Lean In Fun

Sheryl Sandberg in Boston / Lean In

Terrific day to hear Sheryl Sandberg speak about her book #LeanIn at the Harvard Club event sponsored by Hubspot, MITX, and TechStars among others.  Honestly, as great as it was to see her, it was even better to meet a roomful of amazing women CEO's and entrepreneurs and learn about what they are all up to. Let me dig up some pictures here.

I am really intrigued by how practical her advice is -- it's almost a business etiquette of inclusion and welcoming -- instead of keeping women outside of the circle.  I am encouraged and hopeful about it.

Thanks to my trusty Kindle I downloaded and read the book asap the day it was published. Now to hear her speak and have her make it real is very exciting. Thanks so much C. A. Webb from New England Venture Capital Association for inviting me to ask her a question.

C.A. Webb and Katie Rae

I asked her about startups can change the rules and help women lead. I mentioned as I write my book Founders Less Than Three, even I find it hard to create fictional women founders who are not the male, hoodie-wearing, unwashed, code monkey stereotypes. Her response was great and encouraged all of us to show the world what these women entrepreneurs look like by BEING one.

Here's the video and a paraphrase of her reply to my question about the images of women entrepreneurs. "A local SF magazine did a piece on female entrepreneurs and they took drawings of male entrepreneurs' bodies -- Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page -- and then just put women's heads on them.  ... For my book, I worked with a researcher and we looked for female characters in popular media ...  who were married, working women, who were happy -- they're are none!  There's no image of  married working women who are happy. There are plenty of images of men who are working and happy.  ... We can be women AND entrepreneurs.  We can help make that happen.  Women need to be at the table and one of those tables is the funding table."  And if that wasn't good enough, she reached out to me personally.  It's not every day you have Sheryl Sandberg say directly to you, "come out and visit me in Silicon Valley and I'll introduce you to more women entrepreneurs," so I do hope to take her up on it.

Bless Me Father For I Have Sinned

Yes, confession time, I need another month to finish my Kickstarter book, Founders Less Than Three and I'm officially slipping my March 31 deadline today. I hate slipping deadlines, but I have two very good reasons.

1. Sheryl Sandberg

2. Guy Kawasaki

So it goes like this.  My book Founders Less Than Three is about a brave, bold, female entrepreneur just the kind of person Sheryl Sandberg is writing about in her book  Lean In  which was released March 11, 2013. I have the chance to meet her this week and more importantly, meet all the people (women and men) inspired by her book and get a sense of what they are thinking. I need to experience all that and incorporate it in my book. I need to "lean in" to her literary launch happening this month, watch up close and publish my book AFTER experiencing it. When I set my deadline last year, I didn't realize her book was coming out so close to the date.

I am seeing her twice this week in Boston and I need to connect with the crowds of people at her events even more than with her. I see her Thursday in Brookline and Friday in Boston.

And as for Guy Kawasaki, he's a pal and I love the new book he just co-authored with Shawn Welch,   Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur -- in fact, he's nice enough to call me the "mother" of the book in the acknowledgements.  I haven't actually started using all his good advice on how to get out there and social media market the heck out of it.  If I don't follow his lead and get cranking on marketing my book using the ways he and Shawn have made so easy to understand and follow, I'm an idiot.  I've just been writing it (not promoting it) and that's not enough anymore when it comes to this new world of ebooks.  So I need this month to work on the launch of the book. (Yes, Guy, I should have been doing it all along! Mea culpa!)

Also, I plan to blog every day in April about the book, just to give you an idea about how these things work.  Keep an eye on this blog. Some of it will be thrilling and happy, some down, depressing and dark, but I know i can get this thing out there and can't wait to complete it. I keep two mantras next to my screen -- Perfect is the enemy of good -- and the one that really is kicking my ass today, Steve Job's famous -- Real Artists Ship -- ironic I know.