JJ’s MSNBC’s former television show, Your Business, profiled hundreds of growing enterprises and was dedicated to helping business owners and those in management grow their companies. Your Business was the station’s second longest running program, running twelve seasons.JJ’s podcast, Been There Built That delves further into the stories of successful founders, such as Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Jim Koch (Boston Beer Co), John Foley (Peloton), Jamie Kern Lima (It Cosmetics), and Spencer Rascoff (Zillow).
JJ is also the author of two books—the bestseller, It’s Your Business, and a children’s book, The Startup Club.
But, JJ is more than just a journalist covering business—she has been in the trenches herself. In 2005, she and her brother Ken launched Goodshop.com, which has solved the ever-annoying problem of where to find the best online coupons and deals, to date saving shoppers more than $100 million.
About four years ago, a light bulb went off. I was stumped at how to move something forward at my company Goodshop, and it suddenly occurred to me—I am surrounded by smart women with great ideas—why not gather them together, tell them my issue, and let them go to town on thinking of a solution. So, I enlisted my friends Samantha Skey, President of the SheKnows Media and Pilar Guzman, editor of Conde Nast Traveler (two of the smartest and most creative women I know), and the three of us hosted a brainstorming dinner.
I have had a number of advisors for my company over the years, but this was the first time I brought all of my smart female friends into a room together to get them all talking as a group. And, it was great.
Since that day, Sam and I have hosted a number of these dinners (the last was for Catherine Levine and her very fabulous shoe company, Cat Perkins). The result has been the same every time: First, each of the women sitting in the hot seat has left with a bunch of great ideas for how to grow their companies. Second, the women attending have not only gotten to meet a whole new group of friends, but inevitably, through the process of thinking through someone else’s business problems, have come up with additional ideas to take back to their own jobs and companies.
These dinners are simple, they’re fun, and they’re powerful and we should all be having them.
I am the daughter of a successful female founder. I went to an all-girls’ school growing up. During my first job after college as an associate producer at NBC News, the two people I looked up to the most who took me under their wings were women. I received my MBA from Stanford Business School and then got a job working for another woman who, to this day, I think is one of the smartest people I know. I co-founded a company that has been around for twelve years, and I hosted the second-longest running program on MSNBC.
I realize that all sounds like one big humble brag (believe me, I have had plenty of failures too), but I list them like this to make a point: Despite all of this reinforcement, when I read the book Lean In, I see parts of myself in those pages. And when I read Mika Brzezinski book, Know Your Value, I realized that I had not asked for a raise that I very much deserved.
And, that is why I love these women’s dinners.
Don’t get me wrong; I do the same types of things in a co-ed environment too. My co-founder and the CEO of Goodshop are both men. They are fabulous. And I belong to a business group, which meets once a month, and I’m the only woman in my group. That is fabulous. I would not give up on any of this.
But, there is something important going on in the world right now as we all know, and in addition to all we do for our companies, we, as women, need to stick together to make sure it keeps going in the right direction. So, here is my how-to on how to have one of these dinners successfully.
Ultimately, my and Sam’s goal with our dinners has been to have fun. We’ve found that people leave the events excited for the next one. And, that’s because helping one another is incredibly satisfying. And, creating this large network of women to whom we can all turn will help us all as we move forward in our careers and lives.
1. It doesn’t have to be dinner—make it coffee, breakfast, lunch, cocktails.
2. Gather women from different backgrounds with different expertise. And, by the way—they don’t all need to be working right now. At the dinner we held for my friend Connie and her facemask company Nugg, one of the best business ideas came from an incredibly intelligent woman who has decided to take a break from her career to stay at home with her kids.
3. Have the person in the hot seat communicate a very specific goal of what she hopes to get out of the dinner beforehand.
4. Send out background information ahead of the dinner, and make sure everyone looks it over so you can spend the time together on the issue, not the background.
5. Have a start and end time. It can always go later, but this makes the expectations clear for anyone who has a lot of pressure on her time.
6. Make sure everyone talks. If someone is silent in the background, be sure to give her time to speak. Also, no sugarcoating allowed! If we want to be helpful, we have to be constructively honest.
7. At the end of the meal (or drinks) and brainstorm session, go around the room and ask each woman if there is something she needs help with (it could be anything—introduction to a potential client, help with hiring for an open position, advice on how to get press, recommendation for a good personal trainer). What I’ve found is that we all really want to help each other. When the needs are communicated very specifically, people really step up when they have some value to add.
Photography by Art Streiber, MSNBC
JJ’s MSNBC’s former television show, Your Business, profiled hundreds of growing enterprises and was dedicated to helping business owners and those in management grow their companies. Your Business was the station’s second longest running program, running twelve seasons.JJ’s podcast, Been There Built That delves further into the stories of successful founders, such as Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Jim Koch (Boston Beer Co), John Foley (Peloton), Jamie Kern Lima (It Cosmetics), and Spencer Rascoff (Zillow).
JJ is also the author of two books—the bestseller, It’s Your Business, and a children’s book, The Startup Club.
But, JJ is more than just a journalist covering business—she has been in the trenches herself. In 2005, she and her brother Ken launched Goodshop.com, which has solved the ever-annoying problem of where to find the best online coupons and deals, to date saving shoppers more than $100 million.
About four years ago, a light bulb went off. I was stumped at how to move something forward at my company Goodshop, and it suddenly occurred to me—I am surrounded by smart women with great ideas—why not gather them together, tell them my issue, and let them go to town on thinking of a solution. So, I enlisted my friends Samantha Skey, President of the SheKnows Media and Pilar Guzman, editor of Conde Nast Traveler (two of the smartest and most creative women I know), and the three of us hosted a brainstorming dinner.
I have had a number of advisors for my company over the years, but this was the first time I brought all of my smart female friends into a room together to get them all talking as a group. And, it was great.
Since that day, Sam and I have hosted a number of these dinners (the last was for Catherine Levine and her very fabulous shoe company, Cat Perkins). The result has been the same every time: First, each of the women sitting in the hot seat has left with a bunch of great ideas for how to grow their companies. Second, the women attending have not only gotten to meet a whole new group of friends, but inevitably, through the process of thinking through someone else’s business problems, have come up with additional ideas to take back to their own jobs and companies.
These dinners are simple, they’re fun, and they’re powerful and we should all be having them.
I am the daughter of a successful female founder. I went to an all-girls’ school growing up. During my first job after college as an associate producer at NBC News, the two people I looked up to the most who took me under their wings were women. I received my MBA from Stanford Business School and then got a job working for another woman who, to this day, I think is one of the smartest people I know. I co-founded a company that has been around for twelve years, and I hosted the second-longest running program on MSNBC.
I realize that all sounds like one big humble brag (believe me, I have had plenty of failures too), but I list them like this to make a point: Despite all of this reinforcement, when I read the book Lean In, I see parts of myself in those pages. And when I read Mika Brzezinski book, Know Your Value, I realized that I had not asked for a raise that I very much deserved.
And, that is why I love these women’s dinners.
Don’t get me wrong; I do the same types of things in a co-ed environment too. My co-founder and the CEO of Goodshop are both men. They are fabulous. And I belong to a business group, which meets once a month, and I’m the only woman in my group. That is fabulous. I would not give up on any of this.
But, there is something important going on in the world right now as we all know, and in addition to all we do for our companies, we, as women, need to stick together to make sure it keeps going in the right direction. So, here is my how-to on how to have one of these dinners successfully.
Ultimately, my and Sam’s goal with our dinners has been to have fun. We’ve found that people leave the events excited for the next one. And, that’s because helping one another is incredibly satisfying. And, creating this large network of women to whom we can all turn will help us all as we move forward in our careers and lives.
1. It doesn’t have to be dinner—make it coffee, breakfast, lunch, cocktails.
2. Gather women from different backgrounds with different expertise. And, by the way—they don’t all need to be working right now. At the dinner we held for my friend Connie and her facemask company Nugg, one of the best business ideas came from an incredibly intelligent woman who has decided to take a break from her career to stay at home with her kids.
3. Have the person in the hot seat communicate a very specific goal of what she hopes to get out of the dinner beforehand.
4. Send out background information ahead of the dinner, and make sure everyone looks it over so you can spend the time together on the issue, not the background.
5. Have a start and end time. It can always go later, but this makes the expectations clear for anyone who has a lot of pressure on her time.
6. Make sure everyone talks. If someone is silent in the background, be sure to give her time to speak. Also, no sugarcoating allowed! If we want to be helpful, we have to be constructively honest.
7. At the end of the meal (or drinks) and brainstorm session, go around the room and ask each woman if there is something she needs help with (it could be anything—introduction to a potential client, help with hiring for an open position, advice on how to get press, recommendation for a good personal trainer). What I’ve found is that we all really want to help each other. When the needs are communicated very specifically, people really step up when they have some value to add.
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Photography by Art Streiber, MSNBC
JJ’s MSNBC’s former television show, Your Business, profiled hundreds of growing enterprises and was dedicated to helping business owners and those in management grow their companies. Your Business was the station’s second longest running program, running twelve seasons.JJ’s podcast, Been There Built That delves further into the stories of successful founders, such as Neil Blumenthal (Warby Parker), Jim Koch (Boston Beer Co), John Foley (Peloton), Jamie Kern Lima (It Cosmetics), and Spencer Rascoff (Zillow).
JJ is also the author of two books—the bestseller, It’s Your Business, and a children’s book, The Startup Club.
But, JJ is more than just a journalist covering business—she has been in the trenches herself. In 2005, she and her brother Ken launched Goodshop.com, which has solved the ever-annoying problem of where to find the best online coupons and deals, to date saving shoppers more than $100 million.
About four years ago, a light bulb went off. I was stumped at how to move something forward at my company Goodshop, and it suddenly occurred to me—I am surrounded by smart women with great ideas—why not gather them together, tell them my issue, and let them go to town on thinking of a solution. So, I enlisted my friends Samantha Skey, President of the SheKnows Media and Pilar Guzman, editor of Conde Nast Traveler (two of the smartest and most creative women I know), and the three of us hosted a brainstorming dinner.
I have had a number of advisors for my company over the years, but this was the first time I brought all of my smart female friends into a room together to get them all talking as a group. And, it was great.
Since that day, Sam and I have hosted a number of these dinners (the last was for Catherine Levine and her very fabulous shoe company, Cat Perkins). The result has been the same every time: First, each of the women sitting in the hot seat has left with a bunch of great ideas for how to grow their companies. Second, the women attending have not only gotten to meet a whole new group of friends, but inevitably, through the process of thinking through someone else’s business problems, have come up with additional ideas to take back to their own jobs and companies.
These dinners are simple, they’re fun, and they’re powerful and we should all be having them.
I am the daughter of a successful female founder. I went to an all-girls’ school growing up. During my first job after college as an associate producer at NBC News, the two people I looked up to the most who took me under their wings were women. I received my MBA from Stanford Business School and then got a job working for another woman who, to this day, I think is one of the smartest people I know. I co-founded a company that has been around for twelve years, and I hosted the second-longest running program on MSNBC.
I realize that all sounds like one big humble brag (believe me, I have had plenty of failures too), but I list them like this to make a point: Despite all of this reinforcement, when I read the book Lean In, I see parts of myself in those pages. And when I read Mika Brzezinski book, Know Your Value, I realized that I had not asked for a raise that I very much deserved.
And, that is why I love these women’s dinners.
Don’t get me wrong; I do the same types of things in a co-ed environment too. My co-founder and the CEO of Goodshop are both men. They are fabulous. And I belong to a business group, which meets once a month, and I’m the only woman in my group. That is fabulous. I would not give up on any of this.
But, there is something important going on in the world right now as we all know, and in addition to all we do for our companies, we, as women, need to stick together to make sure it keeps going in the right direction. So, here is my how-to on how to have one of these dinners successfully.
Ultimately, my and Sam’s goal with our dinners has been to have fun. We’ve found that people leave the events excited for the next one. And, that’s because helping one another is incredibly satisfying. And, creating this large network of women to whom we can all turn will help us all as we move forward in our careers and lives.
1. It doesn’t have to be dinner—make it coffee, breakfast, lunch, cocktails.
2. Gather women from different backgrounds with different expertise. And, by the way—they don’t all need to be working right now. At the dinner we held for my friend Connie and her facemask company Nugg, one of the best business ideas came from an incredibly intelligent woman who has decided to take a break from her career to stay at home with her kids.
3. Have the person in the hot seat communicate a very specific goal of what she hopes to get out of the dinner beforehand.
4. Send out background information ahead of the dinner, and make sure everyone looks it over so you can spend the time together on the issue, not the background.
5. Have a start and end time. It can always go later, but this makes the expectations clear for anyone who has a lot of pressure on her time.
6. Make sure everyone talks. If someone is silent in the background, be sure to give her time to speak. Also, no sugarcoating allowed! If we want to be helpful, we have to be constructively honest.
7. At the end of the meal (or drinks) and brainstorm session, go around the room and ask each woman if there is something she needs help with (it could be anything—introduction to a potential client, help with hiring for an open position, advice on how to get press, recommendation for a good personal trainer). What I’ve found is that we all really want to help each other. When the needs are communicated very specifically, people really step up when they have some value to add.
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