By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Jesse Lefkowitz

The small business owner is often known as The Chief Everything Officer, aka, the CEO of their business. It speaks to the true magnitude and worries of the entrepreneur. It is also what keeps many entrepreneurs from reaching their maximum business potential. “Let Go to GROW: Why Some Businesses Thrive & Others Fail to Reach Their Potential,” by husband-and-wife team Doug and Polly White off ers an insightful journey into the evolution and growth of small business.

Their book is the logical off shoot of their business, Whitestone Partners Inc., whose tagline is “Experienced Consulting for Evolving Businesses.” Doug and Polly’s combined expertise makes them a strategic wonder for any business stuck due to stagnant growth or significant losses, or a business that simply desires greater growth. 

Polly’s expertise is in human resources and people management. Doug’s area of expertise is strategies, operations and finance. They like to joke, “If you take us together we almost make a complete executive,” says Doug. 

In a refreshing and easily understandable manner, Doug says, “We oversimplify that business is about two things: figuring out what to do and getting people to do it.” 

The Whites feel strongly that their message is a new one. “We found there were lots of books on how to start a company and how to grow sales,” says Doug. Adds Polly, “What we didn’t see were books that were strictly targeted to the role of an entrepreneur and how it grows.” 

They interviewed over 100 businesses. They studied the emering patterns as a business grows: Where does the growth of a business stall and where does the role of the principal have to change? Furthermore, if the principal doesn’t change what he or she is doing then it is likely the business will stall. 

There are a variety of reasons why a business stalls: A passionate person dives into business and is less unprepared to handle all the diverse tasks it entails, a business has difficulty hiring individuals because they lack a sufficient pool of people to hire from, or an entrepreneur has difficulty delegating and letting go. These are just a few examples. 

The Whites have developed a new way to classify small businesses, in what they also call the three stages of business. 

The first is a micro business, where the entrepreneur or principal does the primary work of the business. 

The second classification is the small business. This is where the “principal manages employees who do the primary work of the business.” 

The third classification is a midsize business. This would be the largest of all three where the “principal manages an enterprise.” 

Simply put, a micro business is one where the entrepreneur is doing. A small business is when the entrepreneur is managing others. A midsize business is when the entrepreneur has at least one layer of management. 

“There are two real reasons why business owners will ask for help. They are either desperate or inspired,” says Polly. What motivates them once they have hired Whitestone Partners? Doug says, “They see an opportunity and have this vision for what the world could be.” 

The Whites use an interesting analogy. If you wanted to build a house, you would not do so by trial and error. You wouldn’t build it from scratch. You would speak with an architect and builder. While others are working on the project, it would still be your house; you’re still in charge. 

“The thing is running a midsize business is way more complex than building a house, but it is amazing the number of entrepreneurs who do not want to ask for help doing it,” says Doug.

Virginia, Get Your Business Online.

97% of Americans peruse the internet for local goods and services.

44% of Virginia small businesses currently have websites.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter: Top three social networks used by small businesses, and survey respondents under the age of 30 are biggest users.

By Matt Basheda

Pilar Vergara

The art world needs more people like Kwame Alexander. His Book in a Day program brings excitement to an outdated education system. In a society in which kids’ literacy is giving way to crude online exchanges, Alexander found a way to tap into the rush of reading and writing. Book in a Day allows kids to publish their own books. The students themselves design the cover, write the introduction and acknowledgements, and obtain the barcode. Alexander simply ships it off to press. Ultimately, the book has a real ISBN number which makes it sellable in stores. 

Alexander, 43, has lived in the Northern Virginia area for nearly 20 years, and now resides in Herndon. He writes poetry, prose and plays for all audiences. His latest work, a children’s book called “Acoustic Rooster,” received an NAACP Image Award for outstanding children’s book. He makes appearances at local bookstores and libraries, signing books and speaking about his craft. 

How did Book in a Day start?
“It started because a friend of mine who’s an English teacher in Detroit asked me to come and help her AP English students publish a book of the work that they’d been writing. She called me and said, ‘If you can come, it would be great, but we only have enough money for you to come for one day. And we don’t just want you to do the work. We want you to teach our students how to publish the book.’ Of course, I’m thinking that’s impossible. But by the end of the day, I had been successful. We had essentially done all the work that went into the book, and a few weeks later, their book arrived back from the printer—a paperback book. And so I think it was my agent or my wife that suggested to me, ‘This is something really great you just did—you just published a book in a day. You might want to consider offering this to other schools. 

“People ask me to do something, and I’ll say yes, and I figure even if I don’t know how to do it, I’ll figure it out later. Because I don’t like letting opportunities go by. I believe in seizing the day. And so I think this was one of those opportunities where I said yes, and walked through this door, and it’s been a glorious and a wonderful journey.” 

Physical books are disappearing from shelves, bookstores are going out of business, the industry is by all accounts going digital—so why get students involved in book publishing? 
“The idea is that if you can induct students into what I like to call the writerly life, if you can teach them how to take ownership of becoming authors, if they can actually say that ‘I’ve been published,’ then it has a profound impact on their appreciation of language and literature. The whole technology piece is a tool. I don’t think it’s gonna replace books anytime in the near future. It becomes a mechanism for making books more accessible. Each of these books that the students publish, the students also publish an e-book version.”

 What is the significance of poetry in a child’s education? 
“I think that whether you’re looking at reluctant readers, whether you’re looking at young people who just don’t want to read, poetry can be the bridge that gets our kids appreciating all forms of literature and language. It’s so concise. Poetry is not intimidating. It’s something that young people can grasp. It’s something that they can hold onto. They can connect with it. If it’s relevant, if it’s accessible, it can really change their life. It can change their world. And I’ve seen it happen time and time again. Poetry asks questions; poetry speaks deeper than that surface level of thinking. Poetry speaks to the feeling, and if you can connect with a young person through that particular mechanism, then they’re gonna be more apt to do it.” 

How did you start Book in a Day’s international program? 
“A couple years ago, somebody somewhere wrote a college paper on Book in a Day. In Canada an elementary school teacher read the student’s paper. He contacted us and said, ‘You know, we’d really like to make this happen. Now we don’t necessarily have the budget to do it, but we’d love to do it.’ Of course this brought me back to where I first started. Being able to take the program to Canada proved to be much more of an enticing factor than the money. And so we were able to make that happen in Canada, and from there the word just spread. We went to the Cayman Islands to do it. We started a fellowship, an international fellowship, and we took nine writers to Italy. I think word of mouth has become our biggest marketing tool. So while we didn’t necessarily set out to be an international program, it just sort of happened, and we happily accepted it.” 

What’s the future of the program? 
“Four years ago we worked with the National Endowment for the Arts and the D.C. Humanities Council and Gallaudet University, and we brought the Book in a Day workshop to a school called the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, which is a high school for hearing-impaired and deaf students. And so the idea that the NEA had was to bring eight deaf students and eight hearing students together, and to use this Book in a Day program to somehow bridge a gap. Any time you work with young people, and you see that light go off, and you see them sort of, ‘Aha! I can do this! If I can make a book in a day I can do anything!’ it’s always gonna be life-changing. But this was particularly life-changing. By the end of this program we saw these eight deaf and eight hearing students who at the beginning were sitting apart, had no idea how to communicate with each other, but at the end, they’re texting each other, they’re setting up dates to hang out—there was even one guy and girl who were obviously in love at first sight. So you saw the poetry really connect them; you saw it connect them on a very literal level. So they named their book ‘Bridges.’ Now as a result of having done that program, a school for the deaf in the Bahamas contacted us and asked that we bring the program there. So we will be doing a Book in a Day there. And I mentioned the Book in a Day international fellowship, which we did in Tuscany in 2010. In 2012 we’re taking nine writers to Bahia, Brazil.” 

What’s your take on the current state of Northern Virginia’s literary scene? 
“When I came to Northern Virginia, in the early ‘90s, there was a lot going on. Recently, I just have not been on the scene. I’ve just been traveling so much. I do know that there is certainly a lack of things going on when you compare it to where it has been; Facebook and Twitter probably have a lot more to do with that than anything. It’s probably a lot easier to write a controversial poem and tweet about it than to actually stand up in front of 30 or 40 people and share it. So we lose a little bit of that connection with the people. You can’t have good poetry unless you have good folks to listen to it.” 

Has the Northern Virginia area contributed to your writing personally? 
“My first book came out in ’95. I was living in Arlington. A lot of the poems were written out of my experiences taking the bus, walking along Columbia Pike. There was a lot of material that came out of my experiences of living and working [here]—more importantly, the people who embraced me.” 

What’s next for you?
“I’ve got a [young adult] novel that’s coming out. It’s a love story with sort of a political backdrop. I’ve got a few more children’s books, then chapter books for the advanced early readers—it’s a mystery series featuring a 9-year-old black girl.”

(April 2012)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

By Jesse lefkowitz

Dr. Dale Keeton, founder and director of the Vienna Family Therapy Center, has spent over 30 years providing marriage and family counseling, and conducting marriage workshops. He has also conducted business workshops at The National Institutes of Health and area businesses.

“Dynamics develop in the workplace just as they do in the family,” explains Keeton. “People will assume certain roles in the constellation of the group they are working with. Effective communication in the work environment is similar to effective communication in the family environment.”

The business workshops are built around teaching people what is generally accepted in his field as the “Four Styles of Communication.”

Light talk or chit-chat is when one talks about the weather or the price of coffee. This is usually safe communication, but generally it doesn’t get work done nor does it cause people to get close to one another. It just passes the time.

Persuasive or control talk is over-responsible communication and occurs when one has an agenda and wants you to buy into their agenda. It often evokes resistance from the other party because it sometimes feels controlling.

Under-responsible talk is sometimes also called tentative talk because the speaker is not willing to disclose his/her thoughts or feelings and wants to put the burden in the other court. It can be far too polite and, therefore, frustrating. Or it can be manipulative: “I know what I want, but I’m not going to let you know.”

Responsible Communication is caring for self and caring for the other person. It is “I value my own thoughts and feelings, and I value yours.” In other words, I want to put equal weight on your perspective and my perspective.

“We do vacillate from one to another, but we like to have our favorite default conditions under stress,” says Keeton.

He believes that by understanding these different styles and our default positions we can monitor our communication and be more effective with our business colleagues.

“If we use [responsible communication] then two people come together without agendas. This one is not trying to win, and that one is not trying to win,” explains Keeton. “This allows our emotional, mental and spiritual energies to be free and creative, and come up with broader solutions. I do believe if we learn and practice
[responsible communication] we would prevent a great deal of conflict. This is a basic principle of effective conflict resolution.”

After a period of time what happens in the work environment is that we identify ourselves and what is expected of us. “I expect John to have an opinion. I expect Suzy not to have an opinion because she doesn’t want to upset the apple cart. I expect Steve to chitchat about football because he doesn’t want to deal with this anyway.”

Keeton’s workshops run generally on half-day, full-day or two-day schedules. “To learn new behavior we have to learn it cognitively and then learn it dynamically,” he says. “Educators might say it’s the combination of the cognitive domain (the brain) and the affective domain (the emotions) that leads to experiential learning, resulting in change and growth. That’s why in workshops it’s not just a matter of teaching these styles but demonstrating, role playing, problem solving and seeing the different effects by communicating in the different communication styles.”

“I think conflict is essential to growth,” says Keeton. “Whether it’s in marriage, family or the workplace. How we deal with conflict is the key to whether it is productive or counterproductive. It leads to greater productivity, and the spirit changes within the environment.”

Effects of Engagement

With companies slowly climbing out of the red, there is one way to make sure your workforce is ready to help move the company along, engage them.

Performance: Engaged employees are extremely valuable—they outperform employees who are not engaged and those who are actively disengaged on a multitude of performance metrics.

Growth: The impact of engagement at work has been well-established: The organization’s performance, its honest-to-goodness profitability, productivity, quality and customer satisfaction are all affected.

Cohesiveness: Research also indicates that there are many benefits to providing strengths-based development in the workplace, including improved communication, stronger workplace relationships and effective teams.

Source: GALLUP Management Journal

Three out of the six job conditions that may lead to stress involve communication: interpersonal relationships, work roles and management style

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(May 2011)

By Colleen Sheey Orme

What if there were a way to take the ‘shop local’ movement and create a national platform that would significantly raise the bottom line of thousands of local businesses? Local Bucks founder Gabrielle Carsala will have many wondering why no one has developed her product sooner. 

Jesse Lefkowitz

Local Bucks is a universal gi card that gives consumers access to small merchants nationwide. While the world has become complacent purchasing gift cards from mega chains, Carsala is challening the multi-billion dollar industry to ‘shop local’ as well. 

Not one to favor shopping at larger venues, Carsala loves the mystique and uniqueness of savoring local treasures. “I just like the unique character, and I like the finds. I like the more intimate environment of a smaller merchant,” she says.

Recently, while shopping for an acquaintance who lived across the country, Carsala wanted to send a gi from a personal, local-flavor boutique. She found herself staring at a sea of mega-chain and big retailer gift cards; then, voila, in that moment, Local Bucks was born.

Local Bucks gets small businesses out there as Carsala puts it, “in the sea of larger search engines.” She adds, “If you’re trying to find local merchants, it’s very hard to find the local merchants via search engines. One of my goals is to be sort of a business advocate and educator so that the people who are participating in my program get tips and tricks for how to drive their business and get as many cost-eff ective channels as possible.”

The Local Bucks website is set up so that a retailer has its own webpage through the larger Local Bucks website. A retailer logs onto that page and drives the information for that page. The goal is a self-service system that allows the retailer to log on and change their information however often they choose, or need, to update their company’s information.

It’s an advantage for any retailer, and especially the many who have yet to set up their own website. It affords retailers the luxury of getting their information broadcast both locally and nationally via the Local Bucks website.

“This will just be way too much fun to be able to bring small retailers [to] the national forefront and give them the exposure that they are [traditionally] not able to have in that market,” says Carsala.

Local Bucks ensures that all the gift card funds are held in escrow. This protects the consumer. If a retailer were to go out of business, the consumer is able to simply choose another retailer in the system.

Another problem with gift card usage on the consumer end is that a large portion of gift card monies go unused each year. With this in mind, Carsala is setting up a foundation with a portion of any unused gift funds. “It seemed like a waste if a percentage of gift card funds goes unused to let it sit in a bank account for eternity,” Carsala shares. 

True to the Local Bucks brand, the foundation funds will go to charities across the country. Customers and retailers will vote on which charities should receive the money. “If we are going to set up this foundation, then I wanted it to be interactive, and there are a lot of great charities nationwide,” says Carsala.

Frances Brayshaw, owner of the Pear Tree Cottage on Maple Avenue in Vienna says, “As a small business owner with a local clientele, I believe a store must aggressively market to capture new customers in order to be a viable and profitable business.”

Speaking to the uniqueness of the Local Bucks program, Brayshaw adds, “To my knowledge, LocalBucks.com would be the first gift card site to target customers and gift givers who value local small businesses.”

(March 2012)

By Lexie Ramage

Courtesy of Camp Horizons

Camp Horizons
Located in the Shenandoah Valley on 300 acres at the foot of the Massanutten Mountain range, Camp Horizons offers children (ages 6-17) a chance to live in cabins and, based on their program, choose between outdoor activities including: horseback lessons, golf lessons, scuba diving, canopy tours, rock climbing, canoeing, afternoon trips and more. “You can be yourself and be loved and accepted as part of the camp community just as you are,” says Kim Betts, the director of administration. “You can be silly and have fun without worrying about what others think of you.” Camp Horizons also has a weekly community meeting and “thank you” time, which help to foster long-lasting ties. “Relationships formed at camp often last a lifetime, and I am still in touch with many friends I met at camp over the years,” says Betts, who was a camper in 1988 and has since stayed with the camp as staff. Camp Horizons even provides a shuttle for campers to Northern Virginia, Maryland and Richmond. Campers can enjoy any of the six sessions from June 24 to Aug. 25. Sessions last for one to two weeks. Program costs vary. Camp Horizons, 3586 Horizons Way, Harrisonburg; 540-896-7600; www.camphorizonsva.com

Courtesy of Modeling Camp

Modeling Camp
Modeling Camp is the perfect summer camp for girls, ages 7 to 17, interested in the fashion business or those wanting to increase their self confidence. The camp is broken down into programs including: fashion, modeling workshop, fashion design, behind the scenes, Miss Cotillion and photo shoots. Heather Cole, founder of modeling camp, says the camp’s “goal is really to help girls approach life with confidence and boost their self esteem. It’s a great way for girls to be themselves.” The different programs teach various skills like fitness, health, nutrition, grooming, etiquette, fashion, hair and makeup, photography, fashion design and more. “They learn about the world of fashion and walk away with life skills. They walk away feeling great,” Cole says. All sessions are held at The Westpark Hotel in Tysons Corner. There are four sessions, starting June 25-29, July 9-13, July 23-27 and Aug. 6-10. Regular days are from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Extended days are 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Lunch and a free T-shirt are included. The base price starts at $349 per session/per week, and there are discounts for multiple weeks and siblings. Campers can register online. The Model Source Inc., P.O. Box 1246, Fairfax; 703-273-2560; www.modelingcamp.com

Georgetown University Nike Tennis Camp
At this popular day camp, kids use the 14-court McDonough Tennis Courts at Georgetown University in order to learn tennis essentials, strategies, sportsmanship, mental toughness, tournament play and goal setting. “The camp is in a safe, secure environment,” says National Director of U.S. Sports Camps and Nike Tennis Camps Matt Kurlander. “Georgetown is an exciting cultural environment, rather than local clubs or courts.” This camp is helpful for any skill level. Kids are placed into programs based on their skills, and there are specific teaching programs for each skill level. “It’s a great program,” Kurlander says. “The director, Gordie Ernst, gets the kids really energized and pumped up.” From 8:30-9 a.m., the kids will check in and warm up. From 9-11:30 a.m., they will have instruction and drilling. After lunch, the kids have point play, then pool time or optional tennis. Fridays are tournament days. The full-day program, for ages 8-17, runs from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and includes lunch. The half-day program, for ages 6-17, runs from 8:30-11 a.m. “The kids leave with a sense of goal setting, something many of them haven’t had before,” Kurlander says. The camp runs from June 11 to July 20. Full days are $455. Half days cost $335. Registration is $250. McDonough Tennis Courts, Georgetown University; 1-800-645-3226; www.ussportscamps.com

Courtesy of the International Spy Museum

Spy Camp
If your 10- to 13-year-old children are always up to no good, have them put those skills to good use in the International Spy Museumm’s Spy Camp. Spies in training will experience daily top-secret briefings and undercover activities. Campers will develop a disguise for cover, make and break codes, discover escape and evasion techniques, create and use spy gadgets, and learn from real spies. “This is not a camp where we’re [just] training little spies, we’re teaching kids awareness and analysis using the spy hook,” says Youth Education Director for the Spy Museum Jackie Eyl. “They have to do some critical thinking and teambuilding. Most of our campers tell us that it felt real, and they really enjoyed it.” Naturally all this espionage won’t be contained inside an air-conditioned museum, the campers will visit FBI headquarters, Quantico labs and even some D.C. museums for training missions. “I’ve seen lots of different kinds of camps but not anything like this out there,” says Eyl. Spy Camp is a one-week day camp with options of two different sessions from July 30 until Aug. 3 or Aug. 6-10. The Camp runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and costs $415 (or $395 for museum members). Campers must call to register. International Spy Museum, 800 F St. NW, Washington, DC; 202-654-0933; www.spymuseum.org

Photo by Cindy Rodneya, Randolph-Macon Academy

Randolph-Macon Academy Flight Camp
This eight-student flight program is a treat for the adventurous 14- to 18-year-old looking for a unique summer experience (like flying in a Cessna 172). Students will have in-the-air flight training, aviation ground school classes and non-academic courses including art, photography, study skills, computer literacy and more. Students will fly a minimum of four hours per week. “The flight program is very unique and quite popular,” says Laura Abraham, the director of flight training at Randolph-Macon Academy. “We have several students who come back two years in a row because they enjoy it so much. A few of the summer flight kids go on to aviation-related colleges and aviation careers.” In the evenings, students go to the movies, swimming and bowling. On the weekends, there are theme park trips to King’s Dominion, Hershey Park and water parks. Prospective students need to contact the Randolph-Macon Academy admissions office for an application. The program runs from July 1-27. Room and board costs $2,800; the flight account deposit, $2,000; and the personal account deposit, $900. Any unused portion from the flight account and personal account is refunded. Randolph-Macon Academy, 200 Academy Drive, Front Royal; 540-636-5202; www.rma.edu

DayJams
DayJams is for those campers who dream of becoming rock stars. Campers (ages 8 to 15, and from all levels of experience) will learn how to play the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals or horn from professional musicians and teachers, in two-hour daily sessions. “It’s definitely not your traditional camp,” says Lauren Poudin, a representative for the camp. Campers will get a realistic feel of what it takes to be a rocker, focusing on: forming a rock band, writing a song, performing live and recording their performance. Campers will even design a poster, T-shirt and CD cover for their band. “It really focuses on the kids creating their own music and writing their own song as opposed to just doing a cover. It really is amazing that after a week kids walk away knowing how to play an instrument, they write their own original song and have a recording of it,” says Poudin. The camp runs from July 9-13 and July 16-20. The hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. with concerts at 5 p.m. on Fridays. Campers can register online. The Baltimore campus, located at the Roland Park Country School, costs $600 for one week (there is a $60 discount if you sign up for an additional week). DayJams, 5204 Roland Ave., Baltimore, MD; 800-295-5956; www.dayjams.com

Courtesy of Fun Bot Lab

Fun Bot Lab
If your child likes to play with LEGOs, robots or any form of technology, then Fun Bot Lab is the camp for them. Campers, grouped based on age and experience, use analytical thinking and problem solving in their morning labs to do anything from completing an obstacle course to making a robot part, breaking for lunch and recess. In the afternoon labs, campers experiment with digital media and make music, script Claymation movies, edit video and design graphics. “Our LEGO Star Wars and Claymation movies are very popular with our campers, and they love posting their finished work online for their friends to see,” says Timothy Burns, founder of the camp. “We also celebrate the digital arts and work with each camper to allow them a chance to publish their work online.” The camp runs from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. with aftercare available until 6 p.m. Campers also participate in a wide variety of sports such as Capture the Flag, Dodge Ball, Spud and more. Camps run from June 25 until Aug. 17 with four sessions that last one to two weeks. The cost is $249-$498. Fun Bot Lab, 7005 Georgetown Pike, McLean; 202-709-6151; www.funbotlab.com

Courtesy of FMelat Photography

Acting For Young People Summer Acting Camp at GMU
AClass Act is great for the drama king or queen, aged 5-18, who aspires to make it in the acting business. Attendees work on acting, voice and movement, with additional classes in acting for the camera, musical theatre, improvisation and playwriting. If actors want more variety there are even workshops on Wednesdays that cover additional skills such as stage combat, audition techniques, lighting design and other skills. “In a fun, high-energy environment, we help students build skills and self confidence while learning from working professionals in the theatre and film industries, and making new friends,” says Mary Lechter, founder and artistic director of Acting for Young People. Each session has a particular theme that carries into that session’s activities, and returning or multi-week campers will still be challenged since the theme changes with each session. “I’m surrounded by an extremely gifted group of teaching artists, and knowing that we’ve had some impact on the lives of these children and their families is truly rewarding,” says Lechter. There are five sessions that run from July 2 until Aug. 3. Classes run from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and sessions cost $230-285. Performing Arts Building, George Mason University Fairfax Campus, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax; 703-307-5332; www.afyp.org

Woodland Horse Center
Campers looking for a summer experience that allows for wind in their hair and a magnificant beast to allow for it, need to look no further than Woodland Horse Center. Located on 25 acres in Silver Spring, Md., the center offers a variety of ways for children to experience horseback riding. Campers can choose between either the one-week Pony Pals (ages 5-7) or two-week Horsemanship (ages 8-15) programs at Woodland Horse Center. The two programs both have a low campers-to-counselors ratio. “We allow children to ride twice a day, and in between that, they’re in the barn, spending time with the horses and learning horsemanship details,” says Tammy Gildea, Woodland Horse Center manager. Campers receive riding lessons, horsemanship lessons (daily care, horse safety, grooming, tacking, feeding, etc.), interactive lectures, and arts and crafts. Campers also enjoy special activities of the non-equestrian sort, such as pizza day, water games day, western day, bareback day and even a Graduation Day show. “We have these [supplemental] activities so the kids have fun around the horses and enjoy being at the farm, being outdoors,” says Gildea. Graduation Day is a fun time for all involved. Parents and family are invited, the kids makes costumes for the horses and participate in a musical drill ride. “Some walk away with their first exposure to horses or some walk away with more advanced skills that they’ve improved at camp,” says Gildea. The camp runs from June 18 until Aug. 17. The day runs from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. with extended hours from 8-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Pony Pals costs $380. Horsemanship costs $775. Woodland Horse Center, 16301 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD; 301-421-9156; www.woodlandhorse.com

Courtesy of Girls First!

Girls First!
This is the camp for girls who want to learn and have fun this summer. Girls First! combines academic enrichment with sleep-away camp, which is “unique,” says Kim Newsome, director of summer and auxiliary programs at The Madiera School. There are 11 classes including: acting and directing for film, creative writing, digital photography, equine management, fashion design, interior design, forensics science, loving literature, multimedia journalism, psychology and veterinary science. Girls can be either resident ($2,495) or day ($1,695) campers. Each day, the whole camp comes together in a morning meeting, and then attends classes. They break for lunch and have more classes in the afternoon. Afternoon activities include swimming, tennis, going to the barn or doing yoga. After dinner, the residential girls participate in other activities like movies, crafts, karaoke and more. During the weekend the girls can go into D.C. for fun or try out the challenge course on campus. “For a lot of girls, that are away from home or came into a program that they didn’t know anything about, by the end of the program there’s a real feeling of confidence,” says Newsome. The last night of camp, the girls show what they have learned and accomplished to their parents, teachers and each other in the Student Showcase. The session lasts about two weeks, from June 24 until July 6. Campers can apply online. Girls First!, 8328 Georgetown Pike, McLean; 703-556-8323; www.madeira.org/summer

(March 2012)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Jesse Lefkowitz

In Michael Jordan’s freshman year at UNC, Coach Dean Smith said, “Michael, if you can’t pass, you can’t play.” A nod to the essential nature of teamwork. Be it work or play, if individual positions are not carried out generously for the team, there may not be that extra bucket or buck. 

Doug DeLuca, of Federal Stone and Brick LLC in Sterling, knew he wanted to take his company a tier higher. John Browning, a former Wells Fargo executive, knew he wanted to own his own business. As a kid, he had grown up in the entrepreneurial atmosphere. His parents had owned and operated a chain of restaurants. 

Browning wanted to buy an existing business—a challenge in a down economy where the market is flooded with sales. He had to look deep and dig below the surface to make sure he was investing in a solid business and not one that needed him to bail them out. 

Browning was not industry specific while hunting for the business, but rather quality specific. He was looking for three characteristics. The business must be at least 10-years old, have a great reputation and have a founder that had grown the business as far as he or she could.

 Browning soon discovered DeLuca. Originated in 2001, the environmental design firm was a forerunner in their industry and introduced ‘outdoor living’ to the Washington, D.C. area. DeLuca, a third-generation builder was an innovative and successful hardscape/landscape designer. Federal Stone and Brick fit the three characteristic criteria list. Browning purchased it in August of 2010 and formed a partnership with DeLuca. 

“Growing anything, especially something you personally created, is a very rewarding experience,” says DeLuca, founder and principal. “Creating a partnership has allowed me to focus more on the client and the design which has always been the force behind the company and my passion.” 

The two individuals recognized their extraordinarily different talents and took the business to the next level. “In the past, they did not do commercial, and now we do an extreme amount,” says Browning, president and principal. “We now have the administrative support for those large jobs.” 

“What’s been really great about the partnership is my partner is the super- creative energy behind the design work, and I am the corporate business guy,” says Browning. “I am not going to say we are polar opposites because we share the same values and similarity in business culture. However, our skill sets are very different from each other, and what we found is that we complement one another.” 

Whether they are working on a large office complex, say installing exquisite, 14-foot bronze eagles by sculptor Walter Matia; importing specialty stone from Argentina to finish off water features; or creating a residential utopia, their extremely high-end expertise rolls easily from residential to commercial projects. 

Client Mike Edwards says, “What I found with the experience was the fact that they listened. It wasn’t a cookie cutter approach. They tried to reach our vision of what we wanted.” 

DeLuca says, “I love my clients and transforming a property. We create a lifestyle that goes beyond a terrace or a walkway.” He adds, “The passion is the driving force behind the company. My goal is to grow, but never lose sight of how we got here, our clients and our designs.” 

Browning’s take on their success: “It’s really your similarities and values with your partner. If you don’t share the same values, it won’t work.”

Upstudio/Nicemonkey/Shutterstock

(February 2012)

By Robert Boucheron / Photography By Jonathan Timmes

What once housed a population of many, now only eight of the 20 monks in residence are “living the full monastic life.”

Rooted in medieval tradition, including Gregorian chant and vows of poverty, chastity and humility, a monastery seems like the last place to look for innovation. Monks and nuns pursue a way of life that strikes most Americans as archaic. And they are old: The median age of professed religious in the United States has risen over the past few decades to around 70. Is their way of life in irreversible decline?

Holy Cross Abbey, located east of Berryville, on the green banks of the Shenandoah River, is one place that is reinventing the monastery. A Cistercian house (also called Trappist), founded in 1950 on a 1,200-acre farm called Cool Spring, the abbey grew rapidly over the next 20 years. At its height, there were 60 monks crammed into the historic 18th-century Wormeley house and additions. Holy Cross achieved independent status in 1958, established a profitable bakery, built a new wing in 1978 and a new retreat house in 1986, and by 1996 had paid off all of its debt.

Since then, Holy Cross’ story has been like that of other American monasteries. Some men left the religious life, few new vocations entered, and those who remained got older.

Currently, of the 20 monks who are official residents, some are retired, some have age-related health problems, and some are absent, leaving “eight monks who are able to live the full monastic life,” according to Fr. Robert Barnes. Recently elected to a third six-year term as abbot, and now 68-years old, Barnes has spent most of his life at Holy Cross, having entered in 1961.

To perform tasks that monks used to do, the abbey hired 10 lay employees over the years: a bakery manager, a secretary, maintenance staff and others. So the monks must meet a payroll. To make matters worse, their sources of income are decreasing. The market for fruitcake, which is the bakery’s main product, is dwindling. (They recently added creamed honey and chocolates to their product line, sold in religious shops, by mail order and via the Internet.) The farmland is leased as pasture for beef cattle and a small area of cornfields, and the rent is less than the market rate. The retreat house brings in just enough donations to meet its own cost of operation.

If a monastery is ideally a self-supporting community, then Holy Cross Abbey is approaching financial crisis. Facing this reality in 2007, the monks embarked on a five-year plan with the help of Sr. Cecilia Dwyer, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters in Bristow.

A Sustainable Future
In 2009, they authorized a sustainability study by a University of Michigan team of researchers. The study addressed issues such as existing topography, vegetation, land use, energy use, water, solid waste and the economic balance sheet. It also made recommendations for the conservation of natural resources, new business ventures, building adaptations and site restoration. The report was published in April 2010 as “Holy Cross Abbey: Reinhabiting Place,” and it is available online from the University of Michigan.

With page after page of charts and statistics, the report is factual and timely, focused on things that can be measured and in the here and now. However, nothing could be less spiritual. Yet the impulse behind it goes back to the origins of the Cistercian order.

The abbey of Cîteaux in Burgundy, France, was founded in the early 12th century as a reaction to the wealth and worldliness of nearby Cluny, perhaps the greatest monastery of its time. (The name Cistercian derives from Cîteaux.) Under the leadership of Robert of Molesmes and then of Bernard of Clairvaux, small bands of monks sought remote sites, where they could return to a true practice of the Rule of St. Benedict, as they saw it. They cleared wilderness, planted farms, and embraced new technology, especially water-powered mills. The monks did hard physical labor in the early years, and their life was ultimately ascetic.

Holy Cross Abbey is attempting to enter the 21st century by returning to this ancient model. The monks are reviewing the ways they use and live on the land. They placed 200 acres of land in a conservation easement. They planted a kitchen garden to raise some of the food consumed onsite. They are reviewing the farm operation, especially how to reduce the use of fertilizer and pesticides, which leach into groundwater and the watershed of the nearby river. They cut back on lawn mowing to save fuel and allow native species to flourish. And they intend to restore the eroded riverbanks and the spring that gave the farm its name.

The monks interpret this activity according to their vow of “stability,” their commitment to stay in one place, and the history of their order. Their current website includes this statement: “We are seeking ways to respond to the current ecological crisis. We recognize that we have a responsibility that is both local, within Clarke County, Va., and global; and we understand how today’s action will directly impact our vitality for years to come.”

In a 2011 renovation of the northwest dormitory, they installed low-volume plumbing fixtures to reduce water use, “green” carpeting and low-VOC paint. They started a comprehensive program of waste recycling, including paper, plastic, metal and electronics. When a building furnace failed last year, they replaced it with a high-efficiency gas-burning model. Like all monks, they already do without cars and gadgets, and they live in harmony with hours of daylight and the seasons. To explore more ways to improve, they hired Ed Leonard to head a sustainability office for the abbey.

New Vocations?
While these actions are undoubtedly necessary, they may also appeal to a younger generation. Will the new-model monastery attract a new type of vocation, men who value ecology as much as Catholic doctrine? If so, they will find it online. The firm SynaVista is redesigning the abbey website, which will include some YouTube clips. Father James Orthmann says: “The new vocation page will include some power-point presentations on our life, which anyone or any parish or school can download. There will also be a blog, which will be updated monthly. All of this will interface with our Facebook page.”

Orthmann is the novice director at Holy Cross Abbey. Now 61, he first joined the Franciscans, then entered Holy Cross in 1977. Educated in art history and music, he is also the choir cantor. Currently, he has no novices in formation. In May 2011, however, he supervised a group of young men in the retreat house, and later he had three “observers,” who participate with the monks for several weeks as a prelude to a vocation. He says: “There are several others who stay in touch, but you can never count them until they get here. We cooperate with other religious orders in vocation discernment. I’d love to hold onto a promising candidate, but my job is to help him discover where God might be calling him.”

By ancient tradition, monasteries offer “hospitality.” A contemplative order like the Cistercians does not usually engage in teaching, social programs or parish work, but it does honor the tradition. The Berryville retreat house stands in pastures about a half-mile from the cloister. With 16 private rooms, a chapel, kitchen, dining room and library, it is a self-contained unit that takes in about 1,000 individuals a year, and does not offer structured group retreats. Intended to reproduce the abbey environment while preserving the privacy of the monks, it differs from monasteries that emphasize their role as retreat centers.

The Anglican Benedictine house called Holy Cross Monastery, for example, near West Park, NY, renovated many of its empty monks’ cells for retreat use, and allows visitors into most of the complex. The Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Ga., with 40 monks and a 2,000-acre property, is thriving better than most, perhaps because the city of Atlanta is just to the west. In May 2011, in a multi-million-dollar barn renovation, they opened a “Monastic Heritage Center,” which features a museum and gift shop. Construction of a new retreat house will soon follow.

In this regard, Holy Cross Abbey is engaged in some soul-searching. Located less than two hours away from the dynamic metropolis of Washington, D.C., it could attract more visitors. A wing of the cloister, built in the 1950s as a dormitory and now used mainly for storage, is being considered for renovation, but it may be closed off entirely. The abbey’s location and space may appeal to groups. In May of 2010, for example, Holy Cross hosted a conference of all 17 novice directors of the U. S. Cistercian houses.

Orthmann and Barnes concede that monastic life appeals to a select few. The Cistercian version, focused on silence, prayer and the regular chanting of the divine office, may appeal to even fewer. (Cistercian life is portrayed in the writings of Thomas Merton, a monk at Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky; the 1991 book “Voices of Silence,” by Frank Bianco; and the 2010 film “Of Gods and Men,” about a group of French monks in Algeria.)

In their 20th-century heyday, monasteries waited for new vocations to come to them. The result, according to Orthmann, was a “revolving door” of men coming and going after a short stay, unsatisfactory to both sides. Today, screening of candidates is more thorough, including health and personal history. If fewer are admitted, the hope is that more of them will stay.

In another departure from the past, some monasteries have dropped the age limit for new vocations. Brother Barnabas is one who became a monk later in life, at age 55. He says: “I was an engineer, executive and public school teacher of English. I married, had children, and returned to the Catholic Church in my 50s.” Evidence is slight, but the earliest monasteries in Egypt and Italy may have accepted older men in this way, as a kind of second career or retirement. In any case, the new policy acknowledges that American lifespans have grown longer, and that spiritual development varies.

The smaller community is also significant. There are hints in the Rule of St. Benedict that a typical monastery of the 16th century had around 10 monks. American monasteries report similar numbers today. It may be that this size has a certain advantage, both economically and in the dynamic of group interaction. If so, Holy Cross Abbey’s downsizing may point the way. A new house connected with them, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, founded in 1987 in Crozet, has 12 women in residence.

The lay Cistercian movement shows yet another possibility for change and growth. America has no tradition of pilgrimage as in Europe, and historically the Cistercian order did not have oblates, or a lay auxiliary, as Franciscans and Benedictines do. Beginning in the 1980s in Georgia and Massachusetts, lay Catholics spontaneously formed groups attached to Cistercian monasteries. The movement grew and acquired recognition from the order.

One of these groups meets at Holy Cross Abbey once a month, and they make a retreat there once a year. A statement from a 2008 world convention at the monastery of Santa Maria de Huerta, in Spain, says in part:

“We are convinced that it is possible to adapt Cistercian spirituality to the lifestyle of a lay person, though it is very clear that there are two different ways to live it, monastic and lay, and both are complementary. This shows us the vitality of the monastic life.”

(January 2012)

By Colleen Sheehy Orme

Working on those January New Year’s resolutions? What about healthy business resolutions? Even better, what if the personal blended seamlessly with the professional? After all, many individuals spend as much time at work as they do at home. Enter Katherine Quinn, certified conditioning specialist and owner of McLean-based Outside the Box Fitness, specializing in both personal and corporate wellness programs in the D.C.-Metro area.

Corporate wellness has been proven to increase productivity and decrease loss of work due to illnesses and injuries. It also improves employee morale as people feel better both physically and emotionally.

With nearly 20 years in the fitness industry, Quinn is blurring the line between work and fitness. “If you think about the balance of your life, you can’t just look at wellness as something that happens outside of work,” says Quinn.

“I find it amusing that some of us sit in our cars on our way to work, sit at a desk all day, get back in our cars, rush to the gym, squeeze in 30 minutes, and get back in the car to rush home and crash on the couch for the rest of the evening. Obviously it’s great to get that 30 minutes, and I have nothing against gyms—I think they’re great and play an important role in helping people get healthy. But gyms don’t work for everyone, so what other options are out there? And let’s start looking at how to incorporate healthy habits into the other 23-and-a-half hours of the day.”

For Quinn, this is not about a number on a scale but rather how comfortably you can climb a flight of stairs or sit on a floor and play with your children or grandchildren. To her that is the benefit of wellness. “Many people approach fitness and wellness as you have to give up something without thinking about what you have to gain,” says Quinn.

Quinn inspires and rejuvenates the entire corporate lifestyle. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Quinn believes the most effective wellness programs offer several different things to appeal to a wide range of employees’ needs, i.e., stress, travel, etc.

“Every company has their own personality and what they are looking to accomplish. My experience working with companies and individuals is that change gets made when there is accountability and personal attention,” says Quinn.

Is the company willing to embrace a healthy lifestyle? Are healthy food choices provided during the day? Are employees encouraged to take 10-minute breaks to go outside for fresh air? Is there fresh water to drink? Are educational opportunities provided? Are they embracing trends such as stand-up desks and healthy ergonomics?

“I’ve gotten rid of the weight and delivered more core strength,” says Tom Greeson, a partner in the Falls Church office of Reed Smith LLP. “It’s a fantastic thing for someone personally and professionally to work with Katherine Quinn, lose weight and have a better overall sense of fitness and well-being. Prior to the weight loss, I frequently had back pain standing for any period of time. Losing the weight has increased my endurance to stand and give long talks, and attend events. It has a been a good benefit professionally.”

“My goal is to help an individual reach their optimal health and have an increased quality of life,” says Quinn. It is recognizing what will bring a ‘whole’ life, work and family, balance.”

Quinn’s philosophy is positive and exceptional. She creates a harmony for the healthy individual personality within personal and professional demands. Hence, realistically filling in the other 23-and-a-half hours about which she is so passionate.

————-

Being Well What does go into healthy living?
three hundred and forty-eight dollars Cost of the average sick day to a United States company in lost productivity. Source: 2010 Gallop Poll and based on numbers take from the Bureau of Labor Statistics		Five Common Elements of Well-Being (based on a 50-year study of different countries and cultures)

————-

Katherine Quinn, CCS
OUTSIDE THE BOX FITNESS
Corporate, Personal and Group Training; 571-488-7282

(January 2012)

A financial planner can put you on the path to financial security today when you tell them what you want for tomorrow.

By David Hodes

General Wealth Management
OK … here we go. 2012. It’s time for a fresh start, true, but the stench of a stale economy is still stinking up the new year. And once again, those creeping scary thoughts of what’s invested where and who’s to be trusted now are on the minds of investors in Northern Virginia.

The warm blanket of financial security keeping nest eggs safe has turned in to a wet blanket of stark reality.

What’s more, this year is an election year where the outcome could affect the financial future of you, your business and your family for years to come.

The only thing you can count on is uncertainty, and that’s a word that most investors and money managers don’t want to hear. When that investor is you, hoping to make your money make more money, it’s no time for some amateur hour, do-it-yourself, Internet-info-trolling, knee-jerk decision-making.

No, in times like these, your new best friend forever is a smart financial advisor. BFF? SFA.

These pros aren’t just money managers, though that is what you rely on them to offer. They are relationship managers. Some have been trusted advisors for years, working with generations of the same family.

These are people who are working their formulas and adjusting their custom in-house or web-based computer models so that you can do what’s best for yourself, your family and your future even as the financial uncertainty takes twists and turns that no one could have predicted. “The markets are very complicated,” Brenda Blisk, CEO of the Blisk Financial Group at Spire Investment Partners in Reston, says. “And to think you can outmaneuver or outthink hedge funds or trading programs, that’s biting off an awful big bite.”

Financial advisors need to know more about you than just where you put your money. They need to know your wants, your desires and your dreams. They want to know about your lifestyle and what it takes to keep that lifestyle where you want it to be.

They need to understand your financial past, present and future as a wage-earner, investor and money manager. They need full disclosure to help paint a true financial picture of where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow.

Blisk says that when you see a financial advisor or wealth manager, you will need to bring tax returns, check stubs, 401K statements, tax deferred option plans, insurance information, plus trust and will information. “Just sort of layout all the different pieces of the puzzle to your life so the financial consultant can see where you are and what you have to work with,” she advises.

Financial planning is about understanding risk: risk tolerance and risk management. According to Barry Glassman, president of Glassman Wealth Services in McLean, risk isn’t necessarily being down in the stock market or losing this month or next. The biggest risk is not meeting goals. “Whether someone has no money and debt, or has negative net worth or whether they just sold their business—what are their goals?”

For the D.C. area, risk management concerns should extend to domestic employees, who are often recommended by a friend and hired on a handshake. “You are letting someone come in to your home, take care of your personal belongings, drive your children around,” Diane Beatty, vice president and insurance broker at personal insurance company Lane McVicker in Reston, says. “Have you done a background check on them? Do you know what their motor vehicle driving record is? We really talk through that issue, not just from an insurance standpoint but from a risk management standpoint,” she says.

Financial planning is about developing a financial roadmap with directions on how to get where you want to go. This is a personal journey, unique to each person, because every investor has different objectives. “You have to look at everything to find what’s best,” Kim Cox, COO and director of consulting services for West Financial Services in McLean, says. “How old are they? What is their risk tolerance? What are their goals for their portfolio? Do they want their children to inherit anything? What are their estate planning goals? Their cash flow goals? Their retirement goals?”

Financial planning is about identifying trends, and a smart financial planner can spot them early. But trends aren’t always about the game; they can be about the players.

Women-Specific Money Management
LouAnn Lofton saw a trend in her work as the managing editor for online content at The Motley Fool that inspired her to write her book, “Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl.” She noticed that gender makes a difference in money management.

Where men tend to treat the stock market as a game, a sort of online casino, women tend to spend more time up front understanding the stock and watching the trends before they buy their piece of a company.

Buffet’s style of investing, Lofton explains in her book, is to select stocks he knows well and then stay with them through whatever ups and downs that stock experiences. That buy-and-hold approach suits women well. Men—not so much. “Women tend to be naturally more conservative and cautious, and more confident of their investment decisions,” Lofton says.

She says that women do more research, ask the hard questions and only invest in what they think they know and understand—just like Buffet. He wisely avoided tech stock investing during the tech bubble because he just didn’t see any long-term sustainability.

Guess he got that right. And he’s weathered the economic roller coaster just fine ever since.

“At the height of the stock turbulence in 2008-2009, men were much more likely than women to panic and sell,” Lofton says. “They just couldn’t control themselves. And panic is the worst thing that an investor could be doing. Women, on the other hand, seem better able to handle the ups and downs because they know what they are investing in.”

Saying that differences between men and women investors may be more of an ego issue related to mistakes in timing investments rather than differences in gender, Glassman acknowledges that women investors are different now than 15 years ago. “So many women here in Northern Virginia have empowered themselves with understanding and controlling their financial future. This is a healthy trend I see continuing,” he says.

Women want performance, Blisk says. They want their investments to outperform the S&P 500. “Women invest for security,” she says. “They want to know that their children are going to be taken care of. They want to know that if something happens to their husbands that they are going to have something to fall back on, that they are going to be taken care of to a point. They don’t, at a difficult and sad point in their life, want to get turned back into the workplace.”

Cox says that women want to preserve and grow their wealth for a longer period of time. “Women live longer; that is statistically true,” she says. “I think that this is why they are more buy-and-hold, and give more time for a long-term look because they will live into their 80s,” she says. “Men don’t think about their life expectancy as much.”

She says that men and women react differently to stress and to risk. “So as you see more and more women really become more risk takers in the workplace, it will be interesting to see if their investment philosophy will change significantly as well,” Cox says. “We’ll see.”

Retirement Savings
Trying to figure out what to do with your money today is difficult enough. But the cumulative effect of all this financial uncertainty makes for a troubling outlook for the future. Retirement planners know there are ways to hack a path through the what-if jungle of tangled temptations. You just have to have the right tool in the hands of the right pro.

Marjorie Fox, principal and founder of Fox, Joss & Yankee LLC in Reston, says she tries to take some of the guesswork out of the retirement management process with financial modeling software, basically a detailed spreadsheet that she fills in with answers to a series of pertinent questions to help her build a vision of a successful financial future. “Here is how we frame the questions with a client,” Fox says. “Where will you live? Or are you going to downsize where you now live? How will you spend your time? What will it cost and how will you pay for it?” she says. “Knowing where they like to live and how they would like to spend their time says a lot about what it is going to cost. And then we have to figure out how to pay for it.”

All of that, she says, plays into the line items in their spending plan in the retirement model. The modeling she does for her clients is valuable, but the questions she asks are designed to make sure that they have thought through all the considerations. “We are not there to second guess them,” she says. “We are there to be that second opinion, that sounding board.”

Clients organizing their retirement savings need to consider what an acceptable level of spending is, and place their needs, wants and wishes on a hierarchy, she says. “There may still be weddings to expense. There may be wishes to fund their grandchildren’s education with a 529 college savings plan. Health care is more and more an important line item. So before we actually model, we have a process where we try to help clients work all that out.”

She says that when a client comes to her, hopefully they have accumulated what they need for retirement. “Our role is making sure going forward that they invest consistent with their risk tolerance and are as tax efficient about that as possible,” she says.

Today, saving for retirement has forced people to adjust their plan, Glassman says, by lengthening the time in which they need to work. Those who had a dream of retiring in their mid-50s needed steady and predictable income and investments to follow their dream. But they have seen the economic slowdown make that dream less realistic. “In today’s environment, whether the stock market goes up and down from here, safe income investments—those that are guaranteed or insured—are paying so much less than a decade or a generation ago that I believe that is people’s biggest retirement challenge.”

These diminished yields, which Glassman calls a “yield drought,” will stay low longer than people expect. “For boomers looking to retire, who felt like they could take five, six percent from their investments, they may find it a challenge because CDs are yielding one percent, and money markets are yielding zero.”

A smart financial planner is a guide who is often compared to the most important professional to consult for the person or couple needing direction in a world where money management has become a dodgy venture not for the weak of heart. “It doesn’t always make sense to use the doctor who says everything is rosy,” Glassman says. “Use the one you trust who is smart enough and has your best interest at heart.”

Start financial planning early, Cox says. She advises families to initiate their children into the financial planning process the minute they start making money, usually with a Roth IRA. That way they can begin to understand the value of financial planning early. “The power of compounding is enormous,” she says.

It’s a different, ever-changing landscape that is good for financial planners because of all the uncertainty. Glassman says his business has grown 25 percent a year over the last few years based on people looking for objective advice from his firm—a fiduciary that can’t earn commission or fees outside of what their clients pay them. “Many assumptions that people as well as financial planners use were based on the past 40 or 50 years of past returns and data,” he says.

“Forget past performance. Those assumptions can’t be made moving forward because there is no time in the past 40 years when the U.S. Treasury was yielding this low. Or where the world was so globalized,” he says. “Don’t wait until there is certainty. Because we may live the rest of our lives and not ever be completely certain.”

Financial Planning Pitfalls
► Following rules of thumb about retirement. Example: I am going to need 70 percent of my pre-retirement income in retirement. It depends on your spending in retirement. M.F.

► Taking tips from your relatives or friends. You would have to reveal information about your financial situation that you may not want them to know. A family member may also have “skin in the game.” B.B.

► Overspending with your investments. Understand your cash flow. Pay down your credit card debt first. L.L.

► Being too conservative in your investments. B.B.

► Doing your financial planning yourself. Have a sounding board. M.F.

► Investing money that you are going to need in the near term. L.L.

► Panicking and jumping into the market. K.C.

► Getting emotionally attached to a stock or stock purchase. Use a consultant to help you get your emotional connection out of the equation. L.L.

► Going with the latest hot investment. B.G.

Financial Planning Tips
► Have goals for your retirement planning—What do you want to do? Where do you want to live? B.G.

► Save 20 percent of your paycheck and build your budget off the remainder.
Plan your lifestyle. Budget around your needs, not your wants.
Diversify. B.B.

► Manage risk by asking yourself these questions: Do you employ domestic help? Do you volunteer on a board, either profit or nonprofit? Do your teenage children away at school have a car? Do you entertain on or off your property and serve alcohol? D.B.

Advisors
►D.B. Diane Beatty, vice president at personal insurance Lane McVicker, Reston.
►L.L. LouAnn Lofton, managing editor at The Motley Fool, www.fool.com.
►K.C. Kim Cox, COO West Financial Services, McLean.
►M.F. Marjorie Fox, founder of Fox, Joss & Yankee LLC, Reston.
►B.G. Barry Glassman, president of Glassman Wealth Services, McLean.
►B.B. Brenda Blisk, CEO of Blisk Financial Group at Spire Investment Partners, Reston.

Free Financial Management Mobile Apps
Your mobile phone may be all you need these days to get an instant snapshot of your financial picture. Here are some of the more popular free apps:

► Easy Books for iPad; resource planning with access to all financial reports
► CashFlow for iPad and iPhone; track and manage your daily cash receipts, expenses, ATM balances
► Google Finance for Droid; personal finance news, real-time stock quotes, personal portfolio tracking
► Bloomberg for iPad; stock information across several markets, including breaking news and industry information
► Mint.com for iPad, iPhone and Droid; real-time access to all your financial account information

Software Solutions
Most financial planners use planning and investment software that they modify in-house to suit the unique needs of their clients. Here are a few of the more popular ones in use today:

Quantrix: Business modeling and analytics solutions

Whitebirch Software: Planning software featuring integrated financials

Advent: Investment management software including research and portfolio management, trading and order management, fund distribution

SmartFolio: Asset allocation, portfolio optimization and risk management

NorthStar Software: Lifecycle advisory capabilities to acquire, plan, manage and report client wealth based on industry and firm-based best practices

(January 2012)

By Colin Daileda

Courtesy of Miriam Berkley / Blue Flower Arts

Claudia Emerson sits in a coffee shop looking like the modern writer she is. Her thin frame outlined by a large glass window to her right that displays the quaint red brick buildings of Fredericksburg. Her fingers spread across her MacBook Pro as she peers at the screen, her glasses perched halfway down her nose from her bright brown eyes. She seems to be, like any other writer with a laptop in a coffee shop, lost in thought.

But Claudia Emerson is not any other writer. Although she’d be the last person to tell you, she’s a poet who’s won everything from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Intro Award to the Pulitzer Prize, and currently holds the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry at the University of Mary Washington, where she is a professor.

Has being a lifelong Virginian influenced you?

“Except for two years in grad school when I was in Greensboro, N.C., I’ve always lived in the state. I’ve been very defined by the state, but I always say Virginia is more than one place. I was really defined, until the last 10 years, by being in more south-side Virginia. But before I got this job, tenure track, I did a lot of adjunct teaching. I taught three years at Washington and Lee, which is another pretty distinct region.”

When did you decide to be a poet?

“When I was about 28. I always knew I had an artistic something or other, but I wasn’t sure if it might be journalism or … music for a while. If you had said, ‘What kind of writer do you think you’d be?’ at one point I would have said short story. ”

How does a poetry book come about?

“You need to … send the poems out to different magazines. Chances are you’re not going to get [the book] picked up by anybody unless your poems have appeared in a significant number of magazines. That’s really true for young writers. Then there are first book contests that are legitimate. I entered a lot of those and didn’t win any of them.”

What kind of reading do you do?

“I read a lot of poetry in various stages. I judge a lot of book contests. I served on the Pulitzer jury twice and the Library of Virginia Jury three or four times—that will involve 30 books, 50 books. But I still read a lot of fiction.”

Is it hard to teach and write at the same time?

“It comes and goes. If you have particularly difficult students, sometimes it will eat up a lot of your time trying to bring everybody around. But … every once in a while I’ll have an incredibly gifted group. They’re very exciting to work with, but working with gifted students can be extremely demanding. But I’m pretty good to be disciplined about it. Especially now, after my good fortune of the Pulitzer Prize, the school gave me a distinguished chair, which dropped my teaching load down to two classes every semester. I don’t know that I’ll ever write super fast.”

What do you try to impart on your students?

“It’s always hard … to resist teaching them your aesthetic. It’s always challenging to find out where they’re coming from … and then try to help them direct their reading loads. [A friend and poet] said to me recently, ‘It’s important for young writers to read, but to have them read as writers.’”

When did you figure out that you might actually be pretty good at writing poetry?

“I think it was in graduate school that I began to have a sense I was a better poet [than fiction writer]. They accepted me in poetry, so I focused on that and made it my business to study with people who could help me do this better, and to be open to the criticism.”

What’s your favorite thing about teaching?

“I’ve got pretty good at spotting when somebody is pretty gifted, and [I] tap them and say, ‘You’re gonna do well in this class, but it’s bigger than that.’ … The other is [my students are] at the point where they’re gonna leave me for a while. I never had my own children, so I get this sort of pseudo-maternalistic thing. But that’s fun … to see them go off and know that they’ve gotten into graduate programs … or have begun shifting toward the next phase.”

Your favorite thing about poetry?

“It’s always been challenging to me, to get the idea, to think I have a fresh metaphor, to mull it around. I’m a very, very messy writer. [The beginning] might just be a word or an idea or an image and then it all mulls around for a while, and I’ll go for my run in the morning or go for a bike ride and I’ll say, ‘OK, it’s time to start drafting.’”

Do poets have to teach? How do you make a living off of poetry?

“You don’t. I think you teach at something. I always say to my students, ‘This is not a professional degree that will lead to teaching.’ It might, I’m not gonna tell you, ‘You can’t have what I have,’ but it’s a long haul for some of us. It was a pretty long haul for me.”

Why do you think poetry matters in an age of the Internet and social media?

“I think now it’s thriving more than it was when I began. I think publishing’s changing what with Kindles and Nooks and Amazon and all that stuff, but writing programs are thriving; people turn to poetry quite a bit. Poetry as a genre isn’t just one thing. It’s experimental forms, it’s narrative, it’s lyric, it’s all over the place. My students at Mary Washington still want to hold a book in their hands. Poets have always been a minority in the world of literature, but we’re very resilient; we’re like vegetarians. We may not have a restaurant in every town or even a dish on every menu, but we’re there.”

You write songs in addition to poetry. Are the two similar?

“They’re kind of similar. For me, like the genres themselves, at one point they were closer together, and then they grew apart. I still like to look at meter and form in poetry in ways that in music is more subtle. I write in collaboration with my husband and a friend of his. We’ll get out a chalkboard and share a bottle of wine and write songs and have a grand old time.”

You perform with your husband, too. What’s that like?

“It’s fun. When I was in my 20s that was one of my possible aspirations, to play music. I just got to the point where I thought, ‘That’s not my gift; I’m just not talented enough.’ I don’t think you can really be a good songwriter if you don’t play well. [My husband plays well]; he really does. If I ever make up any little thing, he’ll take it over and immediately apply all these chords to it that I can’t play.”

Where do you see yourself in five-10 years?

“Happiness is a funny thing. [In] Marilyn Robinson’s novel, “Gilead,” the narrator reminds you at one point that happiness is not an end place, that it’s a byproduct of doing work that you like, being in healthy, satisfying relationships, that kind of thing. You can’t constantly be chasing career things without remembering that it’s the pursuit not of some end place, but of happiness, which is to do good work.”

(January 2012)