Published May 2005

Women of Achievement

Linda Jones, general manager of the Tulalip Tribes
Carla Blazek, founder and owner of zena moon
Catherine Newman, head of Wells Fargo's North Puget Sound District
Deborah Phillips, founder of Coach-Parenting
Renee Quistorf, owner of Renee's Contemporary Clothing

Linda Jones — Tulalip Tribes
As general manager of the Tulalip Tribes, Linda Jones said she is exactly where she wants to be.

Linda Jones

“Being of service to my community is really the greatest honor I could have,” said Jones, who was named to the position in September 2003, bringing more than 25 years of administrative experience to the job, including seven years as a member of the tribes’ executive staff.

Just before being hired as general manager, Jones had a consulting business that focused on employment and training, with one of her clients being the state of Washington. When she decided to apply for the position, Jones said she felt confident about her ability and her commitment to the community to do the job right.

That job includes overseeing the tribal government, which employs some 550 people, with responsibilities as varied as working on the annual budget and approving agenda items for the tribes’ board meetings to being part of the creation of a long-range strategic plan for reservation land located west of Marysville.

During the past few years, the tribes’ board of directors has dissolved a couple of public commissions and rolled their functions under the tribal government’s umbrella, Jones said, including the Housing Authority, which had come under the scrutiny of federal housing officials for misspent grant money.

Under Jones’ leadership, an action plan was created to transition the Housing Authority into a tribal government department and a new housing program director was hired.

But along with all of the budget and regulatory duties that make up Jones’ day, at the end of the day it is a job composed of 90 percent “people work.”

“People access you whenever they see you. It’s really a 24/7 job. ... I have developed good boundaries, but understand the responsibilities of my job,” said Jones, who operates her office with an open-door policy.

Listening to the concerns of her community has helped Jones and the tribal government to better understand its needs — and act to meet those needs.

Such as opening a six-unit homeless shelter at a cost of about $250,000 in spring 2004. In the year since, the homeless shelter has become a transitional housing facility that the tribes are looking to expand, Jones said.

And the future of the tribes’ youth, which makes up more than half of the tribes’ 3,500 members, is a pressing concern for all members of the community — and the tribes have responded.

“We’ve developed our trust accounts for minors, so that our children will have something when they reach the legal age,” said Jones, noting that to receive those funds members may have to have earned their GED or high school diploma.

“We will learn as we go along,” she said of the fledgling program. On the other end of the spectrum is the need for senior care.

“We have a dream for developing a place for our elders,” Jones said. “We’d like to develop a small village of graduated independent living, assisted living and a nursing home.”

And she hopes to be general manager when that happens.

“This is the job I hope to retire from. I hope ... for all of the community to come together to strengthen and empower our community,” she said.

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Carla Blazek — zena moon
“I was absolutely terrified” is how Carla Blazek describes taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, when, in 1999, she left her job as a Web site producer for Microsoft to launch candle company zena moon.

Carla Blazek

For years, the Maltby-area resident had been making candles on weekends for family and friends, and she realized that she was happiest when creating new color and scent combinations and seeing the pleasure her candles gave to others.

It was that realization that gave her the courage to leave a 17-year stint in the high-tech industry and start a venture based in nurturing the human spirit, Blazek said.

“Honoring where you are — that’s what my candles are all about,” said Blazek, who operates a wholesale and Web-based retail business from her home, making hand-poured candles that combine color therapy and aromatherapy with crystal energy.

Candles such as “crabbiness-b-gone,” which is bright blue with black swirls, smells like rain and peppermint and contains the crystals hematite and howlite. Or “forgiveness,” a candle with white and forest green hues, the scent of ivy and lily of the valley and the crystals sodalite, garnet and rose quartz.

Blazek also packages her candles as part of gift sets to mark special occasions and relationships. The company’s best-selling “house blessing” set, for example, comes complete with a “happiness” candle, a sage bundle for energy cleansing, a suede bag with five pennies to scatter in the new house and a one-dollar bill to give to someone less fortunate.

The “house blessing” gift set proved to be a blessing for zena moon in late 1999, as it caught the attention of folks at Harpo Productions Inc., the media company that is home to Oprah Winfrey. That notice led to zena moon’s inclusion in the gift bags handed out at Winfrey’s “Live Your Best Life Tour,” a multi-city, self-help conference held in 2001 and attended by thousands.

“Sales spiked,” Blazek said. “The tour lasted a month, and on Saturdays, orders were just rolling in. It was so incredibly exciting.”

In the years since, the company’s customer base, which is international in scope and 99 percent female — has continued to grow along with sales, Blazek said, noting that in 2004, sales grew by 115 percent. And as always, a portion of those sales is donated to charity.

“I’ve been really lucky. I created something that I needed, and it’s really hit the hearts of a lot of people, too,” she said.

For more information on zena moon, call 360-668-6564, send e-mail to carla@zenamoon.com or go online to www.zenamoon.com.

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Catherine Newman — Wells Fargo
A self-described “accidental banker,” Catherine Newman has spent the past 15 years climbing the ranks in an industry that places a premium on goal-oriented individuals with a flair for customer service.

Catherine Newman

Newman, who began as a bank teller working her way through North Seattle Community College, said she knew right away that it was the industry for her.

“I found that I loved banking,” said Newman, who started her career at First Interstate Bank. “I’m a competitive person; I like being able to hit the goals while helping customers.”

Now the vice president and district manager for Wells Fargo’s North Puget Sound District, Newman continues to capitalize on her natural abilities. Today, however, her competitive spirit encompasses an 11-store region, and her people skills are put to use developing customer service excellence in the 97 staff members she leads.

“I do a lot of coaching. That’s my primary responsibility with people, providing one-one-one coaching with store managers on how to improve on customer service levels at specific locations,” the Lynnwood resident said.

While half of her time is spent coaching, the other half is taken up by sales and service planning with her peers, who head up 11 other districts in the Washington state region, said Newman, who works out of Wells Fargo’s Lynnwood office at 2628 196th St. SW.

Such planning takes into account the need to stay on top of customer needs by offering enhanced products and services expected of a financial services company that offers everything from mortgage and commercial loans to financial planning and insurance, she said.

And though the company is based in San Francisco, decisions that affect Washington state customers are made by Washington state team members, Newman said, adding that she works to attract and hire team members who live in the community they will serve.

It’s a philosophy of service that extends philanthropically as well, with team members donating their time to causes such as Everett-based Christmas House, and the Wells Fargo Foundation donating more than $120,000 to Snohomish County nonprofit organizations in 2004.

As for the future, Newman, who was promoted to her position in September after working as an Eastside market manager and team leader, said she wants to gain more experience in her current role before considering another possible move up the ranks.

“This is what I want to do,” she said with a smile.

For more information on Wells Fargo, go online to www.wellsfargo.com.

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Deborah Phillips — Coach-Parenting
“Be the parent you want to be, everyday” — that is no easy task when Junior decides to throw a tantrum in the grocery store, refuses to eat his broccoli or brings home a failing grade in algebra.

Deborah Phillips

But that is the motto and the passion of Deborah Phillips and the company she founded six years ago, Coach-Parenting.

“There are so many parents who kind of suffer in silence. They feel like they’re supposed to know how to do this and are a little embarrassed if things are not going well,” said Phillips, who entered the professional coaching field in 1999 after years as a prenatal genetic counselor.

At that time, she had been on a break from her professional life to spend more time with her children, now ages 8 and 6. Deciding she wanted a career on her own terms, she found coaching, which allowed her to use some of the skills she had developed as a genetic counselor while setting her own hours and working from her own home.

After graduating from The Coaching Academy, Phillips put her training to use by developing coaching practices geared toward parenting. She began offering services such as one-on-one coaching and group workshops as well as products such as a self-study certified parent program to help parents incorporate their own values into everyday parenting.

“All of the products are based on using coaching skills in parenting,” the Snohomish resident said. “Coaching skills are positive skills that bring out the best in someone” — in this case, both the parents and the children.

Coach parenting is not about offering cookie-cutter solutions to common dilemmas, Phillips said, but offering a set of skills that will help parents put their own beliefs into their parenting actions.

Since starting Coach-Parenting, Phillips has helped hundreds of parents from around the country via her Web site, www.coachparenting.com, and from across the Puget Sound region through regional workshops and symposiums.

She also has trained other coaches from around the globe in coach parenting, a need that seems to crop up throughout the childhood spectrum, said Phillips, whose career accomplishments earned her the title of Business and Professional Women/USA’s 2004 Young Careerist National Representative.

“Typically, when parents come to me, it’s at that transition point in their parenting. ... When children are 2 or 3 and start being more independent. It hits again at 7 or 8 and then at 12 or 13,” she said. “It’s when parenting styles need to change because the children have changed.”

For more information on Coach-Parenting, call 360-794-3879 or send e-mail to coachdeb@earthlink.net.

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Renee Quistorf — Renee’s Contemporary Clothing
When Renee Quistorf opened Renee’s Contemporary Clothing 12 years ago, her mission was twofold: to bring new designer labels for women to downtown Everett and, by doing so, to help rejuvenate the city’s core.

Renee Quistorf

“We wanted to help bring downtown Everett back to life,” said Renee, who moved to the area with husband Bill when he was transferred by the U.S. Army.

Prior to that, they had spent three years in Germany, planning — and saving — for a business venture of their own. The only question: What type of venture would that be?

Quistorf, who had been working at a bank while in Germany, had no retail experience, but she saw in Everett a market for contemporary fashion. She also needed a business that she could run alone, should Bill be called away for military duty. And so they took the plunge.

“At that time, it was a big deal for us, a big risk. We had never done this before, had never been in business, had never been in retail. I basically learned by doing,” Quistorf said.

She set up shop at a location on Hewitt Avenue and began building her fashion inventory, traveling to New York and Los Angeles and talking to other buyers as well as clothing store proprietors to stay on top of the latest trends. She also began sending out newsletters to her loyal customer base and holding twice-yearly in-store fashion shows to give clients a firsthand look at the newest clothing lines.

Quistorf also made it a point to create an environment in which customers could expect to be treated like old friends or dear relatives.

The combination seems to have worked, with Renee’s enjoying growth in both sales and customers each year since opening, and clients coming from all over the Puget Sound region.

In 2001, with a lease running out on their Hewitt Avenue space, the Quistorfs decided to buy a building of their own and moved Renee’s to its current location, at 2820 Colby Ave.

The visible location on bustling Colby has come with more foot traffic, and those stopping in for the first time might be surprised at the designer fashions on display, Quistorf said.

“I feel like my passion is to bring new clothing lines to Everett that people wouldn’t expect to find here,” she said.

Clothing lines from such designers as Carilyn Vale, known for her wrinkle-resistant, stylish looks for day or evening. And new this spring: the Paige Premium Denim jean label, which has been gaining buzz in the fashion press.

It’s by offering such high-quality designs, when combined with friendly service, that Renee’s is able to compete with big-chain retailers, said Quistorf, who has a store staff of three.

“We want to be the first place people come when they need clothes,” she said.

For more information on Renee’s, call 425-252-2230 or go online to www.reneesclothing.com.

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