Work Wife: The Power of Female Friendship to Drive Successful Businesses

(Hardback)

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Ever wanted to start a business with your best friend Get inspired with these stories of women who teamed up and empowered each other to be their own boss, from the makers behind Of a Kind. Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo met as undergrads at the University of Chicago and in 2010, after a decade of friendship, they founded the fashion website Of a Kind to promote emerging designers. Since then, InStyle named Of A Kind "Best of Web," and the empire has grown to include a weekly newsletter ("10 Things") and a podcast ("A Few Things"), each with a cult following--and now a book. In Work Wife, Claire and Erica bring to light the unique power of female friendship to fuel successful businesses, drawing on their own experiences as well as the stories of other "work wives" who run their own companies, including- Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of the popular food community site Food52, Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of Olympic volleyball fame, and Deborah Jackson and Andrea Turner Moffitt, founders of Plum Alley, a crowdfunding platform for female entrepreneurs, and many more. They address a range of difficulties women co-founders face, such as dealing with money, being bosses, considering significant others and motherhood, structuring time, and tackling disagreements. Fun, enlightening, and informative, Work Wife is a celebration of female friendship and collaboration that proves it's possible--and profitable--to mix BFFs with business.

Reviews

Most of us spend the majority of our weekdays in an officeand in close proximity to our coworkers. So its only natural that our colleagues often become our confidants, pals, and in some very special cases, our work wives. In this book Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur (cofounders ofOf a Kindand bona fide work wives) explore this intricate relationship and how working with a friend can sometimes be the secret to professional success. In conversation with other remarkable duos, from the founders ofFood52to the cohosts of theCall Your Girlfriendpodcast, they tackle the most important issues that female partnerships face. Read this, then plot your own work-wife-driven empire.Glamour

Is the old adage Friends and business dont mix true Not according to college friends Cerulo and Mazur, who translated their love of fashion and desireto support emerging fashion designers into a successful business, the e-commerce site Of a Kind. . . . By exploring topics such as setting expectations, defining roles, dividing responsibility, dealing with finances, and addressing disputes, they deftly demonstrate how female friendships produce empowering business partnerships. . . . This insightful, engaging work is an essential guidebook for friends considering a business collaboration.Library Journal(starred review)

Friends since college, entrepreneurs Cerulo and Mazur . . . capture the energy of the current social climate of women empowering women in their first book. . . . Engaging and thoughtful,Work Wifechampions strong relationships, healthy attitudes, and pragmatic decision-makingan excellent primer for women interested in creating their own opportunities.Booklist(starred review)

Work Wifeis a whip-smart guide to cultivating a strong workplace marriage, complete with critical lessons about partnership and leadership that extend well beyond work wives. More than a how-to, it is a clarion call to reimagine and recenter leadership around communality, cooperation, and care. One cannot help but read this book and wonder what women would be able to accomplish if they were empowered to lead as they are.Alicia Menendez, correspondent at PBSsAmanpour and Company

Work Wifeis a master class in being in business with your bestieevery bit of advice is honest, relatable, and actually useful. But what Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur have done here is bigger than that. What truly lassoed my heart and enchanted me with this story from start to finish is their insistence that women leading together will redefine the working world. Its an essential and uplifting message; anyone who has a job or a dream or a person they slack the second they get to the office must read this book.Kayleen Schaefer, author ofText Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship

Work Wifeexplores the potential magic (and the realities) that comes from the combination of two or more women who share a common vision and have turned that shared vision into an amazing business partnership. Sharing both the highs and lows, its an inspiring look at how women can be the best of teammates in work and in life.Joy Cho, founder and creative director of Oh Joy!

Author Bio

Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo founded Of a Kind in 2010 and have developed a reputation as important and influential curators at the forefront of the maker movement, with a knack for identifying "the next big thing" when it's still a small thing. In addition to unearthing America's most talented up-and-coming designers for feature on their website, Mazur and Cerulo have also become known for their highly popular "10 Things" newsletter and its podcast companion "A Few Things," where they expand their enthusiasm for new discoveries across product and lifestyle categories. Accolades include Forbes's "30 under 30," InStyle's "Best of Web," and Fashionista's "50 Most Influential People in New York Fashion."