Tomgirl’s Picks of the Week: January 5, 2010

With so many fabulous resources, it is tough sometimes to figure out Tomgirl’s Picks of the Week. (luckily, however, there are 52 weeks in the year!). Here are our favorite people, companies and media this week… what are yours?

In the News

We are all about the outdoors, adventure, health and travel… so we’re pretty smitten with Outside magazine. A magazine packed with ideas and reviews of outdoor activities, insight on the best gear, and general health tips. A must-read for fresh-air-loving Tomgirls!

For travel industry insiders, Packaged Travel Insider is a B2B bible. No surprise, with editor Matt Poe keeping the pulse of the industry. An early believer in Tomgirl Tours, Poe and Packaged Travel Insider will long be among our favorites.

People and Places

While in Arizona, Pink Jeep tours are one of our favorite excursions… so much so that they are an integral part of Tomgirl’s Red Rock Rendezvous tours. While we already adore the concept that blends rugged dessert exploration with our own signature color (pink!), we’re now loving their new addition: the Pink Java Café, serving pink donuts!

We met Santa Fe Traveler’s Billie Frank via social networking last year. Like Tomgirl, Santa Fe Traveler has a unique and upscale niche in the travel world: a boutique personal concierge service to create the perfect Santa Fe experience for travelers. While we reside on opposite ends of the country and have never met, we have become Twitter friends (twends?) and highly recommend this expert for those traveling to Santa Fe.

From Tomgirl Tours

Our next tour up is a perennial favorite for travelers: Tomgirl’s White Mountains Adventure… this all-inclusive trip to New Hampshire is a 2-day extravaganza of adventure (zip lining and indoor sky-diving!), balanced by relaxation and fun at a gorgeous local hotel. You can see more here on this blog, from our last White Mountains Adventure, if you missed it. There are still a few openings on this tour (March 14 and 15), so call today to join us!

Reflections on the Importance of Business Partners

At the start of a New Year, I’m doing a little reflecting on 2009’s achievements, challenges, and the partnerships that supported Tomgirl through it all. I started Tomgirl Tours last year and, as a micro-business owner, needed a little help in executing the launch. It was vital to find the right talent: experienced, results-oriented, and flexible partners to help me start and grow Tomgirl Tours. I was very fortunate to find three of the most professional, committed and effective business partners, and I’d like to tell you all about these amazing people and each of their small, but powerful, micro businesses. I would recommend all of them –hands down – because they always met or exceeded my high expectations:

• I’ll start with Jeremy Nivison from Nivison Multimedia. Jeremy was a key and critical partner in establishing Tomgirl Tours’ website—from conception to inception. We worked together across the country, from Providence R.I. to Providence Utah, to design, test, perfect and then launch tomgirltours.com. Jeremy’s attention to customer service is first rate. His turnaround times then and now are immediate; his communication always friendly, insightful and reassuring—even during those critical deadline periods. All this, and the quality of his work is outstanding. I highly recommend Jeremy for any website related services!

• With the website designed, we needed a fast, reliable hosting company we could trust. We found the perfect company with Jesse Kielhorn, Founder and President of EchoServers.com. This 23-year-old Wentworth graduate has the business and customer-service acumen of a professional twice his age. My website uptime is 100% - how is that possible?! Not sure, but I’ll bet is has something to do with this young entrepreneur’s leadership, technical know-how, and impeccable commitment to outstanding customer service. The detailed reports I get from EchoServers.com offer very precise data that allows for savvy marketing, promotion, and advertising analysis; letting me know where my dollars have been effective. And talk about high-end customer service – read these comments from other EchoServer clients and check out the low prices. Go Jesse!

• Last, but certainly not least, is my communications and public relations specialist (not to mention, social networking aficionado and sleuth) Carrie Soucy, Founder and President of Miamore Communications. Carrie just knows how to get a strong promotion and branding message out, and she wastes no time getting results. My blog and website visits double and triple each time she puts her savvy and figurative “pen to paper” (or should I say “keyboard strokes to Blog, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube”). Carrie doesn’t just provide ideas and solutions, but she puts together a promotional and communication strategy based on her clients’ upscale product branding, marketing and promotional needs and goals (and if you don’t have them defined yet—don’t worry—Carrie will walk you through that process too!) As her tagline says, Miamore Communications spreads the word about life’s finer things, and we, as a very happy client, could not agree more!

Holiday reflections on family and shared adventures

This holiday season has me, like many people, in a warm and nostalgic state of mind. Sharing time with family makes me cherish memories, both old and new.

I just came across some photos of me with my beautiful niece Brandi; and they made me smile and remember one of the reasons why I started Tomgirl Tours: my love of sharing outdoor experiences with other women... especially when they are family!

Brandi and I started our outdoor adventures long ago... as cowgirls:

Fast forward a couple decades, which landed us on opposite ends of the United States... she in Arizona, me in New England. So, last year, when she decided to join me for a zip lining adventure at Bretton Woods Canopy Tours in New Hampshire, part of Tomgirl's White Mountains Adventure, I couldn't have been more thrilled to take those cowgirls memories of yore and create new Tomgirl memories!

Brandi rarely gets to experience the cold and snow, but she was a trooper and loved it, especially in my fur hat!

We had a fabulous time. I feel very lucky to have these memories and such an amazing shared experience with Brandi. Reflecting on our adventure, I remember why I so often encourage family members--sisters, aunts and nieces like Brandi and I, cousins, or mothers and daughters to take a Tomgirl adventure trip together. The bonding experience is beyond description...

Tomgirl's Picks of the Week

In the course of each week, we come across so many great websites and blogs relating to women’s and adventure travel, read interesting news stories we want to share, meet other fantastic women and discover exciting new companies. So, I decided to start giving fellow Tomgirls a one-stop spot where I’ll share some of my favorite news, people, places and updates in a weekly “Picks of the Week” blog post. I hope you’ll enjoy my picks each week (and, please share some of your own!) Here are some of my favorite things this week:

In the News

• A couple new media sites for travel lovers and those, like me, who enjoy exploring: First, togfrog.com, a compilation of adventure reviews and videos from adventure travelers around the world (and a nifty map to help you locate them); Second, Signature Magazine, a new magazine celebrating those over 50 who enjoy travel and exploring the world around us.
• This report that luxury travel is rebounding, meanwhile, is reason for those of us in the travel industry to smile as we head into 2010!

Interesting People and Places

• Bloom With Barb is a site by Barb Scala, a certified coach, speaker and spokesperson for women in transition who want to sprout their dreams and grow their life and career. I was lucky to meet Barb at a recent event and, given her positive outlook and desire to empower other women, we instantly clicked. The Bloom With Barb site is filled with insightful, inspirational posts and information.
• Holiday Goddess is a fantastic editorial site focused on women’s travel. Beautifully designed, easy to navigate, and filled with great info!

From Tomgirl Tours

• Only a few days remain before Christmas… if you are considering giving one of our gift certificates to a woman in your life, call or email me today!

Join Tomgirl to Help Prevent Breast Cancer Through Education & Early Detection

The last of our four holiday gift certificate partner charity profiles is one Tomgirl Tours and I have long supported: the National Breast Cancer Foundation. While there are many organizations that help in the fight against breast cancer, the National Breast Cancer Foundation has a proactive prevention-focused approach that I am especially drawn to.

The National Breast Cancer Foundation's mission is to save lives through early detection and to provide mammograms for those in need. They strive to increase awareness through education, providing diagnostic breast care services for those in need, and providing nurturing support services. The organization was founded by Janelle Hail, now its CEO. Hail faced breast cancer when she was only 34 years old. At the time of her diagnosis she was living a healthy lifestyle and had no family history of breast cancer.

Long an advocate of women's health, which is a fundamental element of our own mission statement at Tomgirl Tours, this organization speaks to me. And I encourage all to join me in supporting it.

To help, I've made the National Breast Cancer Foundation one of the charities you may select to receive a donation when you purchase a Tomgirl Tours Gift Certificate this season. For more on how to purchase a gift certificate and help the National Breast Cancer Foundation in the process, see here.

Join Tomgirl in supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters this season

The third of our four partner charitable organizations in Tomgirl Tours’ holiday gift certificate program is the amazing Big Brothers Big Sisters. I’ve long been an advocate of mentoring young girls to help them grow into strong, confident women (Tomgirls, you might say!) And, as the country’s oldest and largest youth mentoring program, Big Brothers Big Sisters makes such a vast impact on our greatest resource: children.

Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors children, ages 6 through 18, in communities across the country. Their mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that help create brighter futures, better schools, and stronger communities for all.

National research has shown that positive relationships between youth and their Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentors have a direct and measurable impact on children's lives. By participating in our youth mentoring programs, Little Brothers and Sisters are:

• More confident in their schoolwork performance
• Able to get along better with their families
• 46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
• 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
• 52% less likely to skip school.

We are proud to support this organization, and saw this commercial on a local network this week showing Laura Bush doing the same!

Purchase a Tomgirl Tours gift certificate this season, select Big Brothers Big Sisters as your charity of choice, and we will make a contribution on your behalf. Your gift will both give a special woman an amazing Tomgirl tour while, helping special children receive the support and mentoring they need.

For more on our gift certificates, see here.

The National Forest Foundation: Preserving Our Precious Outdoor Spaces

In our series of "profiles" here on the charitable organizations we've teamed with for our gift certificate program, up next is one near and dear to outdoor-adventure-loving Tomgirls like me: The National Forest Foundation.

A Congressionally chartered organization, the National Forest Foundation engages Americans in community-based and national programs that promote the health and public enjoyment of the 193-million-acre National Forest System, and administers private gifts of funds and land for the benefit of the National Forests. In other words... it is the group that makes sure we have those wonderful outdoor spaces in which we can explore, enjoy nature, and breathe clean, fresh air. We are especially appreciative of their efforts because two of our tours, the Green Mountains Escape in Vermont

and the White Mountains Adventure in New Hampshire,

are set in National Forest areas (more on the National Forests here and here, respectively).

For those who purchase a Tomgirl Tours gift certificate this season, if you select the National Forest Foundation as your charity of choice, we will make a contribution to this wonderful organization. Your gift will both give a special woman an amazing Tomgirl tour while, as the National Forest Foundation so perfectly summarizes: help ensure a sustainable future for the many resources your National Forests provide to us all - fresh air and clean water, outdoor recreation experiences, diverse wildlife, and wild places to roam.

For more on our gift certificates, see here.