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April 3, 2009
Step a little outside the box
Ask a Woman workshops help women learn to live more freely.
SARA NEWHAM
Ask a woman in her forties what her concerns are or what she'd like to learn more about and you may get any number of responses; issues like money management, skin and beauty care, fashion among them. On April 17 and 18, Vancouver women will have a chance to learn about these and other topics at the Ask a Woman seminar series, a two-day event designed for women aged 40 and older that incorporates an opportunity to learn new things and have fun doing so.
"We thought 40 was a real changing point for women, where either their kids are older – well, nowadays, some of them are having kids – or there's just a lot of changes at that point in your life, so that's why we wanted to do a seminar series that's a woman's event, that entertained them, didn't just give them half an hour sound-bites but real workshops," said Tammy Preast, who, along with business partner Sharon Chan-Knight, have organized the event and run their similarly named company, Ask a Woman Events.
Preast explained that, while she and Chan-Knight have been planning other people's events for years, the duo wanted to create something that was personally meaningful to them as women in their 40s.
"We kind of polled women between the ages of 35 and 55 to see what they wanted to know more about and that's how we came up with Rhonda Britten on the fearless living, trying new things, or taking on a new challenge," said Preast about one of the six speakers. Britten, an Emmy Award winner and a repeat Oprah guest, is the founder of the Fearless Living Institute, an organization dedicated to giving anyone the tools they need to master their emotional fears, and the author of the book Fearless Living.
Sisters Lana Marks Pulver and Kerri Marks Chetner, co-authors of Dollars and Centsored: Your Money. Your Values. Your Stress Relief, are among three Jewish speakers at the seminar. Together, Marks Pulver and Marks Chetner will help the audience clarify their values and learn to incorporate them into financial decisions.
"We are going to do a workshop that helps take people through a personal strategic life-planning process and it will help people clarify their personal values, establish goals and then understand how that affects their finances so that they make sure that, when they're earning, spending, saving or investing money, it's done in a way that's consistent with their personal values and goals," said Marks Pulver, adding that she and her sister do not intend to impose their own values on other people.
"With strong Jewish values, it unquestionably influences the way both my sister and I personally choose to spend, save or invest our money.... Community is one of my top five values and part of community is helping others and philanthropy," said Marks Pulver, who has gone on a mission to Ethiopia with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. Marks Pulver explained that she and her sister try to encourage people to start living their lives in a way that is true to themselves and their values rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses. The latter motivation, she explained, helps explain the current global economic "mess."
"We're not telling people how to live, like a lot of motivational speakers do, we're trying to help people get to know themselves better so that they can live authentically with what's most important to them," she said.
Dr. Jason Rivers is the other Jewish speaker. He and Dr. William McGillivray, who run Pacific Dermaesthetics, will tell women about the various modalities available to rejuvenate or maintain their skin.
"We'll be talking about basic skin care regimes, what you should put on your skin, what you shouldn't, sunscreens, we'll be talking about fillers, botox, lasers and other energy use devices," said Rivers.
"There are a lot of things out there that are used which are of questionable benefit. For example, there's a move afoot to get rid of fragrance products because fragrances are number one sensitizers of the skin," he added.
Danielle LaPorte, co-author of Style Statement: Live by Your Own Design, will discuss fashion and style with women attending her workshop.
The event will kick off with a cocktail party, but the entire two days will allow women to learn, laugh and network. "I hope that they'll get some strength from it.... Sometimes you feel like you're adrift. When I talk about fear, [it's] is you're afraid to try a new business, you're afraid to leave a mediocre relationship because sometimes what you have right now just seems better than starting over or better than making a change," said Preast. "I hope they'll get some strength to realize that sometimes you have step outside the box a little bit and sometimes it is worse before it gets better."
For more information, go to www.askawoman.ca.
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