Introduction of Phebe as read by Dr. Ann Stuart,
Chancellor and President of Texas Women's University Phebe Phillips has been designing and manufacturing exquisite soft toys and "couture" characters for over 25 years. Considered "the Coco Chanel" of the toy world, Neiman Marcus has showcased her designs since 1984. She is a very exclusive designer with a distinguished clientele of collectors and celebrities whose names you know. Inspired by Bunny, a special stuffed rabbit she was given at age 4 and just out of college, she began on the floor of her small apartment and grew her creativity into a three million dollar company with her designs carried by FAO Schwartz, Victoria's Secret, J.C. Penney, Michael's and many others.
Her charitable donations reach around the world. She began working with Farm Aid in the early 1980s, filling the lives of disadvantaged children with toys. Phebe has been involved with Russian children suffering Cranial Facial Disorders and during the Bosnia crisis she worked with CNN to share her toys with refugee children forced to evacuate their homes. For many years, Phebe has given toys to disadvantaged children attending the White House Easter Egg Roll. In 2008, she was honored with the Richard Sale III award for donating toys to children in need and the organizations that serve them. In her illustrious career, her creativity has generated an estimated $500,000.00 in donations. Currently, she is pursuing taking her most intriguing characters and writing them into story to be published in storybooks and children's media. She is also pursuing her graduate degree in Clinical Nutrition and plans to advocate on behalf of hungry children all over the world.
This is such a great day. What an honor to share in this wonderful event in your lives.
I want to thank Dr. Ann Stuart, Chancellor and President of Texas Women's University for inviting me to be here.
Most importantly, I want to thank TWU for insisting I wear this robe. I didn't have to shop for a dress or worry about what to wear.
GRADUATES!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
You have done something wonderful for yourselves.
Today, you create a legacy for you and your family. Your parents and supporters can brag all about you, you...yes, you can brag on yourself. Most importantly, your children can check the box that their mom or dad is a college graduate. You have now become a bigger role model for them, and they, because of you, will seek a higher education.
In short, you just changed the world!
Change is why I have been asked to be here today. I want to tell you about my life and the unexpected and ever changing opportunities that come everyone's way. Hence, the title of this speech; "Everything is Perfect...I Changed."
I graduated from Southern Methodist University with a degree in Film and Journalism. I chose it because my mom thought I would look really good on television. My first job was at Channel 5 in Dallas. I arrived on my first day around 7:30 and by lunch wondered what I had done. I knew of every crime in the city, phoned the county morgue several times a day for updates and drove home that evening to add another lock on my door. I didn't last that long in the business...I changed!
I was an only child of entrepreneurial parents and as a kid I lived in a very creative, imaginary world. I had all kinds of animal friends that existed only in my mind. After college, I was young, my cost of living was low, the news career was over and I had no commitments to anyone, I decided to follow my heart and my imagination. I began my toy company in 1983 with six bear samples...not that I liked bears, I really preferred rabbits and cats, but at the time, bears were the most popular gift item that stores wanted to buy. I hired sales rep groups all over the nation to sell my products. This means that I loaded my bear samples into a huge duffle bag, went into the Dallas Market Center and showed my samples to every sales group that would look at them until I found the group that was the perfect match to sell my products. Several months passed and after they were pleased with my sales, I asked them to recommend me to other sales groups at all the leading markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and New York. I was around twenty-one years old and my business was born!
My big break came in early 1984 when the buyer for Neiman Marcus called. The Republican National Convention was coming to Dallas and she wanted to know if I had elephants. I excitedly replied; "Of course I did!" Well, I didn't...I had only six bears in my line. So with fearless thinking, I loped all the heads off the bears, sewed elephant heads on, and was in her office the next morning...with elephants. I had my other samples with me and she bought the whole line. The relationship and business never stopped growing.
I set up my production locally around the Fair Park area of Dallas. The eighties were all about growth and creativity. The nineties brought increasing pressure to take my production to China. My suppliers were closing in the U.S. and moving overseas, retailers were demanding cheaper products and my profits were dwindling with every shipment. I have a very high standard for how my product is made and a very involved management style. I had been present for every product we produced and so had most of my employees, whom had been with me from the beginning. How do I do this? It was a difficult time both emotionally and financially. I made certain my employees had other jobs...I changed!
At the end of 2000, I began production overseas. It was going to be perfect. The move allowed me to bring costs down and increase production. Not being involved in the day-to-day allowed my creativity to flow. I was able to compete like never before. The buyer for Victoria's Secret was shopping at a boutique in New York and found my product. She called to see if I could produce for them...and of course, I could...game on! Our first-ever shipment, from China, for Neiman Marcus and boutiques got on the water (that means large quantity of finished toys on the ship coming to the U.S.) The first product for Victoria's Secret was in the beginning stages of production... 9/11 happened. If all of my orders didn't cancel they got cut in half. Victoria's Secret cut their order from 40,000 pieces to 20,000 pieces. For three weeks, after 9/11, every time the phone rang my hand shook...I changed!
Retail was so beaten down by the fears brought by 9/11, that for the following two years everything would have to be very easy to sell. My wildly creative production turned to animals and colors that were limited to only the best sellers. It was time to play safe. That meant that everything had to be pink or white and only a bear, rabbit or cat. Around 2005, everything came back. Buyers wanted more creative products...again...game on!
Then in 2008 and 2009 the U.S. economy tanked...retail dwindled and a new toy regulation was enacted in response to the poor quality and mass quantity oversights by some really big toy companies. This new law raises the testing price for each product and in some cases, doubles or triples the costs. For some small companies, it can cost one year of total revenue just to meet the requirements of this law. The law is for any product marketed to a child age twelve and under and for any product made anywhere...even here. It has frozen many small and midsize companies leaving the companies that caused the problems in the first place as some of the only companies that can afford to stay in business. Financially, it caused me to temporarily halt my business...I changed!
Why am I here today speaking to you about toys, because I am one of you. I just finished my Chemistry final yesterday...I changed!
I met Dr. Stuart around 2006. She would often ask about my business (which was fine, at the time) and somehow became aware that in my free time I read health magazines and nutritional journals. In the early part of 2008, we passed each other in a hallway...she looking elegant, going somewhere and I, with an armload of magazines. That moment forever changed my life...she was standing at the elevator when I looked back at her...she said, "Phebe, why don't you actually study it instead of reading articles about it. We wrote the book on nutrition, I'll send you some information"...and then the kicker! "You have another thirty-years of great work...what are you going to do with it?...why don't you grow?" Those words swirled in my head daily and she was dead right.
A few months later my husband and I decided to relax by the ocean and hike in the hills of New Port and Laguna Beach, California. We arrived on a Saturday for what was to become one of the most horrific events in our lives. Mac got a very toxic food poisoning which lead to a bowel obstruction. (I have since googled it and 6000 people a year die from this) He was losing consciousness, turning yellow and as a relatively thin guy had almost instantly swollen to appear eight months pregnant. As we entered the ER at Hoag Memorial Center, I was asked what kind of chaplain I needed. There was a possibility he wasn't going to make it. I never let go of his feet. I thought if I held tight enough he wouldn't be taken. Heaven was going to have to wrestle me for him. After eighteen hours of stomach pumping, bags and bags of fluid, morphine, tubes going in every direction and days in the hospital...today he is fine...I changed!
At the time, the new toy regulation (the one I just told you about), that currently has my toy line on hold, had not yet happened. However, it had become evident that my business was getting more difficult to run. It required the factory in China, far, far away, to make a perfect product, buyers in the U.S. to buy for their stores and a customer to buy it for my company to be successful and profitable...events totally out of my control. The reality that I could be left alone in the world with such an uncertain future frightens me...I changed!
I enrolled in classes to get all the prerequisites needed for a Master's in Clinical Nutrition. I am still in the prerequisite part and will begin the Master's in a year or two. After this much time and effort, I have full plans for a Doctorate. I chose nutrition because it is interesting. It is a field with endless and ageless possibilities, for those next thirty years that Dr. Stuart mentioned. It is portable, useful anytime, anyplace and gives me an independence that I desire.
You have all made a fabulous choice! Not only have you changed yourself and your world by graduating today, you can rule the world, because those that produce, prepare and handle the world's food supply, control the world. Health depends upon nutrition more than any other single factor and as Gandhi said, "Man becomes what he eats."
As for me, along with school, a new toy line is being developed and I am transforming my characters into storybooks soon to be published and hopefully brought forth to live in the world of children's media. I am also creating different products for other stores outside of the children's market. I stand before you as an example that change will be with you your entire life, that one is never too old or set in their ideas to change and on occasion a glass of lemonade, made from life's lemons, can taste pretty good. Change is the rudder that guides each person's destiny and advanced education increases independence and reduces uncertainty. Your degree is yours forever. It is something that money cannot walk up and buy...it is only earned by you. It will not be diminished in times of poor health nor reduced in economic downturns. It stands solid as a great achievement. When change happens it will give you more options. If you are receiving your Bachelor's, consider a Master's. If you are receiving your Master's, consider a Doctorate and if you are receiving your Doctorate, I salute you. For those of you listening, wishing you could start college or go back to college...you really can...it just takes some changing. As you encounter change, I encourage you to adopt the choice of one of my book characters. She is born into a stark, black and white world. To become what she wants and needs to be she changes her thoughts...which changes her perspective...which changes herself...which changes her world!
I wish you all a life of health, clarity and the courage to face life's changes and grow!
Dear Reader,
Yes, my history is in toy design and if you have read or heard my commencement address at Texas Women’s University then you are aware of the changes that are in my life. Many of you ask about my personal life beyond what is written in a general bio sheet. Books reveal so much about a person. What they read is many times who they are. So, as you see my book selections, you will learn more personal details than a “business” bio reveals. I have a daily home yoga practice. I spend a minimum thirty minutes to one hour in “Aum” meditation daily inspired by my guru, the late, Paramahansa Yogananda. For the same reason that I read books that encourage me to make better choices each day, I also do not see movies that promote negative, psycho, fearful death imagery. I believe the words and images you allow to enter your mind can either tear you down or build you up...I choose to be built up! The same truths hold for my food preferences. My husband and I lived two years as unwavering vegetarians. Today we still prefer a mainly organic, vegetarian diet that is consumed 60% to 70% raw.
I live a very minimalistic lifestyle in the downtown area of Dallas, Texas with my husband, Mac Hargrove. We live in a very small space with very little furniture. Great art hangs on the walls and since we are on the top floor looking west, we see the sunset each night...it is mesmerizing and magical! (see art online) One day we realized that the more stuff we had, the more time and energy we spent maintaining and worrying about our stuff. In the last three years we have downsized our life allowing us more time to place our energy into creative thoughts and things we truly enjoy. Mac is a financial adviser and is also a fabulous cook! He has his yoga teaching certification and for his own personal growth takes chef classes at night. We have a standard poodle named Henry.
Mac Hargrove and Poodle Henry Franklin Hargrove
White Pearl & I, "A memoir of a political refugee" by Svetlana Kim.
First of all, Lana, as I call her, is a very dear friend of mine and a great inspiration. Her book is an amazing journey of her life. Her destiny arrived in a black Mercedes on a freezing Leningrad afternoon as she stood waiting in a bread line. The former classmate at the wheel of the car offered her what was to so many Russians the only opportunity out of their meager Communist existence: a one-way plane ticket to America. She arrived in New York City with only a dollar in her pocket, speaking not a word of English. White Pearl is the name of her grandmother. Her book is available on www.amazon.com and her website www.svetlanakim.com. She resides in Washington D.C. and is a positive thinker with an incredible life!!!! We should all be blessed with such friends!
The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn by Florence Scovel Shinn
This book was given to me several years ago by a Huna Shaman and I have treasured it ever since. Here, in one volume, are the four collected works of one of America's most beloved and bestselling inspirational authors. The most famous work in the volume, The Game of Life and How to Play It, was written in the 1920s. Shinn reveals the message that you can create anything you want simply by aligning your thoughts and words with the perfect good that resides divinely within you. Combined with the powerful affirmations found in Your Word is Your Wand and the stirring examples of real-life successes in the other two volumes, The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn provides a complete guide for learning how to turn defeat into victory, lack into prosperity, fear into faith and resentment into love. Available online and at most booksellers.
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) is widely regarded as one of the preeminent spiritual figures of the twentieth century. Born in northern India, he came to the U.S. in 1920, where for more than thirty years he taught India's ancient science of meditation and the art of balanced spiritual living. Autobiography of a Yogi was selected as one of The 100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century. Yogananda describes his experiences and training with modern-day saints and illumined masters of India, and explains with scientific clarity the subtle but definite laws by which yogis perform miracles and attain self-mastery. Profoundly inspiring, it is at the same time entertaining, warmly humorous and filled with extraordinary personages. Available online and at most booksellers. In his life, Yogananda wrote many books...all of which are enlightening and fascinating...I have read almost all of them! Visit his site www.yogananda-srf.org.
Living Fearlessly "Bringing Out Your Inner Soul Strength" by Paramahansa Yogananda
This is one of my favorites from Yogananda's How-to-Live series. A very tiny pocket book, only 76 pages...mine is always in my handbag, highlighted, marked up and tattered. This little book has practical keys for creating a life of balance, harmony and well-being. Through the practice of meditation and the universal principles of right action and right attitude, we can experience every moment as an opportunity to grow in awareness of the Divine. Living Fearlessly is a testament to what we can become if we but have faith in the divinity of our true nature as the soul. Available at all booksellers or visit his website www.yogananda-srf.org.
The Law of Success "Using the Power of Spirit to Create Health, Prosperity and Happiness" by Paramahansa Yogananda
A very tiny book, 3 ½ x 5 inches, 34 pages. This along with Living Fearlessly are always in my bag...everyday! Yogananda helps you move through obstacles and understand them by understanding your habits and your thoughts. Available at all booksellers or visit his website www.yogananda-srf.org.
The Food Revolution "How Your Diet Can help Save Your Life and Our World" by John Robbins
This is the book that started it all for us. We were eating lunch in Fort Worth, Texas at a vegetarian restaurant called the Spiral Diner. They had books on the tables. Mac picked up this book to look at it. At the time, we were not vegetarians. We just stopped in because we had heard good things about the restaurant. Well, we almost couldn't eat lunch for passing this book back and forth reading pages to each other. This is when we began our two year adventure in the vegetarian world. This book will give you amazing (for us, it was life-changing) information about genetically modified foods, mad cow disease and the health effects of the food you eat. It is a carefully researched, mind-altering, paradigm-shifting book. Visit his site www.foodrevolution.org. This book and others by him are available at all booksellers.
Apple Cider Vinegar "Learn Powerful Health Qualities for a Longer, Healthier, Youthful Life" by Paul C. Bragg, N.D., Ph.D. and his daughter, Patricia Bragg, N.D., Ph.D.
I thought this was the strangest book ever when I first picked it up. I've read it several times along with their many other books. They offer some of the best information. Their products are high quality. We use them every day. We got our books at Whole Foods. Visit their site at www.bragg.com.
Get Naked Fast! "A Guide to Stripping Away the Foods that Weigh You Down" by Diana Stobo
Look at her photo on the book! Can you believe she once weighed 247 lbs?!? Diana is a culinary artist and raw food advocate who healed herself through food. She is living proof that eating LIVE food will bring you a life of health, vibrance and beauty. This book was recommended on the www.Bragg.com website. We ordered it from Amazon.com and it has been one of the best and easiest books to work from that we have ever had. Visit her website at www.DianaStobo.com.
Your Body's Many Cries for Water
"You Are Not Sick, You Are Thirsty" by F. Batmanghelidj, M.D.
(The cover may have changed since I got my copy). My first yoga instructor suggested I get this book. Am I ever lucky to have such a yoga instructor! Water is the basis of all life and that includes your body. Your muscles are 75% water; your blood is 82%water; your lungs are 90% water; your brain that is the control center of your body is 76% water...even your bones are 25% water. When the Iranian Revolution broke out in 1979, Dr. B. was placed in the infamous Evin Prison as a political prisoner for two years and seven months. It was there he discovered the healing powers of water...it was all he had to work with! One night, Dr. B. had to treat a fellow prisoner with crippling peptic ulcer pain. With no medications available, Dr. B. gave him two glasses of water. Within eight minutes, his pain disappeared. While in prison Dr. B. successfully treated 3000 fellow prisoners suffering from stress-induced peptic ulcer disease with water alone. Evin Prison proved an ideal "stress laboratory" for conducting extensive research into the medicinal effects of water in preventing and relieving many painful degenerative diseases. Despite his being offered an earlier release, Dr. B. chose to stay an extra four months in prison to compile his research. On his release from prison in 1982 he escaped from Iran to America where he continued to research the effects of chronic unintentional dehydration on the human body. He found that the body signals its water shortage by producing pain. Dehydration actually produces pain and many degenerative diseases including asthma, arthritis, hypertension, angina, adult-onset diabetes, lupus and multiple sclerosis. His research can be read on the website www.watercure.com. His books are available there and at all book sellers.
The Spectrum "A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel better,
Live Longer, Lose Weight and Gain Health" by Dean Ornish, M.D.
Mac's weight and cholesterol were a bit high. This book was recommended. It has valuable information for everyone. Deepak Chopra, M.D., sums it up nicely, "In this book, Dr. Dean Ornish continues to establish himself as a pioneer in the medicine of the future. He breaks well-established myths in the field of biology by showing scientifically that heart disease is reversible, that certain types of cancer are preventable, and that even your genes can be made to change their blueprint for your destiny through lifestyle changes that are fun and enjoyable and energizing." The book is life-saving and life-transforming. Available at all booksellers. Visit the website founded by Dr. Ornish at www.pmri.org. (pmri is Preventive Medicine Research Institute).
Eat to Live "The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss" by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.
I like books that scientifically back up what they say! The title is true...isn't this really why and what we should be eating! We should all Eat -to-Live, not just fill up on fast food junk because we have no time and failed to plan something better for ourselves. Dr. Fuhrman uses scientific information from thousands of research studies and compiles the most effective and healthiest dietary approach possible. Available at all booksellers. Visit his site at www.drfuhrman.com.
Clean, "The Humble Art of Zen-Cleaning" by Michael de Jong
Yes, the perfect house cleaning book and you know I would have this on my list!!!! In 1987, Michael moved to New York with a cat and a single piece of luggage to become an artist. He began cleaning apartments for extra cash to supplement his income from art sales. He soon realized the overexposure to household cleaning products was making him sick. According to ancient Chinese philosophy, the universe is divided into dual energies called the yin and the yang. From the dynamic interaction of yin and yang come the five elements or energy fields; wood, fire, earth, metal and water. This concept extends to Chinese cooking, which also has five elements; sour, bitter, sweet, spicy and salty. Zen-Cleaning also has five elements that depend on one another for an amazing chain reaction and interaction. The five simple ingredients are baking soda, borax, lemon, salt and white vinegar. They are all pure, wholesome, natural and none of them will hurt you, your family or your pets. I read about this book in a magazine and promptly bought...one to keep and nine others to give to friends. Michael de Jong has brilliantly cataloged how to clean all types of items. This is the best and easiest cleaning book or shall I say bible in the world! I will never buy silver polish again. His intro about his life and history is totally humorous and entertaining. Visit his website: www.zencleansing.com also available on Amazon.
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