The Place: Mozart’s Coffee

The Cup: Regular old coffee for both Heather and myself.

Background: One of the greatest connecters in Austin is Steve Harper – who I affectionately refer to as Cup 5. He’s so great at connecting people, he wrote a book on the subject (The Ripple Effect: Maximizing the Power of Relationships for Life & Business) and holds events all about connecting – in really fun and interesting ways! I encourage anyone in Austin to attend an 8 Minute Ripple and everyone, everywhere to read the book!  Steve and I got together for coffee a few weeks ago to catch up and he mentioned Heather. I could tell he was excited for the two of us to connect and my feeling was confirmed when he had this to say in an email to us once we’d set our meeting:

You two are amazing and I suspect people may have to seek shelter from all the awesomeness that will occur when you two get together.

Holy moley! If I wasn’t excited before that, I sure was now! Excited and a little terrified. Those are big expectations to deliver on!

Heather certainly held up her end of the awesomeness equation. In fact, she had enough for both of us. Before we get to her incredible story, let’s cover some:

Common Grounds

1. What is the last movie you saw? Life of Pi.
2. What is your guilty pleasure? Anything coconut. Especially homemade coconut gelato.
3. How did you make your first buck? My parents loved to go to flea markets and in second grade I bought jelly bracelets for a nickel each and then sold them to all my friends at the playground for twenty-five cents. I got sent to the Principal’s office for that and they shut down my operation.
4. Where is your favorite place to eat in Austin? Takoba. They have great pork tacos. 
   
5. Who has been the most influential person in your life so far? When I was little, my Mom enrolled me in Zig Ziglar’s “I Can” class, and I could be their poster child. I read the book “See You At The Top” and it just spoke to me – “no stinkin’ thinkin'”, and being positive. I just soaked it all up. I gave me the idea that I can do anything with a positive attitude and the world is limitless. I attribute that to my current thinking.
6. What is your favorite way to unwind? I love anything that has to do with the water – whether that’s stand-up paddle boarding, sitting by the lake, kayaking, or going to the ocean. I just love to be near the water.
7. What is the best gift you’ve ever gotten? Anyone taking the time to be thoughtful and doing something special and creating memories.
8. What is the best compliment your ever got? That I’m a great mom.
9. What’s a food you can’t live without? Tacos. At least once a day I’m eating tacos.

Heather has a success story that will leave you speechless. It’s the kind of success story many people think is only possible in movies or on TV. Everyone knows that Oprah is the golden ticket to success – well, Heather’s business and products have been featured on Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, USA Today, The Early Show and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Her brand can be found in boutiques everywhere as well as in Sears, JCPenny and Target. Some of her biggest fans are recognizable figures such as Demi Moore, Britney Spears, Kate Hudson, Holly Robinson Peete, and Jessica Alba.

Wow, right!?! I know, she’s a total rock star! Before you start to assume (as I was guilty of) that 1) It must have been easy for her, and 2) That it’s not possible for you, read on for the full story.

Heather grew up in a crafty household. So when she was 25 and home with her newborn son, she decided to put her crafting abilities to work. In Heather’s view, the clothing options out there didn’t showcase her baby’s adorable personality, so she decided to make her little dude some custom duds. Decked out in his stylish couture, he was suddenly in the spotlight everywhere they went. Moms came up to Heather asking where she got his outfits, and when she explained that she’d made them, she immediately got requests to make clothes for other kiddos.

I think you can guess how the story goes from here. And you’re right. For the most part.

In just three years time, Heather, now a mother of two, found herself with a booming business- Glamajama. The business was an incredible success and production had moved from pre-production samples made from duct tape and staples in her living room to a full-scale production operation in a factory in California. She was at all the big trade shows and her clothes were in hundreds of high-end boutiques all across the country. People loved her products and the business was getting serious attention. That attention marked a turning point for Heather.

Heather got a call from a business broker who told her he had a client who was interested in buying her business. “What business?” Heather thought to herself.  “This isn’t a business, this is my hobby,” Heather says she thought to herself during the meeting. It wasn’t until after the meeting that she began to realize that everyone was taking the business seriously, except her. She didn’t accept the offer to sell and instead decided to pour herself into the business to make it all it could be.

More success followed. Heather landed an order from Nordstrom’s and sales continued to grow. She asked herself who the audience was – parents, mostly moms, who wanted to showcase their kids’ personalities. Instead of sending out plain ads to her customer list, she sent out a mini-magazine. Eventually her customers started interacting with each other, outside of her and that’s when Heather knew things were on the right track. Heather had built a brand and a community – years before it was the cool thing to do.

It’s not as if everything Heather did was a raging success. She shared with me a story about a call she got, early on, from a television program out of Boca Raton that wanted to feature her products. She knew she needed to get on TV and saw this as her big break. The producers of the show explained to her that because this was an “editorial based” show, she’d need to share in the production cost. Assuming this was just how things were done, she maxed out credit cards (to the tune of $15,000) to pay for her big break. Sadly, the end product was little more than an infomercial that ran at 2am when no one was even watching. She was devastated and a little embarrassed.

Shortly after the incident, a friend called to congratulate her on the placement of her product in the Austin Statesman Gift Guide. “What?” she thought, “I didn’t authorize that!” Heather picked up the phone and called the newspaper to get to the bottom of the error. It turned out, that unlike her last experience with PR, this time is was free. She was thrilled and immediately Googled “free PR”, and decided to make it a personal mission to get all the publicity she could get at little or no cost.

This quest for great PR is what truly catapulted Heather’s success. People ask her how she comes up with all of her great “out of the box” marketing ideas. She says, “That’s easy. I don’t know what the box is.”

During the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Heather managed to get her products photographed in the hands of Jessica Alba who was shopping near the convention. Then came the photo with Hilary Clinton holding a baby wearing Glamajama. How did this happen? Certainly not by accident, right?!?

Right! Heather says, “I just looked for the back door.” Not literally, of course. She said, “I found out where the convention was being held, and then called all the boutiques nearby and worked with them to get my products into the stores and in the shop windows.” Heather told me even when it meant she had to send the store product for free – she did whatever it took to get her outfits out there. “Everyone is going to be trying to get in the front door. I ask myself, ‘How else can I do this?’ The thing is, there is always a back door.”

Heather calls herself an “accidental entrepreneur”. She didn’t start with a business plan. In fact, she admits that if she had started there, there wouldn’t be a GlamaLIFE business.  She says, “If you look at the market research you’ll find it’s a very crowded space. I would have never done it if I’d known. But fortunately, I didn’t know.”

Not knowing used to be a sore subject for Heather. She admits she felt insecure about not having a degree in business (her’s was in Psychology) or that she didn’t have fashion experience or a marketing background – all of which most people assumed based on her success. She recalls a meeting she had with a banker when she was trying to get a business loan. She cringed when he asked about her background, and as she made excuses and told him she planned to get the education once she had the time, he stopped her and said, “You’re going to have to let go of those insecurities. You can either pay for your MBA from a fancy college, or you can earn it from the school of hard knocks. I’d rather see someone who’s lived it and learned it than someone who’s only read about it.”

Much like the meeting with the business broker, Heather cites this as another turning point in her business, adding,”I decided right then that I was going to stop holding myself back. When you put your mind to something, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”

This year Heather’s business turns 10. She’s so proud of all she’s been able to achieve through the business, and all the doors that have been opened as a result of her hard work and can do attitude (thanks Mr. Ziglar!) Always curious and always on the hunt for the next challenge, Heather has very recently finished writing a book (due out any day!), called The Working Mom Manifesto – How to Stop Hoping for Success and Start Creating It. If you’re wondering if it’s anything like the much talked about Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, the answer is an emphatic “No!” In fact, Heather’s answer to Sheryl’s question about why more women aren’t leaning in is, “Because they don’t want to.”

Heather asserts that it’s a matter of choice. She feels that Sandberg has managed to “devalue the role of engaged parenting” by suggesting that women need to lean in further into their careers. Heather offers another option – let people choose the right decisions for themselves. In researching the book Heather interviewed countless women who were trying to do it all. They had successful careers and a family and felt pulled in two different directions. For most of them, true happiness came when they decided enough was enough, and opted to focus on their family and leave the corporate shackles behind.

Heather asks, “When did being barefoot and pregnant suddenly become a bad thing?” Adding, “motherhood is a calling and we need to put value on that.”

This may seem a bit odd coming from a woman who is Founder and CEO of a multi-milion dollar company. Here’s the secret. Heather says that the answer to finding that elusive work-life balance is simple. Life is what’s most important. She offers three steps for getting things into perspective. These are covered in far greater detail in the book, but here is the gist:

1. Be candid and honest with yourself about what makes you happy. Stop chasing things trying to fill a void. For example, do you want the promotion because you are trying to prove your value to someone? It’s a tough question to ask, but uncovering the truth behind what you’re really seeking will prove to be a freeing experience. 
2. Define success for yourself and remember there is no cookie cutter definition of success. You may think you want to be the CEO of a five million dollar tech company. Ask yourself what success really means to you. Does it mean taking your family on a vacation twice a year, having a membership at the gym you drive by everyday, and taking yoga classes twice a week? OK, great! How much does that cost? Figure it out and you may realize you need much less than you thought. Stop chasing someone else’s goal or definition of success. All that’s going to do is make you feel like a failure when you don’t achieve it.
3. Build systems to support achieving your goals. If you know that in order to feel good and successful you need to workout for at least 30 minutes, write for 2 hours a day, and have dinner at the table with your family five nights a week, then build all of that into your day. Make yourself a priority. For success, you need a Life Plan just as much, if not more, than you need a Business Plan.

Through the book and by sharing her story, Heather wants to encourage and inspire women everywhere to do what makes them happy. She says, “Happy kids come from happy moms. We need to show our kids that it’s important to be happy. It’s so easy to get caught up in the momentum of life, chasing after the mirage of materialism. What really makes you happy? You can find a way to be successful at anything. And you can make as much money as you want doing what you love. The truth is, you may find you need very little.”

If given thirty seconds to make a speech to the world, Heather says her message would be this:

“Cherish what a blessing life is. Make sure you’re doing work that fulfills you. Stay hungry – constantly searching for opportunities to find meaningful happiness. Keep your loved ones close. Work can provide conditional love, but unconditional love will only come from your friends and family – so hang on tight.”

I mentioned Heather’s book is coming out any day. Lucky duck that I am, I scored an advanced copy just this morning and had a chance to read a few chapters before I sat down to write this post. I can tell you, although I am not a mom, the message of Heather’s book is for anyone with a dream and for those of us who have ever wondered, “Is this all there is?”

We live in a time unlike any other. There are opportunities all around us – for starting or becoming a part of a new business, making connections, learning, growing, meeting interesting people, sharing our gifts. None of that – not one tiny bit of any of it – matters, if you don’t first know what makes you happy and then define what success will look like once you find it.

Heather serves as a reminder that life is what you make of it. Sometimes success will find you, when you least expect it. But when you know what you’re after and you pursue it will all your heart and soul, success will find you…just as you expected!

To learn more about Heather, follow her on Twitter and check out the GlamaLIFE website. If you want to learn more about her book or perhaps pick up a copy (which I highly recommend!) check out The Working Mom Manifesto site.

UPDATE:  The book is now available on Amazon. Check it out: The Working Mom Manifesto.