She was a ‘devastatingly shy’ Army brat who lived in 11 different locations as a child…makes an average of one motivational speech a month somewhere around the country…used to kick box…dotes on her 13-year old son…has won a pile of awards…and is the incoming President of the South Jersey chapter of NAWBO.
  If you’ve ever met Sandy Spadaro, the last word you might expect to find attached to her would be “shy.” In fact, almost every statement Sandy makes is high energy and punctuated with her trademark laugh.
  But this only child of an Army MP, who describes herself as “passionate” and “genuine,” says that “always being the new kid” eventually turned her into a woman who is “not afraid of something new.”
  “Dad was a Major in Army and kept us moving from state to state until high school in Yardley PA.  Though I didn’t see it this way at the time, my youth presented the opportunity to learn about the positive powers of change and adjustment.”
  Divorced and the doting mother of a 13-year old son, who is at what she calls the “whatever” stage, Sandy is the principal at Cherry Hill-based SS Marketing Solutions. A full service marketing firm with a virtual staff, Sandy’s company specializes in serving the small-to-medium sized market in the tri-state region.
  Professional accolades are frequent for Sandy who has recently been named one of South Jersey’s Top Business Women, has been recognized as an “Outstanding Woman of Burlington County” by the Burlington County Advisory Council on Women, and named one of 2008’s Best 50 Women in Business and as one of its Forty Under 40 by NJBIZ.
  She regards “women’s issues” as her “calling card,” and her first book, “Overcoming the Superwoman Syndrome”, is currently in negotiation for translation into both Spanish and Polish.
  In addition to her incipient Presidency of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) South Jersey, Sandy is a part of the leadership of SJ’s eWomenNetwork, serves on the International Advisory Board for the Professional Woman Network, and is a member of the International Speakers Network.
  In the lead role at NAWBOSJ, she’ll be following Eileen Unger, a woman she describes as “incredibly successful” and from whom she has “learned so much.”
  Sandy tells her clients that “Professional representation of your products and services must impress clients, prospects and peers. If graphic design and marketing strategy are not your chosen profession, you’ve probably got other things to be focusing on. Outsourcing creates the freedom to do what YOU love to do. Get on with your own business.
  “We do it all, Sandy says, “but I think what my clients value most is having me as a sounding board…an advice mechanism…that will help them with the decisions they’re making.”
  Which dovetails perfectly with what Sandy really likes to do which is motivational speaking—particularly to women in business. She is enlisted by the Preferred Woman Network to speak twice a year at its Author’s Institutes and she is also booked around the country by the International Speakers Network.
  She’s been in South Jersey for 12 years and prior to “landing” here she had lived in a variety of places, including several southern states, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and “America’s heartland…Ohio.”
  Sandy went to “the” Ohio State University where she graduated from the College of Behavioral Sciences, with a minor in Spanish. In fact, she is a bon fide “Latina,” having been born in Puerto Rico while her father was stationed there.
  Sandy’s first real job was straight out of college. “I picked a city I’d never lived in and took my chances finding work. Couple weeks later I found myself in Chicago, thrilled to take the L train into the city each day wearing my sneakers (work was a good 10 blocks from the station) and suits, working as a marketing assistant for a large copier company.“
  She insists that she does not have a “favorite” person. “Can’t pick just one! I’ve been so fortunate to make and keep so many friends in the continual moving from state to state that I have a treasure trove of special people in my life.”
  But she does have a soft spot for “Bebe” (Spanish for “Baby”), a name her son gave their pet cat after saving him at the ripe old age of 14 days life from “fading kitten syndrome” in the animal shelter where they found him.
  In addition to “passionate and “genuine,” Sandy describes herself as “a highly organized, self proclaimed workaholic” with two priorities, “being a good mom and being a business woman.”
  If you ask her to reveal her “favorite thing to do,” she asks “Does work count?”
  Come back with a question about what she does to relax and she is quick with “Relax? What’s that?”
  Try again with a question about a favorite vacation or vacation spot, and you get “Vacation? What’s that?” (Stop me if you’re starting to see a pattern here.)
  But she does admit that her interests include “reading and walking…simultaneously when I can get to the treadmill at the gym.”
  She also has a soft spot for TV sitcoms (The Big Bang Theory and Will and Grace are two Spadaro favorites). And she admits to liking movies, a recent favorite being The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett (“I love living vicariously through characters who are not me”).
  So, is there an SO in the picture? Sandy says “no” with the same dramatic flair that characterizes so much of her conversation. But she says, if there were, he would have to have a “good vocabulary” and he’d “have to be social.”
  If you ask about books, Sandy’s practical side quickly reemerges. She says her bed-side table right now includes The 2009 Writer’s Market, The 2009 Guide to Literary Agencies and Jack Canfield’s Success Principles.
  Given that reading list, Sandy’s dream job comes as no surprise—being “a successful, full-time writer.” And, while she feels more comfortable with non-fiction, she believes that she has a hidden flair for “young adult” fiction.
  As for the accomplishment of which she is most proud, she replies, “Two things…raising an intelligent and talented boy and making a successful transition from Corporate America to Small Business Owner.”
  Flip that coin and ask about any regrets and Sandy says decisively, “No do-overs. I believe that the past is behind us and each day brings a new attempt to get it right.”
  If she could, invite five people (real, but living or dead) to dinner at her home, the five would be “five friends who won’t mind ‘take out.’ I haven’t had time to cook since my business opened in 2004.” But she finds people like Will Smith and Jim Carey ”interesting,” because they came from “common places in their lives.”
  Finally, if given the chance to do one thing to change South Jersey, Sandy—ever practical—would “lessen the unbearable traffic (though clearly it would take more than one thing to accomplish that).”
 
By Mike Willmann