AWE Featured Web Entrepreneur: Maria Pascucci

Name: Maria Pascucci

Company Name: Campus Calm

Title / Position / Role: President & Founder

Website URL: www.campuscalm.com

How did you get the idea for your business?

A perfectionist and stress-case through my high school and college years, I would have rather skipped an assignment than risk turning in a less-than-perfect paper. After years of denying myself happiness in an effort to strive for perfection, I graduated summa cum laude with a 3.92 GPA and fell into depression. I never once congratulated myself for graduating from college because all I could think about was the next task: Trying to prove myself in the real world!

Through soul-searching and counseling in the past six years since graduation, I ditched my need to be perfect and began focusing on what I WANTED, not what my family and friends thought I needed. It was the most liberating thing I’ve ever done - and it paved the way for the success and happiness I enjoy today.

Now I’m on a mission: To spread a dose of “Campus Calm” to stressed-out high school and college students world-wide so they don’t have to suffer needlessly like I did.

What are your primary products and services?

In January 2008, we are launching a brand new International Campus Calm University membership program - where students meet world-wide to grow, share, learn, have fun, network, connect and succeed together. We are actually running a pre-launch discount for anyone who wants to join in the month of December. Campus Calm U is an international member benefit program designed to help students and new grads gain all the “real world” life and success skills they need but aren’t taught in the classroom.

Peek inside the 2008 Campus Calm U syllabus:

January: Life 101
February: Time Management 247
March: Nutrition 123
April: College Planning 132
May: When Reality Hits 365
June: Twenty Something Survival 209
July: Career Planning 405
August: Taking Charge of Your Mental Health 235
September: The Myth About School Stress 311
October: Youth Entrepreneurship Secrets 335
November: Finance Secrets 333
December: Celebrate YOU 365

Members will have access to monthly audio classes, checklists and special discounts on products and services courtesy of Campus Calm’s Student Success and Happiness Experts.

What tools have helped you the most in getting your business started?

1. A mentor (like Sheri McConnell).
2. A belief in myself and a commitment to reach my dreams.
3. My passion for writing and marketing.
4. My “old” spirit trapped in a young body. A business associate remarked that I have a unique window of opportunity to spread my message because I’m young & hip enough where the students will still listen to me but I’m mature enough to get the parents and educators to take me seriously. I’m playing that to my advantage!
5. My overworked and much appreciated husband Shaun – an AMAZING graphic designer and an equally AMAZING husband. Campus Calm was awarded an APEX 2007 Award Of Excellence in the “New Web & Intranet” category - an honor that would not have been possible without Shaun.
6. My best girlfriend, Lisa Nasca, who is a fabulous graphic designer and marketing consultant. I’d invite Lisa to my apartment, cook her dinner, and then pump her for conceptualization advice. Whenever Lisa leaves my apartment, my poor husband has more design work to do!

What tools do you use now on a daily basis that you couldn’t go a day without?

1. My imagination.
2. My Student Success & Happiness Experts who are my business confidants, mentors and friends.
3. My Apple computer (have to thank technology for making my job possible).
4. My surveys that are on the Campus Calm website. These surveys help me design current and future products that directly solve my customers’ problems.
5. My husband’s design skills (he also keeps me grounded as well when I start chasing too many rainbows at once and get overwhelmed).

If you could share one piece of advice for anyone starting their own business, what would it be?

There is a lot of pain, suffering and fear in this world, as the media happily portrays to keep their ratings up. But if you can use your talents to create a business that makes this world a better place for yourself and others, go for it! Dream big, trust in your ideas and find your ideal niche – the kinds of customers who are a joy to work with. Do what you love, play to your strengths, invest in the right mentors and the money will follow.

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