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Introduction (pers/prof challenge intro)

“One, two, three, four!,” the instructor yelled. Kate followed the comforting repetition of her Body Pump® class. As a huge “list nerd,” it felt good to cross “gym” off her list. Lists were really just a way of organizing Kate’s mind which, recently, seemed a bit scattered. Her mind never seemed to stop. Her thoughts drifted to her kids, Maxwell and Lilah, then drifted to her new venture, The Hot Mommas® Project. There were many things to do, and not enough time. Would she ever feel in control of her life and work again? She desperately wanted to make progress with both.

In a recent interview about The Hot Mommas Project, Kate said, “I would get a mini adrenaline rush when thinking of an idea, but then a longer term confidence ‘blech’ when I wasn’t following through on any of them.” Kate realized it wasn’t all just about the volume ideas, it was also self-limiting behavior. Surprises would come up with the kids. Kate needed to act as “Plan B” during these times. For this, and other, reasons – balance was a constantly evolving topic.

Background with “Aha” Moment

Growing up, it took Kate a while to get her bearings in the school environment. Outwardly confident, she walked the halls of her high school during her 9^th grade year feeling inwardly confused. She ran for secretary of her class and lost. She also tried out for the soccer team and was injured. Kate’s attempt to try new things was not going so well. Sophomore year marked the arrival of her “aha moment.” She applied to be a page for the Virginia Senate and was exposed to a world of leadership, people, and experiences that gave her confidence. She came back from that experience and thought, “Why not?” She ran for president of her class and won. Kate explained her aha moment inspiration: “I liked thinking ‘Why not?’ and then going and doing it. Every accomplishment in my life has been a repeat of that exact same thought process.”

Kate’s education continued through business school. During these early years, Kate had a tendency to ignore her own limits:

I had no off-switch. I felt I had to do everything. It was sad, in a way. I was out one time my 4^th year in college and someone said to me, ‘Oh! I thought you were still studying in Italy!’ because they hadn’t seen me out at all during the semester. Fast forward a couple of years to the working world and I was up at 3 in the morning making market research calls to factories in Hong Kong.

Kate tried to set limits when working for a large nonprofit focused on senior citizens. However, she was working on high-potential ventures and the pressure was on. 18 hour days were common. One of the projects on which she worked was a .com venture. When the .com market crashed, she was laid off, took a trip to Australia and New Zealand, and thought about next steps. After many interviews, she decided to go out on her own and founded the consulting firm Vision Forward. The model: Hire high-performing part-time women as consultants: The “Hot Mommas.”

Professional Challenge (Detail)

Starting her consulting firm, Vision Forward, was a huge personal challenge for Kate as she explained:

I remember pressing SEND on the email to my network back in 2001: ‘Dear Friends and Family, I am starting my own business. I am hiring a battery of part time consultants and we have our first contract. I would appreciate your keeping us in mind for leads.’ I thought, ‘Wow, if I fail…everyone will sure know now.’ It was like mentally jumping off a cliff.

Within two years Vision Forward was successful. The firm had multiple projects at any given time, and several consultants. to whom Kate would privately refer as “Hot Mommas.” These were high-achieving women who employed their education to create entrepreneurial work/life arrangements for themselves. Kate began to document lessons learned from the Hot Mommas in case studies that she taught to her students at The George Washington University School of Business where she was an adjunct professor. She named the case-writing initiative “The Hot Mommas Project.”

She dedicated 2 days a week to interviewing women business leaders. During the interviews Kate realized a huge success factor for women leaders was not only their business skills, but how they managed their personal and family lives. This critical learning was absent from any of the curricula Kate used. Kate began to write cases on both the professional and personal lives of the successful women leaders she interviewed. She then began a national survey to validate the issues set forth in the cases.

Kate was having an out-of-body experience. Curriculum development and teaching? Where did this come from? Kate did not have her PhD and did not consider herself a “real” professor. Yet, her project was being embraced by the academic community. The Hot Mommas Project received a Coleman Foundation Case Award in 2006 and ten cases were published in a leading Prentice Hall textbook in 2008.

What steps would be next for The Hot Mommas Project? She understood the importance of the cases as role models for women and girls. Role models lead to success, research showed. But, Kate was only one person writing cases. There was only so big this could get as it currently stood. Kate considered several options:

- Staffing services for “Hot Mommas” – Many people encouraged Kate to start a company matching Hot Mommas with companies requiring part-time help.

- Video case studies – A TV producer had approached Kate about video case studies on Hot Mommas. This would require significant funding, however.

- Case writing contest – People were always coming to Kate saying “I have a Hot Momma for you!” Maybe there was a way for people to write their own cases in a contest format.

- Coaching – Kate could envision a network of coaches who had access to Hot Mommas Project research and could better-advise women as a result.

- Book – Many people had encouraged Kate to write a book based on the Hot Mommas Project research and case studies.

Kate was severely limited by the power of one. Many ideas, no team, and working part time with two kids. Kate knew it would take some heavy mental lifting to figure this out.

Personal Challenge (Detail)

Kate believed any ability to thrive in her professional career was based on stability in her family and personal life. She was familiar with the concept of people using their careers as a crutch, especially very successful people. Kate worked especially hard on having a strong marriage and family life:

It is so easy to say, ‘I want a strong family’ and much harder to do. Looking back, I really think it’s easier to go out and secure a contract, write a case or win an award. There is a part of me that doesn’t want to fail at anything, and that includes having a successful marriage or having happy kids. Yet, as I get older and my life gets more complicated, I need more support. That support is not going to come from an invoice a client paid or a certificate hanging on my wall. My resume won’t keep me warm at night.

Kate believed doing more with less was the key at this stage in her life. Recently, however, her ability to effectively balance came under scrutiny as she described: “My husband sent me an email saying ‘Kate, You’ve been totally obsessed with the Hot Mommas Project. We need you.” Kate felt conflicted. She welcomed the reality check, but also felt frustrated. The process of constantly thinking, evaluating, and adjusting the balance between work and life was tiresome. She yearned for an “easy button” in her life. Would she ever establish a rhythm with work and life? Kate stared at her calendar littered with professional and family commitments. Maybe this craziness was the rhythm.

***TOTAL WORDS – 1493 (1500 word limit. Discussion questions not included in the word limit).***

Discussion Questions:

1. How should Kate move forward with the Hot Mommas Project. In your answer, address the following two points plus any others you deem appropriate:

- Staff

- Strategy/direction of the project

Teaching note: Ultimately, I decided to go with the case study competition as the strategy. It had entered my mind a couple times over the course of about 3 years. The “heavy mental lifting” discussed in the case turned out really just to be patience. It was hard waiting for 3 years for the right idea to hit me. But, that is exactly what happened one day. I just thought, “Case study competition. That’s what we’re going to do.” After the cases were published in the Prentice Hall textbook I think it clicked that I was really onto something, and that the potential for acceptance into mainstream academia and society was there. I couldn’t possibly write all the cases. I knew the cases worked, however, so I thought, “I’ll teach others how to write these cases.” I hired interns and gave them very specific jobs to do to help move the competition forward. Advanced students might comment on quotes such as “the power of one,” do internet research on scaling businesses, or refer to a book such as Michael Gerber’s “The E Myth” which talks about the shift in entrepreneurial focus beyond the self. Another interesting discussion could take place around the other options. At the end of the day,  coaching is a logical next step because it is not such a far stretch from consulting. I also think a book is another ogical next step because I have some writing and curriculum-development experience.  Each of those areas are one “lilypad” away, so to speak. I have no background in film production or staffing. It would take me a while to 1. See if engaging in those areas would actually help women at all and 2. Get to know those areas enough to choose good partners. I would not see Hot Mommas Project entering those markets on our own. Again, someone ELSE might argue a completely different point and it might work. This is just my take. Those things are two or three lilypads away as I see the market.

Inside knowledge: Another big clincher was that I was willing to invest my own money into building the software which would allow individuals to write and publish their own case studies online. I was not ready to do that for a number of years.

2. What does Kate mean in the last paragraph of the case when she says ‘do more with less?’ Do you believe that “craziness” is the rhythm of her life? Explain?

Teaching note: In asking this question, I hoped an interesting discussion could ensure. I would expect some very optomisitic students to suggest ways that Kate’s life could be nice, calm, and structured. I would expect others to say, “Nope. Will always be crazy. Get used to it.” The real point, however, is to simply discuss the topic as a whole. There is no REAL right answer. An individual just needs to be happy. If the craziness is creating unhappiness, time to look for another solution. If it is crazy, but happy, great. What is the #1 priority? Mine is happiness.

3. Discuss Kate’s aha moment? Do you identify with it? What is your aha moment to date?

Teaching note: I would expect students to start off talking about Kate, then move to a discussion of themselves or others. My goal here is pattern recognition. Looking for patterns early on that may be an “equation” for success. It could be in anything…school, home, sports. It is about recognizing a series of thoughts and actions that lead to success.

Appendix

***Tip: While there is no appendix in this case, a future draft or edits might include an appendix. Here are some thoughts on how an appendix might be used in the “Kate” case:

- In an ideal world, the appendix would have my schedule and students would be asked to analyze it, and their own schedule, to find an extra .5 or 1 hour each day.

- The appendix could also be used to list links and notes on TV producers, similar sites, research on role models, etc.

- A lot of times the appendix can be used to support a specific discussion question (e.g., time analysis), other times the information can be used to force students to really filter and focus (e.g., there are a lot of links and random notes here…what is really important?).****