Portfolio co-owners Kristen Harris and Catherine Lang-Cline have been nominated for the prestigious NAWBO (National Association of Women Business Owners) Visionary Award! Nominees are professional women business owners in Central Ohio who have made notable contributions to their communities, their industries and to the professional women’s objectives that improve the quality of life and business.

The winner will be announced at the 12th Annual Visionary Award Luncheon on July 9th, 2009 at 11 am at the Westin Great Southern. This celebration of the finalists’ accomplishments will be emceed by NBC4’s Colleen Marshall.  All members of the Central Ohio business community are invited to attend. Read the full press release at nawbocolumbusohio.com

Congratulations Catherine and Kristen!

An interview is your chance to make a good impression and strut your stuff, but most of us are intimidated by such things. The trick is knowing how to talk about your strengths and skills without sounding either conceited or unsure.  Let us, with help from Sharon Delay at BoldlyGO Coaching, give you some tips on how to make the most out of your interview. Follow this link for the answers to your interview questions. (The link is a .zip file, and will take a few minutes to download as it includes both a presentation and video examples)

I was reading CNN article about how a couple of artists bought a super-cheap house in Detroit and started fixing it up. They’re adding all sorts of environmentally friendly features, and now convincing their friends to do the same. And I started thinking about how artists often are leaders of change. You see it happen over and over again in neighborhoods…artists start moving into a somewhat questionable part of town for the cheap prices and interesting architecture, some years later every house is renovated and it’s the “hot” part of town. And then of course the artists can’t afford it anymore, so they move on to a new neighborhood and start all over again.

Which you might say is a bad thing because the prices go up so much that the very people who made a neighborhood desirable can no longer afford to live there. But I actually think that’s not so bad because there are many more neighborhoods who can benfit from their influence. Artists also start fashion trends, were some of the first proponents of environmental causes, flexible work arrangements and a zillion other things.

This truly is the era of the creative class, and I for one am thrilled! We need more creative thinking and outsider perspectives, people willing to take chances on new ideas. And artists will be leading the way. Again.

Portfolio is thrilled to help sponsor the Ohio Art League’s 100th Anniversary!

Join us on June 20th for ONE NIGHT IN A HUNDRED, a colorful night of art & music, gourmet street food & refreshing libations, celebrating OAL’s 100th Anniversary and honoring 100 individuals who have contributed to the League and the Ohio arts community.

In the tradition of the One Night events, OAL will transform an unoccupied space in the Short North into a mega-cool party space. What better way to exhibit original, local art in media including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, glass and more!

Here are the details:

June 20, 2009, beginning 6pm
Smith and High Place
1246-64 North High Street, in the Short North

Preview Party - beginning 6pm., features first dibs on silent art auction, gourmet street food, passed hors d’oevres, and an open bar - $100

Main Event, beginning 8pm., features a silent art auction, music and entertainment, cash bar - $50

After Party, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., your ticket purchase includes free entry to several after parties at select venues in the city.

Tickets may be purchased by credit card, check or cash, through the Ohio Art League.

If you don’t already have plans to attend, check out the Columbus Arts Festival this weekend. After years on the riverfront, last year it moved to the Discovery District due to construction. I love the new location and hope the event thrives there. There’s just something so right about an arts festival being near an art college, art museum and a giant Art sign! Maybe I’ll see you there….

CCAD has opened registration for summer classes…along with the usual figure drawing and painting fare, this one really caught my eye:

Heists and Forgery: Art History
This course is a comprehensive history of stolen and forged art; who does it, why, and how. We will examine famous cases of museum heists, and explore the debate of institutionalized theft; one country, government, regime, or institution stealing from another. Offering an insight into the controversial reality of the art industry, this course will examine the often hidden side of private and public collections. Students will explore processes professionals use to determine whether an art object is real or fake. This course will include lecture, discussion, interactive activities and extended time at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Theft and intrigue, taught by our very own Brian Williams!

Last weekend I gave the commencement speech at School of Advertising Art in Dayton. With fifty-five graduates, family and friends, instructors and staff from the school, the audience was a total of about 500 people. To be honest, when they first asked me I was petrified and about to say no, but Catherine talked me into it.

What an incredible experience! Feeling completely unprepared for what I had just agreed to, I spent two weeks of intense work with a speech coach. He helped me develop topics, write a speech and practice, practice, practice. It was hard, stressful, frustrating…yes, at one point there was a meltdown over how I was going to deliver the opening line.

But I’d do it all over again. By pushing myself to do something I was absolutely not comfortable with, I learned a lot about the process and myself. Now I’m much more confident anytime someone asks me to speak. I know how to organize a topic, structure a speech and work on the delivery. More than anything, I know I can do it. And confidence is the biggest hurdle to overcome. Believing that you can do something is half the battle.

I seem to do something about once a year that I feel absolutely afraid of, overwhelmed by, or unqualified for. And it always turns out to be an amazing experience! I encourage you to try something completely outside of your comfort zone. The reward and thrill of accomplishing your goal is absolutely worth it.

Because I’m a book nerd, I get a daily “book club” email through the library. It’s pretty cool, they start a book on Monday and run a few pages each day that week. You get through about the first chapter, if you like the book you can check it out or purchase it.

A recent book was Rebound, by Martha I. Finney. I only read the first few excerpts, but it’s very timely so I’m sharing it with our readers. If you read it and like it (or don’t) please let us know!

FROM THE BOOK JACKET:

Been laid off? Fired? Pushed out? See it coming? This book will help you get back on your feet, develop a plan of action, and find your next great job!
Real Answers From Real Experts:
* What to do first…and what never to do
* How to cope with the havoc, trauma, and anger
* How to protect your professional reputation
* How to keep your options open
* Know your rights
* What to do while you’re out of work
* How to safeguard your finances
* What to tell your family
* How to keep it from happening again

How to come back stronger and better than ever!

Portfolio has a new printer. Okay, actually last December we got a new printer, a color laser, sweet! Then it broke. But we’d only had it a couple of months, so Xerox sent us a new one. In one day! And apparently the new models are much more environmentally friendly.

According to their paperwork the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP “Generates up to 90 percent less waste than comparable color laser printers under normal operating conditions” and has “Smaller toner cartridges with minimal packaging…” You know those nasty waste toner cartridges all the laser printers have? This one doesn’t. And it goes to sleep when it’s not in use, conserving power.

So we got to be even greener than we thought, all thanks to Xerox innovation. Thanks Xerox!

It seems to me that a lot of job seekers’ frustrations come from not knowing how the game is played. This article/Q&A is a good example. Unfortunately this job seeker has expectations that are not in-line with the way most companies and recruiting processes work, and is getting extremely frustrated when their expectations are not met.

It’s important to know what a company’s procedure is, as much as you can tell or find out, and to understand generally how the process works today perhaps as compared the last time you looked for a job. It is more automated, more technology driven, more key word intensive and, right or wrong, less personal. At least until you make it into the smaller group that is selected for interviews or phone screens.

Employers determine the process they will use to fill their positions. The more you can find out about their rules, the more successfully you can play their game.