Fashion Slow Lane!

I just returned from the Global Summit on Negotiation and Trust in Phoenix, Arizona.  It was a three day workshop:    http://globalsummitonnegotiation.com/ The summit was held at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and focused on these areas: Foundations of trust in negotiation International negotiations and cross-cultural considerations The psychology of influence & persuasion in negotiation Brand development and trust High-stakes negotiations Commercial procurement Managing emotions and stress in negotiation It was led by a panel of distinguished speakers that ranged from Divya Narendra one of the original facebook "idea" founders to Stephen MR Covey, an award winning author of self help books. My favorite speaker was Mr. Chris Voss, a former high profile FBI negotiator - talk about captivating! The three day event focused on how to develop trust in your business relationships and become a better negotiator. There was about 15 speakers an...

This is an amazing blog article and so timely for me personally!  I often struggle with what rate to charge for freelance work.  Some clients want to pay me by the hour to design bags or just answer emails to the China factory.   What clients don't understand is that to answer the emails or design the bag, takes knowledge far more deeper more than the time it takes to sketch a bag or write an email.  That is why charging by the hour rarely works for me and cheapens my value!  Its also better to let the low ball gigs pass you by so you can focus on the ones that are really worth your time!  Its better to charge by the scope of the project and based on your knowledge....this article is a must read for consultants or freelancers.  Reposted from my friends blog:   www.myblastoff.com   How much should you get paid? When you’re an employee, it’s a relatively easy question to answer. Go online to a site like Glassdoor and look up median sa...

We are pleased to introduce our Italian leather "Rocco" dog collars and leashes.   The collars come in red Italian leather or chocolate Italian leather.  The collars are available in two styles, plain and studded and the quality is amazing!   The red leather has nickel hardware and the chocolate has gold toned hardware   The collars come in two sizes, Small and X-Small.  All designed by Tara Sauvage.  USA. Ships from San Diego, CA Each collar comes with a custom pendant modeled after our pug's face.   These make adorable gifts for your furry friends or your BFF with a pet! We also have matching leashes to go with the collars.   To order go to:   www.roccosauvage.com and click on "Pet Accessories" Happy Shopping! Ciao, Rocco Dante models the Rocco leash Chocolate leather comes with gold tone hardware Custom pendant  Great gifts for your fur-babies!

Me and Sonia negative from photo shoot - Long Beach, CA  I was up late the other night watching YouTube videos of TLC reality shows.  I came across one of their more ridiculous shows  "Trophy Wives" about these young women in Beverly Hills who are married to old billionaires.  I started to watch a trailer of one of the shows and one of the reality stars  reminded me of my friend Sonia White.   I had lost touch with Sonia in the past few years so I decided to google her to see if I could find her on online.  I put her name into google and instead of finding her on facebook,  I got her obituary.   It broke my heart and I could not sleep the rest of the night. Sonia and I met in 1995 in Seattle when she was dating my boss at Champion Footwear.  She would come into the office once in a while and I got to know her.  She was a slim, beautiful 22 year old girl with amazing black curly hair.   She was super sweet and I rea...

This weekend we went to the street festival in Little Italy located in downtown San Diego.   The chalk art was amazing.  These photos were taken with my IPhone 4!  My favorite was the Dogue Italia-very clever.  Anna Wintour would be proud. (: The food was tasty as well.  San Diego maybe a small city but we do have some great cultural activities. Enjoy! Ciao, Rocco

Recently I read the book called Lean In by the COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg.  In her book she covers many topics that working women deal with and offers practical solutions on how to overcome them.  Its modern successful women like her who are great examples for females of all ages and most importantly young women who are just starting their careers.    I think women have come a long way in the past 50 years, but I had an experience recently that made me realize we still have a long way to go in terms of workplace equality. If I can share my experience and it helps someone else then its worth putting myself out there, hence this blog post. Recently I answered an advertisement for a position in the handbag industry.  I have been doing  freelance work, but I am always looking for new gigs as I just moved to California 5 months ago and I am not working full time.   The job sounded like it would be an opportunity to learn a new sector in the indus...

Are you looking for someone to help you build an affordable website for your fashion brand?  Do you need a company that not only knows how to build a website but is an expert at SEO too?  Do you need someone who is already well versed in the fashion industry and has over a decade of working with major Los Angeles fashion brands?  Search no further... Full Circle Search is your answer...they build user friendly websites for the fashion industry and they have over 30 yrs of combined experience in SEO consulting and web design in the fashion industry with various brands in New York and Los Angeles.   Here is a link for their website:   www.fullcirclesearch.com The company was founded by two local Los Angeles guys that grew up together in Palos Verdes, Michael Gross and Carl LoGiudice.   Michael has a Global MBA from Thunderbird and Carl went to the University of Southern California. If they ask how you heard about them, tell them Rocco sent you......