join Zhena Muzyka as she explores the way businesses are finding profitability and starting something good! In this episode of Inspiration Inc. Paul Rice, President & CEO of Fair Trade USA share his inspiration to start a revolution in agriculture. From his early days in Nicaragua organizing farmers to shepharding social entrepreneurship in the US, learn about the way a business can use fair trade sourcing to improve the value chain of its products. Get inspired and learn a little bit about what it takes to Start Something Good

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Keep It Simple Saturday

Some days it's important to remember the basics; in business - in life and in love. Keep it simple kids. Have a great weekend.

A Mid Week Reminder - You Deserve to Succeed

This morning I awoke at 5:00 to the wafting smell of coffee, (thank you Cuisinart for making mornings feel like a commercial) and headed to my weekly meditation at St. Monica's Catholic Church. This habit, I picked up last year during lent, has become a pretty inspiring ritual and makes me wish it was always lent. Goodness knows, I don't get up at 5am to go meditate in church the rest of the year....

I've had my fair share of ups and downs and for a while it was all about survival. Doing whatever it took to get through business school, heal from a crazy accident, find a job, pay the rent. Someone once asked me if measuring parking lots in the middle of winter was my rock bottom. While it was definitely cold, sad, wet, hard and lonely out counting curb lengths, I responded, "No."

I didn't ever have a rock bottom because I always had hope. Hope that things would work out and faith that somehow I could get through kept me from feeling entirely alone.

Whatever faith you practice, whatever rituals anchor you, whatever you believe in and even if you have not yet found a way to feel connected to something greater, reflection on what's good in this world and why you are good for this world should be part of your daily life. I know, it may sound crazy, but you deserve to succeed.

This year at St. Monica's we are reflecting on love in all its generosity, hope, kindness and unexpected iterations. In my college sorority we read First Corinthians, that all too common wedding reading, about love. I don't think I ever broke it down to understand its meaning until now.

Whether single or coupled, a large family or nobody to speak of at all, we are all loved by someone, love someone, deserve joy, hope, success and peace. So here's a little meditation that I found myself reciting over and over this morning. Say it out loud a few times on your way to work or when you have a moment to yourself. Perhaps it will lift your humpday and certainly remind you that you deserve great things.

In Order to be Great, You Can't Hide Behind a Curtain: Thoughts on Wizards and OZ

I love fairy tales. 

I adore stories. 

I live for adventure. 

A movie is my favorite date. 

For these reasons, I would NEVER turn down an invitation from my friends at Digital LA to come to one of the fantastic influencer screenings put on by Time Warner Cable.  You may recall all the fun we had deciding whether or not we loved werewolves or vampires when I got to go see Twilight! (I heart Jacob)

Well last night, I got to see OZ, The Great and Powerful.

I am occasionally caught between a rock and an optimistic place. I'm incredibly lucky to be invited to such fabulous funness. I don't want that to stop. I am also invited because I'm likely to write about the experience, which is usually a good thing. Giggling with my popcorn and 3D glasses and being entertained is pretty precious. But what happens when you've been invited to spread the word about something that's just not so great?

Someone (definitely NOT my mother) once said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. My mom on the other hand is about as brutally honest as you can get. I fall somewhere in the middle. So here goes.

Things I Liked About OZ, The Great & Powerful

1)  It was beautiful. I'd like to go there. I'd like to sit on those massive mountains and float in pretty bubbles across the gorgeous 3D land. I actually did dream about the Emerald City last night and smile at the thought of the river fairies!

2) There's a really funny monkey, voiced by Zach Braff, who is a great complimentary character. His well written, dry sense of humor is a great asset. He was perhaps the most 'real' character. An honest loyal guy who was going to push for what was right, even in a wrong circumstance.

3) There's an adorable sassy China Girl, voiced by Joey King that reminds me of what I'd imagine I'd like to be if I lived in Oz. She's got moxie, a feisty nature and a sweet little heart that actually brought me to tears...


4) The final battle - It was quite exciting and there was a little bit of a surprise that was well executed. Fast paced, move to succeed, bringing it all home fun. I was rooting for those Oz folks.

And Now, Things I Did Not Like

1) The story was weak. I wish it wasn't but it was lame. It seemed like the rough outline of what could have been an intricate and exciting story with hidden meanings and an overall theme of making the world a better place. You know, like the real movie.

2) The live characters performances did not match one another. While James Franco seemed to be playing it all Vaudeville - in a way that made it difficult to take him seriously, the witches were seemingly in different shows. Mila Kunis was in a soap opera, Rachel Weisz was in a dark violent drama, and Michelle Williams was in a Disney movie.

3) There were no red slippers, nor any allusion to red slippers. AND I WORE RUBY RED SLIPPERS!!!! Now I understand that there were probably some rights and trademark issues and traditionally speaking those studios don't play so well together, but there could have been the slightest of reference to one of the witches who had a tailor and cobbler on staff to make her magical garments.... SOMETHING!

There you have it. No curtains, no smoke, nothing to hide behind. I may not get invited back to the next round of 'influencer screenings' which would be a total bummer. Disney may not ever sponsor Caution Curves Ahead and might just try to shut me down, but I have to be honest folks.

This one is definitely a  "wait to see it - unless you have 10 year old kids demanding to see it - then maybe, but make them watch the original too"  kind of movie.

Wanna Get Hot? Put it On the Calendar!

It's time to take off your clothes again. You will soon be bearing flesh and I'm guessing you might be in my boat and ready to tighten it up a bit.... No better way to guarantee you'll make your workout than to calendar it, for the whole world....

I've been in a fitness slump since about mid November. Crazy work schedules and parking lot measuring... twisted ankles from way too high heel walking, a flu of biblical proportions......

A dear friend of mine told me last weekend as I stood with my toes in a frigid pacific optimistically wearing my bikini for the first time since October,

"Don't worry too much, 
you're a natural Jessica Rabbit." 

I could have kissed her!!!

And the good thing is, I'm not that worried. My shape is shaped, but it's time to be in better shape. Time to feel strong, flexible, in charge of my curves. I do best with a plan, so here's the plan.

30 Days: 20 Hot Yoga Classes, 10 Beach Walks, 4 Mountain Hikes

How bout you? Here's my schedule. Wanna keep up and keep in step? Maybe join me for a hike or two? Let's get hot together!

Day Two On Viddy