The Gettysburg Address and a DC jaunt

Last year, I had the great chance to meet business student Diana Marin and hear her pitch a business idea to her GWU women’s entrepreneurial leadership course (led by GWU professor and Chief Hot Momma Kathy Korman Frey).

It was fantastic to visit the Lincoln Memorial with Diana recently and to discuss President Lincoln’s historical address.

How can a two minute speech make such an impact?
President Lincoln’s words from 1863 moved our broken nation toward a healthier ideal (with the fantastically resonant address being just two minutes long).

Above is a 90 second clip of our adventure – and a written transcript follows too!

<< Transcript >>

(en route to the memorial in a cab!)

Jill:
I’m here with a great person.

Diana:
Hello, everybody. I’m Diana Marin, I’m with Jill Foster right now and
we’re going to the Lincoln Memorial. Guys, you’re going to enjoy the speech.

(from inside the memorial)

Jill:
So we’re here on the left side of the Lincoln Memorial where wonderfully
engraved is the first portion of Lincoln’s speech “Four scores and seven years ago” it’s
kind of giving me goose bumps.

Jill to Diana:
You said some fantastic things earlier about what
really stood out to you about the speech. Do you want to share briefly on that?

Diana:
Sure. Oh the speech was great, so I want to say mostly for me
[the best part was] when he said “Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.” So for me he defined war as an effort dedicated to all these
principles of liberty and equality for America. This is the country of freedom and just
like that he’s considering all the places around the world [that aren't free]. And
he wanted to continue for us to believe that we still have freedom and that we are equal,
it doesn’t matter if we are girls or boys or black or white or brown or yellow, it doesn’t matter,
so for me that was great.

Jill:
Thank you so much for saying that.

Diana:
You’re welcome.

At GWU’s women in business leadership class with Kathy Korman Frey and Kassie Rempel

What a great night of ideas.
The ever fun, sassy, successful entrepreneur and business professor Kathy Korman Frey – founder of The Hot Mommas Project – created a chance for a few business owners to speak with her Women in Business Leadership class at George Washington University here in DC…including myself!

Ragingly successful business owner Kassie Rempel of Simply Soles and I formed a mini-panel with Kathy’s class last night; all led to a fantastic conversation with app. 25 students (all from other countries – visiting and studying in the US for the first time).

• overcoming obstacles and disappointment in biz
• deciding on a business offering
• speaking in public
• owning business decisions
• exercising confidence
• pursuing parallel business paths

…and so much more was talked about. Thanks Kathy, Kassie, and the students (aren’t we all students in the end?!) for a dynamic and substantive conversation.

Kathy as ‘Professor Frey’, starting the class discussion

Introductions begin…

Fellow panelist Kassie Remple and her great business know-how

Smart, gutsy students from GWU’s Women in Business Leadership Class