Paying it Forward is not a new concept to individuals and social organizations, but it is  one of the best examples of viral marketing that can benefit professionals and business owners. Paying it Forward is about entrepreneurers helping entrepreneurers. We've all learned lessons in life both personally and professionally. Why keep those hard lessons learned to ourselves? Why not pay it forward to help others save time, money and live a fuller and happier life?

Each week a new guest will be interviewed by Josephine and they will share the lessons they learned not only from their mistakes and challenges, but from their success as well. One paying it forward lesson learned can help another company grow which results in a win win situation for both the recipient and the business person who pays it forward!  The recipient gets to grow their business with all the tricks and tips passed forward and the experienced entrepreneur gets that "feel-good-feeling" knowing that their heart feels lighter because they genuinely helped someone else.

Josephine first started paying it forward after the death of her first husband/business partner. Only six weeks after his death, she founded The Jerry Cantwell Brain Tumor Foundation which raised $100,000 for brain cancer research. "I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. I wanted to make a difference-even if I helped just one other person-I knew it would make my heart feel lighter." says Josephine.

Years later after getting remarried and starting a family, Josephine again paid it forward by inventing a product that would help other moms protect their children from potentially harmful microorganisms that lurk in public places. On her first trip to a public restroom with her potty training son, she was horrified what a toddler could touch in a matter of seconds. Josephine was always a problem-solver and the idea for "gLovies®" was born. So, translating her business skills into her job as a stay-at-home mother, Josephine founded My Mom Knows Best, Inc.

Josephine Geraci is a former Wall Street executive. Her extensive professional experience includes senior level marketing positions at top financial institutions and she was also instrumental in helping to establish Lionheart, Research, Inc.

Join Josephine Geraci on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. EST on Toginet for in-depth discussions with her Paying it Forward guests - and find out how to join in the entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur Paying it Forward success!

Want to be a guest? Please e-mail josephine@mymomknowsbest.com or call 888-445-6843.

Marquesa Pettway DTM, a Professional Speaker, Reinvention Expert, SpeakerTalk Radio Host and Business Coach, teaches professionals in transition how to Reinvent themselves and move to that next level. A Life without GROWTH is limited. At some point in every person's life reinvention is inevitable, Marquesa provides the "how" in her Reinvention Roadmap™ and her business boosting programs. As the founder of the Reinvention Group (www.thereinventionexperts.com) Marquesa teaches individuals via corporations and conferences how to handle transition and recreate themselves professionally. Along with her team, Marquesa coaches via teleseminars, speaks at events and oversees membership communities. An in demand clientele for Marquesa are entrepreneurs that want to reinvent themselves. Marquesa teaches and coaches Entrepreneurs "how to" create a profitable business. Marquesa, an award winning speaker, has spoken in every state in the US and a few countries, she’s even been quoted as a guru by The Daily News in New York. To learn more about Marquesa's programs, please visit www.mlpspeak.com

Kathy Korman Frey
Founder

“She awoke to siren-like ring of her phone on the bedside table. “3.00 am” glared through the darkness from the alarm clock. “This can’t be good,” she thought. While handling one personal crisis after another, how would she ever find time to grow her business? Her personal obligations were in a constant death match with her own self-confidence and goals.”

This is a typical start to a Hot Mommas^® Project case study, a new generation of teachable story and virtual mentor for women and girls. Kathy Korman Frey, an award-winning entrepreneur, community leader, educator, and curriculum developer is the founder of the Hot Mommas® Project: The world’s largest collection of women’s case studies. The power of story is digitally delivered in this free, cutting edge, crowd-sourced online library driven largely by women in social media. The Hot Mommas® Project is the recipient of a Coleman Foundation Case Award and has been profiled by The Washington Post Magazine, NPR, and featured in Prentice Hall textbooks through which winning Hot Mommas Project cases are distributed globally each year.

This research side of the Hot Mommas Project (HotMommasProject.org) is housed at the George Washington School of Business, Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence and represents Frey’s work as part-time faculty and Entrepreneur in Residence. She teaches Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership, which is the recipient of a National Excellence in Entrepreneurship Education Award.

In 2010 HotMommasProject.com was launched to bring the valuable research library of women’s case studies to the public. The Hot Mommas Project “Sis U” seminar series measurably increases confidence and key success factors in women: 66% in three hours, and 200% in a full length program. Imagine being able to walk into a room thinking one way, and walk out thinking another way. This the Hot Mommas Project Sis U goal. So far, it’s working. A digital classroom is launching in 2012.

The polar opposite of ”digital” was taking place 25 years prior when Frey (then Korman) was filling large paper three-ring binders on the Virginia State Senate floor as a page. She was living at the Marriott, walking down Broad Street in Richmond each day, and doing her homework at night after work. A few years later, upon graduating the University of Virginia with an English degree, Frey serendipitously wound up in the business consulting world. The firm was looking for foreign language speakers, she spoke Italian, and the rest is history. Frey switched from Shakespeare to spreadsheets and got a mini MBA in four years while working as an analyst and moving up through the ranks to management. Fortune 500 companies ranging from Motorola to Hallmark to Pfizer were the clients at Markowitz & McNaughton, a competitive analysis/merger and acquisition firm which was one of the best in the business, and was later acquired.

Frey was a now a full-on business junkie, went on to attend Harvard Business School for her MBA, and afterwards joined the National Council on the Aging Development Corporation as its Chief Operating Officer. Frey’s long-time interest in the senior citizen’s area merged with the business side of things for her post-MBA job. There, she was part of the senior management team doing everything from helping to raise $8 million in strategic venture funds, to working on getting White House support for new endeavors, to assisting with starting or turning around projects in the eldercare space, to creating the ground-work for BenefitsCheckUp.org – a benefits-matching service which today provides a 200-to-1 ROI.

After marrying an entrepreneur, and writing a Harvard Business School case on him during her MBA program, Frey wondered: “Could I do it? Could I abandon the pats on the head to run my own shop?” Frey also thought about the potential flexibility this might deliver should they start – cough cough – start producing “Small Freys” in the near future. Frey later started Vision Forward, a firm comprised of highly skilled part-time consultants. These were the original “Hot Mommas”. The firm specialized in one and two-day planning bootcamps, and gained notoriety as one of the original flex-work companies as well its 94% success rate. Clients include AARP, Discovery Communications, Entrepreneurs Organization, Chief Executives Organization, the US Department of Justice, and the US Federal Drug Administration. Frey would send out emails to the consultants with the subject line “Calling all Hot Mommas” to see who was interested in the project she had just landed. By this time, Frey had started teaching at GW. Students were much more interested in the Hot Mommas than her consulting firm. So, one day, she decided to write a story – or “case study” – about one of them….and now, we’re right back where we started…That is how the Hot Mommas Project began.

The rest of the official stuff: Frey earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.A. in English from the University of Virginia where she received the Seven Society’s James Earle Sargeant award for community service. She is a featured contributor on Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference site, the author of the NFIB Young Entrepreneur Foundation curriculum taught to 40,000 junior high and high schoolers a year, a Harvard Business School case author, and dubbed one of “America’s Top Business Bloggers” by the HSM World Business Forum. She is a 2010 Washington Business Journal Women Who Means Business Awardee, and is the DC National Association of Women Business Owner’s 2011 Woman of Distinction. Frey is a regular speaker on the topics of women’s confidence, leadership, mentorship, and work-life balance. Frey is a former board member of the Alzheimer’s Association, National Capital Area, and currently serves on the board of United Women in Business and The Closet. She is a fourth generation Washingtonian including the people who arrived here on a boat, and lives with her husband, two children, and dog in a state of semi-controlled chaos.

Contact Kathy: Twitter

For speaker requests, email support@HotMommasProject.org with:

• Date and venue (description of event and audience)
• Are you interested in bringing SisU, Guerrilla Mentoring, or our Digital Classroom to your group or a Keynote or other.

Tiffany’s passion for helping sick children has been evident through her years of experience working with kids, including special needs and childhood cancer patients, which brought Ava the Elephant ™ to life! She realized no product on the market resolved the common problem of giving children medicine. So she took matters into her own hands and created the first Ava from clay!

After her life changing experience on ABC’s “The Shark Tank” she went home and spent months perfecting Ava to make sure she was as safe as she was helpful. In a twist of fate, Tiffany was diagnosed with cancer three months after the show (at the age of 28) which made her passion to help sick children even stronger!

She found that it was not necessarily children’s dislike for medicine that made it so difficult. After all, they can make it taste like BUBBLEGUM these days! The process was the scary part.

Realizing this, her first goal was to hide the medicine dropper completely! Her second was to make the child smile or laugh, hence the sweet voice! Last, but not least, she wanted their new little friend to praise them for a job well done!

Ava has received an overwhelming response from babies and young children! Tiffany hopes that Ava will make the jobs of Parents, Grandparents and caregivers much easier, but most importantly make children smile, not scream !

Trish Cooper, CEO, Founder Zatswho,LLC Married 35 years with two adult children she is a former CFO. She has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NJN News, The Star Ledger, 710WOR talk radio, and numerous others.

Having lost her job in 2009 at mid-life, it was proving difficult and destroying self esteem trying to re-ignite energy and enthusiasm in the midst of an economic meltdown. While spending time with her new grandbaby teaching her who's who in the family circle with the use of her photo's that her grandchild was destroying, that inspiration struck and re-invention ensued helping her find her true path. With no experience or contacts in the industry, just a passion to help improve the lives of children and keep family bonds strong as a child learns, she invented the patent-pending Zatswho® Soft Photo Recognition Flashcard game. A unique personalized hands-on sensory educational/developmental game.

Becoming a mom- preneur along with her daughter the mission of Zatswho, LLC is to create simple educational/developmental products that help children of all abilities increase learning skills, expand creativity encouraging family interaction as they encourage their children to maximize their potential while building a business that gives back in the process.

She has ranked among the top 2011 Leading Mom Owned Business in America. Zatswho®, a family centered children’s educational/ developmental game is being honored winning prestigious industry awards: 2011 Dr Toy Best Children’s Vacation Product Award. With a team of over 100 real-mom-judges Zatswho® received two 2011 Creative Child Magazine's Toy Awards and has received an AblePlay™ seal of endorsement helping families know Zatswho is great for children with special needs. Trish speaks to groups sharing her story and tips helping to inspire others who look to make life changes moving toward their goals despite uncertain times proving it’s possible when they can see an ordinary women at mid-life doing it.

Dr. Lavi, a Licensed Psychologist since 1978, worked & trained in Israel & Boston before moving to CT in 2000. She holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Child Psychology & a Doctorate in Professional Psychology.

     While in Boston, she consulted to Lawrence, Methuen, Andover & Burlington public schools, was on the staff of Harvard Community Health Plan, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, & was Clinical Director of The Delphi Center of Burlington.

     Dr. Lavi founded ACT Now Psychotherapy utilizing her unique active, creative, time-sensitive approach to therapy. Creativity is an integral part of DR. Lavi’s life & her therapeutic approach. Music, dance, writing & crafts are hobbies that have been utilized in her work with children, as well as adults. She also writes songs & has organized creativity enhancement workshops for other writers.

    Her work is tailored to meet each client’s unique needs. Drawing from a wide range of expertise & experience, she collaboratively develops the best therapeutic plan for each client. She involves clients actively in the process. Time-sensitive therapy is as brief as possible, but the therapeutic relationship lasts for a lifetime. Depending on the issues addressed, some clients may be in therapy for a few months while others may come for a few years. After completing a segment of therapy, over the years, clients often return for a tune up or to consult about a new issue or life challenge.  Each time a client returns, therapy tends to be briefer.  

     She works with children & adults in individual, couple, family, & group therapy. She utilizes cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnosis & EMDR. Her areas of specialization include: divorce, occupational transitions, anxiety, fears, phobias, loss, illness & trauma.  Dr. Lavi currently maintains a private practice in Weston, CT.