‘Mommas’ Make Their Mark

News — By Kristin Drouin on February 4, 2010 at 11:19 pm

It’s all in the name.

Kathy Korman Frey, an entrepreneur in residence in the GW School of Business (GWSB) and a private consultant, was speaking at a Boys and Girls Club in Southeast D.C., trying to generate enthusiasm for business and entrepreneurship. The kids, however, were having none of it.

She decided to “go for the fences” – to abandon business terminology and use real language to which the young audience might relate. Frey began to share the secrets of “hot mommas,” a phrase she had often used to jokingly describe her company’s cadre of part-time consultants.

The cool label was key; suddenly, her audience was engaged, even excited.

“This is it,” Frey remembered thinking. “This is the way to get these students to stand up and notice and get interested.” The incident gave rise to The Hot Mommas Project, a program that would connect students with “real” professional women and the stories of their successes.

The Hot Mommas Project, an independent research venture, is housed at GWSB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence.  The project provides access to online “case studies” written by women age 18 and older who document the personal aspects of their career journeys while imparting business-world wisdom to a younger generation.   This method exposes students to the possibility of realizing their professional goals.

Frey’s favorite part of the project is the virtual aspect of the storytelling.

“[The women] tell their story once, and their learning points can be replicated over and over again, with no geographical limitations,” explained Frey, who developed a software program so that contributors could easily upload their case studies. “There’s no barrier, other than having a computer.”

Though the success of the project is entirely contingent upon technology, Frey explains that this does not impede a case study’s ability to resonate in a reader’s real life. Visitors to the Web site can seek out narratives that speak directly to certain issues. A database of almost two hundred studies is separated into keyword categories, addressing topics that range from experiences in the finance industry and restaurant management to dealing with depression, single-parenting, and natural disasters.

“Readers like the authenticity. It’s just real people, telling their stories,” said Frey, who added that case studies are never edited, so that they are as forward and personal as a blog entry. “There is a very strong identification with the case protagonists. It really hits home.”

The accessibility of the studies has helped the project to grow exponentially since its founding in 2002. A winner of the 2006 Coleman Foundation National Case Award, the Hot Mommas Project has also received coverage in a variety of media outlets including The Washington Post Magazine and NPR.

Additionally, Frey is quick to point out, social media has been crucial to the success of the initiative, “giving it legs.” Case study authors can include links to their Facebook pages, blogs, and Twitter when they publish their pieces, ensuring that interested and inspired readers can continue to follow them.

“They could be mentoring someone and not even know it,” Frey said.

It was Frey’s own mentoring relationships that gave rise to the initial idea of creating an easily-accessible outlet through which professional women could become role models. Students in her Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership class at GW were hungry for the specifics of Frey’s own story, eager to learn about the real life of a businesswoman and mom.

“It’s that idea of multiple facets of our lives and careers that we’re dealing with, and it starts quite early,” Frey said. “I think GW students know that…I think a lot of students are quite sophisticated, so they start asking these types of questions earlier than the general student population.”

Frey wanted to be able to answer all her students’ questions – and to reach eager learners at other institutions. Her narrative became the first Hot Momma case study.

Realizing that women often hesitate to “toot their own horns,” Frey developed the process through which writers submit their narratives, either by self-nomination or submissions of the name of a friend, colleague, sister or mother to an annually-judged case study contest. The winner receives a variety of prizes, including the chance to have their case study published in a Prentice Hall textbook.

Entering its second year, the contest regularly attracts almost a hundred submissions. Saranne Rothberg, the 2009 winner, wrote about using her experience with cancer to found a non-profit organization, The ComedyCures Foundation.

Nominations for 2011 are now open. This year’s winner and runners-up will be honored at a ceremony April 28 at GW’s Women in Philanthropy Forum, after being selected by a panel of judges that includes award-winning television and theatre producers and bestselling authors, in addition to CEOs and professors.

Frey hopes that the diversity of the panel will help to attract a wider array of submissions in future years. Project managers working in different countries this past year helped to promote the Hot Mommas’ mission, with 10 percent of the submissions for the 2010 contest coming from women in the Middle East.

Frey hopes that this effort to attract protagonists from around the globe, coupled with an experimental “Cool Daddies” project geared toward men, will increase the range of stories that are shared – and the number of young learners who can be inspired.

“These stories represent new, entrepreneurial models of success. It’s the way the world really is for many of us. There are so many different ways to put the pieces of the puzzle together,,” Frey said. “All these women are entrepreneurs in businesses and in life, and they’re doing things differently, and they’re telling us how.”

Tags: Hot Mommas Project