Boomer Diva Nation Seeks Most Inspiring Boomer Woman

Boomer Diva Nation is looking for the woman who inspires herself and others to greatness.  She could be your girlfriend, someone you met on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, your mom or other relative. She could even be YOU!

Boomer Diva Nation wants to recognize an Inspiring Boomer Woman who is on the move and making a difference in her professional and personal life—as well as the lives of others.  BDN Founder and President Beverly Mahone says, “We are not interested in Hollywood celebrities—we want real women who look aren’t caught up in their looks or obsessed about weight. We want women who go out of their way to help others in some form or fashion.”

The nominees will be named following the November 29 deadline for submission.  Final winner will be selected by most votes cast and will received a $100 Visa Gift card and other prizes.

Mahone adds, “We want women who are D-ivine, I-nspired, V-ivacious and A-nointed. If that’s you or someone you know, you’re encouraged to enter. There can only be one grand prize winner but all of the finalists will be recognized.”

Nominations are being accepted here:  Inspiring Boomer Woman

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Celebrate Baby Boomer Diva Day

It’s All in The Presention

Recently my church held a business expo to draw attention to the number of small business owners in the congregation.  I was one of the participants, along with a number of other baby boomer women.

Since I’ve done dozens of these events over the past couple of years, I had a good idea of how I wanted to present myself to my fellow church members and visitors.  But what I discovered is there are some business owners who don’t understand what it means to present at a Business Expo so here are some of my tips:

1)  Table Set-Up.  Always have a table cloth (or plastic cover) for your table.  The church did provide a white plastic cover, however, I recommend you use something colorful to blend in with the products you’re displaying.  (I chose red).  Also, you might want to add a flower arrangement or some other type of decoration to dress up your table even more.  Then neatly arrange your products without making the table look cluttered.

2)  Meet and Greet.  You should make it a point to greet everyone who passes by your table or booth—even if they don’t buy anything.  There is a saying:  A first impression is a lasting impression.  You never know when you may see that person again so you want their impression of you to be a favorable one.  There’s another saying:  You can draw more flies with honey than you can with you know what.  In essence that means turn on your charm and don’t be shy about self-promoting—just don’t overdo it.

3)  Information about your Business.  Always have an ample supply of business cards, flyers, brochures, etc so people can learn more about your products or services.  One of the worst things you can do (which I did) is run out of business cards.

4)  Giveaways.  Offering your product or a variety of products in a gift basket is a nice and clever way to get people over to your table.  While you have them register for the free prize, you also give them an opportunity to browse around to see what you have to offer and it also allows you to engage them in small talk.

5)  Reasonable Prices.  Knock a couple of dollars off of the regular price for your products. You should always make the potential customer feel like they’re getting a good deal. 

As a woman in business you’re going to find that everywhere you go potential customers will make judgments about your product, your credibility and your character based on the quality of your presentation.

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Old Broads Can Learn New Tricks

How Baby Boomer Women are using Coaching to Achieve their Goals

Special Guest Post by:  Heidi Richards Mooney

Mary, a 57 year old adjunct professor in South Florida and professional speaker and trainer in communications and presentation skills has found herself caught up in the current economic climate. Working with Fortune 500 companies for the past several years as an independent contractor she now finds herself without many prospects as companies continue to downsize or go out of business.

Dr. Roslyn, a 60 year old professional who has also worked in the corporate arena training their clients on issues relating to diversity finds herself with very few assignments for the coming year. In fact, her two biggest clients have cancelled contracts with her indefinitely.

These two women are in a quandary.  No visible means of support in the near or distant future and bills to pay. Sound familiar?

Both of these women are highly qualified experts in their respective fields, talented and well-educated. And even though they are struggling to make ends meet, they both realized that they needed help from someone who could see their situation, make recommendations and help them turn their professional lives around by showing them how to create a “new income stream, or several.”

I met Mary at a networking event and on the verge of tears she shared her story. She also told me about a website she had purchased that sells information/educational products which she didn’t think it was performing to its full potential.

Dr. Roslyn and I are members of the same professional organization and knowing I am a business coach she asked me for help. She too has a website which she has yet to use as a marketing and sales tool.

As a social media and Internet marketing strategist I was delighted to coach them and help them enhance their websites and web presence to start attracting new clients.  They accepted! That was 2 months ago and each woman is now becoming a netpreneur.  BTW, Dr. Roslyn was very skeptical at first but knew that she too must change with the tides or become irrelevant. Although she was scared about what the future would hold for her, she realized her fear of failure far outweighed her fear of change.

And Mary and Roslyn are not alone in their plights.  Many boomer women are being downsized, let go or taking cutbacks at their jobs. Which is why coaches are fast becoming sought after by Baby Boomers as their counsel of choice for change. Working with the right coach can take boomer women from the depths of despair to a place of encouragement and growth in business and life. It’s the quickest way to shorten the learning curve and achieve your goals.

Baby boomers value the one-on-one individual attention a coach can give.  And knowing there is more than one way to work with a coach makes it even more desirable.  You can meet face-to-face, via teleconference, web conferencing and more.

So how do you know if working with a coach is right for you? The first step is to recognize that having someone to strategize with and bounce ideas off is important to achieving your goals. The next step is to know what your goals are. And then the third step is to find someone who has skills you lack or need help with and seek her (or his) advice and guidance.

In part II, I will discuss what a coach can do for you, what a coach should do for you and other things to consider when working with a coach. In the meantime, here are two great books I recommend: How to Create the Life You Want after 50 by Sara Brown Ph.D. and Joan Malling and Second Acts: Creating the Life You Really Want, Building the Career You Truly Desire by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine.

©Heidi Richards Mooney – (a baby boomer) is a Professional Speaker, Business Coach and the Author of 8 books including: “Quirky Marketing ~ 365 Ways to Grow Your Business Using Zany and Non-traditional Holidays.”  She is also the Publisher of WE Magazine for Women. Stop by http://www.speakingwithspirit.com to get a FREE copy of Quirky Marketing, Chapter 1.

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Does Sex Still Sell at Midlife?

As a television news reporter years ago, I always knew I had to be visually appealing.  Although I wasn’t well endowed in one specific area, my body was very well proportioned for my size and I had that youthful, perky, cute look.  Unfortunately though, as the years passed and I began to mature, my graceful aging became outdated and I was easily replaced by younger, sexier-looking women who could probably never compete on the show Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. 

Even though many of us gain more confidence in business and relationships at midlife, the media makes us feel less secure about our image. They imply that if we want to maintain our sex appeal we should consider breast implants or cosmetic surgery to tighten up sagging and flabby skin.   They point to the likes of Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn or Madonna as role models for us. Now, I’m not knocking any of these fellow baby boomer women but not all of us are alike and we shouldn’t be put into a “woman size fits all” generic category.   

So the question here is, do we still need sex appeal in order to be successful in our businesses at midlife?  Does sex still sell?  As a woman in business, do you feel the need to dress a certain way when meeting a male client to get his attention—or perhaps DISTRACT his attention?  Should we come across as sensuous while also displaying our intelligence?  To what extent does appearance affect our professional success, and can a middle-aged woman really use sex appeal to further her business endeavors? 

Management Psychologist Ken Siegel was quoted as saying, “You’d be a fool if you didn’t use your looks to your advantage and make the most of what you’ve got.  Don’t pretend it doesn’t matter. It’s a huge part of life in the 21^st century.”

What do you think?

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Word of Mouth Advertising Still Works

If I like a product and I tell my baby boomer girlfriends, chances are pretty good that they will try the product at least once.  That’s the power of word-of-mouth advertising.  It’s one of the most powerful means of advertising.  Why?  Because a girlfriend’s recommendation is a trusted source.

A new study out indicates that fact.  Prevention Magazine teamed up with the Keller Fay Group to study the influence of WOM.  The study, involving some 14,000 women, found that baby boomer women have a higher quality of WOM than younger women.  This means, what boomer women say is more credible and we’re more likely to pass on each other’s recommendations.  We’re also more likely to purchase based on those recommendations.

Beauty and Personal Care products seem to stimulate the most conversation among baby boomer women according to the survey. The top 10 beauty brands talked about are: 1. Olay, 2. Dove, 3. Avon, 4. Pantene, 5. Suave, 6. Bath & Body Works, 7. Mary Kay, 8. Crest, 9. L’Oreal, and 10. Revlon.   

Another interesting piece of information to come out of the survey was the top 10 packaged brands we supposedly talk about:  1. Kraft, 2. Stouffers, 3. Campbell’s, 4. Lean Cuisine, 5. Kellogg’s, 6. Tyson, 7. Weight Watchers, 8. Gerber, 9. Healthy Choice, and 10. Betty Crocker.

While word-of-mouth advertising is effective, it can also have an opposite impact.  Companies on this list must stand up and take notice as to what boomer women are interested in and they must listen to our voices.  That means making a conscious effort to advertise to us directly and not rely on a survey.  Show us you KNOW us because word-of- mouth can also lead to BOYCOTTS!

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Dress Your Age

If you are a middle-aged woman, this is a fashion no-no:

       Don’t wear tight skinny jeans

       Don’t wear graphic t-shirts

       Don’t wear big plastic jewelry

       Don’t dress like your mother

       Don’t dress like your daughter

Unfortunately, baby boomer women have a tough task in finding age-appropriate clothing that doesn’t make them look like their parents–or their kids. According to a survey conducted by Mintel, a market intelligence firm, more than half of the baby boomer respondents said there is a major lack of retailers carrying appealing merchandise, and one-third said stores catering to their demographic have unstylish clothing.

Why is it so hard for baby boomer women to find a decent clothing line?  Why isn’t someone catering to our needs?  A recent article in The New York Times indicated Boomers spend $43 billion a year on apparel.  So it would stand to reason that some retailer would jump all over the chance to be handsomely rewarded by the millions of baby boomer women who are eager to look good from head to toe. But so far, it’s not happening.

When was the last time you went shopping and found the cutest outfit—only to discover it wasn’t in your size?  Or how about finding a nice suit in your size—but for some reason the skirt (or pants) doesn’t fit the way it ought to.  These are some of the ongoing problems baby boomer women face when it comes to fashion. 

No, we’re not trying to let it all hang out anymore but we’re also not ready to be sent into the convent. We have come into our own and the clothes we wear should reflect that. We’re classy, some of us are a little sassy and we’re sophisticated. If we’re in the boardroom, there’s a certain type of look we should have with clothing material that won’t have us sweating like pigs during a hot flash.  If we’re going out for a night on the time, we want to look stylish and sexy.   

I will admit I am one of those women who is still hanging onto too many clothes that I will probably never fit into again—but I just can’t force myself to give them away.  Besides, with the choices that are currently on the market, vigorous exercise may be my best option.

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Who You Callin’ Grandma?

I hear it all the time: “You don’t look old enough to be a grandparent.” As a 51-year-old baby boomer, I am among a growing trend of women who are not only wives and mothers—we are also grandmothers.

Personally, I don’t mind being called grandma by my two-year-old grandson but there are some baby boomers who shun the notion of being identified as the traditional “grandma” and “grandpa.”

Gone are the days when you saw a silver-haired woman wearing their hair in a bun and a dress near her ankles. They are no longer baking cookies for the grandkids and sitting in rocking chairs. Today’s grandmothers are, more than likely, still in the workforce or entrepreneurs. They are probably also more likely to take an active role in their grandchildren’s day-to-day lives.

So what do you call today’s “new grandma”? Is it acceptable for a grandchild to call his/her grandmother by her first name?

One woman describes her mother’s attitude against being called GRANDMA this way: “My mom is your typical white middle-class suburban Southern Baptist Bible-thumpin’ Dubya-suppportin’ Texan. She has big, puffy, shellacked blond hair and wears T-shirts with three-dimensional objects hanging off them. She believes in Jesus Christ, the Republican Party, craft fairs and spiral perms. She has rebelled against Grandma because it sounds `old’ and she’s only 41. She wants her grandkids to call her Peaches. “She’s even thinking of having a peach tattooed on her toe.” (quote taken from an article in the Houston Chronicle 3/20/04).

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What is a Baby Boomer Woman’s Best Friend?

DIAMONDS! What else?

Did you know that consumers between 50 and 64 years old have purchased more than 8 million pieces of diamond jewelry worth $6.6 billion—12 percent more than the 18- to 49-year-old segment. That’s according to recent statistics gathered by the Diamond Promotion Service.

I’ve never actually thought about the total cost of the diamond jewelry I own because most of it came in the form of gifts from old boyfriends, an ex-husband and parents.

U.S. residents over the age of 50 control 75 percent of the country’s assets and between 2000 and 2020, the 55- to 74-year-old segment of the population is projected to increase by 74 percent. I guess that means the diamond business will be like the funeral business for us boomers.

Another interest fact is that 39 percent of married boomers and 61 percent of single boomers say do not feel guilty about buying themselves diamond jewelry.

I’m curious what the other 61 percent has to say.

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Here is Where Baby Boomer Women Rock, Roll & Rule!

Welcome to Boomer Diva Nation! Come on in and browse around. Check out the interesting articles and be sure to let us know you were here by leaving a comment.

Here is where you’ll find some of the most interesting, talented and diverse baby boomer women on the planet. We’re Divas and proud of it! So what is a DIVA? She’s a baby boomer woman who’s Divinely, Inspired, Vivacious and Anointed.

The Divas are all very talented women who come from very diverse backgrounds around the globe. We come from all walks of life and different races and are eager to share our knowledge and resources. We’ve had a few bumps in the road and some detours but we continue to persevere.

Boomer Diva Nation—a nonprofit organization—provides a variety of resources to assist fellow baby boomer women in their endeavors. It’s also a place where women can network. Please come join us!

Charter Members

Linda Alexander, Pam Archer, Angela Betts, Natalie Cole, Cynthia Frazier, Linda Hall, Donna Maria Harris, Kathy Holmes, Gayle Hurd, Karlyn, Betty Lynch, Heidi Richards; Beverly Mahone; Ginger Marks, Carine Nadel, Kathie M. Thomas Kathy Walsh, Debra Shivelely Welch, Gloria Mount, Ora Stearns-Smith and Vicki M. Taylor.

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Sexism Sells, But We’re Not Buying It

As someone who spent more than 25 years in the news business, I can tell you first hand that racism and sexism play a factor in how stories get told. No journalist will ever come out and admit their bias but if you watch and listen carefully to the way stories are told, you’ll know. Some so-called journalists go as far as to purposely slant the stories told to further their own agendas. Give a listen to Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson sometime.

In the case of the Democratic Primary, it has been a downright shame to see the stories the media has chosen to focus on when it comes to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  What’s even worse is the name calling Hillary has been subjected to by so-called journalism professionals. It has gotten so bad that on May 23, The Women’s Media Center launched “Sexism Sells, But We’re Not Buying It,” a new video and online petition campaign illustrating the pervasive nature of sexism in the media’s coverage. Please take the time to watch the video and read further by clicking here: Sexism in the Media

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