Day: October 2, 2020

Female Disruptors: Jess Jurva of Lucidworks On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

A framework I use to guide my decision-making is based on these three pillars: quality, consistency, and performance. We want to deliver the highest quality people, processes, programs, and products to our customers, where expectations are consistently met and value is delivered repeatedly. Quality can’t be a one-time thing! And finally, we have to deploy a technology platform and service that delivers effective results and ROI from Day 1.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jess Jurva.

Jess Jurva represents the collective voice of Lucidworks’ customers and leads the teams responsible for customer onboarding, delivery, and management. With more than 20 years of experience building teams and programs to drive enterprise-level technical integrations for Fortune 500 companies, Jess is a true champion of and advocate for our customers and their success. With experience creating customer results at several startups and for large corporations like Intuit, Visa, and TIBCO. Jess is passionate about creating transformative customer experiences that yield exceptional business outcomes.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I’m originally from the Midwest and came to California when I was 22. I stepped into my first real tech job at Palm Computing right as they had launched the first Palm Pilot. I had the opportunity to work with software and hardware developers, and I just remember it being so cool. It created a hunger and desire to learn more about how technology is built and how we interact with it.

That hunger never really went away and I’ve spent the last 23+ years focused on helping companies leverage technology to connect in a more meaningful way with their customers and employees. I’ve had the typical San Francisco Bay Area experience working for startups as well as big public companies like Intuit, Visa, and TIBCO. All of which has led me to my role today as Chief Customer Officer at Lucidworks.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

My current focus is on transforming the customer experience for Lucidworks’ existing and new customers. To do so requires “owning” every part of the post-sales journey from handoff to onboarding, delivery, management, training, and technical support. It’s not a small task — which is why we have set up an organization aptly named Customer Excellence. As Chief Customer Officer I oversee this organization and our mission is to create and earn trust in every customer interaction.

A framework I use to guide my decision-making is based on these three pillars: quality, consistency, and performance. We want to deliver the highest quality people, processes, programs, and products to our customers, where expectations are consistently met and value is delivered repeatedly. Quality can’t be a one-time thing! And finally, we have to deploy a technology platform and service that delivers effective results and ROI from Day 1.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I’m sure there’s something I’m forgetting, but to be honest nothing is coming to mind right now.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

There are many women and men I look up to and have had the privilege to learn from throughout my career. Most notably was my first manager at Palm Computing, Kate Purmal. Kate saw potential in me as a young woman and became my mentor and big sister consistently shepherding me into new opportunities, relationships, and jobs. I have watched Kate over the years use her leadership and influence to blaze trails for women to follow and champion for women to have a voice and a seat at the table. Years later I still lean on her for executive coaching and advice.

As I climb the corporate ladder, Kate’s actions have inspired me to continue the same work of extending my hand to other women and inviting them to come along with me. This is the only way to keep putting cracks in that glass ceiling!

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Disruption can absolutely be good especially when breaking through the status quo or an industry filled with giants doing things the same old way for years. Airbnb is a great example of disrupting the hospitality industry. Not only does Airbnb provide more cost effective lodging choices and experiences for travelers, it also allows anyone to leverage their home to make more money to meet their financial needs.

In my opinion, disruption can have negative impacts even though the initial intention or mission is to create good in the world. Social media platforms are a good example of this. They were meant to connect people around the world and provide a source for entertainment, news, and information. While this goal has been met it has come at the expense of increased screen time and some would say less connection to the people and family members right around us.

It is important to disrupt and be a disruptor — it is equally important to think about the positive and negative effects at scale and to continuously look at ways to mitigate or minimize the negative impacts.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1. Be authentic.

People will see right through you trying to be someone else. Don’t be fake. Being authentic to who you are will quicken others ability to trust you.

2. Be direct but not mean when providing feedback.

The biggest improvements I have made in my career have been when my managers and peers have provided direct but not mean feedback. It can transform the way a person performs and what they are able to achieve.

When watered down or weak feedback is provided it can be confusing to the recipient and also deceptive in that they may think they are doing a good job when they are not.

3. Be the reason someone feels welcomed, seen heard, valued, loved, and supported.

It’s important to not forget that we are all human beings on this journey called life. We are all trying to do our best even though at times we might not be at our best. So, as a leader, bringing your full self to work, demonstrating empathy and compassion are required. In so doing you will inspire those around you to dig deeper, be better, perform higher as they will feel seen, heard, loved, and supported.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

I’d love to lead an executive team or board where all the members are a group of diverse women. How powerful that would be! I imagine it being a force to reckon with and performance unlike anything ever seen.

For decades, executive teams and board rooms have been filled with mostly if not all men. How cool would it be for the trend to be reversed! As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says: “When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court] and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that.”

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

As I have taken on more senior roles, the lack of women is painfully apparent at Director, VP, C-suite, and Board levels. Being a woman and gay I’m consciously aware at all times and circumstances of the presence or lack thereof of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. As I build out my own team, I’m ensuring that there’s more of a balance with both racial and gender diversity.

Throughout my career, I’ve experienced and witnessed several obstacles women disruptors face that their male counterparts do not: 1.) being the “token” diversity hire, 2.) being talked over repeatedly and voice drowned out, 3.) ideas not taken seriously unless a male counterpart re-surfaces them and often within minutes of presenting the same idea!, 4.) getting hired into roles that are typically non-male dominated roles: HR, Customer Success, Marketing, etc., vs Engineering, Sales, and Product, and lastly 5.) intelligence doubted through painful “mansplaining.”

I would love to see more women in technical and sales leadership roles. I’m proud of the role that I have now at Lucidworks, and I hope that I can be a tiny part of that major disruption to bring more women into leadership positions.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

Books:

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown
The Hard Things About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Digital Series:

Oprah & Deepak Chopra Finding Your Flow Meditation Series

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” Brad Meltzer

You never know what is happening in a person’s life or why they may be showing up in a way that you find hard to understand and perhaps sometimes offensive. Rising above or as Michelle Obama says “going high” through kindness can make a huge difference in that person’s and others lives. Don’t underestimate the ripple effect of kindness.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to be part of a movement to leverage every day tools and surroundings to build or repurpose “technologies” that make other women and children’s lives better or simpler. I’ve seen some stories where in developing countries women’s health and lives have been improved through the simple use of repurposing a tool such as a wheelbarrow tire to carry water. So simple, yet effective and low cost.

One of the organizations I deeply admire is The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They focus heavily on water, sanitation, and hygiene bringing together great minds and experts to develop technologies to improve the health and lives of women and children.

Inspiring a movement to gather ideas, fulfillment, and deployment of improving the lives of others would be amazing!

How can our readers follow you online?

Follow me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicajurva/

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Female Disruptors: Jess Jurva of Lucidworks On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Marie Foley of Health Payment Systems On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: Marie Foley of Health Payment Systems On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

I met the founder of Health Payment Systems through my husband at a golf tournament. For him, a healthcare event drove him to brainstorm with other business partners to create a better way for consumers to pay their medical bills. With a background in the credit card industry, the idea was born to create a family based credit card like statement that contained the prior months healthcare bills and explanation of benefits all in one. Fighting for a better way for consumers to experience the healthcare billing nightmare that is there without HPS, has been a passion of mine since I joined the company in 2008.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marie Foley.

Marie Foley is an accomplished business professional with over 20 years experience in the Healthcare Industry. Proven ability to increase profitability of healthcare industry companies by initiating and maintaining relationships with providers, gaining buy-in on products from key executives, and developing / implementing winning pricing strategies. “Internal entrepreneur” with the history of developing and introducing successful new products. I have demonstrated talent for maximizing network competitiveness. Creator of process and procedure improvements that streamlined business processes, elevate productivity and efficiency, and enhance customer experience.

Growing up I always enjoyed Math classes. Problem solving was actually fun for me so I knew I wanted to find a field that utilized these skills. A friend told me about the Actuarial Program at UW-Madison so it all started with a great interview I had with the program director. The ever changing world of HealthCare led me to choose the Healthcare track of Actuarial Science. After graduation, I began my career as an actuarial consultant at an accounting firm joining a team of auditors that were responsible for auditing year end financial reports for insurance companies. This experience gave me a foundation of working together with others to find solutions for problems as well as investigative work. From there, I moved to an insurance company where I took on more of a business forecasting and reporting role to the regional CFO. After taking time off to raise our children, I reentered the workplace with HPS in an actuarial consulting role, quickly joining their leadership team to my current role of Vice president of Provider Relations & Actuarial Services.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

I met the founder of Health Payment Systems through my husband at a golf tournament. For him, a healthcare event drove him to brainstorm with other business partners to create a better way for consumers to pay their medical bills. With a background in the credit card industry, the idea was born to create a family based credit card like statement that contained the prior months healthcare bills and explanation of benefits all in one. Fighting for a better way for consumers to experience the healthcare billing nightmare that is there without HPS, has been a passion of mine since I joined the company in 2008. With more and more providers expecting payment prior to services, patients are forced to make a choice between maintaining their health and putting food on the table. HPS is disrupting the market by offering a different way for consumers to pay for their healthcare; offering one place to pay, one payment plan for all their medical bills. We are also disrupting how providers collect out of pocket amounts from patients. With HPS, the providers can focus on taking care of their patients rather than the billing and collection functions. For our providers, we eliminate billing and collection costs as well as the expense of all bad debt associated with our members Lowering healthcare costs, enabling patients to receive care they need without the financial barrier, giving patients an easy way to pay their healthcare bills, and making this available to as many people as possible is our mission.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I had several mentors along the way. The first was a female coworker at Ernst & Young, Wendy Young. The actuarial career path can be difficult due to the time you need to put in to study for the exams outside of long work hours. Her work ethic coupled with her drive to get through the exams was aspiring. Her mentorship guided me to be a hard worker, passing several exams early as well as achieving accolades from managers during review time. Even though I worked for Shawn Guertin at The Travelers for a short time, he gave me confidence to be who I am today. He actually advised me to stay home with our children if we could afford it which was one of the best decisions of my career. It gave me a great perspective on the importance of spending quality time with family and not to miss life’s most important moments. Additionally, the independence he gave me provided me with confidence to work independently and be somewhat of an entrepreneur within the company to bring success not really for myself but for others as well. This mentality I have carried with me throughout my career. Another mentor that is somewhat recent since I’m sure he doesn’t know it is our CEO Terry Rowinski. Through his leadership at HPS, I have watched the team work in full collaboration together to bring us to where we are today. The mentality of “take care of your fellow human” has reached new heights at HPS through his direction and guidance. We are stronger as a company since we all are working together, joining forces to make the consumer experience the best it can be.

Being disruptive is good as long as the outcome is a better one for the individuals or companies that are impacted by the change. Change can be difficult so making sure the experience is a positive one to the end user is critical to move the change to the market.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Be assertive when you are confident with a solution. Give your best effort for the benefit of others. Your best effort is always good enough.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

Help our team expand our membership and grow. I am always working to evolve and grow as a professional to support my team and clientele with an innovative approach.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

For women, sometimes our opinion is not “heard” as loudly as our male counterparts. Remember to do your homework, have facts and evidence to back up any opinion or recommended solution set. Once you have a solution set, it is important to remain confident and continue to voice your opinion(s) even if it means working harder to provide more documentation or proof of concept.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

Power of Positive Thinking. Something that I live by everyday. Having a positive mindset is key to accomplish everything.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” Philippians 4:13. Since I was young, my faith has always been the core of who I am. Working hard for Christ rather than myself gives me the greatest job satisfaction and helps me to feel confident in my work and life itself.

Read the bible and truly love your neighbor as yourself. Things that you were taught as a child are important to remember to live by as an adult as well. Kindness is infectious.

How can our readers follow you online? LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/marie-foley-55059b6b

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Female Disruptors: Marie Foley of Health Payment Systems On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Michelle Demaree of Miss Diamond Ring, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: Michelle Demaree of Miss Diamond Ring, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

I think the diamond industry as a whole generally focuses mostly on a quick sale and price. Many are in this business just to make a fast buck instead of focusing on creating a impactful experience for the buyer. The engagement ring represents something very unique to each couple. Love is the most powerful energy on the planet and the first thing I focus on with my clients is how I want them to feel from start to finish and how I can make their special moment even more meaningful. Offering a proposal planning service and a virtual shopping service with Rodeo Drive rings without brick and mortar prices has been compelling for luxury buyers. Especially during quarantine!

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Demaree.

Michelle Demaree, of Miss Diamond Ring, is the top luxury diamond ring concierge on the West Coast. Her passion for being the ambassador of love and smart-purchase-luxury has established her as the premier engagement ring expert and she has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, US Weekly, Entertainment Tonight, Life & Style, The American Dream and several others. With Michelle’s streamlined process, clients enjoy a luxury, boutique shopping experience that removes the stress and time (60 hours on average) out of their engagement ring search. She offers exclusive access to the world’s top diamond options and Rodeo Drive rings at a fraction of retail tag. From Hong Kong to Antwerp, New York to Los Angeles, Michelle sources the best diamond and gemstone options within the client’s budget. Clients work one-on-one with Michelle, and procure a ring as breathtaking as their love story. When you work with Michelle, you gain access to custom, bespoke settings by the best craftsman in Los Angeles. Getting clients the best diamond option on the market is her passion and streamlining it to save time, money and stress is her specialty!

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

After putting myself through college with a full ride at Pepperdine and working the real estate boom and bust in Vegas and San Diego with Pulte Homes, I moved to the Midwest and got a job as the marketing director at Bentley/Lamborghini/Bughatti. At an event at the Peninsula Hotel, I met the director of Van Cleef & Arpels who offered me a sales position because of my strong sales background. I told her, “I may not know jewelry right now but I have more horsepower and drive than anyone you will ever hire.” That landed me the job.

I became a top salesperson, selling millions in jewels at Van Cleef & Arpels and after two years was offered a position by Tiffany and Co. on Rodeo Drive. Not too long after many size figure Audrey Hepburn worthy moments, Harry Winston extended a position that I could not refuse and I continued selling millions in diamonds to clients visiting from around the world.

In 2013, I decided to leave retail so I could be present and enjoy time as a mom. In 2015 I was still helping clients privately and felt a calling to found Miss Diamond Ring, Inc.

My Los Angeles based boutique service offers global diamond searches and bespoke Rodeo Drive luxury rings designed around each couple’s love story along with travel & proposal planning services. I am now living my dream and have changed the landscape of the diamond engagement ring industry by offering a highly personalized experience for couples that they can’t get anywhere else, with exclusive access to Rodeo drive rings at a fraction of the price.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

I am a single female mom-preneur who has flipped the switch on the luxury, transactional and male dominant industry of high jewelry. While overcoming extreme adversity, (recovering daughter from neuro-immune disease, surviving a divorce) I have evolved my international small female owned business into a one-of-a kind personalized experience for couples based on their unique love story.

To establish a niche in a highly male dominated industry that has turned commodity driven, when it should be an experience that honors each couple’s love story? That was a challenge and a hustle, to say the least! But I knew I had something special to offer my clients that they were not getting anywhere else.

I think the diamond industry as a whole generally focuses mostly on a quick sale and price. Many are in this business just to make a fast buck instead of focusing on creating a impactful experience for the buyer. The engagement ring represents something very unique to each couple. Love is the most powerful energy on the planet and the first thing I focus on with my clients is how I want them to feel from start to finish and how I can make their special moment even more meaningful. Offering a proposal planning service and a virtual shopping service with Rodeo Drive rings without brick and mortar prices has been compelling for luxury buyers. Especially during quarantine!

The fact that clients spend six figures with me virtually, (without meeting me in person in many cases) says a lot about my reputation and process. Luxury buyers are interested in this new standard in ring shopping because they have discriminating taste and they value their time.

We all need a little help along the journey — who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I would say the biggest mentor / friend is Rebecca Cafiero. She and I met 20 years ago in real estate and have been on the entrepreneur journey for the past 5+ years. She invited me to Lori Harder’s Bliss Project retreat which is literally the reason I decided to start my business. When I was there, I remember hearing, “Who has the right to be doing what they are doing? Answer: The person already doing it.” That was a catalyst for me. A few years later I attended Cafiero’s Brand Camp in Sonoma, CA. That weekend of masterminding with innovative female entrepreneurs in a safe space gave me the confidence and blueprint to really go for my business model.

Another mentor would be Kristin Brabant, a success coach who helped me get clear on my overall business goals which were derived spiritually and from the heart, as well as getting aligned with the cliens I wanted to attract and how to structure my sales process so I could do so.

MindValley and Dr. Joe Dispenza are absolutely mentors to me in the space of personal development, meditation and the power of thoughts / beliefs / and how we can re-wire and manifest anything we wish. Their courses and meditations were a weekly bible for me.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received came from my wise Los Angeles therapist who knew all too well my people-pleasing tendencies. “Michelle have you ever heard of the 33% rule?” I most certainly had not. “In life you will come across hundreds of thousands of people, in business, personal and even family settings. You will never be able to please them all. In fact you may not like them all and they may not like you — no matter what you do.” No. Matter. What. You. Do. She went on to say “33% of people you will meet will love you, those are your people. 33% of people you meet will be the exact opposite. They will not get you, you will not get them, and never the two shall meet. The last 33% are in between. They are neutral. They don’t love you, they don’t hate you, they are pretty indifferent. Nothing you can do to change this, nor should you try to. If you can accept it you will be a much happier person. You cannot please or appeal to everyone, that is a losing battle.”

The second piece of advice is Marie Forleo’s ‘everything is figureoutable.’ This is a mindset more than anything and I believe that “no — not possible” should be removed from all entrepreneurs vocabulary. Anything is possible. A “yes, I can do it” mentatlity is the only way to keep creating and growing.

The 3rd piece of advice would be, when something bad happens instead of saying, “why did this happen to me?” Shift it to, “What was I meant to learn from this?” This has shifted every seemingly negative experience into a learning opportunity that gives me wisdom and the tools to grow and get better. It also forces the mind to come up with a positive answer instead of a negative answer. That builds the right kind of neuropathways that keep your energy and mindset positive and on track to your destiny.

How are you going to shake things up next?

I have been collaborating with some badass female entrepreneurs who feel inspired by my Diamonds with Soul collection, so that is an exciting, evolving entity. I am finishing up an online course called Diamond Boss, which teaches aspiring entrepreneurs who love diamonds, how to do what I’m doing, along with step by step training for luxury sales. It excites me to share and empower others to do what they love, on their own terms and enjoy the abundance that brings.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

The Untethered Soul has been the most powerful book for my mindset. It has actually taken away the negative chatter in my mind, and helped me not take anything personal and not resist anything (what you resist persists). Along with deciding and choosing to be happy, regardless of any circumstance. We can literally choose to be happy, no matter what. It is a mindset book and it helps the reader to reconnect to the essence of their soul and untether them from the social constructs / rules / negative patterns learned from family, culture, school..etc. It basically sets you free and wakes you up! I revisit different chapers every few months to refresh and reboot.

I would also say Vishen Lakhiani from Mindvalley recently did a podcast on intuition and how powerful it is, and how it is scientifically proven and studied. It is the most powerful thing we have and if you tap into it, it will guide you where your soul’s destiny is meant to take you. It is, in essence, your soul talking to you — we just have to wake up and listen. It is our most powerful guide. All of the times I made mistakes and went down the wrong roads, I can look back and remember feeling my gut tightening and telling me it was wrong, to move in a different direction, but my mind or fear compelled me to stay. And ultimately I paid the price and learned the lesson I needed to learn. Always listen to your gut.

The third is the Joe Dispenza course on HayHouse called Making Your Mind Matter. I did his hour long meditations weekly for 2 years and manifested everything I have built today. I was very broken at the time when I started and was drowning in negative thoughts about my life, my situation, etc. That course literally redirected my mind, rebuilt my thought patterns into positive ones, and redesigned the vision of the future I wanted, which ultimately redirected the course of my life.

If everyone made decisions out of love instead of fear the world would be a different place. If we could all tap into more intuition, be heart centered in business and in relationships, and recognize that much of the time it is fear / ego / old tapes / the reptilian fear-based brain that is acting out to try to keep us safe. If we could all do this, we could access our higher selves and live lives more closely to what we are destined to do. Every decision comes down to love or fear, so if you always move in the direction of love, in all things, your path will be of the highest form and will fulfifll your soul’s purpose. Even in the diamond industry. 🙂

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Be yourself, everybody else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde. Imitation is the best form of flattery, but in business it creates a severe lack of authenticity and true connection to yourself and the people you are meant to serve. At the end of the day, what people want in a brand is authenticity, connection and trust. That only comes from staying true to exactly what your brand is and what it is not, not being afraid to let go of what is not meant for you and most importantly, always honoring the original vision you had for your business.

As the founder of a sparkling Los Angeles based business turned global, I knew in order to stay sane I needed to get clear on who I was as a brand and how I wanted to run my business so that it would fuel me and inspire me, instead of be the source of daily negative self talk. As business owners we all know, that jeckel on our shoulder can be pretty nasty if we don’t claim it, tame it, and reframe it.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can find me at @missdiamondring on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook!

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Female Disruptors: Michelle Demaree of Miss Diamond Ring, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Krystal Zheng of SAVR On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

With SAVR, we’re disrupting the traditional divide between digital and real-world experiences by creating an easily accessible mobile platform that provides gamified content and AR experiences reflective of your real life location. At this crossroads of digital and physical, we can quantify digital engagement with foot traffic, using real life key performance indicators for proprietors and brick and mortar businesses.

As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Krystal Zheng.

Krystal Zheng, a marketing maven turned tech founder is making waves in the South Florida tech scene with her new SAVR app, which is designed to draw foot traffic to parks, recreation centers and shopping malls by creating incredible Augmented Reality gamified experiences.

As a young, minority woman in the male-dominated tech industry she’s already getting a lot of praise. In the last year alone she’s been acknowledged by several nationwide competitions, programs and conferences such as Babson WIN (Women Innovating Now) Lab, Google Cloud Startup Program, Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit , U.S. Senate Entrepreneurship Round Table and the Miami Herald Business Pitch Competition.

I’m a marketing professional in the technology space. Back in college as my graduation approached, I blasted my resume to tech companies around Miami in search of a marketing position. I was lucky enough to start an internship at a mobile gaming startup called Let’sRumble. Throughout my time there, I had the opportunity to learn and work closely with the founder and CEO, who was a seasoned entrepreneur.

Throughout my early career, my focus was on improving user growth, retention and engagement. From my experiences in both tech and consumer industries, whether digital or brick and mortar, I noticed that customer engagement was the most crucial and evolving aspect of the business. However, I wasn’t seeing the connection of our real life and digital life; there wasn’t an engagement platform merging the two experiences. So with my technology background, I started to research how to create a platform to connect these valuable customer engagements based on their locations with static and augmented reality. This led me to create SAVR, a real life location based engagement platform with gamified experiences and augmented reality content to create engaging experiences that are fun for the user.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

With SAVR, we’re disrupting the traditional divide between digital and real-world experiences by creating an easily accessible mobile platform that provides gamified content and AR experiences reflective of your real life location. At this crossroads of digital and physical, we can quantify digital engagement with foot traffic, using real life key performance indicators for proprietors and brick and mortar businesses.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I have made many funny mistakes throughout my entrepreneurial journey, and I’m sure will continue to make more and learn from them. I remember when I first started SAVR I was told to make a business plan. Everything was about making a business plan. I probably spent more time writing and decorating business plans than doing actual market research. Then it came time to start fundraising with the business plan. I was lucky enough to set up pitch meetings with multiple well-known angel and early stage VC groups. I walked into these meetings asking for close to a million dollars to build my platform and soon realized I should have spent more time arming myself with more research to support my ideas, instead of focusing so much on one pretty powerpoint presentation. Looking back now, it was comical how unprepared I was and how people viewed the startup journey. Now after years of learning, building and executing, I’ve realized it’s not just about having an idea and raising capital for it. Maybe that works in a romanticised Silicon Valley TV show, but it’s not enough for a first-time founder in Miami.

This was an important learning step for me to understand and build the current relationships I have with funders in my field. They’ve all known me since the beginning when I was starting with just a pitch deck, to now with a fully operating and revenue generating platform. My investors and I often look back and laugh at how far we’ve come together.

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I’ve been so fortunate to work with some of the most experienced and successful mentors in my field; from my first mentor who guided me through the basics of the startup world, to now operating SAVR under the impact of COVID. One of my mentor group is the Venture Mentoring Team (VMT) in South Florida, we have monthly meetings to ask questions and strategize for SAVR.

My mentors and advisors have provided value and impact to my organization by lending their sharp industry insights. For example, last month my team was approached by a group of real estate developers in Ecuador to establish possible distribution partnerships. Our first reactions to this proposed partnership was to hold our rights to the platform we have developed. However, my mentors provided a different viewpoint with a more constructed evaluation of this partnership opportunity. Having second opinions and an outside perspective is so important to entrepreneurs who might be too laser focused in solving a problem.

Calling a company, technology or product “disruptive” was used to show a valuable new concept, though now can feel like an overly used buzzed word. When I was invited to exhibit at Disrupt Conference 2019 in San Francisco to represent the Miami growing tech space, I saw many innovative concepts and companies at the conference. Some of them are certainly bringing a positive solution to a current problem in their industry or providing a better user experience. But some are just flashy, trying to change the status quo without bringing any true value.

I’ve come across two common ways of thinking amongst fellow entrepreneurs. The first one thinks positive disruption always involves technology or more specifically a mobile application, and the second sees positive disruption as the breaking of traditional patterns in an effort to improve efficiency, user experience, or logistical hurdles.

I’ve spoken with founders who wanted to create an app for pretty much everything and they need to create the app before doing anything. Yet sometimes the problem these apps are aiming to solve can be solved more effectively with different channels, contrary to the popular belief that an app = disruption. I fell into this category when I was starting out. I thought I needed to create an app to achieve SAVR’s goal of connecting consumer engagement with real life locations and digital interaction. I spent time, money and energy into building out my app. Eventually I learned the same goal could be achieved more effectively with a web based platform, and it could potentially bring more growth in the future.

Positive disruption should be the progress of a company or concept evolving to industry problems in search of solutions. Otherwise disruptive ideas can become a time-sucking distraction.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

1). Do not get overly protective of your “idea”

This piece of advice has continuously spurred my business growth to this day. As most entrepreneurs do, I view my company as my baby, which I built from a scribbled napkin to a fully operating platform.

Earlier this year, I was approached by an investor/real estate developer to partner on a Latin America pilot launch and work together by giving them a distribution license. Initially my co-founders and I all felt overly protective of our distribution rights and delayed the process. Thankfully, with the advice of our mentors, we came to realize this was a great opportunity for us to expand and gain market share.

2). Just because it’s outside of your wheelhouse doesn’t mean it’s impossible

As a location based experience platform for popular high foot traffic areas, our platform was greatly impacted when COVID hit. However one of my shipping center clients asked for a web based virtual reality shopping experience that we had never provided before. During my meeting with advisors, I mentioned this service was out of my wheelhouse, but my advisors quickly got my team back on track. This particular customer was asking for a service that presented itself as a need, and I had considered it less just because it was a little out of my comfort zone.

3). Traditional fundraising is not the only source of capital

Since the beginning of my startup journey, everyone I meet at every meeting I attend always wants to know “Have you raised?” or “How much are you raising?” Raising capital has become pretty much every entrepreneur’s goal. It’s true that as a founder, you should always be raising, and being able to raise money will be the only large revenue your startup will see in the beginning phases. However, raising money is certainly not the only source of capital to build a fast growing business in the beginning. This advice was given to me by the author of The Evergreen Startup, I had realized that I was doing it without knowing. I had already been securing and building my business with alternative sources of capital such as an equity incentivized team and revenue share partners.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

I’ve really honed in on my problem solving skills this year. With these skills, I have been identifying and solving problems I see in my day to day life or in large scale industry shortages. While my team and I work to adapt SAVR to this constantly changing world and prepare to roll out new partnerships, I’ve also branched out a bit into other sectors. Because of COVID, I created another organization that at only 6 months old is revenue generating with sustainable growth that meets and solves industry pain points during the outbreak.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

As a female founder and disruptor, many conversations I’ve been part of have centered around inequitable access to capital. I agree there are gaps of access to capital between male and female founders. But most importantly, if we look at the amount of female and male founders, we have much more male founders than female founders. This is not because women are not disruptive thinkers, but women took longer and more careful measures before becoming a “Founder”. This in fact makes female founders with higher investment returns.

Female founders face a lot of inner challenges and societal stereotypes about how feminine traits affect their speaking, word choice, reactions and responses that could potentially lead to the challenges of acquiring capital, sales, business partners and so on. Understanding our own personal obstacles and how they’re viewed by outsiders and investors is crucial to lock in funding and run a successful business.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

I am a big fan of “How I Built This” and “Female Founder Fridays”. Listening to stories of successful disruptors and founders, I often notice the similarities between their processes and experiences before they “made it” and my own. Sometimes I find myself in situations of many pivoting points, so the stories of other disruptors helps me learn to trust the process and understand when to go with my gut.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“It is all about energy.”

What I have learned from business and self development is that in the universe of energy, you experience and attract similar energies. This is why small affirmations like looking into the mirror every morning and saying “I’ve got this” can be so helpful. It flushes you with positive energy, builds up your confidence and reminds you of your goals. The energy you bring to the table will ultimately change how you approach challenges and bring about innovative solutions.

As I continue my journey to be an active member of my community both socially and professionally, I see many inequalities hinged on race, gender, and location. Many of these inequalities are caused by lack of access to education, not only in the traditional sense of schooling, but also access to the sharing of content, information and ideas. My movement would be to push for expanded access to information for disadvantaged or often overlooked communities.

How can our readers follow you online?

They can catch up on my company’s news online at https://savr.live or connect with me via LinkedIn.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Female Disruptors: Krystal Zheng of SAVR On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Nerissa Zhang of The Bright App, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Female Disruptors: Nerissa Zhang of The Bright App, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

The Bright App completely removes the necessity of gyms as middle men sucking up all of a personal trainer’s profits. With our app trainers can connect with new clients and completely manage every aspect of their client relationship within the app.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nerissa Zhang.

Nerissa Zhang is co-founder and CEO of The Bright App, a leading fitness management mobile app revolutionizing the way personal trainers do business. Nerissa is also an elite trainer, a USAW Certified Sports Performance Coach, and she owns and operates two private gyms in San Francisco. She manages all this while residing in California with her husband and three young boys. When she isn’t balancing work and parenting, she enjoys powerlifting, Olympic weightlifting, martial arts, and yoga.

When I was a single mom with two kids working 12 hour days as a personal trainer in San Francisco, I was barely making ends meet. As I struggled, I also began to learn more about the personal training industry. Most personal trainers are independent contractors so get no employee benefits, however gyms require uniforms, specific working hours, and they keep about 50% of the income personal trainers generate with their clients. While I was actually homeless for a period of time working myself to the bone as a personal trainer, gyms were making massive revenues from my work.

I loved being a personal trainer, but that one inefficiency was something I knew I had to disrupt.

There are several other inefficiencies that also led me to design a tech solution to revolutionize the personal training industry. Nearly all personal trainers also have clients on the side outside of the gym, but struggle terribly for a simple and easy way to manage them. They’re using four or five different payment systems, manually keeping track of sessions, and getting questions from clients from text and email and social media DMs etc. all to do one job.

After years of research, I created The Bright App to disrupt this incredibly inefficient industry and empower personal trainers to make the living they deserve. Personal trainers don’t need gyms to be professionals, but they do need to start using tech solutions designed for them in order to stay relevant in this society which revolves around convenience.

Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?

The Bright App completely removes the necessity of gyms as middle men sucking up all of a personal trainer’s profits. With our app trainers can connect with new clients and completely manage every aspect of their client relationship within the app.

When trainers connect with a new client through our online private training marketplace, they’re able to send a package with a certain number of sessions at their desired rate. The Bright App automates scheduling, billing, reminders, and payment. Our app also removes the friction from the personal trainer/client relationship with seamless transparency. Clients will never have to ask how many sessions they have left in their package or when their next session will be. Personal trainers never have to worry again about making a mistake in tracking, ruining a high-paying client relationship because of easily avoidable mistakes.

Allowing trainers to spend less time on administrative duties with fewer mistakes, they become more efficient and have the capacity to take on many more clients. We allow personal trainers to run their businesses with ease and to experience the true freedom of being their own boss. They can work as much or little as they want, connect with clients from anywhere in the world, and keep 95+% of every cent they earn.

A recent study showed that after this pandemic, at least 26% of gyms have closed permanently. If personal trainers don’t adopt the necessary technology to manage their own clients now, they’re going to get left behind without any work in the profession they love.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I first launched The Bright App, one of the ways I was getting new personal trainers on the app, was to hire them for a training session, get to know them, and talk to them about the benefits of our software. There was one day when I had scheduled six different workouts with six trainers across Manhattan. They all ended up being high intensity workouts ranging from CrossFit to yoga and bodybuilding. I had met six amazing trainers, but I literally could not walk at the end of the day.

I thought it would be nice to pay for their services and see what type of trainer they were and it was. It was really helpful to get to know them through our shared passion. But I realized after barely being able to move for a few days after that, that I could have just gotten coffee with them instead and bonded over training through conversation rather than high intensity workouts!

We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?

I don’t have any business mentors yet, but I’m looking. I do have a mentor in life though. She’s a doctor and university and has been a mentor to me since I was 15. She’s a strong female personality that has always understood and inspired me. We first met because she grew up in foster care like I did. She grew up in the last orphanage they had in Seattle and is a big believer in encouraging women who are coming out of foster care.

She’s been there for me at every stage of my life since we met. She helped me get into college and even helped me move all my things into the dorms. She always taught me that even though I don’t have permanency in my life in the form of a childhood family, I can choose to build permanency in my life. We’re still the best of friends and talk all of the time even though she lives on the other side of the United States.

Disrupting an industry is positive when that disruption is helping people. I have a serious problem with the converse when people are trying to disrupt a system in order to further exploit people.

In the fitness industry for example, I’m disrupting a system which withholds autonomy from trainers and makes it incredibly difficult for them to earn a living wage. The Bright App’s disruption to the system will empower people to live healthier and happier lives — trainers and clients.

What is not positive are all of these AI products or fast fitness products and systems that are not only taking jobs away from people, but are never going to improve people’s health in the longterm like person to person relationships can. People are already isolated, lonely, and lacking motivation. Looking into an AI mirror or expecting results in 30-days are only going to compound the mental and physical problems people face. People need another real person to trust and look to for catered advice and care.

Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.

Never listen to the advice of someone you wouldn’t have asked advice from. Would you ask for nutrition advice from a plumber? No. So don’t listen to all the unsolicited advice from people who act like they’re experts in fields they have no experience in. I’ve had several people throughout my life tell me how to run my businesses meanwhile they’ve never started or managed a successful business in their life. Trust your own insights gained through experience and ignore wannabe experts.
Always be aware that many people will say you can’t do something because they couldn’t do it. I get that sort of discouragement a lot from other people in the fitness industry who couldn’t get results. I’ve had people tell me I was an idiot wasting my time with clients who they couldn’t get results with and with people who saw me seeking to start my own gyms and The Bright App. You can’t listen to that nonsense. I didn’t and I’ve succeeded every time where they did not.
Be good to the people who have believed in your journey from the beginning. Be good to the people who support you so that you can succeed. My family, my kids, my clients who joined my gym early on, staff who have worked with us from the start, everyone who has helped me get to where I am today — I will never forget what those people have done for me. I will always do what I can to show them my gratitude.

We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?

While our app will allow fitness professionals to work with clients from anywhere, there will still be situations in which they would like to use a gym for their training sessions. I own two private gyms in San Francisco and we’re going to pioneer a pay per use system for trainers.

Rather than take 40–50% of their sales like most gyms do, trainers will be able to come rent out a space in our gym just for the time they need it. We will even have private rooms equipped to allow personal trainers to conduct professional virtual training sessions.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?

The world won’t listen to us. Particularly venture capitalists refuse to acknowledge the accomplishments, skills, and capabilities of women disruptors. VCs will tell women and have told me several times dismissive things like, “Oh that’s cute” when I present my fully functioning and already profitable business versus the, “Wow that’s a great idea” that men will get. VCs keep saying what a great idea I have, but that they just don’t think that I can be the leader to carry it out. Meanwhile 98% of all VC funding goes to men often for ideas that haven’t even been proven, have no revenue, and don’t even have a team, product, or service yet.

No matter what I do or how much I achieve, I will never ‘look like success’ to the rich men who refuse to view women, mothers, and women of color as anything but risks and liabilities.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

Start With Why by Simon Sinek is a great book and Ted Talk. One of those days that I was going down the YouTube rabbit hole just browsing random videos, the Start With Why Ted Talk came up. Right off the bat I honestly thought it was stupid and was going to clicc through to the next video, but then Simon gave an example about why people love Apple so much and why it’s such a good company because it has always stayed true to it’s “why”. That caught my interest and before I knew it, he had turned everything I thought I knew about about starting a company on its head.

The book dives deeper into the reasons that you should always start with and circle back to your why for your business. It’s not about how a product works, but rather why does that product exist? Who does it serve? When you start with the why of your business, the how and what will fall into place. Using your why as the compass for all of your company’s decisions helps you stay aligned with your values and keep your business on track.

Start With Why really changed the way I think and how I approach business. This shift in my thinking is why I chose not to have monthly fees for The Bright App and keeping our fees at 4% of a trainers revenue. I created The Bright App to empower personal trainers to make a living wage. I’m not making as much upfront revenue, but I am allowing trainers to pay their bills. That’s our why.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Understanding that I’m responsible for my life reminds me to make decisions that will help me grow as a leader. I’m the leader of my house, my companies, my personal training clients… Taking responsibility for myself allows me to lead with actions that reflect who I am and what my values are as often as possible.

The movement I want to inspire is to turn away from all the fast fitness, fast weight loss, fast health gimmicks plaguing the health of so many people. We need to shift all of the energy being put into fast fitness into true long term health. All these trends to get fit once per year in order to have a beach body, these 30-day fitness fads that promise you’ll get fit in thirty days, these one pill or food cure-alls are actually damaging people.

People can’t just eat one superfood or take one pill and miraculously be healthy. People aren’t going to get fit in 30 days. We need to have a movement that brings people back to valuing and practicing fitness and health throughout their whole lives.

How can our readers follow you online?

Please check out The Bright App website at getbright.app and you can download our app for free on The App Store and Google Play. You can also find the links to all of our social media channels on our website including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Female Disruptors: Nerissa Zhang of The Bright App, On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.