Get ready for a burst of energy, Janes!  I’m thrilled to meet all of you and hope that you’ll follow us on a journey to build our dynamic Jane community into an extraordinary portal of female empowerment and fresh Home spirit around the world! 

They say I’m irrepressible (and they may be right!), but that’s just the spirit we want to unleash within all of our Janes, as we help you attain your home inspirations and ultimately achieve your life aspirations.  In the coming months, we’re going to welcome you to our new Home Power Portal for Women!

And Janes—get ready to roar!

Four years ago, Be Jane created a dynamic do-it-yourself community where women could inspire women to become empowered in their own homes.  We opened our online door and welcomed you into the conversation, where an entertaining exchange of DIY tips, tricks, and tutorials demonstrated how to transform your surroundings in surprising (and surprisingly easy) ways.

Your enthusiasm spread the word and made us the leading nationally recognized brand in the $80 billion female home improvement space -- and we became even more determined to help you make your life better.  Along the way, what we all realized is that once you’ve garnered the courage to improve your home, you develop the confidence to change your life. 

And that’s where things really got interesting, because together we defined the strong, independent woman of a new era:  Jane! 

Who is Jane?  She’s an impassioned, independent spirit who takes strength from her growing economic power in managing her home and then brings that confidence into the rest of her life to improve her world.  Wow!

We at Be Jane champion this inspiring spirit.  Our mission is to help you become stronger and happier by broadening your awareness of the increasing power of women in the world.  (Did you know that by 2010 women will own 60% of all the personal wealth in this country for the first time in history?  And we make 83% of all purchasing decisions in the US, to the tune of $6 trillion annually?) 

We also want to introduce you to meaningful social causes that help women, so that you can share your strength with others (which makes you even more powerful!) 
All of this positive mobilization serves as the backdrop for the valuable home aspirations and instructional material that we’ll provide to help you improve your immediate surroundings and enhance your family life. 

Sound ambitious?  Actually, it’s all easily within reach at Be Jane.  Absolutely every woman can be a Jane, so we want to help all of you soar like never before!

My own personal Jane moment came at a young age.  When I worked as one of the few female builders in this country, I was awakened to the powerful impact that creating the home of your dreams can have on the rest of your life.  I learned how to inspire others after discovering how intimidated women became in the male dominated home building and home improvement industries, and I simply loved overcoming their apprehension by holding their hands through the home planning/building process.  I could see that all of these women ultimately found the same work they shrank from tremendously gratifying in the end - especially once they were able to move into their homes and live out their dreams!   What really made an impression upon me is that in every case the process inspired these women to make some other significant change in their lives…. and then, of course, I was able to share in the excitement of those accomplishments as well. 

After I understood how many of us let fear and stereotypes deny us the deeply satisfying accomplishment of using our vision, imagination, and hands-on contributions to shape the intimate world of our homes, I knew that we had to figure a way to get a new message out in the world.  True joy and confidence radiates from seeing the fulfillment of a dream, and in the home industry the results are tangible and fun; it’s a great foundation from which to build your confidence.  Even if you only start with one small change, each improvement helps you gain control over your home environment, and you can create a snowball effect of positive momentum in your life.   My goal became to demystify and encourage the do-it-yourself spirit, because once we overcome this mental barrier, there’s nothing stopping us from tackling even more daunting projects in our personal lives and the world at large.

As the new Jane in town, I’m thrilled to lead this special community to the next level of cutting-edge interactivity and genuine empowerment.   I can feel the excitement of this Jane Power Movement in my bones; it’s tingling!  We’re expanding our reach to include a breadth of information, tools, services, and user-generated content across multiple home channels, including Home Improvement, Home Buying, Finance, Going Green, and more to come.  And wait until you see what we have in store for our own Mommy Jane--led by our very own founding Jane, Heidi Baker.

So come on in, grab a seat, and tell us your thoughts.  We’ll be unveiling our new look soon, and I guarantee you’ll want to join our cool neighborhood of inspiring women who will share, connect, and support one another as we power on at full charge!  The boys won’t know what hit ‘em, Janes – but they’ll love us for it!