POWER SURGE!
The PWI Bimonthly Newsletter |
| Volume 1, Issue 1 |
April /May2008 |
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Welcome to the first issue of Power Surge, the PWI newsletter. We will use this space to keep you up to date with the most exciting PWI developments and to provide you with useful and fun information that will help you follow your heart and live your dreams. We hope you enjoy this issue and welcome your comments.
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| FROM THE DESK OF THE CEO... |
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My greatest wish is that you prosper beyond your wildest dreams!
I believe that we are all put on this earth for our own individual purpose. When we discover that purpose, everything we want, need and desire will be ours.
If you sustain a strong, impenetrable belief in your dream, no circumstance or obstacle will hold you back.
The breakdowns will provide you with opportunties for growth. Pushing past the obstacles will make you stronger, wiser and more equipped to fulfill on your dream.
I founded PWI to provide women a place to remember their power, their dreams and who they are as women and gifts to the world!
We want you to be able to write your book, start or expand your business, sing your songs and prosper in good health - spiritually and financially.
If women are fulfilled and living their dreams, they become vibrant and passionate about themselves, their families and communities.
As fulfilled, vibrant women we will make a huge difference in the world - together, we can make the world a better place!
-Valeri Bocage/CEO |
| PWI's 1st Houston Connection |
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PWI Houston-Connection ribbon-cutting
 | PWI's 2nd chapter or "Connection" as we call them (the San Francisco-Connection being the first) is up and running! Led by Regional Director Pam Terry, The PWI Houston-Connection had their first conference.
The conference was a smashing success! The event was fueled by powerful speakers, bold performances and an acknowledgement from the US government!
Dr. Carla Rogers was extremely generous in sharing her victory story of how she overcame a devastating divorce and severe financial hardship. She made it through these unforeseen circumstances and is now enjoying a life of success and whole new relationship with her Self. In addition to leading a workshop on "Living Your Purpose," Dr. Stephanie Jupiter shared her victory story. After retiring from a 10 year practice as a doctor, Dr. Jupiter decided to create her next career. As founder of "The Relationship Fitness Center," Stephanie is now training people to be experts in all types of relationships. Read more about Stephanie and her center at www.relationshipfitnesscenter.com.
 Not only were there powerful speakers at the Houston event, but we also had powerful performances from local female artists! Actress Melissa Thibodeaux entered the conference in full costume as Harriet Tubman and shared a moving story indicative of Harriet's time as an African slave. Motivational speaker and spoken word artist, Hitaji Aziz performed a piece that left not one dry eye in the room. In her performance, Ms. Aziz related to a Texan woman's struggle to raise her kids and consequent murder of her children stating that "for a moment, this woman forgot what she was worth..."
Among the many highlights of the first PWI Houston-Connection event, Anita James, Community Liaison for congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, presented Valeri (see photo) with a US Government proclamation acknowledging PWI for its efforts in Empowering Women to Empower the World, and the difference that PWI is making in the lives of women globally. The event completed with the inauguration of our new PWI Houston-Connection Regional Director Pam Terry (see photo). Pam has taken on the transformation of the women of Houston and the state of Texas at large. Pam, a former chamber of commerce leader and marketing and sales professional says of her PWI experience, "...this event was an experience where we bonded on a higher level with each other. People were uplifted. I felt that everyone there believed in me and my dreams and I believed in them and their dreams - no matter what they were." Pam continues to produce extraordinary results for PWI in Houston! |
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| PWI Hosts Motivational Event for Mission of Yahweh Residents |
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Hitaji Aziz (l) and Pam Terry (r) at the Mission of Yahweh
 | Powerful Women International and the Mission of Yahweh, a homeless shelter for abused and homeless women and children, envisioned an event to motivate and inspire the residents to their greatness and to bring business women to the shelter to provide more exposure and support to The Mission.
Mission accomplished! About thirty five people attended the event on December 1 which was held at the Carverdale Community Church Fellowship Hall. The event included goodie bags for all attending, several door prizes, networking and career tips, a presentation of goal setting by Pamela Hosch of Freedom Energy USA the event co-sponsor, and a motivational performance presentation by Hitaji Aziz.
Playing the networking game at PWI'S Mission of Yahweh event
 | Door prizes were awarded based on the results of a networking game. The participants who obtained information from the most contacts won. The game caused quite a buzz. The top winner had made over thirty contacts!
The event began with tours at the Mission of Yahweh for guests so that they could learn firsthand about the Mission of Yahweh campus and support.
The pinnacle of the event was the presentation by Hitaji Aziz. Hitaji took everyone on a journey of her difficult and miraculous life.
Being homeless twice, a formerly battered wife and welfare mother of three, Hitaji connected with the audience on many levels. The pain, injustice and bewilderment that Hitaji has endured have not left her down. Now working toward her Ph.D. in Psychology, Hitaji has risen above the sorrows to living a life of healing. A powerful and candid speaker, Hitaji's message was one of hope and empowerment for everyone. She speaks the truth powerfully and therein lies her ability to connect and lift people up. Hitaji's calling is to heal and she did so that day.
Hitaji's difficult journey has become a journey of accomplishment and reward. Her message to all women is to never give up and to steadfastly hold onto your dreams. She has earned her B.A. at the Union Institute of Vermont College. She is also a Myopractic massage therapist, Healing Touch Practitioner, Diversity Consultant, Spoken Word Poet, Writer, Chanter, Coach, Motivational speaker and the founder of "The Colored Woman and Her Cookie Factory," a Social Justice Boutique. You can find out more about Hitaji on her website at www.thecoloredwomanandhercookiefactory.com.
About 20 residents of the Mission attended the event and were so impressed with Hitaji's presentation that they couldn't talk about anything else on the ride back to the Mission that day. Many said that Hitaji's presentation was amazing and that they were inspired to achieve whatever their heart desires. If Hitaji could overcome what she had overcome, then they could as well. |
| PWI IN AFRICA |
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 Jill Dubreil, PWI's artisitc director, is currently in Nairobi, Africa, creating PWI's first African conference scheduled for June, 2008! Jill is in Africa partnering with Somalia native, Deqa Abshir (please see Deqa's brilliant bio below) sharing the vision and mission of the PWI community. She is in conversation with some of Africa's most powerful women who are making a profound difference in the landscape of African society - namely Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Mathai who began the Green Belt Movement and is a stand that a million trees be planted in Africa by 2020 AND Mrs. Wanake who is responsible for facilitating, sponsoring and supporting over 10,000 women's non-profit organizations throughout Kenya.
Jill is also in Kenya for another reason. She is executive director of SENSING PEACE ( www.sensingpeace.org) and is producing, along with Deqa, Africa's first SENSING PEACE benefit, creating the platform for the conversation of Peace in a stand that the world is capable of peace regardless of its past and starts with each of us. The SENSING PEACE benefits encourage society to keep exploring and expressing with others the peace inside of us. The benefits look closely at the question, "What is the look, sound, feel, smell and taste of Peace?" |
| PWI IN ISRAEL |
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 Maya Zuckerman, PWI International Coordinator, acknowledges the passing of politician, Benazir Bhutto, the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state:
"Benazir Bhutto's assassination came as no surprise. But whether or not this was a death foretold it was still a most tragic end to this amazing and Powerful woman. She was a woman that had a history of violence that defined her life but still struggled for Democracy and Peace and was the only woman leader in the Muslim world.
She has given so many women hope that things in their countries could be different - in spite of their circumstances. She was living proof that a woman can be both a country's leader and a mother as she was the first woman leader ever to have a child while in office.
Here's to her legacy of keeping up the struggle and hope for democracy, peace and empowering women! - may she rest in Peace."
Maya and the PWI International Team are hard at work creating the PWI Israel Conference! It is scheduled to take place in Tel Aviv on November 13, 2008. As the search for a PWI Israel Regional Director (RD) continues, Maya and team are in conversation with our first potential PWI Israel RD, Iris Stark. Iris has her own accounting firm, was chairwoman of the port authorities and has created many events to promote women's rights in Israel.
Maya and her team will keep you updated on the progress of the PWI Israel conference in the monthly PWI newsletters! |
| PWI INTERVIEWS ANN EVANSTON |
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 Ann Evanston, Executive Managing Director of eWomenNetwork San Francisco, is a dynamic and powerful business woman and public speaker. Ann has been in her accountability at eWomen for the past year and a half and loves every minute of it. In a recent interview for the PWI newsletter she stated, "I am living my goal and my vision. I wanted to be a speaker and a trainer and lead people all over the world. I found the matrix, I truly love what I do."
One of Ann's goals is to increase visibility of women in business. At eWomen we practice abundance and attraction and train them how to be leaders in their business. We support them in increasing revenues and building the right teams."
Ms. Evanston has always been an entrepreneur. She is the founding mother of a sorority for which she created the name, branding and rituals. The sorority is still running today, 20 years later.
She is co-founder of a now nationally known organization "Jumpstart for Youth." "Jumpstart" takes youths ages 18-20 that have aged out of the system (mostly homeless youth out of prison and foster care) and teaches them to be successful, independent of the system. Volunteer ran and run "Jumpstart" trains its youth to be proficient in the basics of job skills, finances and parenting skills.
Ann is also involved with the AME Institute where she works with a team of 5 to develop leaders via coaching, consulting and seminars. They focus on companies that are seeking a change and want their leaders to become great leaders. She says that she has hit a few hurdles along the way - the first of which was "location, location, location!" The second was figuring who to hire. She had experiences hiring friends or hiring people just because she liked them and later realized that knowledge and experience are just as important as camaraderie.
Ann gave her time and energy very generously for this interview. She is unwavering in her support for women globally and for the mission and vision of Powerful Women International. "I am open to talking and would love for people to come play and grow; I love to be a resource for women".
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| PWI INTERVIEWS DEBRA COSTNER |
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Debra bought Bay Area Business Woman (BABW), a 15 year old publication, on July 1, 2007. Previous to her position as CEO and publisher, she spent 8 years as the finance and operations director for Yoga Journal. In the last 6 years in this accountability, she took the magazine from 70,000 in circulation to 350,000. With Debra's leadership, Yoga Journal went from producing one small conference a year to 3-4 conferences per year with products available including videos and calendars.
As CEO of BABW, Debra is bringing "the focus back to women in business. We now have news briefs, regular sales and a marketing savvy column to give women advice on starting out and a 'women working it' column that reports on the previous month's events."
When asked about her goal and vision for the paper and for her life she stated that she wants to "make it an essential newspaper that has editorial that is really compelling, useful and beneficial to its readers so that they do not want to miss a single issue. I would love to publish twice a month. I want to feel like I'm contributing something that has an impact on society. I think the written word can have impact which is why I was drawn to publishing and promoting women in the media who are vastly underrepresented and/or misrepresented."
Since PWI focuses on our participants living their dreams despite obstacles and circumstances, Debra was generous to share one of her biggest obstacles. "I had a viral cardio myopathy and the only thing that I knew about it was that it killed Barbara Hershey in the movie 'Beaches.' I was in the hospital for a couple of weeks, noone knew what was wrong and the books said I would be dead in a few years. My heart was functioning at 25% of it's capacity. As a result of a major change in my diet (I eat all vegan with exception of sushi; I can't give that up) and exercise, I have had a normal functioning heart since 2002." Way to go Debra!
Debra is a true joy to be around. She is graceful, generous and adds a wonderful dimension to the PWI events. In closing our interview Debra said, "I never thought I could own a paper. When this came around I thought, 'yeah, maybe I can.' It's been crazy but I'm really enjoying it." |
| Nancy's Nook |
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 Small Businesses and Business Formation
Despite the myriad of business choices: solos, partnerships, JVs, LPs, LLPs, LLLPS, LLCs and corporations, why do so many small businesses incorporate? Here are some of the main reasons:
- Tax advantages. A C corporation is taxed as a separate entity above and beyond a person's other income. The tax bracket for a corporation is different for that of an individual, which may be advantageous. A business owner of a C corporation can also be an employee, and employee benefits may be taken out of corporation profits and therefore be a tax deduction. An S Corporation is not taxed as a separate entity. Profits from the S Corporation flow directly to a person's individual tax return.
- Limitations on Personal Liability. A corporation, properly formed and properly functioning, will usually limit a person's liability to her investment in the corporation. Outsiders will usually not be able to sue a corporation and attach the personal assets of the individual stockholders.
- Purchase and Depreciation of Assets. Many assets a person would use individually, such as a vehicle, if acquired by a corporation, can be "written off" over a short period of time, which offsets income by the corporation in the form of depreciation expense.
- Limitations on owners. A close corporation can have no more than 35 stockholders, and requires a transfer restriction phrase be placed on its stock certificate; an S corporation can have no more than 100 stockholders; a C corporation does not have these limitations.
- Ease or difficulty of changing ownership. This depends on whether you have a close corporation, an S corporation or a C corporation.
- Perpetual life. In theory, corporations have eternal life; when the owner of the company dies, the remaining officers may continue to operate the business, unlike a sole proprietorship or even most partnerships.
This article is not meant to give legal advice, but to act as a starting point for discussion. Before deciding which type of entity is best for you, be sure to check with your tax advisor and an attorney who is knowledgeable in this area. Setting up the right entity for your situation can put money in your pocket, AND MAKE YOU A POWERFUL WOMAN!
Nancy Lewellen, Managing Partner of Palladian Law Group, is a business and real estate attorney practicing in San Francisco, CA and a board member of PWI. She can be contacted at 415-399-0993, or at nyl@palladianlawgroup.com. |
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