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Women Mean Business - Laura Schroff

Laura Schroff

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Women Mean Business host Leisa Holland-Nelson, president of ContentActive, interviews Laura Schroff, bestselling author of An Invisible Thread.

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Leisa: Hello, I'm Leis Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business where we're going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. Today we're coming to you from The Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce annual conference with author Laura Schroff who's just published An Invisible Thread.

Laura: Yes.

Leisa: It spent thirteen weeks on the best seller list.

Laura: Abs-yes it did, yes.

Leisa: And it's an extraordinary story. I know you had an amazing career and were sort of in the middle of launching it and so tell us about your career first and then we'll hear about the invisible thread.

Laura: Well, you know, I kind of fell into advertising. I knew that I really wanted to go into sales and my very first job was at Travel Agent Magazine and then from there I went to Ms. Magazine. And as I'd mentioned earlier, I was at Ms. in 1978 when it was the height of the women's movement. It was spearheaded by Gloria Steinham and Pat Carbine and other feminists and it was just an extraordinarily exciting time to be at the magazine. And from there I went to Time, Inc., People Magazine, and I really spent the rest of my career at Time, Inc. I worked, um, s-at People Magazine and then actually was on - fortunate enough to be - actually work on the launch of InStyle.

Leisa: Wow.

Laura: And then from InStyle I was on the launch of Teen People. I got to be a teenager all over again which I loved.

Leisa: I can't imagine.

Laura: And then People Style Watch.

Leisa: Wow.

Laura: And then I took a break from Time, Inc. and I moved to Florida for six months and that's when I started working on my book, and that was in 2007. And then in 2008 I moved back to New York, went to Condé Nast, and in 2009 - that's when I decided to become very serious about my book; that was in October of 2009.

Leisa: So tell us about writing a book. You met this young man on the street of New York.

Laura: I met Maurice in 1986, he was eleven years old, he was a panhandler and we became friends. And really we would meet every Monday, um, and over time it became even much more than that. But it was a bond that kind of grew over a long time, you know, and as I said before, you know, people would say to me all the time that Maurice was so lucky to have met me, but I have been so lucky to have met him because this child really put my pers-put my life into perspective in a way that I never would have thought about it.

Leisa: You're so fortunate, thank you very much for sharing that with us.

Laura: Oh.

Leisa: One last question.

Laura: Sure.

Leisa: What's it like to be a best-selling author?

Laura: It's surreal.

Leisa: Great, that's a great answer.

Laura: It's surreal. It's actually, I find it amazing.

Leisa: I mean…

Laura: I'm enormously blessed, I can't get over it.

Leisa: Congratulations.

Laura: Thank you so much.

Leisa: There you have it, another extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. I'm Lesia Holland-Nelson, the President and Cofounder of ContentActive, Houston's leading web and mobile technology company. You can find me at ContentActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We'll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.

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