Blog - Collective Socials

Collective Wisdom Social at Sphatika - Blissful

by Katie Hellmuth Martin | 6/05/09 | 8:09am

On Wednesday night, we met at Sphatika Spa at Columbus Circle. Sphatika is a beautiful spa started by Janet Leauge-Katzin, an award winning New York actress who was inspired to create the Sphatika Experience as a result of her personal journey to well-being. During her decade long quest around the world, enriched by years of study and practice of Eastern spiritual philosophy, this experiential research led her to uncover effective natural ways for the body to heal.

Realizing the effects that lifestyle, environment, pollution, and lack of awareness can have on the system, Ms.League-Katzin conceived treatments based on Eastern-ideology which incorporate modalities that allow the body to turn to its own natural form of healing mechanism. This was a catalyst for her vision to pioneer a path dedicated to offering this wisdom to others through a restful sleep spa treatment methodology.

When Janet developed the vision for Sphatika, she was encouraged by her friend to start sessions right away. Janet didn't have a space, and her friend encouraged her to start in her basement, which Janet agreed to. Seven years later, and 8 stories above Columbus Circle, Sphatika Spa exists as one of the most peaceful places in the city, with each detail having been purposefully designed by Janet, including cotton insulation, the bamboo floors, and the whisking off of your shoes in favor of luxurious slippers as soon as you walk in.

Several Collective-E members have founded their companies this way, including Beth herself when she started the Incubator experience out of Flo Inc. (which we now offer as Collectives). Started during a time of recession, Beth gathered all of her friends into borrowed apartments where they would brainstorm their business ideas and efforts. As for the motivation for personal wellness, member Stephanie Cion founded WELLalarm based on her quest for rapid response in the time of medical need, inspired by her sudden bout with a chronic illness.

Sphatika treated us to mini facials and hand treatments (see Michelle from SheFinds enjoying her treatment) while new members got to know each other over delicious sides of blueberries, strawberries, hummus and the Sphatika custom made water and iced tea.

The setting was perfect for getting to know members better, even for myself who could finally put a face to Laura Rich, founder of RecessionWire, the new source for Entrepreneurship, the New Frugal, Unemployment Strategies and Cultural Insights. As a member benefit, RecessionWire takes stories from Collective-E members for their Lemonade Makers series.

Other Collective-E members have changed tack with the new economy, including Linda Zimmer, The Purpose Connector, which helps people realize their career goals based on that little voice inside of us that drives us - our purpose. Linda is a great listener, which lead to her next offering, The Dot Connector, where she listens to where you are going and where you have been, analyzes that, and helps you connect the dots in your own life so that your next decisions, be them for business or personal, will encourage total freedom, self-expression and fulfillment.

Our next event is July 29th, and it will be good and we mean good. It's a field trip of sorts taking you behind the scenes of the jewelry industry. Then, we have another surprise event in August. See you soon!

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Collective Social at Swing Boutique :: A Write-up

by Katie Hellmuth Martin | 4/23/09 | 7:26pm

So fun.

And here's why it was so fun: (besides shopping before and after the Social...and besides the time when we played dress up with hats (which I later bought)...and...actually, scratch that, shopping was part of why it was as a success.

We broke through the recession spending freeze and supported a fellow Collective-E member, Helena Greene of the Swing Concept Store (pictured second from left), the designers that she supports by carrying their lines in her store, and the local South Harlem economy, of which she is a relatively new member. Not to mention, everyone gained exposure to her husband's new restaurant, Mojo, which was not only delicious (try the sexy grits, five cheese pasta, and fried oysters on the half shell), and was packed - which is great for a two week old restaurant. Oh, and did we mention her mother (pictured far left) who joined us has an amazing skin care line and spa on 60th Street? See how this is all a food chain of entrepreneurial goodness?

What rocked the night was the exchanging of marketing ideas. All of us are in different industries, and those of us who are in the same industry - like dessert makers and dance or pilates instructors - are employing different strategies to build business and strengthen brands. Here are just some examples of what has been working for members:

WHAT WORKED :: PR + ONLINE STRATEGY + Business Strategy
While we started off the question to learn about what has been working for members in PR, the lines quickly blurred between Business Strategy, PR , Online Efforts - which is exactly why we founded Collective-E on those core elements. We know that these areas, when used in harmony, achieve the most success.

Katie Danziger of the nomiebaby car seat cover just started using Twitter a few months ago, and the social platform has clicked for her in a big way. We work with Katie as an Agency client, and we are working furiously to keep up with the PR, she is getting from Twitter, since she posts her press and testimonials to her website. And then she got a wholesale order from Twitter. Katie has found the most success from tweeting only about nomiebaby and mom-focused topics. She has actively searched for moms to follow and converse with. She follows mommy Twitter people, and she usually gets followed back. She personalizes correspondence with them, as opposed to using automated techniques. Find her at @nomiebaby

Jenny Hwa of of Loyal Clothing did something very calculated which paid off in spades: she emailed TimeOut New York at the very least monthly throughout the year with tips on how her line fit with certain fashion trends, info on organic clothing, and other great fashion topics to keep in touch and keep her brand in their minds. She didn't only pitch TimeOut, she gave tgreat ideas. She balanced those leads with items from her own line. Jenny basically emailed a black hole for a year as sometimes they would reply and other times they wouldn't. When the time came for them to devote a page to an organic line, and green shopping, Jenny was the first person they thought of. They may not have responded each time but apparently, they listened.

Jordan Silver of Ag Apparel just showed her adaptive apparel clothing line at the Abilities Expo in a fashion show, where she was a hit. Not only did people respond well to her specially designed clothing, she took the opportunity to use them for feedback on a new section she may develop on her website that was brainstormed during an Agency meeting with us. She learned that there was strong interest for just what she was planning on implementing.

Katie Hellmuth of this website and of Katie James tested out the Just Debuted feature of this website that is promoted as a different gift guide depending on the season. She'd heard that one member did get 19 sales from it - not website hits - but sales. Only one day after she posted her jewelry bag for travel, she was contacted by a blog for an interview and feature. One week later, she coincidentally got featured on a second blog...The upload of the ad into Just Debuted took all of 10 minutes.

Rachel Dooley of Gemma Redux found great success with an online sample sale on her blog. She took pictures of items, numbered them, assigned a price, and took sales calls. It was a great way to get national reach. Her first morning call, however, was from two girls from Singapore who wanted to buy badly and then go to bed!

Margaret Wagner of 5Rythems(r) reached out to her college alumnae group and offered a class with area alums. It was became a fundraiser for them, as she donated any profit after the studio rental fees were paid to their alum group's Book Fund. She is also partnering with a holistic health center and another women's group to offer a 5Rhythms(r) dance class to their membership.

Regina Furphy of Gourmetables, believes that when it comes to Twitter, finding the movers and shakers in your industry or in an industry that can help promote you is the way to go. Start following and chatting with them, and their followers will follow you, especially if they tweet you back.

These were just SOME of the "What Worked" ideas that we can talk about here on the blog. There are other developments in the works for other members including partnerships, offering free classes and just general PR efforts, we'll keep you posted.

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Baby Mamas Show Us How to Grow & Change

by Katie Hellmuth Martin | 1/22/09 | 10:02am

Geraniums of Growth

For our first Collective-E Social of the year, we were downtown at the The Residences at the Ritz Carlton Battery Park, courtesy of our gracious hostess, Nicole Grandelli, After catching up for a bit with each other, we gathered ourselves in a circle in Nicole's living room overlooking the Hudson as it spills out into bigger waters surrounding the Statue of Liberty, and began putting forth what we do, and what we need. Goals and needs varied from simply "clients", to someone to buy hundreds of rolls of beautifully designed wallpaper, someone who can develop iPhone applications, exposure to more moms who need washable car seat covers, exposure to more moms who need organic cotton for their babies, space to teach dance in Naples, affiliates and exposure to her trendspotting blog, hair accessories on the heads of celebrities, exposure to versatile bangles that can showcase any fabric or material, partners in the holistic field, partners to sell a skin care product, entrepreneurs who need marketing and business plan writing, help producing products for home, exposure to venues who need beautiful photography, and some who just "need people" on their side as they work alone as an entrepreneur.

And then it was Sabina and my turns to put forth into to the group. Sabina encouraged the members to continue answering her PR Leads for quick turnarounds, and I presented two geraniums to my two new partners, Beth and Sabina. A little odd gift, but the reason is this:

Geraniums are very resilient plants. I bought my first one in New York when I moved here in 2001. After about three years, and a couple of apartment moves, it grew spindly and tired. It ceased producing many of its once flourishing branches. One afternoon, I was wondering around the Union Square flower market, and asked a guy, while I was buying a new geranium, if there was any hope for the one at home. He told me to cut it down to the very stump. Horrified, I went home and cut it down to the very stump, and it was bare naked for a little while. Then little baby leaves started growing from its base, and soon after, it grew in strength, and is now the mighty grandfather geranium in my kitchen window, along with two others, one of which are his baby.

When the geranium gets too thin, or gangly, or out of control, you can clip it. You can throw away the stem, or you can stick it in water with some miracle grow, wait for alien-like white roots to come out the bottom, and then plant it in fresh soil with tender loving care. Months later, you will have a new, flourishing geranium.

The symbolicness of this is to use the life that you have - the growth that you have - and when it is time, such as it is now for many entrepreneurs and people in day jobs - to take what you have, and change it. Re-pot it. Nurture it in a different place, care for it, and watch it grow. We encouraged this in a newsletter when the market first began to sink, and we said: Don't Quit, Change. It is our mantra at Collective-E. It is what drives us every day. Now more than ever, we, as entrepreneurs and as survivors, must work with what we have at our fingertips, and turn it into something else so that a new beginning can root and bring us happiness.

Look down here at this picture of new growth coming from the stump from which I cut the stems for Beth and Sabina's new/old baby geraniums. Those are tiny leaves growing from what looks like nothing. These little Baby Mamas remind us of what we need to do. ;)

Baby Mama Geraniums