This week WE Magazine for Women has the honor of featuring Sandra Levitin Founder/CEO/Editor of Kalon Women in Houston Texas
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do professionally.
Sandra Levitin is the President/Editor of Kalon Women, an online magazine for women forty plus. She has been writing since she could hold a crayon, growing to love the feel of a pencil in her hand and the sound it makes when connecting to paper. She is a published poet, working on two manuscripts and a children’s book with her 10 year old granddaughter.
Her life has always framed itself around helping people. A devoted mother and grandmother, she calls herself the “fix it lady” because everyone, including her children’s friends have always come to her to “fix it”. It followed her on into the corporate world as she excelled in sales, sales management and sales training for several national and international companies. She joined her husband in 2002 as the General Manager of his real estate business, contributing her knowledge and experience to the 800 realtors under their brokerage. Although she enjoyed the challenges, there was still something missing.
After making a tough decision, Sandra decided to leave the corporate environment and fulfill a 15 year dream that started with a friend who died from metastatic breast cancer before they could see it through together. Sandra and a few of her friends also began talking about what direction they each wanted their lives to take. Kalon Women was born as a way for us to reach out to other women sharing similar journeys to share our professional and life experiences, enriching one another along the way all with a touch of humor, which Sandra says is so important because as women, we forget how to laugh and play.
Kalon Women’s vision is to be a powerful voice for all women 40+ as we face challenges unique to our generation. The mission of Kalon Women is to provide answers and raise awareness of issues and causes that affect us, so that our generation of women will be stronger from knowledge gained, and the generation of women who follow in our path will hopefully find it less rocky. The articles, stories, poetry and other written expressions in Kalon Women are created by real women 40+. Written to inspire, help and perhaps provide a few laughs to all “women of a certain age”.
2. What do you enjoy most about your profession and why did you choose it in the first place?
I love what I do because I am able to reach so many women forty plus who are searching for answers or someone to say that what they are going through is normal and that they aren’t alone.
It really chose me over 15 years ago but it took me turning 50 and losing my co-founder to jump-start my desire to see it through.
3. Tell us about the organizations your company supports and why?
Our organization supports many facets of breast cancer awareness plus the Kidney Foundation since my mother died from complications stemming from kidney failure.
You can read our press release that just went out and has already received over 300,000 impressions.
4. What is the biggest risk you ever took professionally and/or the biggest obstacle you have overcome?
The biggest risk I’ve taken professionally is to leave the comfort of a full time job with full time pay to pursue my passion and to fulfill a dream started many years ago with a friend.
The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was learning all of the tools and social media sites necessary to promote my new venture.
5. From where do you draw inspiration? Who have been your role models, mentors, etc?
My inspiration comes from my friend Joanne. I know she’s guiding me through this process. It also comes from my children and grandchildren who encourage me every day.
My role model was my father. He was always a giver; reaching out to help those who couldn’t get there on their own.
6. How is the current economic situation affecting your company/organization?
It has affected it in the fact that with the downturn, everyone is holding on to every penny, nickel and dime so it’s been a struggle to build our paid membership site.
7. What one thing would you like to learn this year?
I am in the process of putting together a panel and women’s wellness conference on menopause/breast cancer that will pull all of the information together in one location so that women can find the answers they so desperately need. The learning curve is high and I have never put together a conference so it will be a challenge indeed.
8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself with 2 – 3 books published (one is under contract). We are forecasting triple numbers for our magazine subscribers as the economy pulls itself together. I see an annual conference being held in different states nationwide for Kalon National Women’s Wellness Expo. I see Kalon Women becoming the leader in information for women forty plus.
9. What do you do for fun/relaxation/entertainment?
I run 3-4 miles a day and use my Wii Fit not only for exercise but for fun. I go to the movies and dinner with good girlfriends and spend a lot of time laughing with friends. I spend as much time as possible with my kids and granddaughters. I write and write and write which brings me immense joy and is very relaxing.
10. Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
What is Kalön, you ask? It means Beautiful (Greek) but has more to do with what is on the inside rather than physical beauty. Everything…a garden or a tree, a piece of jewelry or a favorite walk–has its kalön and is beautiful or admirable after its own fashion. Something can be beautiful without being perceived or known as beautiful. It is our very inability to know everything about a given object that actually makes it beautiful.
Beautiful is an experience that grows out of curiosity, the paradox of knowledge and the infinite ability of the particular to continue to reveal itself in continuously new and interesting ways.
To shut down the work of beauty, one need only claim to know everything about a given particular–either that one knows definitively what it is, or that one knows it is most definitely nonsense. Either way, it ceases to hold our attention or to reveal new meanings and truths to us.
It is then up to us, to reveal new meanings and truths to hold our attention and to grasp the true meaning of Kalön within ourselves.
I hope you will explore, share, challenge and reveal the Kalön Woman in you.
11. Which, if any social networking sites do you belong to (feel free to include links)?
www.twitter.com/kalonwomen
www.facebook.com/home.php#/sandralevitin?ref=profile
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandralevitin
For more information visit: http://www.kalon-women.com
