• Columnists

Hope Katz Gibbs, Founder, The Inkandescent Group

PUBLISHER, BE INKANDESCENT MAGAZINE
PRESIDENT, THE INKANDESCENT GROUP, LLC

Prior to founding Inkandescent Public Relations in 2008, Northern Virginia freelance writer Hope Katz Gibbs worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. After studying for her master’s degree in Educational Leadership at The George Washington University, she launched her freelance writing business in 1993.

25 years experience as a journalist —,Hope’s articles have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Miami Herald, The Costco Connection, The National Press Club’s Wire, and dozens of association, business, education, and general interest magazines, and many alumni publications including her own alma maters, the University of Pennsylvania and The George Washington University. See more on her freelance writing website, www.hopegibbs.com.

Awards — To date, Hope has won two awards for feature writing from the Florida Magazine Association, and six other honors for newsletter writing and design from the National School Public Relations Association. She has been listed in Who’s Who in Media & Communications since 1989, and Who’s Who of American Women since 1993.

Foray into PR — In 2002, she landed a job as the director of communications with the City of Fairfax Schools to help Superintendent George Stepp and the City School Board pass an $86 million bond to rebuild Fairfax High and Lanier Middle School. She launched City Schools Close-Up, an eight-page newsletter filled with articles and photos that helped the community learn more about the good work going on in the schools. The bond passed by 81 percent and Hope began working full-time with the superintendent and architects to coordinate the construction project.

She continues to work with the City Schools today, and in November 2009 her company launched a new website for the School Board: www.cityoffairfaxschools.org.

When the schools construction project was completed in 2006, she began doing PR for the futurist research and consulting firm Social Technologies. Her media outreach efforts helped get the staff onto CBS’ “The Early Show” three times (for reports on the Future of Men, the Future of Youth Happiness, and Helicopter Parents), MSNBC, Fox News, and ABC. The futurists were also quoted regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Washingtonian magazine, Business Week, TV Week, and others.

The Inkandescent Group, LLC

InkandescentPR — In 2008, Hope founded Inkandescent Public Relations, a PR, publications, media relations, marketing firm that helps small businesses get the visibility they need. Along with her award-winning team, she creates high-end marketing materials, writes and edits press releases, newsletters, and white papers, and works closely with reporters to help get the word out about her clients.

Hope also plans and organizes events, co-writes and ghostwrites books, and maintains her clients’ websites so they are up-to-date and provide an accurate, impressive image. Learn more about Inkandescent Public Relations: www.inkandescentpr.com.

Be Inkandescent Magazine — In January 2010 she launched Be Inkandescent Magazine: The ezine for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. It features columns by her clients and other entrepreneurs, as well as the Entrepreneur of the Month.

Inkandescent Books — Hope is working on developing a book publishing entity for The Inkandescent Group, LLC, which she incorporated in January 2010. The first title, “100 Truly Amazing Women Who Are Changing the World,” will be written by Hope, designed by Michael Gibbs, and photographed by Steve Barrett. Be on the lookout for more information on that title.

View Hope’s published journalism clips www.hopegibbs.com.

Send Hope an email: hope@inkandescentpr.com.

It is possible to fail in many ways…while to succeed is possible only in one way.”

– Aristotle

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”

– Henry Miller

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.”

– President Calvin Coolidge

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”

– Andrew Carnegie

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”

– Brian Tracy

Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.”

– Corita Kent

There is little success where there is little laughter.”

– Andrew Carnegie

A people who mean to be their Governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

– James Madison

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

The dove descending breaks the air / With flame of inkandescent terror.”

– T.S. Eliott

You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough.”

– Mae West

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Some things are destined to be—it just takes us a couple of tries
to get there.”

– J.R. Ward, Lover Mine

We are perfectionists. We are hungry to work all the time. We are entertained by every aspect of business and we never want to stop working.”

– Suzy Welch

The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

– Buddha

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”

– John Lennon

As each woman realizes her power, she transforms the world.”

– Patrice Wynne, WomanSpirit Sourcebook

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,
 what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

– Robert Frost

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

Don’t follow your dreams. Chase them.”

– Richard Dumb

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”

– Seneca

Inspiration and genius — one and the same.”

– Victor Hugo

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”

– Charles R. Swindoll

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. 
Now put foundations under them.”

– Henry David Thoreau

A truly forgiving person is someone who experiences all the anger merited by injustice and still acts with fairness and compassion.”

– Martha Beck

What is the point of having free will if one cannot occasionally spit in the eye of destiny?”

– Jim Butcher, White Night

My task is really not to change myself but to become familiar with who I am.”

– Maureen Cook

Speaking more than one language is no longer just an asset in today’s job market; it is a requirement.”

– Tom Adams, CEO, Rosetta Stone

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

The best reason to start an organization is to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”

– Guy Kawasaki

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do.
 Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

– Ella Fitzgerald

How do you stay resilient? It’s about momentum. Like riding a bicycle. If you stop you fall over. So I keep pedaling.”

– Diane Lane

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

– Anais Nin

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

– Eckhart Tolle

Running that first shop taught me business is not financial science; it’s about trading.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing.”

– Warren Buffett

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

I’ve come to confirm that one’s title, even that of president, says little about how well one’s life has been led. No matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, to learn, and to achieve.”

– Barack Obama

You may ask me for anything you like except time.”

– Napoleon

Do one thing every day that scares you.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.”

– Joseph Addison

To find what you seek in the road of life, leave no stone unturned.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”

– J. Robert Oppenheimer

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”

– Abraham Lincoln

When I was younger I thought success was being a star, driving nice cars, having groupies. But today I think the most important thing is to live your life with integrity.

– Ellen DeGeneres