A former actress (you may have spotted Judith in one of the original Star Trek series episodes), Judith Sherven coined the phrase The Fear of Being Fabulous. A clinical psychologist with more than 35 years’ experience as a psychotherapist, transformational executive coach and business consultant, Judith practices alongside her husband Jim Sniechowski, also a PhD Clinical Psychologist. Judith is an executive coach for a number of tech companies. She helps leaders overcome any insecurities they have about maximizing their leadership: Their Fear of Being Fabulous.
Both Judith and Jim are on retainer at both LinkedIn and Credit Karma. Judith writes for LinkedIn as an influencer. She inspires managers to engage their team members with their trademarked program: Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous. It’s been called “the missing link in personal and professional development.”
Judith has been on over 3,000 radio and TV shows including Oprah, The View, 48 Hours and Canada AM as a guest expert. Together, Judith and Jim have written 7 LA Times bestselling books.
Both had been professional actors for a long time before they met in 1987. And both discovered that their Fear of Being Fabulous had prevented them from moving forward with their acting careers. This brought them on a 6 year journey of creating their program.
A conversation with Judith:
Self-sabotaging a successful acting career
The Fear of Being Fabulous incubation
The Barbizon connection
Patterns identified and their connections
Meeting Jim and their journey
Owning your own excellence
Asking for more with confidence
Relationships of all kinds – personal and professional, family and friends
Owning your uniqueness
‘You are a miracle’
Making yourself stronger
‘Step out of the history that is holding you back. Step into the new story you are willing to create.’ – Oprah Winfrey So Many Women and Announcing… As we roll out Season 8, I’m delighted to tell you that our podcast series Sylvia & Me has been...
The 1940s and 1950s saw changes to how women were portrayed in film. A change from the victim of the 1930s. Post World War II films introduced the ‘Femme Fatale’ and with it women characters who were mysterious and dangerously seductive, not victims. During the war, women had taken the place of men in the workforce, bringing an independence that for many, had never been experienced before. These movies were known as ‘Film Noir’ (French for ‘dark film’), classics of the 1940s and early 1950s.
‘The Queen of Noir’ Ann Chernow
So I turned my attention to ‘The Queen of Noir’, renowned artist Ann Chernow. Ann has been painting this genre for over a decade. She does paintings, prints and drawings always in the abstract capturing the essence of the ‘Femme Fatale’. Ann has gone from actual portraits of the films’ stars, to imaginary faces of film, to painting scenes from the films to inventing scenes from ‘Film Noir’ movies. Then came a night alone at an Italian restaurant in NYC and a bottle of wine. The evening resulted in creation of ‘Bad Girls’ – eight separate stories and eight separate images.
Film Noir and Femme Fatales have been with her ever since that evening.
‘The reason for women: everybody has a guess. It’s psychological. It has to do with the women in the films. The women in Noir movies all had fabulous clothing and the men just had gray suits and hats. There’s nothing to paint – just gray suits and hats, so the male figure is sometimes an abstract support.’
Meet Ann Chernow
Artist, ‘Queen of Noir’, Mother, Grandmother and Teacher. Ann has taught art for over 26 years. Born in New York City in 1936, Ann has been a resident of Westport, Connecticut, considered a haven for artists for the last 50+ years. Ann is a beloved leader in the extended arts community. She has worked in the mediums of lithography, silkscreen, etching and colored pencil as well as oil painting.
Ann’s second husband, Burt Chernow founded the Housatonic Museum of Art. He was an art historian and professor at the Housatonic Community College. Burt passed away in 1997. Ann later became the life partner of actor and documentarian, Martin West (d. 2020).
Ann’s work evokes a sense of veiled mystery. A veiled mystery that is the essence of Film Noir and Ann’s creativity.
I had the privilege of talking with Ann about our favorite genre of film, her beginning, her philosophy, the pandemic and her continued mining.
Age 3 ½ – the beginning
The RKO theaters and going to the movies at 11
Victims and Heroines
The ‘Queen and King’ of Noir
Femme Fatales
1930’s and Post World War II
Those clothes
The abstract
‘That looks like my grandmother’
Miss Bette Davis
How to get an invitation
Artists and life
Advice to young artists
Keep on mining
With her passion for perfume, Jessica Murphy uncovers the history and empowerment of scent. Jessica is a Scent and Art Historian and a Museum Professional. She’s always looking for new ways to connect art, fragrance, history and popular culture. Jessica shares the continuing results of her curiosity and research skills and along the way, she enriches the enjoyment of perfume.
Since 2006, Jessica has been a contributor for the leading perfume blog Now Smell This. And what better name for her website than ‘Perfume Professor’. Since late 2015 Jessica has taught and lectured about the history and culture of fragrance at venues such as the Brooklyn Brainery, the Brooklyn Museum, The Institute for Art and Olfaction and the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Currently, Jessica is Manager of Visitor Engagement at the Brooklyn Museum. Before the pandemic, Jessica occasionally offered scent-themed tours.
Prior to the Brooklyn Museum, Jessica worked as a Research Associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has also worked as a Contractual Educator at the Met and as a Curatorial Assistant at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Jessica received her B.A. from Fordham University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Delaware.
A conversation with Jessica Murphy…
The beginning – religion or incense
Festivals and seduction
Commercial use
Luxury and class
Studio 54
That iconic fragrance
Memories and scent
Who do Michelle Obama, Nicole Kidman, Emma Watson and Serena Williams have in common? Shilpa Yarlagadda, Founder of Shiffon.
What do Michelle Obama, Nicole Kidman, Emma Watson and Serena Williams have in common? A Shiffon Duet Pinky Ring. They believe in the symbolism of the ring: the power of mentorship between women. Each of these women unite in showing the beauty behind this gem. And the ‘Pinky Promise’ to pay-it-forward.
What is Shiffon? A fine jewelry company Shilpa started in her dorm at Harvard University.
In 2017 looking for something to do in her downtime at Harvard, Shilpa started googling. The two areas that interested her the most were fine jewelry and women entrepreneurs. Two major discoveries took place: Discovery #1 – fine jewelry has a large markup. Discovery #2 – a large gender gap in the field of entrepreneurship exits. Armed with this information, Shilpa lowered the overhead by selling directly to the consumer. And embarked on a mission to close the entrepreneurial gender gap, ‘one pinky at a time’. All while she continues finishing her studies at Harvard University.
The Four Events
Four events by Shilpa took place simultaneously:
Attending Harvard University
Launching Shiffon and the Duet Pinky Ring
Launching the non-profit, Start-Up Girl Foundation – funding women entrepreneurs
Donating 50% of Shiffon’s profits from the Duet Pinky Ring to the Start-Up Girl Foundation
Featured
Forbes has named her in their list of ’30 under 30′. The Wall Street Journal featured Shilpa in, ‘The Crazy, True Story Behind the Pinky Ring Loved by Nicole Kidman, Michelle Obama and Serena Williams’. And CNBC did a story on her: ‘How a 20-year old college student launched a jewelry company whose rings are worn by Michelle Obama’.
The Duet Pinky Ring – a symbol of female solidarity and a promise to pay it forward. Since launching Shiffon Co., Shilpa and Shiffon have funded 11 female entrepreneurs. And it doesn’t stop with money, it continues with mentoring.
An Inspiring Conversation
Listen to my inspiring conversation with Shilpa and:
The entrepreneurial gender gap
Why a spiraling ring
Paying it forward
Emma Watson and perseverance
Doing one thing and doing it well
Sustainable business model
The network of powerful women supporting each other
What’s next
