Day: April 15, 2021

Focus on your own game. I say this a lot, especially when I play League. If you’re hung up on what your jungler is doing as a mid laner, you’re distracted from your own game. This leads to missing CS, TPing or roaming late, and ultimately not playing at your 100%. This applies to other facets of life, too. If you’re too concerned about what another colleague or department is doing, then you’re not 100% focused on your own job. Trust others to do their jobs, as that will make you the most productive.

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

Tricia Sugita is the CEO of FlyQuest. She started her career in esports, competing in and streaming StarCraft II, then interviewing and hosting major esports events, eventually becoming the Global Director of Esports at Azubu.tv. Tricia then joined Immortals and LA Valiant as the Head of Partnerships, securing major partnerships from AEG Worldwide and Omen by HP. At FlyQuest, Tricia uses her decade of industry experience to build a new kind of esports organization that reflects her core values of kindness, grace, and strength.

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?

Thank you so much for having me! I grew up with two older brothers and have been playing games since I can remember. I started competing professionally in Starcraft II over a decade ago and then branched out from being a competitive player to an interviewer and host at the major esports tournaments. I joined Azubu.tv in 2014 as the Global Director of Esports, which opened a whole new world of intriguing esports management. Azubu was a very successful stint; I negotiated multi-million-dollar contracts with broadcasting partners and increased web traffic to over 12 million unique monthly visitors. Three years later, I joined Immortals and LA Valiant as the Head of Partnerships, and then moved to FlyQuest as COO in 2019. I was promoted to CEO early last year and could not be happier to run this fantastic team.

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

From the start, I knew FlyQuest had to have a clear vision. We’d spent so much time being defined by other brands, other entities, that there was this void when it came to our identity. Many of the world’s greatest companies began with a clear vision, and I wanted FlyQuest to be no different. I felt there was room in the esports and gaming space for an organization that leaned into gratitude, empathy, optimism, and inner strength, values that I personally hold dear.

To that end, I created and developed the company vision of “Showcase Greatness,” not only the belief that greatness already exists within everyone but also a call-to-action for FlyQuest to help people find and showcase it. We’re incredibly passionate about competitive success and support our teams with everything we’ve got. Additionally, “Showcase Greatness” allows FlyQuest to stand out from the esports pack because it allows us to define organizational success as more than just wins and losses. There are many areas we can showcase our greatness — environmental causes, building a community, anime, fan engagement — that aren’t limited to our results in professional League of Legends. Showcase Greatness applies to all our activities, programs, and pursuits.

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 streamed on Twitch.tv I used to host Bear Cups tournaments for the community. I hosted, casted, administered, and financed Bear Cups for Starcraft and League. I used to run them on the weekends because I had work during the week. Some days my stream ran for more than 16 hours, back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday. During one of the Bear Cups there was a break between matches, so I went to lay down and rest my eyes for a bit in another room. I ended up sleeping for hours, and my stream was on, only streaming an empty chair. My chair-only streams became a meme, and every time I would leave my seat for a short break during the stream, it’d be “Chairtime.” The chair became the star of my streams. While this event became a fun meme, I realized that I needed to take care of myself. I was doing too much. I had a full-time job, yet I streamed every day after work and ran Bear Cups on the weekends. I learned the importance of taking care of myself and balancing work. I limited the number of competitors in my Bear Cups, and the tournament became easier to manage. Most importantly, I received wonderful help from my stream mods and helpful volunteers from the community to manage Bear Cups. Shoutout to my Bearcubs!

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 the opportunity to work for Jason Katz at Azubu. He is super-intelligent, and I learned a lot from him. While he’s known for being very tough, he told me that I could do anything I put my mind to, whether it be the CEO of a company, own my own company, or whatever I wanted to do. I am very grateful for his mentorship.

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?

To me, being disruptive just means going against the norm. We are disruptive when we say our philosophy is “Showcase Greatness.” I believe that greatness exists within everyone, and I want to serve humanity and help others be happy. It is important to use your platform responsibly and find ways to help others. It’s very much a privilege that I am able to work towards my vision through FlyQuest.

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

Focus on your own game. I say this a lot, especially when I play League. If you’re hung up on what your jungler is doing as a mid laner, you’re distracted from your own game. This leads to missing CS, TPing or roaming late, and ultimately not playing at your 100%. This applies to other facets of life, too. If you’re too concerned about what another colleague or department is doing, then you’re not 100% focused on your own job. Trust others to do their jobs, as that will make you the most productive.

You don’t ask, you don’t get. It’s essentially my mantra now and my advice to everyone. My older brothers would make me order my own ice cream and french fries from McDonald’s (I dip my fries in ice cream). I wasn’t even in elementary school yet, but my brothers told me that if I couldn’t order the food myself, I wouldn’t get it. I’m not afraid of rejection. If you ask and don’t get, at least you tried. No regrets.

You can only control what you can do, not what others do or say, so give it your all!

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

My priority is to share our vision, so everyone knows that what we do has purpose and ties back to our vision.

One of the ways FlyQuest strives to showcase greatness is through environmental causes, called Go Green initiatives. We just announced our most recent quest for Spring Split 2021 — BeeQuest — and we challenged ourselves and family/friends to make a difference. This season’s quest highlights the essential role bees play in the planet’s ecosystems. Our BeeQuest initiative supports The Bee Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the bees and their habitats.

Our quests are also going beyond environmental causes this year. In February 2021, we welcomed Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani into the #FlyFam as a streamer under the FlyQuest banner. To showcase greatness together, we’ll raise awareness around social issues such as mental health, a passion point for Voyboy. He embodies the FlyQuest values of positivity, thoughtfulness, and generosity, and we look forward to shedding light on topics that are not always top of mind for the gaming industry. FlyQuest strives to pave a way forward for teams looking to establish their brand beyond a legacy of winning.

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

At FlyQuest, we believe that esports is for everyone. FlyQuest is continuously innovating and establishing a safe, wholesome community for everybody to participate in. I believe our diverse background gives us perspective that helps us identify and create opportunities that have not already existed in esports. Also, there are plenty of women at all levels that make a difference in esports. I think it is easy to characterize the industry as a male-dominated industry; however, you will see many of the management positions and avenues in organizations are staffed by women. The disruption is already happening, even if it’s done in ways that aren’t readily visible.

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

Michael Jordan, The Last Dance is awesome, and I highly recommend it. Often people only see the result. Jordan is the GOAT, but it came with a lot of sacrifices. It’s obviously impressive and extremely entertaining to watch him as a player, but I find his journey more fascinating. Understanding the time and dedication he invested to become the greatest makes me appreciate his success more. Being the best, working the hardest, achieving success — all of it takes a lot of discipline, determination, and talent. It’s definitely not easy to be the best, but these stories motivate me to do my best. There are many people, books, art, and more that inspire and humble me, but to name a few: Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Mentality, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Start with Why by Simon Sinek, my Mommy, and more!

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. 🙂

Showcase Greatness! Believe that greatness already exists within you and help others in their journey to find and showcase it. Greatness exists in all forms, and the sky’s the limit! As an esports organization, FlyQuest is dedicated to showcasing greatness competitively. Additionally, FlyQuest is showcasing greatness beyond winning. We launched our #GoGreen initiative to facilitate ways for us to address important environmental issues together. We’ve planted over 10,000 trees with #TreeQuest, became Champions of the Reef with #SeaQuest, and qualified for League of Legends World Championship. We continued to advocate that everyone can affect real change for our planet through #WorldsQuest. No one expected an esports organization to work on more than a winning brand. We’ve only dipped our toes in the space and will continue to build something that truly makes a difference.

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

One of my favorites comes from Mokichi Okada, “Gratitude gives birth to gratitude and ingratitude creates more ingratitude,” and I try to embody this in everything I do. I also follow the quote by Dumbledore — “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” I always want to do what’s right, no matter how hard.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @megumixbear and on LinkedIn here. Learn more about the FlyQuest team on flyquest.gg and stay up to date with us on Twitch, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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

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Female Disruptors: Tricia Sugita of FlyQuest 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.

Create rituals in the mornings and evenings. Having a set routine in those busy hours really helps make it all flow easier and helps parents stress less. We always get time together after dinner, whether it’s for playing a game or going for a walk. Knowing that the dedicated time is there amidst dinner, dishes, bath, etc. helps the child understand that some quiet time together is coming.

As a part of my series about “How extremely busy executives make time to be great parents” I had the pleasure to interview Lauren Pufpaf.

Lauren is Co-founder and COO of Feed.fm. She’s been growing startups for over 15 years and is also a vinyl junkie and house DJ. Her latest growth project is a 3 year old preschooler that brings her great joy.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us your “childhood backstory”?

I grew up in the Southwest (TX and NM) with my parents and younger brother. I’ve always been obsessed with music — I made mixtapes on my boombox in the 80s, played in concert and marching bands all through school, and eventually found my way to turntables.

Can you share the story about what brought you to this specific point in your career?

I’ve been focused on growth marketing for businesses at various stages for many years. When an investor connected me to my co-founders, I was extremely excited to combine my passion for music with the opportunity to build a sustainable business solving a real problem. Feed.fm is a B2B music platform that makes it easy for apps to integrate music and stream it (legally) to their customers. When we launched 6 years ago, there was nothing similar on the market and we saw an opportunity. Making the entrepreneurial leap to start a business from scratch requires a true, deep-seated belief that you can add real value to businesses or consumers. It’s been a long road to get where we are now, but we’ve grown so much (both in terms of revenue and personally!) and are excited about the next phase of scaling the businesses.

Can you tell us a bit more about what your day to day schedule looks like?

I’m up early! The day usually starts at 5:30 with 30 minutes of meditation and 30 minutes of exercise. Then I shower and get ready (I still put on jeans everyday) and have time to do about 30 minutes of work before my daughter gets up. I do breakfast and books with her, then drop her off at preschool, then it’s full steam ahead. My day is a mix of strategic thinking (hiring plans, growth opportunities, partnerships) and deep-in-the-weeds tactical execution (writing blog posts, assisting the curation team, writing job descriptions, creating sales sheets). I’m plugged into every aspect of the business, so there is a lot of context switching. We do dinner as a family and try to get outside for a walk or bike ride, then it’s bedtime routine and a bit of work catchup before I collapse with a book into bed.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the core of our discussion. This is probably intuitive to many, but it would be beneficial to spell it out. Based on your experience or research, can you flesh out why not spending time with your children can be detrimental to their development?

Children grow up with insecurities, fears and lack of confidence when parents are physically or emotionally unavailable. Kids are SO thirsty for affirmation and the last thing we want is to have them internalize a low sense of self worth because they didn’t get the time they needed with us.

On the flip side, can you give a few reasons or examples about why it is so important to make time to spend with your children?

Creating an emotional connection with your kids and spending intentional time with them is so important for both parent and child! When all your time spent together is about “ordering, correcting and directing”, it results in power struggles and drives the kids to attention-seeking behaviors. I find that when my daughter is really acting out, it’s often because I’ve been multitasking or rushing her around too much. Then again, sometimes she’s just being 3.

According to this study cited in the Washington Post, the quality of time spent with children is more important than the quantity of time. Can you give a 3–5 stories or examples from your own life about what you do to spend quality time with your children?

One thing we learned from Positive Parenting Solutions courses is that it’s really important for each parent to spend intentional time with the child and call it out as such. “We have 30 minutes of Mama and Lana time and we can do whatever you want.” Making a clear marker at the start and stop of the dedicated time seems to make a difference in their recognition of the attention.

I also love going on scooter or bike rides together with my daughter. She notices EVERYTHING and when I slow down and go at her pace, I notice more of my surroundings as well.

And, finally, reading together brings us all so much joy. My husband and I are huge readers and we both love exposing her to new books and ideas. She can’t read yet, but she can recite her favorites back and “read” to us, which is so fun.

We all live in a world with many deadlines and incessant demands for our time and attention. That inevitably makes us feel rushed and we may feel that we can’t spare the time to be “fully present” with our children. Can you share with our readers 5 strategies about how we can create more space in our lives in order to give our children more quality attention? Please include examples or stories for each, if you can.

1. Be transparent with your work teams and encourage time off Slack and email.

This has been very helpful in the last year, as work and home life have blurred together. I have actively encouraged my team to block off the time they need for family and we all need to respect those blocks. For team members without children, I have also asked that they take breaks for walks and get outside.

2. Create rituals in the mornings and evenings.

Having a set routine in those busy hours really helps make it all flow easier and helps parents stress less. We always get time together after dinner, whether it’s for playing a game or going for a walk. Knowing that the dedicated time is there amidst dinner, dishes, bath, etc. helps the child understand that some quiet time together is coming.

3. Go for a walk and leave your phone at home.

Checking email and Slack can be addictive and this tip goes hand in hand with #1 above. Very rarely is there a 30 minute block where it’s NOT ok to be away from your phone. It’s hard to do, but very freeing to leave the house without it.

4. Eat meals together.

Even if we can’t get her to stay at the table for more than 10 minutes, the act of sitting together and taking turns talking creates some lovely moments in the day.

5. Let them choose the activity in your dedicated time and just dive right into it.

Get on the floor, play in the mud, make a mess with the blocks. I find that when I really dive in and don’t worry about the mess and avoid multitasking, we all have way more fun.

How do you define a “good parent”? Can you give an example or story?

I’m trying to learn the balance between setting limits and encouraging independence. I think our job is to help them be the absolute best version of their own unique selves. And that means we have to give them room to figure out who that unique self is. My 3 year old is still discovering this, but we do try to encourage her to sing, dance, tell stories, and be wild, while also setting limits on behavior.

How do you inspire your child to “dream big”? Can you give an example or story?

There is a lot of pretend play with a 3 year old and I make sure that we aren’t locked into any one narrative when we’re imagining. Firefighter, Astronaut, Mama, Mountain climber, and Doctor have all been in rotation lately when we play. I have no idea what she’ll be, but I know she’ll be amazing at it.

How do you, a person who masterfully straddles the worlds of career and family, define “success”?

I believe learning and growth are our main objectives while we are on this planet. Not just book learning, but learning to be sincere, compassionate humans. Success to me means showing up every day for my family, my team, and myself and creating the best experience possible for all of us.

What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better parent? Can you explain why you like them?

I’ve found a lot of value in the Positive Parenting Solutions course, as it breaks down cause and effect so simply, while giving very actionable solutions. I have also leaned heavily on Joyful Toddlers and Preschoolers for getting us through the day without power struggles.

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

You can’t control the waves, but you can learn to surf.

Change is constant in life (and in startup life) but if you can learn to ride the waves and not grasp too tightly to any single outcome, you don’t have to fear change.

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. 🙂

Gender equality!

Equal power and equal opportunities for education, financial independence, and personal growth would change the world. Educated women have fewer, healthier, and better education children and the impact is carried on to the next generation.

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Lauren Pufpaf of Feed.fm: “How Extremely Busy Executives Make Time To Be Great Parents” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

…A national paid leave policy that ensures women don’t need to use valuable vacation time or unpaid leave to care for family members or deliver children. By not paying for care-related leave, we continue to stigmatize women’s caring work as less important than on-the-job work, further marginalizing them.

As part of my series about the five things we need to do to close the gender wage gap, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alaina Crystal, Head of Strategy at Purpose.

A committed feminist, Alaina has spent much of her career working on behalf of women and girls. At Purpose, she currently unites the organization’s diverse bunch of strategists across six offices to develop new processes and IP that help its partners create impact backed my strategic rigor.

Alaina joined Purpose from AMV BBDO, the UK’s largest advertising agency. Tere, she served as Deputy Head of Strategy and led global strategic development across Guinness, Snickers, and Bodyform, transforming worldviews around periods and women’s health. Within her role, Alaina served on AMV’s Diversity & Inclusivity committee and the Omniwomen committee (a cross-Omnicom consortium designed to lift women up in business), while also leading a pro-bono campaign for Plan International UK in honor of International Day of the Girl. She was awarded a WACL Future Leader award in 2019.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” that brought you to this career path?

I come from a line of women who refused to fit the mold. My grandmother went to work for the U.S. Postal Service when her kids were in school, bucking the trend of the 1950s/60s housewife in America. My mom eschewed secretarial school in the early 1970s to attend business school (fighting with her university for all four years to stay in her business classes) and became a successful corporate executive, all while maintaining an equal marriage with my dad and raising me.

It was not a huge surprise to anyone when I ended up working in the social impact space, particularly given my passion for women’s and girls’ rights. I joined Purpose in November 2019 after nearly a decade in creative advertising, most recently at BBDO in the UK. While at BBDO, I worked with a number of brands that used communications to shift culture, particularly with women and girls. Our repositioning of Barbie in 2015 as a tool for girls’ imaginations and potential, and our work with Bodyform from 2016 onwards, which highlighted the taboos and pressures that women face around periods, lit a fire within me. Simultaneously, the latest wave of feminist action after Donald Trump’s election threw logs onto that fire. I joined the Women’s Equality Party in the UK in 2017 and ran a campaign for a local council seat in south London, highlighting the importance of equality in the home and in government. After that experience, I knew that I needed to find a way to merge these two flames — and Purpose came in there.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

I feel grateful for the way that this career has enabled me to travel the globe, meeting all sorts of people and leading to a multitude of experiences and stories. I have spoken with millennial moms in LA and beer drinkers in Nairobi, as well as presented on stage at Cannes Lions and swapped wedding photos in the back of a car with clients in Shanghai. I not only visited supermarkets with chocolate eaters in Poland, but also wrote decks with clients on the train between Dusseldorf and Paris. All in all, the past ten years have been pretty incredible.

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

When I first started out, I had just begun working with clients and was learning quite quickly on the job. I was keen to prove myself in my junior role and prided myself on my efficiency in getting things done. One night, I had to send an email to a client analyzing some recent research. The email was not very detailed or clear, and it had a few errors in it. My boss (who was a lovely guy) emailed me immediately to point that out. I quickly hustled to correct the errors and resend…and in so doing, made a few more mistakes.

Priding myself on diligence and academic precision, this incident really upset me at the time. The next morning, my boss sat me down to ask what I learned. The answer? Stop, reflect, and review before sharing work, a lesson in non-reactivity that continues to serve me well. I have passed this lesson on to nearly every strategist I have mentored as well.

Okay, let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. Even in 2020, women still earn about 81 cents for every dollar a man makes. Can you explain three of the main factors that are causing the wage gap?

This figure continues to astound me and only worsens for women of color, with American Indian, Black, and Latinx women earning 75 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to data from Payscale. Despite making up 50% of the workforce, 50% of working women have stopped working or reduced their hours due to caregiving needs since the onset of the pandemic, which likely will cause the wage gap to worsen.

Patriarchy and white supremacy perpetuate the wage gap. Key factors stemming from these dominant ideologies include the marginalization of:

• Girls in education: When girls are held back in school or made to feel they need to quiet their voices to create space for boys, they learn lifelong habits. According to research from the AAUW, girls’ work is more likely to get judged based on effort as opposed to vision, setting up a disparity for the adult working world. These differing expectations in childhood prompt women to become more likely to spend additional hours perfecting a presentation versus boldly sharing ideas.
• Women in the workforce: Despite making up 50% of the workforce, women make up 29% of leadership positions. Early in their careers, women often get encouraged to take on certain types of roles, with administrative versus operational roles getting favored. Women then become less connected to a business’s P&L and get perceived as less critical or connected to visionary thinking.
• Women in the home: According to OECD data, women in the U.S. spend 105 minutes more on unpaid labor — including care work, household chores, and cooking — per day than men. Men only spend 84 minutes more on paid work per day than women, a missed opportunity for equilibrium.

Can you share with our readers what your work is doing to help close the gender wage gap?

At Purpose, we practice and reinforce equity across all of our work, whether in our global campaigns and labs or through internal procedures and processes.

Recently, Purpose interrogated gender equity in the early childhood and education sector in partnership with LEGO Foundation. The campaign directed parents to a platform where they could participate in a set of learning activities with their children during the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledging and correcting for how gender roles get cemented and reinforced through play.

In terms of internal efforts, we have transparent pay grades at Purpose. We encourage open discussions about pay, destigmatizing conversations that hold women back from understanding how their own salaries compare to peers. Our promotion process also runs via a strict calibration process, wherein promotions get reviewed by the person’s professional development (PD) manager, their head of office, head of department, and head of project. That way, we can spot trends across the organization and areas where people might rank themselves higher or lower across certain metrics. For instance, if women rank themselves lower than men on the more visionary- and leadership-driven metrics, we correct for that bias.

On a personal level, I am really committed to mentoring women around pay negotiation and promotion. I take pride in having helped a number of my mentees secure promotions, pay rises, or new roles within the organization that better suit their skills and desires.

Can you recommend five things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the gender wage gap. Please share a story or example for each.

1. A national paid leave policy that ensures women don’t need to use valuable vacation time or unpaid leave to care for family members or deliver children. By not paying for care-related leave, we continue to stigmatize women’s caring work as less important than on-the-job work, further marginalizing them. This issue becomes even more important amongst non-white women; for example, Latinas in the U.S. have reported taking the highest rate of leave to care for themselves or others during the pandemic.
2. A redefinition of roles that accounts for a more fluid expression of gender. By continuing to underscore a binary lens, we exclude those who don’t identify as male or female and pit those two genders against one another. Understanding of gender has grown more nuanced, with Pew reported that nearly 1 in 5 Americans knew someone who used a gender-neutral pronoun by 2019. A redefinition of gender can change how we see power in the workplace and where the money should go.
3. A close examination of the power dynamics in the workplace. While the #MeToo movement led to incredible strides, we still need to create safe spaces free of stigmas around how women look or dress. Sexual harassment from majority male colleagues remains a major issue, but it goes beyond that. We must address the harassment for clothing, hairstyles, and manicures that BIPOC women disproportionately face. The CROWN Act, which passed the House of Representatives in 2020, aims to put a legal framework around ending hair discrimination in the U.S. for good.
4. A true reckoning with girls’ mental health and the social media networks that perpetuate unrealistic lifestyles and unattainable body images. According to the AMA, suicides doubled amongst girls age 15 to 19 from 2007 to 2015; with most social media platforms launching between 2005–2015, this spike hardly comes as a surprise. We must put better provisions in place to keep young people safe from the harms of social media, such as regulating airbrushing and building safer algorithms.
5. A reconfiguration of how we understand ‘women’s work.’ We must equalize caregiving responsibilities for women to take on more in the workplace, while valuing that work monetarily. According to a March 2020 New York Times op-ed, if women’s unpaid labor got compensated at minimum wage, they would have earned $1.5 trillion in that year alone.

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?

Women have led community-based lives for years and found that it provides robust support networks, from childrearing years well into their sixties. Community-based organizing amongst Black women has resulted in incredible gains in states like Georgia, ultimately powering Biden to the White House. At Purpose, we work toward ‘new power’ movements — movements that have peer-to-peer participation at their core and center the most marginalized communities. I would like to inspire a movement that rebuilds and reshapes our towns and cities to centralize communal living, solving inequalities tied to and beyond the wage gap.

Can you please give us your favorite “life lesson quote”? How was that relevant to you in your life?

I have a poster in my bedroom that my work wife from New York gave me right before I moved to London. It’s from 2016, when Hillary’s campaign was in full swing and I had been volunteering in her Brooklyn HQ as a phone banker before I moved.

It says “do the most good” with Hillary’s logo at the bottom, and I wake up to it every day. While simple, this phrase really sticks with me as a mantra. I strive to do the most good in my work, for the planet, and for the people in my life, whether that’s the strategists I mentor, my family and friends, or myself.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in business, VC funding, sports, and entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world or in the U.S. whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? They might just see this — especially if we tag them.

I’ve been watching a lot of West Wing during the pandemic, so I’m tempted to say C.J. Cregg. Given she is a fictional character from a 22-year-old TV show though, that probably doesn’t fit the bill. It’s a bit cliche but I think Gloria Steinem. I read Revolutions from Within about ten years ago, and it massively impacted me, particularly around my connection to my self esteem and how broader societal trends inform it. Because she has lived through so many waves of feminism, I also would love to get her view through the decades. She still seems hopeful, which I really respect.

This conversation was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.

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Alaina Crystal of Purpose On The Five Things We Need To Do To Close The Gender Wage Gap was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future of Beauty: Caffrey Francis of ‘Grow Hair Clients’ On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Beauty Industry

Being truly happy is beautiful it radiates out of you. Being happy comes from being grateful and liking who you are. You’re truly only as beautiful as the person you are on the inside. Being a good person, doing good for others, and having positive healthy relationships is key to keeping your happiness glow. When someone is happy, they are beautiful.

As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years I had the pleasure of interviewing Caffrey Francis.

Caffrey Francis is the CEO of Grow Hair Clients. Through her business coaching program, she shows hairstylists and salon owners how to gain up to 10 clients in 30-days.

Growing up with a family of small business owners she’s witnessed first-hand the trials and tribulations of growing a successful business. As a successful entrepreneur herself Caffrey’s strengths are exhibited in marketing and sales. Caffrey has combined her business degree and experience to become a successful business coach.

When she isn’t coaching or building businesses you can find her on the tennis court or hanging out with her Chihuahua, Holly and her Irish Setter, Dublin.

Caffrey holds a BA in business administration from Oglethorpe University.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I am a business coach for hairstylists and salon owners. I show them how to increase their clients and sales through my nine-step growth roadmap. I have a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from Oglethorpe University where I also played tennis as their number one singles player.

I’ve always loved business and growing up in a family who owned several successful small businesses gave me the opportunity to learn a lot from my parents. I was able to witness firsthand the trials and tribulations of growing a successful business especially in the financial crisis.

When I was 16 years old, I created my first business as a tennis coach, teaching tennis to kids. The business was very successful. During this time my mom and I fostered hundreds of dogs which we later pivoted from and created a successful dog boarding business. I had to temporally withdraw from Oglethorpe due to health issues. When I came back to Oglethorpe to finish my degree, I became part of group called Team Wildlife which was a movement of high-reaching individuals who share a belief in living life to the fullest without the use of drugs, abuse of alcohol or inebriation. We coordinated events with colleges and provided entertainment in a safe environment that allowed participants to enjoy themselves without reckless behavior while also supporting a good cause. During this time I was able to meet a lot of people within the entertainment industry, learned a ton about social media, events, and creating professional content. During this time my long-time passion for hair and make-up started coming to light as I began creating my own how to content and sharing it on social media. At this time I wasn’t sure of how I could combine my passion of the beauty industry and make it into a profitable business.

So, after graduation I quickly got a job as a leasing agent at a property management company. A few months later I was promoted to assistant manager but as time went on my health started to decline and impacted my job. Due to my health I knew I would need to create another business so I could work my own hours. So, one day after work I’m in the salon chair at Ulta like I always am every four weeks and I’m getting an incredible blow out from Drew, my go-to person to do my hair and he was talking about how he was thinking of creating an Instagram account so he could start marketing his services to increase his clientele. However, but the only thing that he really isn’t interested in is social media. And, then it hits me that I should create a business that shows hair professionals how to grow their business. This is a great way to combine my love of the beauty industry with business and have a positive effect on people’s lives.

Forward to a few weeks later, I am fired from my job and I know it’s an opportunity to put my education and experience into a program that will grow hair professional’s clients and sales. I sold everything I had and moved from my nice apartment to my parent’s home. I was excited. I finally knew what my purpose was, and I was going to make it happen.

From the moment I got home I started working, learning, and implementing. I pulled out old textbooks, researched things off the internet, looked at old business plans, and identified what I could have done better in the past, and this was just on the business side. I also taught myself all the technical stuff such as creating a website, sales funnels, and marketing through Facebook and YouTube. I knew I had to figure out how to do these things so I could make a short cut version for the people going through my program. This way they don’t have to go through all the technical confusion and set up to have success. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. After 13-months working 12–15 hours a day, I was finally done but as I looked at my program, I knew there was something missing. I needed a clearer, more defined path for my clients, so, then enters my now mentors, Aaron Fletcher and Matt Lopez. With their knowledge and continued support I was able to come up with a clear nine-step roadmap for hair professionals to continuously grow their clients and sales. Of course, this is the same process that not only I use but every business owner has to go through to grow their business.

Before launching this I also launched an inspection business with my father called GA Custom Home Inspections that followed the same nine-step roadmap.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I wouldn’t say it’s the most interesting story, but I’ve spoken to so many kind people who have been working so hard trying to stay afloat in their business and are just at a loss on what they need to do to increase their clients and it’s been such a great experience being able to help these people.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I would say the tipping point was a few months ago when I launched a home inspection business with my father. Immediately after we launched the phone was ringing off the hook and it was hard for us to keep up with the demand plus the other businesses that we imminently had to scale back. The same happened with Grow Hair Clients the first week I launched. I was completely booked and for me to keep up with the demand I decided that I could only speak to extremely qualified prospects so before someone would schedule a call with me, they were notified that if they don’t at least complete the required pre-call homework one hour before their client and sales growth mapping call their appointment would automatically be canceled and the next person in line would get their call slot. I’m happy to say that the demand has only increased, and I only work with people who are highly motivated to gain up to 10 clients in 30-days and build a business that automatically grows by itself month after month.

What did I do differently — I implemented my 9-step proven process which is the exact process I show hairstylists and salon owners, how to apply this process to their business. For anyone trying to grow their business I would tell them to go to my website and watch the 9-step roadmap video — you’ll quickly be able to understand how to grow your clients and sales. My 9-step process works for any business.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the continuous support of my parents. I’ve learned from them that you are the only person who can put limits on yourself and if you continuously work towards one singular goal you will achieve it. I’m lucky to have them.

My mentors, Aaron Fletcher and Matt Lopez, I thank for sharing their knowledge, providing me clarity, and guiding me as my company grows.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

I show my clients how to us an online business platform that also assists in handling customer data through a CRM, or customer relationship management system. It helps my clients understand how their customers interact with every aspect of their marketing and sales — this enables them to see what is and is not working in their business. Although this technology is not completely new, it is to a lot of business owners because they have never used an online business platform before.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

I believe technology is just an easy object for us to point blame at instead of looking at ourselves. It’s not technology but people’s actions and moral compass that we should be focusing on.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?

1.) Today consumers want personalized products that solve their particular beauty problems and AI is able to give customers their exact solution all while creating a custom experience the consumer craves. This combined with AR that allows potential customers a future peek into exactly how they will look once they purchase that product or service will not only bring a flood of new customers to you, but you will easily be able increase your customer’s average cart value when they are able to see in advance how additional up sells will make them look.

By showing someone their future self, you will be able to dramatically increase a consumer’s desires to buy your products and services — they are no longer looked at as an option but an immediate necessity. This will dramatically increase all stages of a customer life cycle but especially your customer retention rate because you have given them exactly what they wanted and now your customer has a higher level of trust, therefore the likelihood you will retain them increases.

As AI and AR continue to advance, we will continue to see more of an authentic and detailed look of how a product will actually look on a customer.

2.) Incorporating skincare into make-up.

3.) I’m excited about alternative offline distribution channels such as vending machines for make-up and skin care. Due to the pandemic, companies have had to look at more efficient and effective ways to make money and one of the ways companies are doing this is replacing their employees with machines that already exist, such as vending machines. Although many companies such as Benefit, MAC, and Sephora have been doing this for many years and Kylie Cosmetics joined in on it in 2019, I believe we will start to see them everywhere not just continuously in crowded spots such as airports.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

1.) Since artificial intelligence and augmented reality will continue to increase beauty companies’ bottom line, we now need to look at how we are packaging these products. Companies need to pivot from plastic to a more ecofriendly packaging material. Today’s consumer is more informed on the environment and we will continue to see a shift in consumers gravitating to more ecofriendly, but always budget-friendly products. A beauty company making the move on using more ecofriendly packaging, more people will buy because they not only want the product but feel good that they are doing something good for the planet, which intern makes them feel good about the brand.

2.) We need transparency on the ingredients that are in make-up and skin care products and how it affects our health. Consumers have no idea what they are putting on their face and body much less how to pronounce it.

3.) Although I’m a big fan of AR, we need more transparency on the data someone is collecting on us. Its’ not just what we are typing into a computer, it’s a camera capturing our facial reactions to everything we like and don’t like, and they are capturing not just our face but the grounding areas. People think that money is our number one source of currency, but data is, and they need to keep this in mind. We also must know who and what country owns it.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1.) Being truly happy is beautiful it radiates out of you. Being happy comes from being grateful and liking who you are. You’re truly only as beautiful as the person you are on the inside. Being a good person, doing good for others, and having positive healthy relationships is key to keeping your happiness glow. When someone is happy, they are beautiful.

2.) Working out even if it’s just for 20–30 minutes a day. I love Beachbody workouts! I’ve been doing them for years. My favorite is T25!

3.) Never stop learning! I’m constantly evolving as a person because I never stop learning and implementing what I know. Education enables people to make better and more informed decisions about their lives and with that we have the option of living a life that best suits our wants and needs, leading to an increase in overall happiness.

4.) Don’t limit yourself. Beauty is so much more than what you look like. It’s more about the mindset that you allow to create for yourself.

5.) Take care of your skin — always wear sunscreen.

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. 🙂

When I was 12 years old there was a lady who I was close to, she was a mom of my sister’s softball teammates. She had terminal cancer and died quickly. It was heart breaking as she was such a kind woman. Before she died, she gave me a gold coin and told me this coin serves as a reminder to always smile at, at least five-people a day no matter how you feel inside. You never know the positive affect a little bit of kindness can do for someone else, and who knows, maybe your smile will be contagious and have a ripple effect. Never underestimate what kindness can do for the world. I still smile at, at least five-people a day.

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

“If you want something bad enough you will find a way to get it.”

“There is more than one way to skin a cat.”

“You’re the only person who can limit yourself.”

When I was six, I came home from school crying and so upset it was another day I realized how bad and hard school was for me and it made me so upset because I really wanted to go to college and play tennis. If you looked at my grades it looked like an impossible dream, one that so many people constantly told me that I couldn’t achieve.

My parents dedicated their lives to helping me get there. They gave me so much support and poured so much of their time, money, and recourses into me achieving it.

I had to put twice the amount of work and time into schoolwork and I barely made passing grades. It was difficult. My mom would often tell me, “if you want something bad enough you will find a way to get it,” and “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” I ended up going to college and playing tennis.

Through the time of me accomplishing that goal and many others — I’ve had a ton of people try to sit me down and tell me what I am capable of. As they spoke to me, I realized more and more that they were telling me a lie, one that was passed down to them by someone who also told them what they were capable of, and they accepted someone else’s limitations over their life. I decided a long time ago that I am the only person who can limit myself and I’m never going to do that.

How can our readers follow you online?

www.growhairclients.com

www.facebook.com/growhairclients

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

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The Future of Beauty: Caffrey Francis of ‘Grow Hair Clients’ On How Their Technological Innovation… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Total Acceptance, Most people confuse acceptance of a person, with acceptance of behavior. But everyone engages in unacceptable behavior, including you, including your mate. If you are withholding acceptance of your spouse until they change their behavior, then your standard for loving is based on performance. No one will totally live up to your standards all of time. So, eventually, all of your relationships will fall apart because they are based on expectations being met.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing the founders of the Growing Love Network, husband and wife duo, Jon and Joanna Anderson.

Jon R Anderson is the President and Founder of Growing Love Network, a non-profit organization with the purpose of revolutionizing relationships for lifelong love. Along with his wife of 35 years, Joanna, Jon has led more than 130 intensive workshops for troubled and failing marriages. He is the host of the podcast “Relationship Rewire”, and the author of “The Acceptance: What Brings and Keeps Lifelong Love”.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?

I was teaching college courses and running the counseling services department for a large, inner-city college when I was approached by an organization to conduct marriage intensives about once a month. Prior to that, I was in private practice as a Marriage & Family Therapist and most of my clients were marriages that were failing. Most of those marriages did fail and it became more and more disheartening. Over time, I became a full-time instructor and college counselor. So, when they approached me, I was reluctant at first. But they talked me into observing one and I saw how powerful and effective they could be if conducted the right way. So, I committed to doing 6 intensives a year. The next year I committed to 12 per year and cut back on my overload courses at the college. However, I became more and more frustrated with the expensive price tag for the intensives, which made it cost prohibitive to many who needed it. So, in 2013, we started Growing Love Network with a business model that allows us to charge a much lower price, as well as providing scholarship assistance to about half of the couples who participate.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?

Like most couples, we started out madly “In Love”. However, also like many couples, we had begun to dislike each other after a few years and even wondered if we had made a big mistake marrying each other. That is when we began our journey of getting help with our marriage. Over 30 plus years, we went to marriage seminars, took marriage courses, read marriage books and, even, went to couple’s therapy together. We have discovered that, thinking you will have a good marriage if you just marry the right person, is like believing that if you just have the right child it will raise itself. The common main ingredient in both of those endeavors is love. Truly loving someone doesn’t come naturally. It is something we either are getting better and better at doing, or worse and worse. Relationships are dynamic. Which means, there is no such thing as a stagnant marriage. A marriage that feels stagnant is almost always one that is eroding.

Joanna and I would both now say that we would rather be with each other more than anyone else (except maybe our grandson — Ha). That did not happen naturally. It has taken ongoing intentionality.

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?

Although it did not seem funny at the time, we made the mistake of thinking we could be everything to each other… emotionally, relationally, physically. So, we expected each other to fulfill all those things. It was like we went off on a lifelong backpacking adventure together, with all those perceived needs and desires in our backpacks… everything we thought we needed to survive and even thrive. The biggest mistake in this backpacking adventure was that we thought it would be so romantic to carry each other’s backpack. When you do this, it is not awfully long before you realize that you can’t bear the load of being everything to your spouse. And, when you expect them to be everything to you, you begin to see their loving acts toward you as fulfillments of obligations, rather than gifts. So, instead of showing gratitude for the times when the other does loving things for you, you instead show resentment toward the times when they don’t. This is a common mistake that I see almost everyone doing at times.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

At our last Love Reboot, the 3-day intensive we conduct about once a month, we had a couple that was sent to us by their divorce attorneys, which is something we see more and more often. Over the past few years this couple had tried everything… counseling, workshops, seminars… nothing had worked. At the end of the weekend, they told us that everything they had tried had no real impact. But Love Reboot had brought them to recommitting to their marriage. They even made a donation to Growing Love Network, right there on the spot. After conducting more than 130 of these, we see this sort of result more often than not.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

About a year ago my book The Acceptance came out. However, the timing couldn’t have been worse with COVID-19 and the economy falling apart. All of our promotional efforts were pretty much put on hold. In the past couple of months, we have hit “restart” on the campaign and have renewed excitement. The Acceptance is a culmination of my work, over decades, with thousands of couples. Unlike other marriage books, which tend to focus on tools and techniques, this book gets to the core of what drives us to look for a mate in the first place, and how that core continues to influence all of our interactions with our spouse. Most marriage books are about treating the symptoms, alleviating pain temporarily but never really addressing the root cause. I believe The Acceptance will totally revolutionize how most of us think about relationships. But, furthermore, it will provide simple exercises and practices which are much more effective, simple, and long-lasting.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?

Growing Love Network is a small operation. Everyone who works for us, including Joanna and I, get paid as contract workers. That being said, I used to be in charge of about 40 counselors and 60 staff persons. One of the biggest lessons I learned from that experience is that everyone should have a voice in the direction, as well as day-to-day decisions which involve them. As a CEO, you may have an idea that you believe is the best way to move forward for your company. It may seem like it would be incredibly inefficient to get the input of everyone. And doing so may water down the plan. While that may be true, a watered-down plan that everyone feels like they were a part of, is always better than a great plan that gets sabotaged by the people who don’t feel like they had a say in the matter. An employee at the very bottom of an organizational chart wields a lot more power than you would like to imagine. Make sure everyone feels heard and considered.

How do you define “Leadership”?

I define a leader as someone people choose to follow. Being a CEO does not make you a leader… it makes you a CEO. Desirable employees follow shared vision, courage, empathy and humility.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Almost everyone, who has pushed me to the next level, is someone who saw something more in me than I saw in myself. Some were high school teachers or college professors. Some were bosses. Often it was my parents or a family member. Sometimes it was a good friend, or Joanna, my wife. I am super blessed to have had a lot of these people in my life. One that really stands out, though, is Max Lucado. Apart from being a famous author, he has been a pastor at the Church we have been a part of since 1997. Over the years, Max and his wife, Denalyn, have continually encouraged us with tons of support. One reason their support stands out to me is, that the times when we seemed to be the least effective, those were the times when they gave more. I don’t think I would be doing this interview if it weren’t for people like that. Most people just want to be part of something that looks like a shooting star.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Success is a funny word to me. I don’t think anyone who really knows me would refer to me as “successful”. I think the only times I feel truly successful are when I get to be part of something that brings goodness to the world. I feel that way a lot when we are conducting a Love Reboot.

What are the “5 Things You Need to Thrive as A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.

Total Acceptance

Most people confuse acceptance of a person, with acceptance of behavior. But everyone engages in unacceptable behavior, including you, including your mate. If you are withholding acceptance of your spouse until they change their behavior, then your standard for loving is based on performance. No one will totally live up to your standards all of time. So, eventually, all of your relationships will fall apart because they are based on expectations being met. We like to tell each other, “I love everything about you!” We can say that sincerely because we are not talking about the other’s behavior. We are talking about who that other person really is at their core… a wonderful child of God.

Quit trying to change your mate. You can’t. The more you try to change them, the less they feel accepted by you. The less they feel accepted by you, the less they are going to want to grow more and more into someone who makes you feel more accepted.

Trying to change someone else is like spending your resources on something you can’t buy. It only leaves you broke.

Date for Life

When you first started out as a couple, you likely invested almost all of your extra resources into that other person… your time, your energy, your money. That’s why you were so interested in them. You are interested in what you invest in. Are you still investing at least as much into your mate as you did when you were dating? If not, that is likely your easiest fix. Dating doesn’t mean dinner and a movie once a month (although planned dates that require monetary investment are important). Back when you were dating, you likely dated almost every day. Whether it was a 2-hour phone conversation at the end of the workday, sharing a milkshake in the parking lot of a drive-thru, or taking a walk together. That’s what dating meant back then. That’s what dating should still be.

Spend most of your time together in the shallow end.

This one piggybacks on the previous one. When you were first dating, it wasn’t about addressing differences between the two of you or solving financial issues or addressing parenting problems. Those are “deep-end” issues. Instead, it was about getting to know each other better and looking for ways to show acceptance of each other. Most couples who have a lot of problems with each other, spend most of their time together in the deep end. Over time, they have become so fearful of being held under water by each other, they can’t even do the shallow end anymore. On the other hand, most of the deep-end issues begin to dissolve once each begins to feel safe with the other in the shallow end.

No Plan “B”

A marriage on probation will never meet its potential. If you are withholding affection, support, acceptance, respect, honor, for any reason, you are putting your marriage on probation. This means you have a “Plan B” … a backup plan. When you don’t have a parachute, you don’t jump out of flying planes. Instead, you Google “How to fly a plane”. When you don’t have a bridge to retreat across, you fight harder. When you don’t have an alternative to staying married, you love stronger.

You are people 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. 🙂

The mission of Growing Love Network is to “Revolutionize Relationships for Lifelong Love”. That is the movement that our work is about inspiring. We believe that most marriages that fail, do so because of erroneous cultural mindsets and attitudes. Many of these mindsets are not based on data-driven evidence. For example, many believe that sameness or “compatibility” is the key to a good marriage. However, many happy couples are vastly different from each other, while many miserable marriages are made up of two remarkably similar individuals. We believe that almost any couple can have a thriving, fulfilling marriage. Furthermore, if more marriages are successful, the data is overwhelming that we will have: less poverty; less substance abuse; less child abuse, less incarceration; less emotional illness; etc.

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

Quit Pursuing Happiness!

Happiness requires things, external to me, to go the way I want. So, when I am pursuing happiness, I am engaged in manipulating those things to be the way I want them to be. Most of those “things” are going to be people. People don’t like to be manipulated. So much so, that they tend to resist it. Which, in turn, gives us less of what we want. There are two great paradoxes here: 1) The more I pursue happiness, the less happy I will be. 2) The more I choose joy, especially in my most unhappy circumstances, the happier I will be.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

For decades I’ve imagined having a beer with Bono.

How can our readers follow your work online?

www.GrowingLoveNetwork.org

Relationship Rewire podcast — wherever you get your podcasts but also on our website.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.

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Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Jon and Joanna Anderson of Growing Love Network was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Alexandra Schrecengost of Virtual With Us On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Trust yourself and don’t be afraid to fail: That’s actually advice I gave myself. I’ve learned that being afraid to fail is a construct imposed on you by others who may not trust themselves. I’ve had a few friends who did not succeed in their entrepreneurial efforts tell me to temper my expectations, but at the end of the day, I know I’ll succeed because that’s the only way I can see it.

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

Alexandra is the Founder and CEO of Virtual With Us, curated virtual experiences for Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups and established NGOs (think gala fundraisers). She designed Virtual With Us to tailor hosted activities to the interests of corporate sales teams — from wine and beer tastings to virtual gaming and cook-along culinary demonstrations. Prior to starting Virtual With Us, Alexandra recently worked at Wilson Daniels as their head of Communications across the national and wholesale fine wine brands, overseeing traditional comms, executive visibility, advertising, corporate events, digital content and social media. She’s a candidate for a WSET Diploma, a two-year wine education program.

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’ve been a communications executive in hospitality, wine, and spirits since I graduated with a Master’s in Public and Organizational Relations and paired my passion for PR with my interest in high-end wine and spirits. Those roles led me to in-house communications for a global wine importer, and inspired me to take on a formal wine education in my late 20’s to better serve my clients and colleagues.

Immediately after we all started working from home, I saw what a serious impact these measures were having on the hospitality industry. Being so close to so many wine and spirits professionals, my heart was with them during the most difficult times, and I resolved to do something about it, even if it was very small at first. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could use all the different aspects of my background to help.

Around this time, my husband who’s in digital sales was also struggling to find ways to stay in touch with his colleagues, prospective clients and customers and Zoom was taking over our lives. It came to me that I could blend my background and network in the wine & spirits industry with technology to elevate Zoom experiences in a way that could still be professional yet more conducive to mingling and socializing. I test drove the idea with my husband’s company Contentsquare, and step by step the business came together. Today, we are servicing Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups, NGOS for their gala fundraisers and other largescale virtual events that not only include amazing wine selections but also activities like a murder mystery and trivia.

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

Breaking the model of pretentious, dry “classroom” wine education, and making tastings fun and interactive by emulating a cocktail party format has transformed the virtual tableside into something that guests actively sign up for and get excited about.

Many of our participants are working from home and are online as a big part of their jobs, so we pay special attention to curating experiences that spark joy and nurture camaraderie and relationship building — be that from the high-quality wine selection that they get in the mail beforehand to the entertaining wine stories told by the sommelier.

What’s most exciting about this disruption is we are also creating much needed jobs for the hospitality industry.

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 started tasting wine professionally, especially during the workday, I was very self-conscious about spitting it out. Once, in a winery’s tasting room, I saw another professional spit their wine into the floor drain and was horrified and whispered that they shouldn’t do that in front of the winemaker. They laughed, asked if it was alright to spit into the floor drain, and the winemaker said “Sure, we all do!” I realized the stiff, pretentious attitude you find in the industry doesn’t really apply when you’re among friends, and that has inspired me to sow friendliness instead of pretense.

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?

Amy Wilkins, Smithsonian Media’s Chief Revenue Officer, taught me the patience needed to deeply understand an organization and its goals in order to build something strong and steady. I also developed a great relationship with Wendy Knight, who introduced me to the culinary world as a junior publicist, and helped guide how I approach telling brands’ unique stories. Chef Nils Noren will always be a confidant and counsel for my ideas, big and small. I’d also like to mention Mary Gorman, MW, for helping me understand the world of wine in a personal and impactful way, and Gail Heimann, President and CEO of Weber Shandwick, who empowers ambition, evokes creativity, and shows support for her team in every way. She changed my outlook on leadership in a big way.

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?

As someone who began studying wine in my 30s, I definitely fit the stereotype of “disruptive millennial” and I’m proud of that. When an industry or product is vulnerable to being disrupted, there is an inherent aspect that needs adjusting in order to appeal to the widest possible audience. During my wine education, I perceived an air of exclusivity that — while definitely still one of the reasons I took on this education as a fine wine and spirits communications pro in the first place — ultimately turned people away or off entirely. Not fixing this problem leaves out a huge population of people who want to be interested, but feel intimidated by the environment that has been the status quo for so long. Disrupting is the new normal, and I’m grateful that certain institutions that have typically “withstood the test of time” are facing necessary pivots to ultimately grow in a more productive direction.

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

Trust yourself and don’t be afraid to fail: That’s actually advice I gave myself. I’ve learned that being afraid to fail is a construct imposed on you by others who may not trust themselves. I’ve had a few friends who did not succeed in their entrepreneurial efforts tell me to temper my expectations, but at the end of the day, I know I’ll succeed because that’s the only way I can see it.

Spend enough time with the people you like best: The nature of the workplace is being around people you don’t choose to be around. The only way to balance the stress of interactions that may seem forced or unnatural is to spend enough time with the people you love to balance it out.

Don’t limit your opportunities: A career is not a linear timeline, and nothing precludes you from re-interpreting your skill set in any number of ways.

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

I plan to keep breaking into the world of wine, which is so heavily male-dominated, in new ways, and actively encouraging the evolution of traditional concepts for the new generation. My vision for the future is inclusivity and a welcoming attitude that unlocks the potential of new and younger wine drinkers. It is time to really shake things up.

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

We’re asked some genuinely insulting questions, and I think many of us still rely on an instinct to “protect” those who ask them, rather than following their question with a question of our own. When someone asks how I balance marriage or motherhood with entrepreneurship and further education, my real answer is “why are we still asking this inherently belittling question?” I know, for better or worse, what they want to hear is that it’s difficult. The truth is that women are generally outstanding multitaskers and make excellent disruptors thanks to their personal formulas (and they are just that, personal) for maintaining these balances, not in spite of them. Don’t be afraid to answer a question with a question that starts a productive conversation.

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

Swirl Suite is a very impactful podcast for Black voices in the wine industry that I enjoy a lot. This Woman Can is another reliable source of inspiration and support, especially for women entrepreneurs. Copper and Heat, and Wine Enthusiast’s podcasts are entertaining and enjoyable too. I also thoroughly enjoyed Michelle Obama’s book, so I am diving into A Promised Land. The Obamas will always be a dual pillar of strength for me, their time in the White House led me to being more assertive in my professional life and wanting to positively influence the younger generations in everything I do. I believe in support (and encouragement) in the very many different ways that word can be spun and that is how I approach not only my professional life, but also motherhood.

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 inspire more minority women to assert their true potential in the hospitality industry. These professionals are so hard-working and committed to their crafts, and to see them struggle to climb the ladder, be passed over in favor of male colleagues, and not earn what they’re worth to better their lives and advance their families affects me every day. I would love to establish or serve on the board of an organization dedicated to raising awareness and empowering this kind of growth in the industry.

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

I once had a manager tell me “A leader or manager does not see what you are, but rather what you can be.” It definitely stuck with me.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on Instagram at @alexschrec and Virtual With Us at @virtualwithus.

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

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Female Disruptors: Alexandra Schrecengost of Virtual With Us On The Three Things You Need To Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tekisha Harvey of CannaCurious Magazine: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business

…have a proactive and ongoing plan to course correct for the future. Talk honestly about the disparity and make it known that you want to change the narrative and then actually do it. Go find the talented women and hire them. Then promote them and give them the space to lead.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tekisha Harvey.

Tekisha Harvey left behind 15+ years of corporate life, working with Coach, Ralph Lauren, Conagra Brands and more, to travel the world and eventually become an entrepreneur. She launched TH Consulting in 2018 to help wellness brands with brand and marketing strategies. Since then, she has worked with major cannabis and CBD brands to help them with consumer research and market expansion strategies. Most recently, she co-founded CannaCurious Magazine, a digital magazine targeted to women interested in learning more about the benefits of CBD and cannabis. Tekisha is passionate about eliminating the stigma and normalizing conversations around cannabis and its wellness benefits. Tekisha has a Bachelor’s in Economics from Florida A&M University and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Maryland.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis industry?

In 2018, I was working out of a co-working space and a major CBD company was renting office space there. It was my first encounter with CBD after hearing so much about it. I was hesitant to try it, but eventually did after realizing there were no side effects. From there, I knew there was something to this industry and it would become big. So I literally started saying out loud to people that I wanted to work in the cannabis space. I didn’t know how I would get into the space, but I knew putting it out into the universe was a start.

Then, in a conversation with a former colleague, he mentioned that another colleague had started a cannabis consumer insights company and was looking for help. The ironic thing was that she was from Chicago, but now lived 3 hours away from me in Florida. We got on a call and decided to meet in person a week later. We each drove an hour and half and met at a Starbucks in Fort Myers, Florida. We instantly hit it off and I started working with Aclara Research, as the Marketing and Strategy lead. That was how I got into cannabis! It was while working in consumer research with cannabis brands, that I discovered the lack of approachable resources for women, specifically, to get educated on cannabis. Existing publications were too business focused, medical focused or perpetuated the “stoner” stereotype. Nothing was speaking to the novice woman who didn’t quite identify with what was out there. So my friends and co-founders, Diana Sanmiguel and Kinisha Correia, and I created it! That was how CannaCurious Magazine came to life in April of 2020 and we launched our first issue in September of 2020.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Since launching CannaCurious with my co-founders, I’ve been blown away by the positive response to the magazine. Women are drawn in by how beautifully designed it is. To be honest, we did that intentionally to capture their attention and re-write the narrative around cannabis. Talking about cannabis and CBD in a way that feels normal and natural, as if you were reading any other lifestyle magazine, is our way of starting the conversation with women. Including fact-based information and personal, relatable women’s stories are what keeps them coming back.

Do you have a funny story about how someone you knew reacted when they first heard you were getting into the cannabis industry?

When I was with the consumer insights company, we launched the first consumer product testing service in California. Given my consumer product goods background, I was familiar with testing new products, but not cannabis! We recruited and screened close to 400 participants for an edibles study. I have never seen so many happy and excited market research participants. It was a big change from testing canned pasta! When it came time to pick up the products, the constant question was, “So let me get this right. I get paid to try gummies?”. To which my consistent reply was, “Yes, as long as you take the survey after and tell us your thoughts!”

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Carmen Brace, founder of Aclara Research has definitely been an inspiration. She gave me my start in the cannabis industry and it was through our work with cannabis consumers and patients that I learned that people were using this plant to get well, not to simply get high. Pain, anxiety and trouble sleeping, conditions that impact over 140 million Americans, are the three main reasons for use for both cannabis and CBD. Working with her and seeing her insight into what this industry could become, led me to forge my own entrepreneurial path with CannaCurious.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?

We are just starting with CannaCurious and while we have had great traction already, we have so much more planned. Our goal is to be a source of enlightenment for all women, highlighting the many ways in which cannabis and CBD can address their specific issues. We started out as a digital publication, but have recently gotten interest from two major book retailers to carry printed issues. Additionally, we want to host workshops, events, and even put on a conference — when the world opens back up, of course! We aim to normalize conversations around cannabis in the same manner we talk about happy hours.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Despite great progress that has been made we still have a lot more work to do to achieve gender parity in this industry. According to this report in Entrepreneur, less than 25 percent of cannabis businesses are run by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/or c) society to support greater gender parity moving forward?

1. First and foremost, admit and acknowledge that disparities exist. You can’t fix the problem until you acknowledge there is one.
2. Release fear and embrace change. Instead of trying to get women to fit the existing mold for leadership, consider that the mold can be different. It’s 2021 after all, not 1950. Things should evolve and change. That’s the beauty of life. We learn and do better.
3. Lastly, have a proactive and ongoing plan to course correct for the future. Talk honestly about the disparity and make it known that you want to change the narrative and then actually do it. Go find the talented women and hire them. Then promote them and give them the space to lead.

You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each.

1. Expect the unexpected. The cannabis industry is new and growing very fast. We are building the plane and flying it at the same time, so be flexible and open to a rapidly changing environment.
2. Connect with people in cannabis at local and online events. The cannabis industry is still very grassroots and people are leaning on each other to help move the industry forward. If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask someone for advice.
3. Focus on the ancillary businesses, not just plant touching. They make up two thirds of the cannabis industry. We knew with expanding legalization, access to cannabis was increasing and people needed to be re-educated. That was why we started CannaCurious — to educate women in an approachable, beautiful and informative way.
4. Learn the history of not only the plant but also the impact of the War on Drugs to communities of color. It is important to understand this past in order to create a new narrative that is inclusive and equitable.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the cannabis industry?

1. The opportunity to shape the industry in a better way than traditional industries.
2. The passion of the people who are truly advocates for the healing benefits of this plant.
3. The social justice and equity work that continues to be an undercurrent of many business operations. It can be better, but movements like #MeToo and BLM have helped to keep things moving in the right direction.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

One of my biggest concerns about this budding industry is unequal access. It can cost up to a million dollars in startup capital to open a dispensary. How many people have access to that type of capital? I hope that cannabis doesn’t become another elite industry in which only a select few can enter and be successful. It creates another situation where only a few corporations run everything. While 35 percent of cannabis businesses are plant touching, 65 percent of them are ancillary business, like accounting, software, education and accessories. I’m passionate about finding and highlighting those areas of opportunity for folks.

What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?

I believe in the federal legalization of cannabis, but only if it’s done thoughtfully. What I mean by that is addressing and expunging records of those with cannabis-related convictions, providing social equity programs so that Black and Brown communities which have been disproportionately impacted, have access to participate in this space and lastly, to ensure that a portion of the tax revenue from the legalization of cannabis goes into investing into those impacted communities of color.

Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?

No, I don’t think it should be on the same level as cigarettes because of the numerous, under studied health benefits of the plant. Unlike cigarettes, you don’t only have to smoke cannabis to receive the benefits. You can eat it, take it in a tincture or even a topical cream. What cannabis needs is more research studies that people can learn about and connect to vs the old narrative of just getting high.

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

My favorite life quote goes something like: “Don’t compare someone’s highlight reel to your ‘behind the scenes’.” In our age of social media, it is super easy to get caught up in the “wins” of others. It can take a toll and make you feel bad about your progress (or lack thereof). When in reality, you don’t know what it took to get them there, how long it took and if it’s even real. When people saw the first issue of CannaCurious, they thought we made it and were raking money. The reality was, we are a lean team who luckily has the skillset to make it happen, but we are currently doing this all on our own. It’s a journey and I try to use others for inspiration instead of comparison, knowing there is always more to the story than the glamorous end result.

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

My movement would be called “Why Not Me?” As a child of immigrant parents and as a Black woman, I understand and have faced limits and challenges that others have not. However, one thing I know for sure is that you have to believe it is possible for you in order to even go after it. “Why Not Me?” is the question that can get the ball rolling. We are often taught to be cautious and risk averse, trying to foresee every potential pothole. Instead, let’s focus on the possible and see what comes about when we believe that we can truly have our biggest dreams.

Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!

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Tekisha Harvey of CannaCurious Magazine: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future of Beauty: Evan Feldstein of FOREO On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Beauty Industry

Make sure you’re practicing self care. All of our products are a great way to treat yourself and can be easily incorporated into any skincare regime, but I have to shout out our eye massager called IRIS. It’s the perfect example of a tool that allows you to reach the ultimate level of relaxation. Being mentally centered is a great way to feel beautiful.

As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years, I had the pleasure of interviewing Evan Feldstein.

Evan Feldstein currently serves as the Vice General Manager and General Counsel for FOREO North America. Feldstein joined the FOREO team in 2016 as its lead Intellectual Property Attorney and its General Counsel, where he was instrumental in combating patent infringements and counterfeit products on behalf of the company. Leading the Brand Protection department, he oversaw the removal of over 30,000 illegal infringing listings on retailer sites, saving the company over $4 million.

In 2018, Feldstein was promoted to his role as Vice General Manager and General Counsel. Feldstein serves as a key business leader and legal advisor for the North American market, where he works closely with the President and General Manager to develop and implement key sales and marketing strategies to contribute to the overall growth and success of the business. Feldstein’s effective leadership and strong business acumen led to a profit increase of 50% since he entered into the role.

With a passion for intellectual property law and brand protection, Feldstein’s extensive efforts to fight counterfeit products has led to the removal of thousands of imitation replicas, further preserving FOREO’s reputation along with the safety of consumers. Acting as a bridge between the marketing side of the business and legal affairs, Feldstein continues to align organizational objectives with the company mission, increasing revenue, profit and business growth by collaboratively developing integrated strategies. As a key figure in the North American market, Feldstein has established key business tactics and procedures to improve operational quality and team efficiency.

Feldstein received a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from the University of Miami and went on to earn a law degree from Arizona State University. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, traveling and spending time with his family.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I joined FOREO in May of 2016 and was brought on as the lead attorney due to the rapid growth the company was experiencing. In just two years, the North American market underwent an exponential growth in sales, so the brand was in desperate need of someone to legally manage the negative effects of gaining popularity so quickly, as well as perform the day-to-day legal tasks a growing company generates. This primarily included identifying counterfeit products, protecting the brand’s intellectual property, and aiding in trademarks and patents. After about two years focusing primarily on FOREO’s legal, regulatory and brand protection aspects, I became interested in learning more about other areas of the business, particularly marketing and sales. I was constantly asking my supervisor to allow me to sit in on these meetings, and I was able to learn and gain insight from observing. Eventually my supervisor was transferred to Tokyo to handle the Japanese market which gave me the opportunity to transition into more of a hybrid role between law, sales and marketing. I think my experience in the legal realm gives me a different perspective than the average marketing manager, so I am able to see things from a different perspective and act as the most realistic head in the room.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The first time I went to Europe was because of FOREO, which is an experience I’ll never forget. Myself and some of the members from the sales team were traveling to Paris to visit LVMH’s headquarters, which owns several luxury brands such as Sephora. This was back when my position was still more law-focused, and I was there to talk about trademark licensing. This trip really stands out to me as one of the first times I was interested in learning more about the business from just a legal perspective.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I’m a firm believer in opening your own doors. It’s important to act as an advocate for what you want. At my old law firm I was focused solely on medical device patents, but was interested in trademark and copyright law, so I took the initiative and started asking for more of those cases. This was similar to asking my boss at FOREO to let me take on a bigger role. It’s important to voice your interests, and if you have a supportive leader they’ll take enthusiasm in allowing you to grow.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My parents played an instrumental role in my success. My dad is a lawyer and has always acted as a mentor to me. Throughout my entire life he’s been a great example of who I want to emulate. My mom is retired now but she had a great career in sales and was extremely tenacious. She served as a very energetic role model, and I can attribute my interest in the sales and marketing side of the industry to her.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

The most cutting edge technology we have at FOREO is definitely our UFO product. The smart masking device does a little bit of everything (advanced LED light therapy, cryotherapy, thermotherapy, and sonic pulsations), and replicates a trip to the spa or visit to an esthetician all from the comfort of your own home. For the price of a three hour treatment at the spa you can achieve a similar effect for the next ten years. FOREO is also attempting to break the mold in the beauty industry by authentically focusing on creating a story and evoking a feeling from our consumers. So many brands are so heavily product focused, and we believe people chase a feeling that’s being evoked. We are certainly a caring and quirky voice within the beauty community, and want our customers to be able to turn to us and our products for a special self care treatment after a long and stressful day.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

It’s important to note that we don’t want our devices to completely replace a traditional spa day. There is so much value in getting out of the house and allowing someone else to pamper you. Especially over the course of this past year, we have all come to really understand and appreciate the importance of interacting with others. Our products are a great long-term solution for those who aren’t financially able to afford regular spa visits, or rather a way to complement and enhance your professional treatments with effective tools at home.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?

The first thing would have to be sustainability. Traditionally, the beauty industry is seen as wasteful due to packaging and replacement containers that consumers have to regularly purchase. FOREO was way ahead of its time by building products that last 10 years with no need to replace brush heads like our prior competitors. Our Luna series is particularly environmentally friendly, and I take comfort in the fact that we’re doing our part in keeping the planet safe.

The next benefit that excites me about the beauty-tech industry would have to be personalization, and our products are a great example of this. Users are able to completely customize their treatments based on their needs through our app. Additionally, the industry has embraced new technology which provides access to tutorials, reviews, and recommendations to teach people how to successfully use a product or create a look for themselves. Before this, the only option was to visit a makeup counter, but now the teaching element of beauty is much more accessible.

My last point would have to be the diversity within the industry now compared to several years ago. Diversity in the beauty industry is especially significant because we need to show that there’s no such thing as a “standard” to be beautiful, and it’s not just physical but encompasses a mental aspect as well. We no longer have to conform to narrow standards of beauty, and it’s really exciting to see how much this has evolved and is trending in the right direction.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

One of my concerns would have to be conglomeration within the industry. It’s common for independent brands to be eaten up by much larger entities, which can be damaging to the innovation of the beauty business as a whole. No matter how diverse these companies can be, we’re not going to get the same spark and imagination that you see without independent local and regional companies.

Another concern is oversaturation within the beauty realm. There’s a ton of options out there, and with the younger generation being hooked on social media and falling into a trap with apps, it can oftentimes be damaging. Unfortunately some brands continue to promote a false sense of reality and are using their platforms to promote the idea of being “Instagram worthy.”

From more of a legal standpoint, my last concern is the proliferation of the fake products we see coming from China. There’s about 15,000 counterfeit listings online each year for FOREO alone, which is so much worse than what we saw five years ago in terms of volume. If we have a consumer purchase one of these products by mistake, this greatly impacts the trust they have in our brand and consequently damages our reputation. Before the internet, counterfeit products were much easier to identify, but now these online listings can often look so legitimate that consumers are hardly able to tell the difference. Using a faulty skincare tool can be incredibly dangerous to consumers, so it’s always our top priority to combat these counterfeit products.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

My first suggestion is to make sure you’re practicing self care. All of our products are a great way to treat yourself and can be easily incorporated into any skincare regime, but I have to shout out our eye massager called IRIS. It’s the perfect example of a tool that allows you to reach the ultimate level of relaxation. Being mentally centered is a great way to feel beautiful. My next tip seems easy enough, but a lot of people don’t make it a priority to listen to the basic habits your body needs to function, like drinking enough water and making sure you’re getting enough sleep. Since we live in a society that prioritizes work and responsibilities over taking care of yourself, many people stay up all hours of the night and put pressure on themselves to finish work-related tasks. Doing simple things like making it a point to get at least eight hours of sleep and upping your water intake will make you feel better mentally, and in turn give you a more positive outlook overall. Additionally, I think taking time to meditate or simply unwind and reflect on your day is a great way to feel more beautiful internally, which also reflects externally. I always take time to be alone and self-analyze to make sure I’m moving ahead and growing. This brings me to my next tip, which is to make it a point to disconnect from social media. Social media can be deceiving in only showing the highlights of others’ lives, which can cause you to compare yourself to those you follow and lead to negative mental health consequences. This along with the unrealistic and unachievable beauty standards that are promoted through photo manipulation can lead to unrealistic standards, especially for teens, so I think it’s important to use social media sparingly. Lastly, I think it’s crucial to stay in touch with the people that are important to you, like your family and closest friends, in order to re-connect, keep yourself centered, and in turn lift your spirits and keep you feeling beautiful.

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. 🙂

While social media has many upsides, like allowing you to keep in touch with those in different cities, promoting powerful social causes, and giving people a sense of community, I think the negatives generally outweigh the positives. I would use my influence to erase the darker corners of social media in order to stop polarizing people and promoting a false sense of reality. This is especially relevant in America, where it seems like people who disagree with each other can’t civilly engage anymore. Social media also can cause a rapid spread of misinformation, further promoting the agendas of those who can be damaging to our society. I deleted my social media accounts years ago and never looked back. That being said, I don’t think all social media is negative and I especially see the positive community that’s created amongst our followers, I would simply like to get rid of the negatives that come with it.

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

One of my favorite quotes is from baseball player Mickey Rivers, which is “If you have no control over something, ain’t no sense worrying about it -you have no control over it anyway. If you do have control, why worry? So either way, there ain’t no sense worrying.”

When you grow in a company like FOREO, or any large business, there’s a constant fear of the unknown, and you spend a lot of time worrying about things you don’t have control over. When the pandemic started, I stayed up countless nights worrying about our future as a business, and whether or not our employees were going to be able to be safe and healthy. Our warehouse workers are essential workers, and I didn’t want any of them to get sick. I soon realized that as long as you have the correct processes and policies in place, and you believe that you’ve done everything in your power to counteract any problems you can anticipate, there’s not much more you can do. It’s more beneficial to focus on the things you can control instead of the things you can’t.

How can our readers follow you online?

Feel free to follow me on LinkedIn, just search Evan Feldstein.

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The Future of Beauty: Evan Feldstein of FOREO On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It is true children are resilient and can recover remarkably well from traumas or absences in their lives…but it is because this is now their foundation to build on and they quickly encapsulate the pain they have experienced. This becomes the first emotional scar tissue in their lives. On the outside children can appear alright…but that scar tissue foundation for life WILL present itself for the rest of their lives unless continual work is made to heal from it deeply.

As a part of my series about “How extremely busy executives make time to be great parents” I had the pleasure to interview Jason Collier.

Meet Jason Collier. A dental implant surgeon, single father of four, and now viral sensation with a simple mission: to spread goodness in the world, one cup of coffee at a time.

So how did this dentist find himself in the spotlight? Waking up one morning to texts, and comments from friends and family Jason found himself mistaken online for ANOTHER Jason Collier. In an effort to save his name, he created a post that soon went viral and brought thousands of others to have an interest in the “GOOD” Jason. After another video he posted went viral again, he figured he should use this leverage to give back, and “Good Guy Coffee” was born. Good Guy Coffee is a fair-trade, organic coffee company that gives back to organizations such as Children’s Hospital Women Against Abuse, and The Hoffman Process.

Tune in for “Coffee with Jason”, candid conversations with special guests on topics ranging from mindfulness, authenticity, presence, how to show up in relationships, entrepreneurship, wellness, health, meditation, and so much more. Jason is more than your average Joe spreading love through good conversation over a good cup of Joe.

Ride the wave with Jason, and follow him through his mission with his coffee, his dental implants, or tune into his new show, “Coffee with Jason.”

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us your “childhood backstory”?

So I grew up in Memphis, TN the son of a welder and a nurse. My father died when I was 11 years old. I played hard at sports but honestly didn’t work hard in school until college.

Can you share the story about what brought you to this specific point in your career? I had been practicing dentistry, implant dentistry particularly, for over 13 years. In 2009 I purchased Southern Dental Implant Center. Over the past few years I have been looking for a new business adventure that felt like an expression of myself and the energy I wanted to put out into the world but nothing had yet been a “hell yes”. Through a set of circumstances outside of my control, I accidentally went viral over social media, some people I did not know set up a fan page for me…and Good Guy Coffee was weirdly born out of that LOL…and has become a movement for positivity and kindness in the world since. We just started the concept in February. We got off the ground officially in early March…and we are continually expanding our concept depth and reach. A big commitment I made with Good Guy Coffee was that this needed to be used as a force for good. All of our proceeds are going to charities benefitting children in need and women experiencing abusive situations. We are all online at www.goodguy.coffee.

Can you tell us a bit more about what your day to day schedule looks like?

In general I still see dentistry patients from 9–3 or so. My schedule is a little different every day. I volunteer my time along with a number of other key people in developing Good Guy Coffee in my spare time throughout the day and weekends.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the core of our discussion. This is probably intuitive to many, but it would be beneficial to spell it out. Based on your experience or research, can you flesh out why not spending time with your children can be detrimental to their development?

This is a very interesting question to be asked at this time as I have recently begun writing a book. One of the things touched on in this book is particularly the presence or absence of fathers in the lives of children, whether as good or bad influences. My purpose in focussing on fathers was because of the affect on me personally in the loss of my own father in childhood.

It is true children are resilient and can recover remarkably well from traumas or absences in their lives…but it is because this is now their foundation to build on and they quickly encapsulate the pain they have experienced. This becomes the first emotional scar tissue in their lives. On the outside children can appear alright…but that scar tissue foundation for life WILL present itself for the rest of their lives unless continual work is made to heal from it deeply. When children experience pain, they are more likely to inflict pain, either physically or emotionally. This can lead to obvious social problems of all kinds. When a parent is missing from the equation a major stabilizing presence is also absent. A study was done years ago on elephants in Africa. Because of poachers or natural deaths, it was observed that young elephants who had lost parents would run rampant through the region needlessly destroying habitats, other animals, and people. When something as simple as introducing an adult male elephant into the group, the destruction immediately stopped. They calmed literally overnight. Children crave love. They need love. When they don’t have it, they become destructive to themselves and others around them. The presence of parents, or at the very least parental figures, is crucial for their own healthy development and the creation of a functioning social structures for society as a whole.

On the flip side, can you give a few reasons or examples about why it is so important to make time to spend with your children?

I personally love my children deeply. I enjoy spending time with them even when they act crazy like children do sometimes. I also have a tendency to think and feel things deeply. I want to make sure I am establishing deep bonds with my children. I think of the song Cats In The Cradle sometimes. On the selfish side, I want my children to make time for me when they are older. My investment in them will be equivalent to theirs in me later in life. For me it is more than that though. I also want to instill ways of thinking, feelings, work ethics, personal responsibility and vision into their lives that will serve them to become successful and happier for the rest of their lives…and make their world a better place to live.

According to this study cited in the Washington Post, the quality of time spent with children is more important than the quantity of time. Can you give a 3–5 stories or examples from your own life about what you do to spend quality time with your children?

One tradition I have started is taking the kids into the mountains for one full week for Father’s Day, where there is no cell phone reception and very limited wifi. We are forced to interact. We ride horses. We fish. We explore. We just play together through personal interaction. This is a special time for us. A second thing we do is family movie nights. Sometimes we will make a little fire outside, make s’mores while watching the movie. Other times we will make pop corn and curl up on the couch. It just draws us close together physically and enjoyably for an extended time. Not sure if this next one is a good example or bad LOL…but we like to do occasional escape room experiences. These are like elaborate puzzles that must be solved to in order to crack some fictional case of save the world in some way. Once the puzzle is solved together, the group moves to the next room to find more clues and solve more problems. It teaches us to work together in a functional way. As you can imagine, with four children of different ages…this can be challenging when arguments start on how to do things…but it is challenges that teach us most often times. We are currently learning to work together under pressure. :-). One other thing we regularly do is go for family bike rides or hikes around our neighborhood or the wooded area behind our house. It is just a time to spend together and get fresh air…and of course disconnect from screens. The last is working together as a family. I will often give two children a task to work on together, while we are all working as a team together and I go back and forth assisting or keeping the work moving along. Work is an important aspect of life. Doing this together, if done in the right way…with love, compassion for each other, helpful attitudes, and a common goal of improving something…can increase togetherness.

We all live in a world with many deadlines and incessant demands for our time and attention. That inevitably makes us feel rushed and we may feel that we can’t spare the time to be “fully present” with our children. Can you share with our readers 5 strategies about how we can create more space in our lives in order to give our children more quality attention? Please include examples or stories for each, if you can.

I think we should start with the big rocks first…and add in the smaller things around that. 1) A HUGE, but often times overlooked, aspect of prioritizing time to be full present is living within our means. I have always tried to live two year behind what I feel I can afford to do if that makes sense. Doing this relieves much of the pressure to constantly work, freeing up more time to invest in my children. 2) Naturally tied to the first, I chose to work less giving me more time to myself as well as to my children. Granted I have a decent paying job at this point in life, but I have friends in the same field who are workaholics. Also, it hasn’t always been this way for me. Living within my means (whatever they are) and structuring my work time around time with my kids is also one of those “big rocks”. 3) This one is super hard for me (and for my children)…but I try to require times of screens being completely off for certain periods of time to force actual interaction with each other. This helps us all to be more fully present with each other. 4) I really like to plan one on one “dates” with each of my kids when I can to be as present as possible with that one child. We get more personal interaction without the competition of the others. 5) Something someone told me years ago that always stuck with me was that money can’t buy happiness…but it can buy time. Buying time with our children in whatever aspect may be the most valuable investment we can possibly make. That can look so different for some many people in so many walks of life. The principle is universal though. Taking time away to do ANYTHING that allows interaction and hopefully deeper, more meaningful discussions is what our children will remember and reminisce on when our lives are over…and hopefully emulate for their children.

How do you define a “good parent”? Can you give an example or story?

A good parent in my opinion is one who is present, loving and authentic. For me showing my children that we are all human and we all make mistakes is an important lesson in life. When I make mistakes, and they are frequent, I go to them sometimes individually and sometimes as a group and apologize to them. This teaches them to do the same when they have done wrong and restores love and trust between us all. Something my children love and hate at the same time is that after an apology, by me or one of them, is that we hug. It kinda seals the deal! LOL Its our thing.

How do you inspire your child to “dream big”? Can you give an example or story?

Hopefully I inspire them to dream big…by dreaming big myself. I am also always expressing good business ideas for some skill or interest that they have and how they can do something great with it.

How do you, a person who masterfully straddles the worlds of career and family, define “success”?

Success can be defined differently obviously. My definition is to be viewed as a success by those closest to us, to love deeply, and make our extension of success simply an extension of that love and growth to the world around us.

What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a better parent? Can you explain why you like them?

I love anything by the Hoffman Process, especially the guided meditations…but I strongly recommend going through the process at some point in time. This was a paradigm shifting life changer for me! The book Awareness by Anthony De Mello is like my Bible currently. The audio version is best in my opinion as he is a wonderful story teller and speaker. None of it is specifically about “parenting”. These resources guide me to being a better person…which makes me a better parent…most of the time. LOL. An audiobook I have listened to personally and then with my kids is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It is well narrated and has great life lessons. Others are The Four Agreements, How To Think, The Energy Bus, Rich Dad Poor Dad, How To Win Friends And Influence People.

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

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love” -Rumi. Taking time to love oneself, overflow that love onto others and then the work we do as an extension of that love doesn’t even feel like work or a risk. It is an expression of the heart…which leads us to great things.

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. 🙂

The focus toward deep self love and inner work…which started for me through Hoffman Process…and expanded further. This is the foundation in my opinion for all other truly great works. This is perhaps the biggest “rock” in my life…loving one’s self and the universal good that supports it all.

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Jason Collier of Good Guy Coffee: “How Extremely Busy Executives Make Time To Be Great Parents” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Dustyn Kim of Artsy On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

Advocate for yourself: I never would have ended up in my first General Manager role if I hadn’t advocated for what I wanted. I vividly remember my first discussion with a new boss when I was still working in Strategy at Lexis. He said he thought I had a bright future in strategy, and I said “I want you to know that my ultimate goal is to be a general manager. I want to have P&L responsibility and run a business.

As a part of our series about strong women leaders, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dustyn Kim.

Dustyn Kim is the Chief Revenue Officer at Artsy, where she oversees the Marketplace Partners business which encompasses galleries, art fairs, auction houses and institutions. She is responsible for developing strategies to grow the marketplace, formulating operating plans and budgets, and leading teams across sales, partner relations, marketing, and operations. Prior to Artsy, Dustyn was a General Manager and P&L owner at LexisNexis’s second largest division, a $500M business serving law firms, corporations, and government agencies.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! 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?

My mother is an artist and my father is a technology executive, so I grew up with a balance of creative x analytical and culture x business forces in my life. As I forged my own path, I found myself in a continual search to preserve that balance. In college, I studied English Literature… and Economics. I loved acting and creative writing, but was also fascinated with business. After summers spent interning, I decided to focus my career on business. I assumed I’d ultimately want to work in the Media & Entertainment or Arts & Culture industry, but had yet to discover which aspect of business I was most drawn to.

I joined Deloitte Consulting after college on a mission to explore as many business functions as possible. Of all the client engagements I worked on, I was most excited by those that were focused on strategy or sales & marketing. I enjoyed working more closely with executive teams in developing and executing new strategies to grow revenue and I knew relatively quickly that I wanted to be a C-suite leader.

From there, I began to map out a path. I decided that an MBA would be important to round out my skill set. I threw myself into business-school applications and GMAT prep and ultimately ended up at Wharton. I graduated with an MBA in Strategy and a much higher degree of confidence in areas like finance. After Wharton, I focused on strategy roles with an aim of moving into general management, and from there to an executive position.

Over the next several years, I worked in various Strategy, Corporate Development and Operations roles at Deloitte, Fitch Group and LexisNexis. In each case, I was intrigued by the role and the experience it offered. When I joined Fitch, for example, I was the second person on the Strategy & Corporate Development team with a mandate to build out the function and execute a series of investments and acquisitions to expand the portfolio. When I joined Lexis, it was in a Corporate Strategy role with a clear path to General Management in one of the business units. That path played out as planned and I was able to move into a General Manager position leading the largest business unit at Lexis where I learned a tremendous amount about the differences between strategy and on-the-ground execution, and about how to lead a multi-functional and large organization.

I enjoyed the general manager role, but I found myself both ready for a new challenge and wanting a deeper connection with the industry I was working in. Then a serendipitous moment occurred; I had lunch with a dear friend of mine from Wharton to get some advice on how to improve our marketing results. She let me know that Artsy, where she worked, was looking for someone to run the gallery and fairs business and thought I would be a good fit. She introduced me to Artsy’s COO, and after an initial call, I was absolutely certain this was what I wanted to do next.

I’ve been at Artsy for over three years now and it’s been the best experience of my career. After leading the Galleries & Fairs team, I began to oversee all of Artsy’s partner teams, including Auctions & Institutions, before becoming Artsy’s CRO — where I now lead our partner businesses, B2B marketing, marketplace operations and a growing collector sales business.

I believe the 20 years of blood, sweat and tears that went into building my career was meant to bring me to Artsy. The balance I’ve always wanted between the creative and the analytical, culture and business, art and tech… I’m finally at a company that is the perfect blend. I can apply my business expertise that was so heavily influenced by my father to transform an industry and create a world where more artists like my mother can be commercially successful.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

This past year has been fascinating. The COVID pandemic accelerated the artworld’s move to online and it’s like we’ve been living that inevitable journey in fast-forward. Galleries that were reticent to adopt online sales moved to digital marketing and sales virtually overnight. We saw Art Fairs and Auctions move fully online in the absence of in-person events. We saw more new buyers entering the market (30% of buyers were new to Artsy last year) as people spent more time in their homes and gained a finer appreciation of the joy that art can bring. While this shift in buyer and seller behavior is ultimately a welcome change, online was never meant to supplant in-person gallery exhibitions, fairs and auctions and there were several worrisome moments where it looked like this pandemic was an existential threat to the artworld at large. I’ve been so impressed by how the industry came together and adapted — and I’ve been so proud of the role that Artsy has played in that.

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’ll never forget my first trip to a client site as a Deloitte consultant. I had been working long hours in the days leading up to the trip and hadn’t slept well the night before. I told myself I’d sleep on the plane, so I’d be refreshed for the client meeting, but I ended up seated next to the Partner leading the client engagement. Obviously, I wasn’t going to nap in front of the Partner, so I pulled out some files and began to read. Next thing I knew I was awakened by a surprised grunt from the partner. I had accidentally fallen asleep and jerked in my sleep, throwing my pen over into his lap! He laughed it off but I was so embarrassed! To make matters worse, I had checked a bag and the wait at baggage claim made us late to our first client meeting.

Two key lessons learned here, one practical and one much more important. 1) avoid checking bags when traveling to a business meeting under a tight timeframe and 2) make sure you get enough sleep. My falling asleep was funny in this case, but I have learned over the years just how important sleep is to protect my overall well-being and success.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

A major factor in my decision to join LexisNexis was the woman I was going to be reporting to: Kumsal Bayazit. Over the years that we worked together, Kumsal shaped my personal and professional path as a boss, mentor and friend in ways that I will always be grateful for.

Professionally, she displayed a leadership style that resonated with me — one that balanced intelligence and approachability, confidence and humbleness. As I look back at it now, I think it was working for her that began to shift my leadership style into what it is today. Seeing her success, and guided by her coaching, I gained the confidence to be myself rather than trying to imitate the leadership style of the mostly male leaders around me. She also pushed me to consider opportunities that would advance my career at Lexis (“don’t make that classic female mistake where you think that because you tick 95% of the boxes but not that last 5% that you’re not qualified”) and was a great advisor as I made my way to general management.

Kumsal championed me professionally, but her greatest impact was more personal. Shortly after accepting the role on her team I learned that I was pregnant. I was terrified. How was I going to tell her that I would need to take maternity leave less than 9 months after joining? Additionally, it was a high-risk pregnancy — meaning more time away from the office at doctor’s appointments. I prepared my talking points and nervously shared the news with Kumsal. Her reaction was amazing. She congratulated me and assured me that she wasn’t even remotely bothered or phased by the timing of it all, noting “your career at Lexis is going to be long and I’m thrilled that you’re building your family along the way.” And as luck would have it, she was pregnant as well! She was one month ahead of me and pregnant with her second child. Over the next several months we would spend the first 5–10 minutes of every meeting checking in on things. She would ask me how the pregnancy was going and advise on what to expect next. She helped me navigate decisions like nanny vs. daycare. Six months later, my wonderful son was born. I truly believe that Kumsal’s support was a key reason why I was able to have a healthy pregnancy. She lowered my anxiety and gave me a new sense of confidence as a pregnant professional and ultimately a working mom.

In my work, I often talk about how to release and relieve stress. As a busy leader, what do you do to prepare your mind and body before a stressful or high stakes meeting, talk, or decision? Can you share a story or some examples?

Being a busy leader, on top of being a mother, wife, daughter, friend, mentor and all of the many other roles we play, means constant chaos and stress.

One of the ways I’ve learned to cope is simply accepting the chaos. When I was younger, I felt like everything had to be in perfect order and that I had to be in control of it all. Embracing the fact that life is messy and that I should expect curveballs helps me be less stressed when those curveballs eventually came my way.

I also prioritize sleep. For far too many years, I worked late and pulled all-nighters only to find myself less effective and struggling with anxiety. Once I prioritized sleep, it forced me to set better boundaries around work.

I’m also a big fan of deep breathing. When I’m nervous and feel my heart racing, I’ll take a moment to take a few deep inhales followed by long exhales and it immediately slows me down and helps me focus. I use this regularly before big moments like board meetings.

As you know, the United States is currently facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

A diverse executive team brings more experiences, perspectives and empathy to the table when evaluating and setting an organization’s strategy and operating plan. It also supports a high-functioning organization overall. People throughout the organization need to see an executive team they trust and respect. They need to feel comfortable sharing feedback, surfacing challenges and proposing solutions. A more diverse executive team, particularly one that values one another’s differences, drives a healthier connection with employees.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

It starts with understanding where you’re at. What does diversity, equity and inclusion currently look like in your organization? In your industry? I recommend gathering the information and sharing it openly and honestly. From there, it’s all about setting the path for improvement, rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work.

I’m really proud of the work we’ve done at Artsy in this area. We measured our performance, released the data to the organization and made plans for change. We set goals for increasing diversity in our recruiting and hiring process and have increased the number of BIPOC new hires by 57% in the last six months. We also recognize the impact we could have on ending the systemic racism inherent in the art world and have taken several steps: We’ve made changes to the algorithms that recommend artists to our users to increase the diversity of artists presented, we’ve committed to raising $1M for social justice initiatives, and we launched a grant program for Black-owned galleries, and we have increased the diversity of our marketing and editorial coverage. I’m particularly excited about our efforts in support of Women’s History Month. Women are remarkably under-represented in the artworld and we are shining a much-needed spotlight on female-identifying artists through a series of curated group shows, exclusive “First Look” collections, a public campaign with OUTFRONT Media, editorial articles, social media spotlights and more.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

An executive is part of an executive team that is responsible for setting the company’s vision, mission, and strategy and then developing the associated company-wide goals and operating plans to achieve the company’s ambitions. It’s also responsible for setting the company’s values and culture.

Other leaders and managers are then taking those company-wide objectives and translating them into team-specific goals and plans. Leaders drive execution; ensuring that their teams understand the company-level and team-specific goals, motivating their teams and making sure that their teams are empowered to succeed in their roles through the right skills, tools, incentives, etc. Leaders also work with the executive team to refine company-wide strategy and plans, as needed, based on their team’s progress.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive. Can you explain what you mean?

Many think that you get to control everything once you’re in the C-suite, but in reality, it takes even more leading-through-influence at that level. It’s not about just saying “let’s do this” — it’s about sourcing ideas, building consensus and driving momentum across the entire company.

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

I see many of the same challenges that affect women at every stage of their career. I’ve seen colleagues that recently joined an executive team fall back into the classic cycle of not speaking up or not feeling as confident as they should. I continue to see a disparity between what is accepted in terms of communication and management styles for men vs. women.

The biggest challenge I see, however, is balancing family and work. It’s a challenge that prohibits more women from making it to thriving in an executive role. I’ve seen improvement over the course of my own career, but in general, women still carry a much heavier load in terms of family responsibilities — from raising children to caring for elderly parents, among others. It creates both an emotional and logistical pressure that I don’t see men struggle with in the same way. At the end of the day, being an executive is a 24–7 role and caring for your family is a 24–7 role. To be successful in each, women need an exceptional support system around them.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

Being an executive is more about defining the path forward and leading the successful execution of the entire company’s plans. I had assumed that an executive role would be more about a singular function — that a CRO, for example, would focus just on sales and marketing or the CFO would focus just on finance. In fact, we are all working together as a singular team running the company. Of course, we have our individual areas of responsibility, but we are constantly working together to make sure that our organizations are all aligned and working in lockstep. At Artsy, our CEO regularly reminds the executive team that “we all run this company.” That means constantly thinking about what’s best for Artsy overall.

Certainly, not everyone is cut out to be an executive. In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I don’t think anyone should avoid being an executive if it’s a dream of theirs, but I do think you need to know what you’re getting into. It’s a big responsibility and it requires a lot of energy and attention. You need to be the type of person that is motivated by a challenge and has a high level of resiliency under pressure. The best executives I’ve worked with have great business instincts but also have great empathy, which they use to build and motivate teams. I also think it’s key to be able to handle a lot of context-switching and to be highly adaptable.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

I’d say lean into your own leadership style. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. I’ve seen so many women, myself included, try to morph their approach to fit the image of another leader. A quieter analytical person trying to assume the classic boisterous sales manager style, for example. It ends up not working for you (it’s exhausting!) or your team (they see right through it). Instead, stay true to yourself and just focus on what needs to be done to empower your team. Share information with them regularly so they understand the purpose and the context behind their roles. Help them be successful by removing roadblocks, championing their ideas and coaching them along their journey.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

I like to think that I’ve influenced many young women, showing them that it is possible to be a strong successful female leader and working mom. In my earlier leadership roles, I was in more male dominated industries so I would seek out young women to mentor. At Artsy, the team is over 50% female, so it’s been great to know that I’m influencing that many more future female leaders.

I’m also proud of the work that we are doing at Artsy to make the artworld a more inclusive industry and ultimately, a larger industry overall. I truly believe that art brings much-needed joy to people’s lives and that more artists should be able to make a living from their talents.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Advocate for yourself: I never would have ended up in my first General Manager role if I hadn’t advocated for what I wanted. I vividly remember my first discussion with a new boss when I was still working in Strategy at Lexis. He said he thought I had a bright future in strategy, and I said “I want you to know that my ultimate goal is to be a general manager. I want to have P&L responsibility and run a business.” I wasn’t usually that bold (at least not that early on), but I had learned over the years that you need to make your goals known to those who can help you achieve them. To my surprise and delight, a few months later he asked me to become the general manager of the largest business in his division.
2. Things won’t go according to plan (and that’s ok!): Oftentimes, we decide on a career path and assume it will be a straight line from job A to job B to job C-suite. In my experience, it’s never that clear and it’s the unexpected curves along the way that end up being some of the most important inflection points in your career. My decision to join Lexis is a great example: I was leading Strategy & Corporate Development for Fitch at the time, so I struggled with whether or not I should move to a role where I wouldn’t be leading the team. It was a lateral move at best. I also knew, however, that it would ultimately provide the general management role I was looking for and I knew that Kumsal was someone I could learn a tremendous amount from.
3. Pace yourself (careers are long): It’s important to remember that you don’t have to run at full speed all the time. I burnt myself out at a few different points before learning better coping skills and, frankly, gaining enough experience and perspective to shift my own expectations of myself. The best example is right after my daughter was born. I had recently taken on a new role and wanted to prove to the CEO that I hadn’t lost a beat and was ready for anything. I charged back into work, working long hours while also waking up multiple times throughout the night for feedings. I ended up having a panic attack at work one day and that was a big wake up call for me that I needed to slow down and re-prioritize.
4. Be kind to yourself: Tied to the above; I under-estimated the importance of self-care and often see young women make the same mistake. To anyone reading this who is struggling to do it all, remember that you are your own best advocate. Listen to your body — it’ll give you countless clues along the way — and carve out time for yourself. Eat well, sleep well, exercise and remind yourself how great you are.
5. It will all work out 🙂

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

A Dose of Empathy… I hate to see so much fear, hate and resentment in our world. I wish we could all step back from our differences, empathize with one another and see ourselves from a broader lens. I realize how complicated and nuanced the problem is, but we need to start somewhere. Perhaps if we start with small doses of empathy for one another it could slowly build into something bigger.

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

“Stand out and speak up.” I often use this quote with my mentees. Be great at what you do. Then don’t be afraid to ask for what you want. Earlier in my career, I made the common mistake of assuming that being great at your job would naturally lead to success. It took me a while to realize that you have to be more proactive and advocate for yourself as well.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

This one is tough! I’m going to have to break the rules and respond with two female legends. I’d love to meet my favorite artist, Kiki Smith, and hear firsthand what motivates and inspires her. I’d also love to spend time with Kamala Harris and learn more about her own brand of leadership and how she navigated her career.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Women Of The C-Suite: Dustyn Kim of Artsy On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.