Contemporary Authors

• How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama ( memoir) River Grove Books (Austin, TX), 2017

1. How to build a piano bench : lessons for success from a red-dirt road in Alabama LCCN 2017296786 Type of material Book Personal name Birch, Ruthi Postow, author. Main title How to build a piano bench : lessons for success from a red-dirt road in Alabama / Ruthi Postow Birch. Edition First edition. Published/Produced Austin, TX : River Grove Books, [2017] ©2017 Description 264 pages; 23 cm ISBN 9781632991089 (paperback) 163299108X (paperback) CALL NUMBER Not available Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms

• Ruthi Postow Birch Home Page - http://www.ruthipostowbirch.com/about-ruthi-postow-birch/

  RUTHI POSTOW BIRCH
  Ruthi Postow Birch is the author of HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH: LESSONS FOR SUCCESS FROM A DIRT ROAD IN ALABAMA, a speaker, a trainer, and the owner of a top-rated staffing firm in Washington DC. She also writes a blog and illustrates it with her own drawings and cartoons.

  With humor and the innate skill of a natural storyteller, Ruthi captivates and empowers her audience with an endless collection of candid stories of striving, resilience, and self-acceptance in hopes that people under pressure will find relief, and ultimately success, by staying in the moment and focusing on their next right step.

  Ruthi started gathering up her stories and lessons for success as a child growing up in a neighborhood that straddled the poverty line. The neighborhood was rich with down-home wisdom which was passed on to her by her mama, a no-excuses, independent thinker ahead of her time, her daddy, a charismatic blue-collar character, and the folks who lived in the dusty yellow mill houses. She spent hours sitting on rickety front porches, listening to the old folks tell her the stories of their lives, joys, worries, and travels, and incorporated them into her personal guidebook for understanding people.

  Ruthi’s story is one of overcoming obstacles to reach her goals. Her earliest goal was Daddy’s commandment to, “Get yourself off of Petain Street and make something of yourself.” But it came without a roadmap or instruction manual. As she struggled to understand her own goals and to find the right path for herself, she took several detours, before she finally found her career in Washington D.C. in the staffing business. There she overcame insecurities, fears, and her own flaws and mistakes to rise to the top of this competitive business. At the height of her career, and with three boys in school, Ruthi made the decision to start her own business. With only a limited bank loan and her own grit and drive, she went on to build her successful company.

  As part of the generation of women who believed they could have it all, while managing her career and building a business, Ruthi also raised three boys, each of whom is on his own successful path today.

  Ruthi is still active as a speaker, trainer, and CEO of her company. When she has a free minute she pursues her childhood passion, drawing cartoons and caricatures. She lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia with her husband, Ron Birch, and their soft-coated Wheaten terrier, Mr. Magoo.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthi-postow-birch-434542b/

  Ruthi Postow Birch
  3rd degree connection3rd
  CEO of Ruthi Postow Staffing, author, and inspirational speaker
  Ruthi Postow Staffing The University of Georgia
  Washington D.C. Metro Area 500+ 500+ connections
  InMail Send an InMail to Ruthi Postow Birch More actions
  Ruthi Postow Birch is the owner of a top-rated staffing firm in Washington DC. She is also a speaker, cartoonist, writer, and the author of How To Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success From a Red Dirt Road in Alabama, a speaker, and trainer.
  Ruthi’s story is one of overcoming obstacles to reach her goals. She started life in deep-south Alabama in a town that straddled the poverty line. Her first goal came from her daddy: “Get your education and make something of yourself.” She graduated from the University of Alabama, she taught middle school for two years in Braselton, Georgia, then moved to Washington, where she launched her career in the staffing business.
  Her company, Ruthi Postow Staffing, is known for quality administrative staffing, providing a service that is customized and personalized to give each client and candidate the best results and an excellent experience.

  Media (1)This position has 1 media
  Ruthi Postow Birch: Accepting Yourself, Flaws and All
  Ruthi Postow Birch: Accepting Yourself, Flaws and All
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  Words have power, and two of the most powerful are “NO PROBLEM.” Mal Johnson was a journalist and civil rights activist who lived her life by those words, and the life she had was magnificent!
  Ruthi shared this
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  Experience
  Ruthi Postow Staffing
  CEO and Author
  Company NameRuthi Postow Staffing
  Dates EmployedMar 2001 – Present Employment Duration17 yrs 1 mo
  LocationWashington, D.C.
  RuthiPostowStaffing, Inc. is a woman owned, boutique staffing firm that has been in business since 2001. We are a vibrant, growing company that provides temporary and permanent administrative employees for some of the areas leading associations and businesses.
  Over the years we have been selected one of the Future 50 Companies by SmartCEO Magazine and one of the Best Places To Work by the Washington Business Journal. Our values include integrity, quality, and humor.

  Ruthi Postow Staffing
  CEO
  Company NameRuthi Postow Staffing
  Dates EmployedMar 2001 – Present Employment Duration17 yrs 1 mo
  LocationWashington D.C.
  Ruthi Postow Staffing
  CEO
  Company NameRuthi Postow Staffing
  Dates EmployedMar 2001 – Present Employment Duration17 yrs 1 mo
  LocationWashington DC
  I spend a lot of my time building our team with people who enjoy sales, get off on other people’s energy, and love to make things happen. We have a great team of talented and motivated, but friendly and willing-to-help, people who work hard and have fun. I look for people who are smart and love to learn. Selling to business people, you learn about business, about hiring, about people – everything. Actually it's your job to learn and it's exhilarating. With a base salary plus unlimited commissions, you can earn the money to support the life you want. If we seem to fit you and you have a college degree plus two years of experience in a top-tier organization, contact me with your resume. Check out our website. www.ruthipostowstaffing.com

  Jackson County Middle School, Georgia
  Midddle school Teacher
  Company NameJackson County Middle School, Georgia
  Dates Employed1970 – 1971 Employment Duration1 yr
  LocationBraselton, Ga
  I taught history to middle school kids in an area in which poverty was the norm. Those kids taught me lessons that have been invaluable to me in my career and my life -- compassion coupled with respect for people doing the best they can. One important lesson was you can evaluate a person's needs and skills without judging the person. I also learned a lot about sales. You have to sell to hold the attention of 35 13/14-year-olds.

  Education
  The University of Georgia
  The University of Georgia
  Degree NameBS Field Of StudyHistory and education
  Dates attended or expected graduation 1967 – 1969

  Skills & Endorsements
  Recruiting

  See 48 endorsements for Recruiting48

  Endorsed by Amy Moyé Owusu and 2 others who are highly skilled at this

  Endorsed by 4 of Ruthi’s colleagues at Ruthi Postow Staffing

  Leadership

  See 40 endorsements for Leadership40

  Endorsed by Caroline Page and 1 other who is highly skilled at this

  Endorsed by 5 of Ruthi’s colleagues at Ruthi Postow Staffing

  Interviews

  See 35 endorsements for Interviews35
  Debbie Shapiro-Sawyer and 34 connections have given endorsements for this skill

  Industry Knowledge
  Temporary Placement

  See 29 endorsements for Temporary Placement29
  Blogging

  See 20 endorsements for Blogging20
  Sales

  See 18 endorsements for Sales18
  Social Media

  See 14 endorsements for Social Media14
  Human Resources

  See 14 endorsements for Human Resources14
  Technical Recruiting

  See 11 endorsements for Technical Recruiting11
  Hiring

  See 10 endorsements for Hiring10
  Temporary Staffing

  See 8 endorsements for Temporary Staffing8
  Resume Writing

  See 6 endorsements for Resume Writing6
  Staffing Services

  See 5 endorsements for Staffing Services5
  Writing

  See 4 endorsements for Writing4
  Business Strategy

  See 4 endorsements for Business Strategy4
  Small Business

  See 3 endorsements for Small Business3
  Strategic Planning

  See 3 endorsements for Strategic Planning3
  Executive Search

  See 2 endorsements for Executive Search2
  Analysis

  See 2 endorsements for Analysis2
  Strategy

  See 2 endorsements for Strategy2
  Tools & Technologies
  Applicant Tracking Systems

  See 13 endorsements for Applicant Tracking Systems13
  Interpersonal Skills
  Training

  See 23 endorsements for Training23
  Public Speaking

  See 14 endorsements for Public Speaking14
  Management

  See 6 endorsements for Management6
  Fundraising

  See 4 endorsements for Fundraising4
  Time Management

  See 4 endorsements for Time Management4
  Other Skills
  Talent Acquisition

  See 12 endorsements for Talent Acquisition12
  Social Networking

  See 9 endorsements for Social Networking9
  Humor

  See 1 endorsement for Humor1
  Interviewing and career planning

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  Recommendations
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  Given (1)
  Stephanie Giannori
  Stephanie Giannori
  Senior Communications Manager at Blank Rome LLP

  November 5, 2011, Stephanie reported directly to Ruthi

  Ruthi is the embodiment of creativity. Whether she is using it to recruit the ideal candidate for a client, or writing about the (mis)adventures of her staffing experiences and beloved dog, Mr. Magoo, on her blog "Three O'clock In The Morning", Ruthi always brings her whole heart and originality to the table (or computer!). Ruthi once told me that one of her favorite quotes is, "I can't hear what you're saying because who you are speaks so loudly." With her witty and entertaining new blog, I don't have to hear what she is saying, because what she writes "speaks" so loudly.

• AL.com - http://www.al.com/living/index.ssf/2017/10/dc_ceo_recalls_alabama_childho.html

  QUOTED: "Everything came from there. ... It's funny because even the most sophisticated lessons I've had, I got back on Petain Street."
  "I had time to dream. ... I think I was full of wonder. Everything was amazing."
  "I've made ADD into an art form. ... It's harder for me to focus in a group, so I turn inward and focus on me."
  "My screw-ups give other people very funny stories to tell. ... I tell employers I will make mistakes, but they will be heartfelt. They all seem to appreciate that."
  "I don't want people on Petain Street to die. ... I want them to live on. They are important. They're too valuable to let go."

  By Michelle Matthews mmatthews@al.com
  No matter where life has taken her, Ruthi Postow Birch always finds her way back to the house she grew up in on Petain Street in Prichard - in her mind, anyway. That's the place where she absorbed the wisdom that she writes about in her new memoir, "How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama."

  Ruthi, the founder and CEO of Ruthi Postow Staffing in Washington, D.C., hasn't been to Mobile in a decade or so. In a phone interview, the first thing she asks about isn't the people - she doesn't care who you know, or who's doing what. She wants to know if Bienville Square and the Ben May Main branch of the Mobile Public Library have changed.

  Those were two of her favorite places when she was a girl. She would walk all the way from her home in Prichard to Bienville Square, where she fed peanuts to the birds, or to the beautiful library that opened in 1928. She loved listening to one of the librarians tell tales of old Mobile.

  "Everything came from there," she says. "It's funny because even the most sophisticated lessons I've had, I got back on Petain Street."

  'Full of wonder'

  Ruthi's memoir is filled with memories of a simpler time growing up in the Mobile area in the 1950s. Her father, Norvelle Simmons, a former prizefighter, worked as a tugboat captain, and her mother, Eva May Simmons, was the head cashier at a grocery store.

  Her dad had been forced to quit school when he was just 12 years old and educated himself by buying a set of encyclopedias and "reading them from cover to cover," she says. He insisted that Ruthi was going to make something of herself one day - what he didn't give her was a plan to follow. Or so she thought at the time.

  And her mother was "one of the smartest people I've ever known," Ruthi says. Though she was a diminutive woman, Eva stands tall in her daughter's memory as a liberal thinker and born-again Christian who knew the Bible backwards and forwards.

  Ruthi recalls when her mother couldn't get a credit card in her own name at the JCPenney store in Prichard. She threatened to take her business to Sears in Mobile. "She would stand up to anybody," Ruthi says. "Everyone adored her."

  Her two older siblings were already teenagers when Ruthi was born, so she grew up like an only child. Since both parents worked, she had plenty of time to visit with the neighbors on their front porches, ride her bike without a care and lie in her driveway looking up at the stars - and that free time nurtured her imagination and creativity.

  She drew detailed pictures of "the Yellow-Haired Girl" that were images of her own future. She pretended to ride in a limo, drinking ginger ale "Champagne." "I had time to dream," she says. "I think I was full of wonder. Everything was amazing."

  Her neighborhood consisted of working-class people who were poor, but some on the other side of a ditch at the end of her street were even poorer, she says. "The poor houses had grass, and the poorer ones had dirt." She remembers calling hydrangeas "poor flowers" because they grew so abundantly in those dirt yards.

  "Now I have a yard full of hydrangeas," she says.

  'One next right step'

  The mother of three sons, Ruthi lives with her lawyer husband, Ron Birch, in Old Town Alexandria, Va., in a house that was built in 1760. Before that, her house in Georgetown was circa 1840. She says she "learned to love old buildings" in her childhood spent meandering around downtown Mobile.

  Her memoir is filled with vivid details of her childhood in the 1950s and 1960s. "I have a visual and tactile memory," she says.

  The story behind the title of the book is that her father built a piano bench for Ruthi after hers broke and he couldn't afford to buy a new one. He had no idea how to build a piano bench, and it took him three years - by then she had given up on piano lessons - but what he created is a piece of folk art that Ruthi treasures to this day.

  "There is always just one next right step," he advised his daughter. The piano bench became a metaphor for deciding upon a career when she didn't know what she wanted to do, and, later, for starting her own business.

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  Those hours spent on porches listening to her neighbors' stories helped shape her future. After graduating from Fairhope High School (her parents had moved across the bay by then), she earned a degree in education at the University of Georgia and taught school for two years in Braselton, Ga. There, she encountered students who were even poorer than she'd been. She then had a stint in art school, where she discovered she "wasn't Picasso," she jokes.

  When she went to a personnel agency to apply for a position - a secretarial job was the only thing for which a woman qualified in those days - she realized working at such an agency might be right up her alley. She describes herself as an introvert who prefers dealing with people one on one. Finally, the girl who'd grown up feeling "socially awkward" and "out of place" had found her calling.

  She had also always enjoyed competition, and when she started working at the personnel agency she immediately became successful by meeting goal after goal as she matched up employers and prospective employees.

  Ruthi shares that she was diagnosed with adult attention deficit disorder some 20 years into her career. "I've made ADD into an art form," she says, laughing. While she enjoys public speaking, she has always abhorred parties. "It's harder for me to focus in a group, so I turn inward and focus on me," she says.

  Throughout her memoir, Ruthi speaks candidly and often humorously about her personal and professional mistakes, which include falling flat on her face in the Dogwood Trail pageant as a teenager in Fairhope and later referring a candidate to a stock brokerage firm who had spent time in jail for embezzling.

  "My screw-ups give other people very funny stories to tell," she says. "I tell employers I will make mistakes, but they will be heartfelt. They all seem to appreciate that."

  Learning from mistakes was another of her father's lessons. "If it's somebody else's fault, you can't fix it," he told his daughter.

  Now that Ruthi has published her memoir, she's working on another one that she started writing the day her mother died. "It's based on her character and her humanness," she says.

  Every day, she carries the wisdom her parents and neighbors instilled in her back in the humble neighborhood in Prichard. "I don't want people on Petain Street to die," she says. "I want them to live on. They are important. They're too valuable to let go."

QUOTED: "breezy narrative."
"Postow Birch’s story isn’t flashy, but it will strike a chord with those hoping to chart a course to creating a bigger, richer life."

How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for
Success from a Red-Dirt Road in
Alabama
Publishers Weekly.
264.43 (Oct. 23, 2017): p78.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama
Ruthi Postow Birch. River Grove, $16.95 trade paper (282p) ISBN 9/8-1-63299-108-9
In a breezy narrative, Postow Birch tells of growing up in a poor 1950s Mobile County, Ala., mill town. She
dreamed of leaving the South and being on stage in New York, but was burdened with an almost
pathological level of insecurity. She felt abandoned by her adoring older siblings when they left home as
well as later in adolescence as she transformed from a cute kid to a sensitive teenager always conscious
about her weight. Using a philosophy her father lived by ("There is always just one right next step--you
know it because it's the only one that makes sense. Find that and do it"), Postow Birch learned two valuable
lessons: that people had stories to tell and just wanted someone to listen, and everyone appreciates even the
smallest of gestures that show someone is paying attention. With those thoughts in mind, she eventually
found fulfilling work as a recruiter at a personnel agency where she had to call strangers to get them to hire
her candidates. She explains how she derived great joy from talking and lending an ear, going on to found
her own recruiting agency in Washington, D.C. Postow Birch's story isn't flashy, but it will strike a chord
with those hoping to chart a course to creating a bigger, richer life. (BookLife)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama." Publishers Weekly,
23 Oct. 2017, p. 78. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512184221/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e367099a. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
3/3/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1520131707042 2/3
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512184221

QUOTED: "Birch maintains a rosy optimism and a keen knack for comprehending how
lessons from childhood can serve one throughout life."
"nostalgic yet highly relevant as a primer on building a firm and becoming a smart leader."

3/3/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1520131707042 3/3
Birch, Ruthi Postow: HOW TO BUILD A
PIANO BENCH
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 15, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Birch, Ruthi Postow HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH River Grove Books (Indie Nonfiction) $16.93 2,
15 ISBN: 978-1-63299-108-9
A debut author offers a business book disguised as a memoir. Growing up in a blue-collar Alabama town,
Birch may never have imagined she would start and run her own personnel recruitment firm. But one clue
to her self-made success was the lesson she learned early on from Daddy about building a piano bench: "He
said when something had to be done, it had to be done, whether he knew how to do it or not." In a story that
embraces much of that down-home wisdom, the author charts her childhood, delivering her recollections of
the knowledge imparted by family and friends, many of whom stand out as memorable, sometimes quirky
characters. As Birch matures, the reader witnesses her independent spirit evolving. She faced the typical and
not-so-typical challenges along the way, from enduring failed relationships to becoming a working mother
to realizing she had attention deficit disorder. Once she started her company, Birch remembered and applied
many of her youthful experiences: "Two things I'd developed as a child turned out to be keys to my success
in this business. One was how much I loved to win....The other was the fact that people would tell me
anything." That second point is illustrated by several amusing anecdotes about job candidates--and
employers--who do in fact share some remarkably intimate details with the author. The second half of the
charmingly introspective book concentrates largely on Birch's business escapades, some of which have her
interacting with well-known personalities like Eunice Kennedy Shriver. The author's richly adorned tales
about people, whether famous or ordinary, are a highlight of the work. The final chapter is told in the same
engaging style as the rest of the volume, but it cleverly interlaces 16 insightful "facts" with the narrative,
such as "Fact #8: Look at your weaknesses as well as your strengths and partner with someone who can fill
in your blanks." In these pages, Birch maintains a rosy optimism and a keen knack for comprehending how
lessons from childhood can serve one throughout life. Warmly nostalgic yet highly relevant as a primer on
building a firm and becoming a smart leader.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Birch, Ruthi Postow: HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217484/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9fff38a8. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504217484

"How to Build a Piano Bench: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama." Publishers Weekly, 23 Oct. 2017, p. 78. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512184221/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018. "Birch, Ruthi Postow: HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504217484/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 3 Mar. 2018.

• BookLife
  https://booklife.com/project/how-to-build-a-piano-bench-lessons-for-success-from-a-red-dirt-road-in-alabama-23566
  Word count: 360

  “Get an education, get off Petain Street, and amount to something.” These are the words that Ruthi Postow Birch’s father said to her when she was a little girl living on a red-dirt road in Pritchard, Alabama, a town that straddled the poverty line. And that is exactly what she did. How to Build a Piano Bench is Ruthi’s humorous and heart-warming story about growing up in southern Alabama, the life lessons she learned there, and how she applied that knowledge to build a successful business in Washington, DC. Full of anecdotes and advice on how to make both your strengths and weaknesses work to your advantage, this wonderful story will inspire and delight anyone who has ever had a dream to be something bigger than what they are.

  Reviews

  In a breezy narrative, Postow Birch tells of growing up in a poor 1950s Mobile County, Ala., mill town. She dreamed of leaving the South and being on stage in New York, but was burdened with an almost pathological level of insecurity. She felt abandoned by her adoring older siblings when they left home as well as later in adolescence as she transformed from a cute kid to a sensitive teenager always conscious about her weight. Using a philosophy her father lived by (“There is always just one right next step—you know it because it’s the only one that makes sense. Find that and do it”), Postow Birch learned two valuable lessons: that people had stories to tell and just wanted someone to listen, and everyone appreciates even the smallest of gestures that show someone is paying attention. With those thoughts in mind, she eventually found fulfilling work as a recruiter at a personnel agency where she had to call strangers to get them to hire her candidates. She explains how she derived great joy from talking and lending an ear, going on to found her own recruiting agency in Washington, D.C. Postow Birch’s story isn’t flashy, but it will strike a chord with those hoping to chart a course to creating a bigger, richer life. (BookLife)

• Patricia's Wisdom
  http://patriciaswisdom.com/tag/ruthi-postow-birch/
  Word count: 798

  QUOTED: "This book is just full to the brim with wonderful anecdotes and pieces of advise about how to build success. Start with being born right at the poverty line and using every piece of wisdom you are surrounded by to achieve your goals in life. ... There is lots of humor and compassion and discovery in the telling of a life and it was a pleasure to read."

  HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH: Lessons for Success from a Red-Dirt Road in Alabama: A MEMOIR ~Ruthi Postow Birch
  Monday, July 24th, 2017
  HOW TO BUILD A PIANO BENCH is a delightful memoir written by a woman who is a self made success. She always wanted to do something special and she wanted to be wealthy – and Ruthi Postow Birch did just that.

  This book is just full to the brim with wonderful anecdotes and pieces of advise about how to build success. Start with being born right at the poverty line and using every piece of wisdom you are surrounded by to achieve your goals in life. I will say for the author who enjoys poetry very much the words and tales found here are straight up for real, the extra adjective is not available nor is the metaphor a tool of play. There is lots of humor and compassion and discovery in the telling of a life and it was a pleasure to read.

  “Get an education, get off Petain Street, and amount to something.” (Daddy Postow)

  The author takes all the small things she learned as a little girl and points to how they helped her achieve a full and successful life. She loved to listen to the stories the people told on her street and she ascribes much of her future to those listening skills and compassion that developed her skill set for starting her own business. She never abandoned her parent’s lessons and used them as her strength and courage to keep moving forward. As a matter of fact she left the dorms in college to move back into her parent’s home in Georgia and this provided a foundation for her to discover her own learning style and succeed in college with honors. She did not come back to her parent’s wisdom; she never gave it up and learned the lessons forward. Her father was a tugboat captain and her mother was a grocery store clerk and a union representative (fierce southern woman)

  One of her father’s first and most lasting lessons was that there is always a right first step and if you can find that first step you are on your way to succeed. It was the right lesson the building of a piano bench for a young daughter, who was not going to be a successful pianist or musician, but was going to be a successful builder. Her parents were open to people and experiences and worked to give their youngest child a broad view of the place where she was located.

  Ruthi Postow Birch was not a mistake free person, and it took her several tries to find the right first step to a family and a career. She stumbled into her first job and shouted out that she loved “cold calling” and then became the queen of cold calling! It was from all those years of listening and hearing the stories of the folks on her street in Alabama that made her unafraid when the other’s hated this task. She was successful because she truly heard what the person on the phone was saying to her and she was able to make a connection.

  After she graduated from college a Psychologist friend helped her discover that Ruthi had A.D.D. and with that knowledge and study Ruthi was able to design her new business finding a partner who did the tasks that were difficult for her and polishing and shining up the parts where she excelled. She found a way to take risks and use them to her advantage when she looked for the first right step.

  One very good book sent to me for review by Larissa Ackerman

  More about the author:

  “ Ruthi Postow Birch is a successful business woman, author, and speaker who has made people her life’s work. In 2001, she founded Ruthi Postow Staffing, recruiting temporary and permanent employees for businesses in the DC area. She is the mother of three boys and currently lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband, Ron, their Wheaten terrier, Mr. Magoo, and a family of chimney swifts that return every spring to nest in their 18th –century chimney.”

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