Month: June 2021

Olga Bortnikova of YouTravel.me: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

Group tours have gone out of style. The phrase “group tour” reminds many of an old lady with an umbrella, 50-seat passenger buses and trips around Europe. But, in truth, group tours may become a truly exciting experience of discovering the world and expanding your own personal boundaries in a friendly and supportive environment.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Olga Bortnikova.

Olga Bortnikova is the CEO and co-founder of YouTravel.me. YouTravel.Me is an algorithm-powered online marketplace for booking multi-day small group adventure tours organized by vetted travel experts. It offers a wide range of experiences, from yoga retreats to safaris. Launched in Europe in 2018, YouTravel.Me is a global community of over 10,000 happy travelers and 3,700 travel experts offering 14,000 tours in over 130 countries around the world. In 2020, during the pandemic, the company doubled its revenue. Olga lives in San Francisco with her husband.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My husband Ivan and I used to travel a lot and planned every trip on our own. But one of our vacations in China proved to be a disappointment: putting our trust in a tour operator, we bought a package tour and ran into many problems, from a 5-hour flight delay to the tour guide’s incompetence. After returning home, we decided to find a service with a more personalized approach to tours, but discovered that there hasn’t been a good platform that could offer that.

A charter flight, several buses, tired people, no feedback — we were amazed how little the organizers cared about the tourists. Nobody was concerned if the guests liked the trip, everybody was just working their part of an assembly line. The hotel was far from the city, and if we wanted to go anywhere, we had to pay extra and plan it all on our own. The group walking tours mostly took us to the souvenir shops. As a result, we had to come up with our own itinerary and plan activities on the go.

So we learned that there’s a better way to do group travel — there are trips that are organized by travel experts, professional tour guides who assemble small groups for exciting trips anywhere in the world. However, there was no single aggregator for such trips, and we decided to create it on our own. We invested about $10,000 of our own money to set up YouTravel.me, spending it on site development and advertising.

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

During the pandemic, we launched BeGuide — an educational platform that supports travel experts in many areas of building a successful tour from learning how to create diverse trip itineraries to scouting for new domestic travel destinations to handling returns and ensuring the best customer service. After completing our course, one of the students quit his corporate job and launched his own successful tourism project. Prior to that, he was a business analyst and managed restaurants for a large chain, and he said that this experience helped him to be prepared for all the steps of the travel business, get involved in any business process, forge relationships and deliver outstanding service. Such stories are a true inspiration — and it’s wonderful to help people find their calling.

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?

We got back from China and had an idea: “Wouldn’t it be great if all travelers had an opportunity to share their routes with anybody who wants it free of charge, simply uploading them to a platform so that others could diversify their itineraries without spending so much time in preparation for the trip?”

We asked our friends whether they would use such a product and whether they liked our idea. Ivan and I have great persuasion skills, which is why, I think, every single person said that they love the idea and would use such a product. They told us: “It would be great if you created it.”

This convinced us that we had to bring the project to life. But in the process of communication with potential users and getting ready for the product launch we realized that it was impossible to create such a platform. Many entrepreneurs before us tried to create similar services where travelers could create their routes on Google Maps and publish them on some external platform so that others could use them.

The idea couldn’t work because it was impossible to repeat somebody’s itinerary and all of the emotions and experiences that went with that. This is partly because when the travelers decide to replicate an interesting route a year or more after it was originally uploaded, the route may now be busy and different, and some of the places may be closed or no longer relevant. Nonetheless, we were convinced that we were doing everything right and only thought about ways to develop this idea. But at some point, during an acceleration program, we read Rob Fitzpatrick’s The Mom Test that showed us that we made all the mistakes that the book listed.

After that, we did CustDev all over, interviewed people, gathered new and honest results that clearly demonstrated that no one needs the product that we envisioned. This enabled us to fine tune the idea and launch the right product, a travel marketplace that’s steadily gaining popularity. The main lesson that I learned was that there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t matter how big your network is or how much entrepreneurial experience you have — Google is available to all. There are books, there are people who already went through the same thing or are at a later stage of the process. Whatever the genius idea you have, test it on users.

Since then, we’ve stopped reinventing the wheel and before setting off any work process, always try to find out how others are doing it and whether there are any procedures that help to put it in place.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Burnout is a very difficult process that happens when a person is unable to step away from their mundane, monotonous work and put things in perspective. When burnout comes, it seems as if you’ll be in this state forever. The most terrible thing is that burnout often leads to loss of feedback from users and colleagues.

To prevent burnout, I try to do less, but do it better.

Morten T. Hansen, professor at the University of California at Berkeley, did a survey where he asked 5,000 people how much effort they put in their work. He discovered that those who followed the principle of “do or die,” had only a 54% success rate. At the same time, those who preferred to “do less but better” achieved a 76% success rate. This tells us that one should manage the burnout before it occurs. This is why I always try to focus on the highest-priority things.

But if burnout can’t be avoided, if you already feel like you don’t want to work or grow your favorite business/product, it’s good to focus on your work with the users. For me, this always works. When I feel the signs of burnout, I begin to do surveys, talk to the users, ask what they like and dislike about the product. Thanks to this feedback — and users frequently give very positive and kind feedback that creates very pleasant emotions — I feel myself re-charged and go back to improving my product.

Plus, when you collect feedback, users often share what else they want from the product or what things are missing for them. And when I hear that our product is already solving people’s problems, and I can give them more, this gives me additional motivation to work and create. At that moment, the burnout vanishes into thin air, and I realize that I was given a chance to look at my business differently.

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?

Top and foremost, it’s my husband and co-founder Ivan who helps both my personal growth and our business-building.

When we were just launching YouTravel.me, Ivan was successfully building his career at an international company, but he agreed to build a business with me, even if prospects were uncertain. At that point, we had no idea how things would work out. Having his support definitely gave me strength and confidence.

In addition, a week before the pandemic started, Ivan received a letter from his previous employer, offering a job with a good salary. Despite the fact that YouTravel.me’s profits fell by 80–90% at that moment, Ivan turned the offer down and took the risk. Our company was almost bankrupt. But his decision somehow gave us faith that things would work out moving forward. His support gives me rock-solid certainty that with his help I can build a business that will change the lives of many people for the better.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Group tours have gone out of style. The phrase “group tour” reminds many of an old lady with an umbrella, 50-seat passenger buses and trips around Europe. But, in truth, group tours may become a truly exciting experience of discovering the world and expanding your own personal boundaries in a friendly and supportive environment. Using our proprietary method, we enable people to learn about the other members of the group they’ll be traveling with. We practice micro segmentation of users, dividing them into groups on the basis of their values, previous experience and life story, along with their traveling goals. We connect them with travel experts and groups that match their interests and preferences, so that during a trip they would be surrounded by like-minded people. This all happens within a platform where you can buy the tour, pay for it, speak with a travel expert and receive a selection of recommended tours that will be well-suited to your tastes and interests.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Planning your trip itinerary on your own takes a lot of time and effort. Even if you spend a lot of time and effort to plan — and people spend an average of eight hours to prepare one trip — there’s no guarantee that the trip will be truly outstanding. Certain locations may prove to be closed because of the public holidays or for any other reason. The taxi drivers may take advantage of you, and hotels may not have the amenities you envisioned. All of these issues may arise, and there’s no way to prepare for that. Trips with friends may not be as fun as you thought they would be. Frequently, when the group lacks cohesiveness, and everyone has different expectations, different levels of energy and different motivation, everyone ends up wanting different things. This makes the process of coordination very tiring even when the trip itself is quite short. All this has a visible impact on emotions that we bring back with us from vacation. By using our platform, the travelers save time and energy so that they can enjoy the trip.

We also use neural networks to do personality checks for the independent private guides who join our platform. The neural networks help accelerate the process and improve its quality, which results in partnership only with vetted tour guides who uphold the highest hospitality standards, abide by the rules and follow safety principles.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

People have become tired of simple trips, and this is especially true in the wake of the pandemic. The location itself isn’t as important. People want more than a trip, they want an experience — they want to volunteer, help, study. Different people have goals.

Our travel experts live all over the world and create flexible signature tours that offer different types of travel. They enable the travelers to pack up and go wherever their heart desires, to any corner of the world, and be a welcome guest there, without paying an enormous amount of money for the experience.

As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?

First, the pandemic brought the issue of travel safety to the forefront. Our travel experts were forced to cut the number of people in groups for certain tours so that they could travel in separate cars and follow the safety procedures. Hotels, on their end, have to pay greater attention to cleaning and disinfecting the premises, as well as provide face masks, and reduce the number of guests to avoid excessive contact between people.

Second, the pandemic made it clear that the travelers no longer get excited by the trips themselves, they want something bigger. This is why travel companies are now offering additional experiences or goal-setting for their travels. We see the popularity of full impact tours when the trip includes some sort of training or education or people invest their efforts in development of remote areas or communities. People began to reallocate their travel funds towards trips to small towns and remote areas because this has become really important for them. They talk about this. They want to take part in such trips especially if they are accessible.

The third change is the human-centric approach. We see our travel experts adapting their trips for specific people or small groups instead of simply replicating their itineraries. They understand that the trip should be eventful. This approach is spreading throughout the travel industry where standardization is giving way to personalization. And when our users book a trip and ask the guides to add or remove a certain activity, the experts accommodate them although that used to be much more infrequent.

The fourth example is interactivity. Gen Z has grown up using gadgets and technologies. Interactivity is something that they want, so their trip must be more than a tour, they want to interact with their surroundings. This is becoming more and more popular. We are seeing our travel experts create trips as quests that require the travelers to perform certain tasks. Or they might have dinners at local communities, giving the travelers a totally unique experience.

Fifth, we are also seeing that the tour guides themselves are taking a more self-reliant approach, working directly with different marketplaces to offer their tours. Having said that, the travel experts are focused on creating truly breathtaking tours and interesting programs, outsourcing sales and marketing to platforms such as ours. The pandemic has shown that tour operators are not as bulletproof as they seemed. This is why we are seeing a serious influx of partners. The reason for this is two-fold. First, the marketplace enables travel experts to gain greater independence and create more flexible itineraries, which, in turn, makes them more interesting and interactive.

Second, working with marketplaces, the travel experts don’t have to depend on the tour operator’s service fee — and they have flexibility to set their own prices for the trips. We are seeing the same trend in the hospitality business.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

I have been to 37 countries, and many of them I visited on my own. It would frequently happen that we would go someplace, have a great time there, and then return home where I would realize that we didn’t visit tons of really cool places because we simply didn’t know about them.

This is why I would definitely choose a signature tour. First, because I love meeting new people, and signature tours are for those who love adventure travel, which means that I usually meet truly interesting personalities. Second, I like to see new countries through the eyes of the locals or travel experts who know the place well.

Speaking of a “perfect vacation experience,” I would go to either Mexico or Shantar Islands or Tonga Islands where several travel experts offer tours to learn more about whales and orcas. You can study orcas at the Shantar Islands in Russia, or whales in Mexico or Tonga. There are opportunities to observe them, learn about their history and life, and at some places you can even swim with the whales. I would also like to go to Africa, for example, to Uganda. To drink coffee at the world’s first coffee house or spend a night on the edge of an active volcano. To get acquainted with the Mursi people and learn how they live and how they survive in this new world after the pandemic. I really admire how they manage to survive and preserve their culture, passing it down from generation to generation, and want to learn about that.

Can you share with our readers how you have used your success to bring goodness to the world?

From the day we launched YouTravel.me and began to grow the marketplace, I keep in mind that the travel experts who provide trips offered on our platform create experiences connected to their favorite countries and places. The majority of them have unique missions helping people as part of their tours.

Our experts organize trips to regions less-known from a tourism perspective and contribute to redistribution of cash flow from the most popular destinations such as Spain and France towards least popular such as Uzbekistan or Argentina. This enables truly unique things to happen: the travelers help remote communities to live better, animals to survive, non-profit activities to thrive. For instance, there is a travel expert who helps small tribes in South America. She does trips and tours to this region so that the villages can open their own schools and so that they don’t have to send kids to the large cities to study. This helps the tribes preserve their culture without diluting it. And we have more than three and a half thousand such experts who have faith in their own mission and sincerely try to convey it to other people. I’m proud of helping them manifest and accomplish their missions!

You are a person of great influence. If you could start 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 believe that travel is more than just visiting places. And I truly believe that if you just go to a country without meeting the locals, without submerging yourself in a new culture and learning something new, you don’t end up with experiences that stay with you for life. You go back to work and people ask how your vacation was. Usually, at that moment, you feel as if it was okay. But I believe that trips should create the feeling of “wow,” not the feeling of “okay.” This feeling of “wow” comes from people around you and the way they see the world. It’s about experiences that you gain from your meetings with the locals, from the local food, and other elements of new cultures. And it’s how you reflect on that experience. When you travel in small groups, all these components come together, and you always return with broadened horizons, greater tolerance and empathy.

If I were to launch a movement, it would be a movement related to my belief that travels are more than just visits to new places. Travels are about empathy. Our world, and this is especially true now, is short on empathy and tolerance. There are plenty of problems that can only be solved through tolerance. And what makes people more open to others and the world than travels?

Traveling in the form of long events when you come out of your shelter, and get a fresh perspective on life, make people more tolerant and open to the world. Coming back from an impactful trip, the person will be more receptive to others, they won’t be closed off from the world. They’ll be much more open, and they’ll have greater empathy. If every person in the world could share this experience and expand their horizons a bit, our world would be a better place, and people would be kinder to each other.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

They can follow me on Instagram, Linkedin and Facebook.

Thank you so much for this. This was very inspirational, and we wish you only continued success!

Olga Bortnikova of YouTravel.me: The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Kat Smith of A Way Abroad On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.” It’s as simple as that. If you don’t take any initiative to create change, nothing new will come. This has helped me grow and scale my business. There are times I get into the rhythm of doing the same thing every day but without seeing any growth. Instead of getting frustrated with this like I did when I first started out, I think about what small alternation I can make that will spark an even bigger change. This isn’t just with business but also in my personal life as well. If you want something different, you have to do something different.

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

Kat is the founder of A Way Abroad, the ultimate resource for women dreaming of a life abroad. After moving overseas in 2013, she’s lived in 4 continents and in a long list of countries, all while working in different industries. She started A Way Abroad to show women how many amazing opportunities there are out there to build a life outside of their home country.

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?

Although I didn’t move abroad until 2013, the story really starts in 2008 when I took my first solo trip overseas to Guatemala. To be honest, I had zero desire to go to Guatemala. As an 18 year old who had just graduated high school, I wanted to start university in August, not take the semester off to study Spanish. It’s hard for me to even recognize that person now but at the time, this plan to go abroad was orchestrated by my parents. I finally caved to their plan and started packing while listening to Rosetta Stone CDs about a week before my flight.

Long story short, that trip to Guatemala changed my life. The plan was for me to stay one month but I changed my flight twice in order to stay for three. I came home and started University in January but after that I had one simple goal: get abroad after graduation.

And that’s what I did. Exactly one month after I graduated, I was on a plane to Ecuador with the Peace Corps.

It took me 6 years and multiple jobs in a handful of countries until I finally started A Way Abroad but without those experiences, I never would have been able to build the community I have today.

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

As a person from the southern US, I was raised to believe that you go to university, meet the person you’ll marry, settle down in the suburbs, raise a few kids, and maybe, if you want some spending money, you could get a small job, while your partner works to support the family.

Those societal norms didn’t click with me.

As a girl, I was taught to fit inside a box. This box was usually as a wife, mother, or homemaker or I was told to go all in on my career, but I couldn’t have both. I either needed to focus solely on my looks and master the art of makeup or I needed to study hard so I could have smarts instead.

It wasn’t as if someone sat me down one day and told me those were my options but the media and conversations around me made it pretty clear.

So I left.

And no, I don’t mean I threw a fit because I couldn’t get what I wanted so I stormed out. I mean, I left to build a life that was my own, without societal norms telling me who I should or shouldn’t be. I wanted to try out different countries, languages, job industries, and even hobbies.

We’re typically not told we can be a lot of different people in one life but I disagree.

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?

My very first time abroad, I was 18 and by myself in Guatemala. I was a ball of nerves, especially when I realized how high school Spanish really did not prepare me for this adventure at all. I was set up to live with a host family and the moment I arrived, the matriarch of the family took me to my room. As I dropped my bag in my new bedroom, she just started talking. And I mean, talking non-stop for about 15 minutes. I was so overwhelmed by the newness of the country, amazed by my shower with electric wires jutting out the head, and of course, the language. The Spanish rolling out of her mouth and my poor ears not catching more than a word or two.

So when she finally stopped talking, did I try to explain to her that I didn’t understand even a bit? No. I was far too uncomfortable and nervous to admit defeat in my first hour abroad. So, I nodded and said, “si.”

We left it at that and nothing came of it until about 2 weeks later when I was kicked out of the house for disobeying the rules.

Yikes.

I was taking Spanish lessons at a small school at the time and they had to explain to me the situation. Apparently the matriarch had kindly explained all the rules to me when I arrived, I had agreed to them, and then went on to break them all. I apparently had a curfew, I had rules about friends coming to my room, and I was supposed to keep them more in the loop with my daily adventures.

I learned the hard way not to just agree to things to make it easier in the moment (don’t worry, I didn’t go homeless. The school helped me find another nearby family). I learned that although it can be tough, mental draining, and time consuming to admit when you don’t understand something, it might save you some hassle in the long run.

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?

Although not an official mentor, my husband has been my biggest supporter since day one. Along with designing and building my site, he’s made me two brands (a year in, we rebranded to A Way Abroad) and taught me how to use design software to up my game on social media.

Apart from the tangible things, he’s believed in me on days where I feel like I’ve hit a wall. All entrepreneurs know, it’s an uphill battle, full of dead ends, trial and error and confronting imposter syndrome more likely than we’d like to admit. He’s sat with me for countless hours as I’ve talked through ideas, sales pitches, and mental blocks.

He’s been there to remind me I’m capable, distract me when I need a break, and give me that extra push to keep going when I’m not sure I can.

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?

If you want to be disruptive, you need to do so because you genuinely believe in what you’re doing and you’re ready to take any consequences that come along the way.

Being disruptive to simply create chaos or to feel cool isn’t beneficial to anyone, especially not to yourself. While being disruptive to break outdated status quo, do what you know is right or stand up for what you believe in, that’s the amazing kind of disruptive.

An example is wearing two left shoes. Sure, it’s against the norm and “disruptive” but who is benefiting from this? You surely aren’t and it’s also not helping anyone else around you. It’s less productive for your daily life and you’ll end up with a killer cramp in your foot.

But the woman who made wearing tennis shoes with dresses normal? That’s the disruptive thing we need more of. She told women you can be feminine while still being comfortable. She threw out the idea that heels go with dresses and tennis shoes go with athletic wear and instead we can get out of the stereotypical box of fashion norms and do both at the same time.

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

“Nothing changes if nothing changes.” It’s as simple as that. If you don’t take any initiative to create change, nothing new will come. This has helped me grow and scale my business. There are times I get into the rhythm of doing the same thing every day but without seeing any growth. Instead of getting frustrated with this like I did when I first started out, I think about what small alternation I can make that will spark an even bigger change. This isn’t just with business but also in my personal life as well. If you want something different, you have to do something different.

“It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” This is actually something my mom constantly told me. Although not stereotypical parental advice, it’s exactly right. We typically spend so much time waiting for others to give us the green light and when they don’t, we either do it anyway causing a strain in a relationship or we put our dreams on pause for someone else. If you want to do something, do it. For me this meant staying abroad after my Peace Corps service was finished. My friends and family back home assumed I would move back to the US once my contract in Ecuador was over. Instead of asking them for their opinions, knowing they wanted me to come home, and sacrificing my happiness, knowing I wanted to stay abroad, I went ahead and planned my next international move and filled them in once the plan was finalized. They weren’t thrilled but were more supportive knowing the plan was already in motion and not something they could easily stop.

But that brings me to my next one…

“Be Kind.” While I fully believe that everyone has the potential to take control of their happiness and experience life the way they want to, be kind along the way. You don’t live in this world by yourself so never stomp on others just to get what you want.

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

So far with my Mentorship Program, I’ve helped +25 women from around the world achieve their goals of living abroad. While I feel so thankful to be a part of each and every one of their journeys, I aim to help even more women.

I’m working on a lot of big plans for A Way Abroad to grow the community and get the women better connected with each other. Soon, I’ll be launching workshops and group programs, along with continuing to grow my 1:1 Mentorship Program.

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

Last night I was reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and a line really stuck with me, “You wonder what it must be like to be a man, to be so confident that the final say is yours.” While the story was based in the 1960s, I still think a lot of this rings true. As women, we have come a long way in fighting for equal rights but in a lot of ways, men still have the “final say” whether it’s in the boardroom, office, at home, or even just something posted on social media.

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

Books continue to impact my outlook on life but not one in particular. I don’t read too many self-help or business related books but instead I love getting engrossed in fiction, especially historical fiction. While these books might not directly impact my business, they have given me the opportunity to put myself in a lot of different shoes. This has given me more patience and empathy while moving and living in so many different countries.

I also enjoy listening to podcasts in the same genre. A recent one that has been impactful in my personal life is “Vietnamese Boat People.” Since I currently live in Vietnam, this podcast has given me greater insight and understanding into Vietnam’s history and also more empathy towards refugees in general. I highly recommend anyone, with ties to Vietnam or not, give it a listen.

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 movement I am most interested in getting started is seeing each other as collaborators or supporters, instead of competition, especially women in business. There’s enough room for all of us to succeed without stepping on others along the way.

A Way Abroad is built on collaboration with females in my same industry, meaning women living outside of their home countries. Many of them have personal blogs or businesses that could be seen as “competition” to my own. My focus though is to lift them up and share their stories, on social media and on my website. Usually when I do this, people are surprised by my “kindness” in sharing about them. What I’m doing shouldn’t be anything special, it should be the norm.

It’s time we lift each other up, instead of tearing each other down.

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

“If you don’t like where you are, move. You are not a tree.” This is by far the most important words of advice I’ve read. This has become a personal mantra and one that I’ve built my lifestyle on.

The first time I saw this quote, I felt seen. So often had I been the “odd one out” in my lifestyle choices and was constantly doubting why I wanted to continue to move and feeling worn down with the need to explain myself to people.

This quote flipped a switch in my brain. I realized I wasn’t alone in my desire to move and try out living in new places. It also gave me a quick and easy way to express how I felt to others.

So many people stay put somewhere (a job, a relationship, a certain city, etc) because that’s what they’ve been given or what they currently have. Just because you’re there now, doesn’t mean you have to stay there.

Humans have feet for a reason and it’s up to us to go where we feel alive.

How can our readers follow you online?

Check out A Way Abroad- @awayabroad on Instagram and www.findawayabroad.com

Follow my personal page- @katinando on Instagram

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

Female Disruptors: Kat Smith of A Way Abroad 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.

Vanessa Gabriel of Drop Delivery: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a…

Vanessa Gabriel of Drop Delivery: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business

Companies need to pursue diversity in earnest and make it part of their everyday company culture to create and foster opportunities for under-represented groups including women. Entrepreneurship should not be the only path to leadership in cannabis or any other industry; we shouldn’t lose sight of also being represented in the established board rooms and making an impact in those spaces traditionally controlled by white men.

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

Vanessa Gabriel is the CEO and co-founder of Drop Delivery, the cannabis industry’s only all-in-one delivery technology solution for delivery companies and retailers. A twenty-something, self-described serial entrepreneur, Vanessa previously co-founded Greenlight Technologies, a leading order-ahead and digital loyalty software in the cannabis industry, which was acquired in 2018 by publicly-traded Leafbuyer Technologies.

Before jumping into the cannabis industry, Vanessa’s passion for fashion led her to co-found aSociete in 2011, a shopping platform for millennials to shop for their favorite fashion brands from all across the web in a simple, entertaining, and engaging way. She later created WNDRLUST in 2014, an interactive marketing platform that brought existing fashion editorials, such as photo lookbooks and films, to life with shoppable technology. Vanessa launched both companies with Drop Delivery co-founders Marc Lopez and Jade Gabriel while all were still in college.

Vanessa Gabriel attended the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific and Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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

I founded several companies in college with my current co-founders Marc Lopez and Jade Gabriel. Marc had done some startups within the vape industry and had created connections in the cannabis space. Once we all came together and realized that no one had built what we built, we decided it was time to launch our first company Greenlight, which was an order-ahead app specifically for cannabis dispensaries. We sold that company to Leafbuyer eight months after launching and saw the need for a dynamic delivery management solution in the space, so we created Drop Delivery.

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?

One story that was interesting and really surprised me was how fast we were able to raise money as a company when we moved from looking at venture capital to crowdfunding. We had just run into so many walls, yet with crowdfunding, we raised more than $1M in eight weeks, which is fast for any industry. The biggest lesson I learned is that every no will lead you to the right yes.

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

This is funny to me but during holidays and family parties, it was almost guaranteed I’d get asked at least once when I would finally get a regular job or go back to school from certain family members.

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?

I wouldn’t say there’s a particular person so much as there are people. The cannabis community is quick to support each other’s goals and I have been lucky to have found myself surrounded by women especially to want to see me and my company grow and be successful. Drop Delivery’s board is made up of women that I reached out to on LinkedIn — Jessica Billingsley, Cynthia Salarizadeh and Kristin Jordan — all powerhouse women in their niches within the cannabis industry.

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

Right now, the whole team and I are laser-focused on Drop Delivery and making it a huge success for our clients, customers, and investors. We’re working on building new partnerships and integrations, reaching into new states and markets, and adding and updating platform features. We believe that buying cannabis online should be as easy as buying groceries, and the easier we make that for people, the less stigmatized cannabis will be.

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?

Individuals can exercise the power of the purse and show up at the cash register to support women-owned cannabis businesses. Women are represented (although not nearly enough) as entrepreneurs and business owners in the industry at every level, from cannabis products to all the ancillary products and services that comprise the multi-billion dollar industry. As consumers, we can all use our spending power to show that women-owned businesses are a supported and successful element of the industry.
Companies need to pursue diversity in earnest and make it part of their everyday company culture to create and foster opportunities for under-represented groups including women. Entrepreneurship should not be the only path to leadership in cannabis or any other industry; we shouldn’t lose sight of also being represented in the established board rooms and making an impact in those spaces traditionally controlled by white men.
As a whole, we need to nurture all young women to see careers in business or STEM — we need to be able to give them the tools as well as the path where they can become leaders in this industry.

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.

I think the biggest thing is that the industry is literally changing month to month and year to year. New states are legalizing different forms and levels of cannabis and states that already have legal sales are changing regulations to fit their specific needs. So, nobody really understands how often the rules change until you are working in this space. We make jokes about how every year in cannabis is a dog year in other industries and it’s absolutely true.

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

There is always something new happening in the industry. New legislation, new products and brands, new medical research; cannabis is constantly evolving sometimes on a daily basis.
The people in the worldwide cannabis community and the passion that has driven the industry forward over the years. They are our customers, our investors, and our co-workers.
The fact that it’s only scratched the surface! I feel that the next few years are going to see some of the biggest changes we’ve seen yet, from federal legalization to the global market really opening up.

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?

I think that many of the challenges that are specific to the cannabis industry — the fragmentation and lack of a central system in terms of trade, regulations, economics, even social equity and justice — can mostly be attributed to the history of federal prohibition. State and local markets have been left to work things out on their own. At Drop we have seen it firsthand from a tech standpoint: it created a market of separate platforms for separate functions for online cannabis sales that don’t necessarily work together, or across certain lines. Federal legalization would be the single biggest step that would work to help resolve the biggest challenges.

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?

Of course, the whole Drop Delivery team supports the end of federal prohibition, and I’ve never been more optimistic that it will happen, even as soon as within the next year. Cannabis has basically been the victim of a smear campaign for so many years, and part of the growing wave of Congressional support for cannabis stems from legislators listening to their constituents and seeing for themselves not only how cannabis is improving so many lives but also helping to create a whole new economic future for their state.

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?

Cannabis and cigarettes are apples and oranges. Social stigma aside, and regardless of why any particular person may choose to use cannabis, it has been shown to be a safe product to use and an effective treatment for a growing list of health conditions. There are zero deaths attributed to cannabis use; meanwhile, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States alone! Legal cannabis can be, should be, and is significantly regulated, but we feel that that’s where any similarities to cigarettes end.

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

My personal motto is “every no brings you to the right yes,” and that came right from my own experience as a young tech entrepreneur seeking startup capital who is also a woman of color; I’ve certainly heard my share of nos. But it was that same frustrating process that led us to take a look at crowdfunding as an alternative to traditional raises — our first $1M raise set a platform record, and we are gearing up for a second, and much larger, raise.

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. 🙂

The cannabis industry as a whole is a cause that I truly believe in, so I like to think that Drop Delivery’s part in helping people and businesses connect around a product that has changed so many people’s lives for the better is part of what inspires me every day.

Vanessa Gabriel of Drop Delivery: 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.

Female Disruptors: Athena Oanessian of You Squared On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Female Disruptors: Athena Oanessian of You Squared On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Listen to your gut. When I was looking for marketing companies, I narrowed my choices down to 3, but one of them just felt “off”. The founder of one of the marketing companies was in a similar space, and though working together could’ve been beneficial, something in my gut was nagging at me. I brought this up to my business coach and he told me to always listen to my gut. Sometimes we know something is wrong intuitively. I chose to listen to mine.

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

Athena Oanessian is a young, purpose-driven entrepreneur who inspires people to set and achieve their goals and reach their full potential! She’s also the creator of the life-changing You Squared motivational goal planner! You can get her success bundle and guide on meaningful goals on her website, yousquared.co/.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve questioned all my surroundings. I have a huge curiosity for the world, and how things work and constantly ask “why?”. This interest has carried me my whole life! As of a year ago, I graduated Magna Cum Laude from university, and after lots of curiosity about who I am destined to be and what I want, I discovered my purpose: inspiring over 1 million people to reach their greatest potential! I kept thinking about how to do that, and realized I had used multiple planners in the past, but they all had issues that left me very unsatisfied. I searched high and low to find a perfect planner but couldn’t find it, so I decided to create it!

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

Instead of just offering a planner to help people just write down their to-do’s, I created something to help expand people’s personal development and growth. The You Squared planner is also so goal oriented, and helps inspire people to set and achieve their biggest goals, as well as the accountability to stay on track!

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?

The funniest mistake I made was not realizing that I didn’t need my website to be ready before I created and started posting on my social media profiles. The marketing company I hired pre-launch didn’t even suggest this, and when the website was ready and launched, the content they posted on my social media profiles wasn’t even product related, it was more just inspirational quotes. We could’ve done this pre website launch, as well as other teasers to gain momentum for launch.

I learned that you could create your social media channels prior to having your website launched. The tease and anticipation is actually great!

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

I’ve had several mentors throughout the years, but one of the most notable ones was a VP in Hilton, who taught me a lot about leadership. She said one thing that’s resonated with me all these years and that’s that “great leaders are someone people want to follow”. This has served me well over the years as I’ve made sure to be an inspirational leader and someone who team members want to work with, rather than just listen to because they have to.

I fondly remember working as a Food and Beverage Manager for the prestigious Genesis Invitational (a yearly tournament held by the Tiger Woods Foundation) and there was one team member in particular who absolutely loved working with me. He got moved to another section the following day and came to ask me if I could speak with my manager and get him back to my station. He said he didn’t like working in the other section and really enjoyed working with me and my group. I was able to talk to my manager and I got him back the next day! He worked so hard, he was genuine, kind, and personable, and we were a great team, especially during the high volume, fast paced lunch rushes! Others in my team also knew that if they needed help, they could count on me. They didn’t listen to me because they were afraid of me, they followed because they were inspired.

Another one of my mentors is the General Manager of a huge chain of hotels, We’ve chatted over a delicious cappuccino many times and he would always listen to me, answer my many questions, and give me some direction and advice. He was always upfront and transparent with his answers and didn’t hold back. It was then that I learned the power of transparency and the kindness that goes into helping others with your acquired knowledge and life experience. It taught me to me more giving.

It really depends on what the intention of the disruption is and how it affects people. For example, Richard Branson did lots of innovative things when he started Virgin Atlantic airlines. He took an industry that hadn’t changed in years, and did something different. He wanted to make the flying experience fun, so he did. If a disruption helps a group of people, without causing harm to others, then it may be positive. It’s about moving forward.

If a disruption helps a group of people while causing harm to another group, that may be negative. For example, a lot of small business owners say that Amazon and Walmart have caused them to go out of business. Some may see this advance as a negative disruption. While I don’t think there should be Walmart in rural areas, this competition should drive small business owners change their ways, and take their businesses online. A big reason why they fail is being resistant to change. So it can also depend on the side of the coin you look at.

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

Listen to your gut. When I was looking for marketing companies, I narrowed my choices down to 3, but one of them just felt “off”. The founder of one of the marketing companies was in a similar space, and though working together could’ve been beneficial, something in my gut was nagging at me. I brought this up to my business coach and he told me to always listen to my gut. Sometimes we know something is wrong intuitively. I chose to listen to mine.
Skills can be taught, personality cannot. I’ve been taught that when looking to hire employees, it’s best to choose someone with a a great personality, who is teachable, over someone who solely has the skills to do something. Just because someone has the skills doesn’t mean that they’re enjoyable to be around, a good team member to work with or a good fit for the company culture. If the most skilled person has a crappy personality and they’re unbearable to be around, it’s not a good hire.
Don’t be afraid to delegate. This one is huge for me because I’ve always felt as though if I wanted something done right, I had to do it myself. Delegation was extremely hard for me and I’d often take on a lot more work just so I could make sure it was done up to my standards. I knew it was a problem though and I knew as a business owner I couldn’t do everything myself in the long run, so I had to change.
One of my mentors taught me the 10–80–10 principle. So if I could find a team member to do the work 80% as good as me, then I should do 10% of the upfront work and lay the foundation, framework, strategy, and expectations, then the team member does 80% of the work in the middle, and I get the outcome back and do the final 10% of the end as a check up and polish what’s needed. I learned to delegate my time consuming work that someone could do 80% as good as me, so that I can free up most of my time to create and do more challenging things. That’s helped save me lots of time and frankly energy.

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

I’m going to create more inspirational products, coming soon ;).

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

I believe it’s fear that they can’t do it, or fear of judgement. I believe most male disruptors don’t have the fear, or take action irrespective of it, whereas some women disruptors let fear hold them back.

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

I absolutely love the “How I Built This” podcast and I’m manifesting being on it in the next 3 years! The host, Guy Raz, interviews incredibly successful entrepreneurs and their stories open my eyes and inspire me! There’s a lot to learn from each entrepreneur. Every single episode is packed with lots of great takeaways.

When I was still in school, I would commute twice a week to university. It was was a long drive and sometimes I’d get bored listening to music. So I’d start playing “How I Built This”, and the drive was a lot more enjoyable!

I’d love people to take action! To not stay stagnant. To believe in themselves and to do something great! I want them to be happy and fulfilled!

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

“People who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do” by Rob Siltanen. I’ve always known I was destined for greatness, and my purpose is huge. Inspiring at least 1 million people is a big feat, but I know I can change the world, so I’m doing it!

How can our readers follow you online?

By visiting my website, https://yousquared.co!

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

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

Elia Wallen of Hotel Engine On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

…Greater use of technology and automation. I think companies will really begin to scrutinize their travel costs and to better ensure every trip their employees take is efficient. This will lead to more companies looking for managed travel solutions.

As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elia Wallen.

Elia Wallen is the founder and CEO of Hotel Engine, a Denver-based, fast growing travel tech company focused on one goal — to simplify the business lodging process.

Founded in 2015, Hotel Engine is an exclusive hotel booking and management solution that delivers the cost-savings, choice and convenience organizations and corporate travelers need to make the most of each trip. Thousands of businesses rely on Hotel Engine to book millions of room nights around the world through its vast network of 4000,000+ hotel partners.

Under Elia’s leadership and vision, Hotel Engine has achieved more than 100 percent growth for five consecutive years.

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

I’ve certainly had a non-traditional career path. I dropped out of college during my first semester to pursue an opportunity that would evolve into starting my first company — Travelers Haven. Years later, I founded a second company in Hotel Engine, a hotel booking platform built specifically for businesses. Both develop innovative technology to offer new solutions and greater value in the business lodging space.

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

Recently, I’ve been studying more about personalities, human behavior and psychology — in particular, how people think, perceive, and react to themselves and others. It’s been a total awakening and I’ve become more aware of how I approach and interact with people. It’s like a big life experiment in which I’m constantly learning.

As Hotel Engine has grown over the last five years (and with plans to double our headcount this year alone), it’s even more important to better understand what motivates and inspires people, how messages and information may be received differently, and of course, how to build and grow trust. I believe great leadership is a skill that is continuously cultivated.

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 we first started the company, we were exhibiting at a major conference and had printed thousands of brochures with statistics touting one of the benefits of our solution. Unfortunately, we printed a data point that was not only wrong, but completely negated our argument. We pulled the brochures as soon as we realized the mistake, but it was a huge lesson on the importance of attention to detail!

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

A week after the start of a global pandemic and the remote transition of our entire organization, we signed the largest client in our company’s history. Amid the uncertainty and fear we all felt early on in the pandemic, every team member stepped in and stepped up to support not only our clients, but each other.

The Hotel Engine team coming together in challenging times was no surprise, but it reinforced the importance of having everyone at the company being aligned behind the same purpose, and driven to achieve the same goal.

When everyone is paddling in the same direction, synchronized in their efforts, it makes all the difference because everyone shares in the responsibility. The focus we’ve placed on cultural fit has kept us moving forward and never feeling like we’re having to paddle upstream, which is huge when it comes to avoiding burnout.

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?

I was really young when I started both Travelers Haven and Hotel Engine, so I didn’t have a built-in network of connections in the business world or professional peers that could help when I was first establishing the companies. Thus, my network of business connections was really formed from my active involvement in YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization).

Even to this day, many of the people I work with at Hotel Engine are through the relationships from YPO. I’m forever grateful for their support in those early days.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

For companies that have traveling workforces, corporate lodging is the largest travel-related expenditure. At Hotel Engine, we arm our business customers with powerful tools that are simple to use and seamless to integrate, and coupled with rates that offer significant savings. Our technological platform is all about bringing value, convenience and flexibility to our customers. Our members can book and use Hotel Engine, when and where they want. For many of our customers that kind of choice is very innovative, and it’s a powerful offering.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

For many companies, there has traditionally been only two options: travel management companies (TMCs) that are too expensive for some businesses, and online travel agencies (OTAs) that don’t offer enough of the features and functionality they need — especially for budgeting and reporting.

The Hotel Engine platform combines the best of both worlds by offering great savings and a free robust set of tools that are simple and easy-to-use all with great 24/7 support.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

We want to empower businesses of all sizes across all sectors to experience the cost-savings and time-savings of managed travel. For so many of our customers, it’s a game-changer. Not only are they saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in business lodging, but their teams gain more efficiency and more insight.

In addition to solving our customers’ needs, we are listening to our supplier network of hotels and constantly improving our platform to better serve them as well. We continue to see a significant level of interest from our partners for data and insight so they can tailor their offerings to our members, which is a win-win for both our customers and our suppliers.

I believe well after the pandemic ends, we will continue to see certain consumer expectations and behaviors stay. These include:

Enhanced safety and hygiene measures such as the use of hand sanitizers and frequent cleaning.
Greater use of technology and automation. I think companies will really begin to scrutinize their travel costs and to better ensure every trip their employees take is efficient. This will lead to more companies looking for managed travel solutions.
More on-demand amenities at hotels such as to-go dining and beverage options.
Minimizing touch points such as daily housekeeping or daily refills of in-room items, which will have a positive effect on the environment as well.
More options in alternative accommodations, which is something we are actively looking into for our platform.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

My perfect vacation centers around the blue ocean, in particular, the scenic Hawaiian Islands. I’d go sailing and scuba diving, and relax with great music, good cocktails and close family and friends. Paradise!

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have founded two successful companies in Travelers Haven and Hotel Engine and with that success comes responsibility. As the companies have grown so too has my role in both companies and my vision for their impact and legacy.

While I no longer have a day-to-day role at Travelers Haven, I currently serve as the CEO of Hotel Engine. Early in 2021, Hotel Engine launched its first ever corporate social responsibility program to focus our strategic giving across three areas: education, women and children and the environment. As part of this launch, we announced a partnership with One Tree Planted, a global reforestation nonprofit, to plant up to a quarter of a million trees in select areas of the United States. As of April 2021, we have proudly supported the planting of 100,000 trees — so we are well on our way to meeting our annual goal.

We also have a partnership with Black Girl Ventures to help empower Black and Brown female entrepreneurs with access to community, capital and the capacity to grow their business.

This is just the beginning for us, and our hope is to support and spotlight incredible and impactful work in these three areas.

We’re also proud to offer Hotel Engine team members two paid days per year to give back to their community through volunteer efforts.

For me, it’d be a global movement to protect our vast, incredible oceans and the fragile marine life that greatly depends on this complex ecosystem.

The oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and hold more than 97 percent of our water. The air we breathe, the climate we live in, the food we eat, and even some of our medicines all depend on ensuring that our oceans are healthy. Right now, we are not doing a good enough job of protecting this natural resource. Our future depends on our actions now.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/elia-wallen-34964312

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

Elia Wallen of Hotel Engine On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Amber Kelleher-Andrews of Kelleher International On The Three Things You Need…

Female Disruptors: Amber Kelleher-Andrews of Kelleher International On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

I followed my mentor’s advice and I spent the next decade perfecting what we do — marketing to those who DID know what matchmaking is, while waiting for those who didn’t to catch up. It worked! Dating apps got people to be proactive with their love lives while simultaneously proving how difficult it is to find the needle in the haystack. It brought about the importance and time saving advantages of someone else screening out all the “riff raff” for you.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amber Kelleher-Andrews.

A true romantic at heart, with a deep passion for people, Amber Kelleher-Andrews lives her dream job as CEO of the global matchmaking firm, Kelleher International. Under Amber’s stewardship, Kelleher International is the leader in a booming singles industry and is responsible for thousands of marriages, with 87% of their clients ending up in long-term relationships or marriage. Kelleher is continuously expanding to meet the demands of busy, successful singles and has been awarded back-to-back top global matchmaking awards since 2010. Amber’s knowledge of human relationships combined with a healthy dose of intuition lends to her straightforward approach of listening and asking questions to get to the heart of each person.

One of her most rewarding endeavors to date is co-hosting leadership gatherings with Sir Richard Branson benefiting organizations like Virgin Unite and WildAid. The gatherings are intimate groups curated to include the world’s most influential thought leaders, field experts, entrepreneurs, and changemakers all in one place to collaborate and make a positive impact on the world. Not only are these gatherings responsible for raising millions of dollars for charity, but they also encourage business as a force for good globally, becoming incredible idea and partnership incubators.

Amber is married to her husband of over 20 years, Jiu-Jitsu Gold Medalist Nico Andrews, and together they are raising their three children in beautiful Montecito, California.

I grew up in the entertainment industry. My mother and father were successful models in the 70s and my step-father directed numerous top-rated made for TV movies. I had a brief career in the entertainment industry myself as an actress and model and appeared on a handful of shows like Melrose Place, Baywatch, Married With Children and Wings, as well as some national commercials and feature films. I was fortunate to work with some esteemed directors such as Tony Scott, Roland Joffé, and Roman Coppola.

My mother started our professional matchmaking firm Kelleher International in 1986 after she saw how busy executives and people, like those in Hollywood, struggled to find true love connections. Having inherited her romantic heart, I joined her at the company in 1995 as CEO and have never looked back, helping expand the Kelleher business to over 13 locations, including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and Scottsdale, London, Stockholm, and more.

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

My mother, Jill Kelleher, was the first disruptor back in the ’80s when she put commercial Matchmaking on the map here in America. She saw the opportunity to move away from the “bar scene” and wanted to give single men and women who truly were looking for love an opportunity to meet at a venue other than a “meat market”, which at the time was your local gym or singles party. Before computers and cell phones Kelleher gained an advantage immediately over random encounters because it worked, and my mother knew how to personally match her clients on morals and values which led to marriages and success. For over 30 years, our family business remains the global leader of exclusive, high-end matchmaking, which has become a billion-dollar industry.

We work with a select group of clients each year, connecting them with our global network of high-income, educated, and successful singles that have been personally vetted by our own matchmakers. Our clients are the world’s most successful people who, until this day, still do not have time to go through standard dating practices.

As opposed to dating apps showcasing their personal lives, our clients desire more discretion when it comes to looking for love. As successful and as accomplished as they are, Kelleher offers highly personalized and discreet matchmaking for these individuals that they are not able to find anywhere else.

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 have been the CEO of Kelleher for over 25 years, but I feel like I learn something new every day. Working with people and matters of the heart keeps me on my toes. It is not the same as making widgets or manufacturing a tangible product. People are different from one human being to another, and we all take in information uniquely. My clients have taught me patience, the keen ability to listen, not to jump to conclusions, and to trust my gut. They are my mentors, and I am theirs. It’s a wonderful career path for me to be on because it never gets old. I am a hopeless romantic and I love love. I have also had the blessing of working side by side with my mother who has been the single most important mentor in my life. She has a deep intuition and appreciation for psychology and matching.

My mother has always told me “there is a lid for every pot” and she proves this each and every day with her inner personal skills. She has taught me how to cut through all the noise of business and get down to what makes the human heart soar. We look at the passions and accomplishments of our clientele and help them continue to make an impact in their exciting lives but with a twist. We guide them to a place where love is at the center of everything that they do, and this takes one’s life journey to all new heights.

Having been in the dating field pre computers and dating apps has given me a unique perspective on what has made a positive and not so positive impact on dating. At first, I believed anything disruptive is good. Disruptive ideas bring change and change helps expansion and brings about new initiatives. Any industry can and should welcome improvements. That said, while dating apps were initially disruptive by placing our love life into our own hands, providing easy ways to connect with a massive amount of singles, it has not always been a positive experience for everyone. For the majority who are serious about finding true love, it has proven to be overwhelming. With so much choice readily available at our fingertips, it has dumbed down our senses and made it challenging to be discerning.

In a nutshell, if you are single, you are swimming in a turbulent red ocean, and if you can’t float you will sink in no time. I believe too much choice has contributed to depression and handicapped many who “throw in the towel”. The men and women that I speak to about their online social lives tell me that they have simply “given up” finding it increasingly difficult to sort through all the chaos. It’s interesting that personal matchmaking (a thousand-year-old profession) has stood the test of time and remains at the top of this pyramid.

My family business, Kelleher International, for example, is a destination for those who have graduated from Tinder or Bumble and are tired of the misrepresentation. Matchmaking is for those who are unwilling to compromise or put their personal lives out on display to be judged by so many strangers. Sometimes when it comes to love and spending a lifetime with someone, less noise is best, and the more still it is for you, the more you can hear and smell and taste and feel. All important components of falling in love.

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

I was way ahead of myself 10 years ago and was ready to conquer the world with disruptive ideas. I am more of a visionary than anything else, but I revel in making these visions and new ideas come to life and was ready to change the path for matchmaking in 2010.

Ready to make a big business leap, several of my business mentors gave me very sound advice at the time to “stay the course”. I was told to “dig deeper” and also to “make what you do stronger than ever, before you go changing it”.

At the time, I was so frustrated because I really felt we had already been the trailblazers of the industry. It had been 20 years and I felt it was both time and our responsibility to keep moving the ball and leading the way. But every time I went to make a move, I was told to have patience.

Twelve years later, in retrospect this advice to stay the course and dig deeper was correct. While I personally was ready for the next big thing, the dating culture and “matchmaking” was just starting to gain traction in the public eye. Had I changed what we do, too many would have missed it!

Dating shows, for example, turned into “matchmaking shows” and this unique boutique industry was just starting to take a hold on primetime TV. Suddenly the term “Matchmaker” became a household name yet it was still too soon to change what we do because so many singles had little to no idea what it was all about still.

I followed my mentor’s advice and I spent the next decade perfecting what we do — marketing to those who DID know what matchmaking is, while waiting for those who didn’t to catch up. It worked! Dating apps got people to be proactive with their love lives while simultaneously proving how difficult it is to find the needle in the haystack. It brought about the importance and time saving advantages of someone else screening out all the “riff raff” for you.

People put their love lives into perspective. They knew that they have personal trainers, personal chefs, personal assistants, they use executive search firms for new hires but when it came to their love lives they were leaving it up to chance. Suddenly like never before, Matchmaking made sense.

The time flew by as the world caught up to my mother’s idea 33 years ago and our company’s revenue tripled in the same time so it all was great advice. Now, I am ready to do what I wanted to do over a decade ago. Now is the time right to lead the way once again and disrupt matchmaking and this is what we plan to do.

How are you going to shake things up next?

First and foremost, it’s all about relationships. We opened doors to new relationships and while we were staying the course at Kelleher International, we added some partnerships to shake things up along the way.

One of these partnerships is with Virgin Unite. Sir Richard Branson’s wonderful Foundation that I fell in love with. I was fortunate to become a board member and on the advisory committee, and with this I began curating special think tanks of industry leaders for Richard. We would personally meet once a year at his private estate with a handful of change makers who I drew from within my Kelleher community. We have Former Presidents, Hollywood Academy award-winning actors, former Prime Ministers, celebrities, and Forbes entrepreneurs of the year. They are all our clients! We gathered together to talk about the triple P bottom line (people, planet, profit). We discussed how to leverage our influence as a driving force for good. Collectively we began to change business for the better. The Book “Screw Business As Usual” is the bible for business owners (written by Branson himself). It gives wonderful examples of people who make what they do their passion and their legacy and how industry and business can change the world much faster than the individual. Richard and I started to create ripple effects and these guests left his island with the intent to pay it forward. That is when the light bulb went off for me and I knew that the incredible community that we had built over three decades could meet on more than a match. We could essentially Match on Purpose, match one another for passion projects and networking with love at the center.

I knew then that if Kelleher can capture eligible singles in transition — for example at their peak of performance in business and life’s goals and then place the love of their life in front of them — it’s incredible to witness the joy and satisfaction of one plus one equals 20. This was the incubator of our KI Social Club which will launch January 2022.

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

Men tend to be more solo focused while women by design are multi-taskers. Because of this wonderful female trait, I feel that women in general can be extremely successful disruptors. However, most industries are still male dominated and so these female disruptors who face male counterparts will likely have to deal with the challenge of getting their vision accepted and then implemented.

Men will want to wait, test the market, stay the course etc. Women on the other hand use their intuition and if they feel strongly about an idea then may wish to jump in, work faster and take more risks. All are important to consider but it’s true that men may be less likely to take on a female disruptor’s idea without proven data and research to pave the way first.

Is there a book/podcast/talk that has had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?

I love to immerse myself in meditation books, YouTube channels that talk about health and nutrition, and I always read books that teach us how to be happy and keep that positive energy and enthusiasm for life alive! I am a firm believer that thoughts become things.

If things start to go south after I wake up, I pause, even take a nap if possible or go meditate or lay in the sunshine to press reset and start all over again. What we think attracts our experience. Leave me in a bookstore and I am on cloud nine, we can never learn too much or expand the mind too far. I read about all forms of manifestation. It’s what I do for others as well. Kelleher’s client must manifest love and positivity in order to attract it.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I believe that love heals everything. It gives us hope and it’s what makes the world turn ‘round. Real love starts with loving yourself first and then once you can honestly achieve this, you can love others. This includes friends, animals, children, family, and of course romance.

Unfortunately, life tends to get in the way for so many and love is lost or overshadowed by loss, pain, and life in general. If I could inspire a movement that would bring about the most change it would be to develop a tool that met everyone emotionally where they are and create the ability to process all the pain, dreams, aspirations, emotions and desires we all carry around inside ourselves to get past the defunctions and insecurities. I would develop a roadmap to make sense of it all so that each and every person on this planet could find their center and feel what it is like to be loved and to be able love in return.

There really is nothing more important in a lifetime. That’s a movement worth practicing.

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

A life quote from C.S. Lewis has always been true for my personal journey working with our clientele is “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”. This is such an important life lesson for those in transition from marriage to divorce.

When people find themselves suddenly “single” they tend to focus on the past and try to find fault or reason — but what we do at Kelleher is show them the opportunity that lies in front of them. It is in other words, time to rewrite the book! With a healthy new perspective and the right guidance our clientele can rewrite the next chapters of their lives and ensure that when it comes to love, they indeed have the best years ahead of them!

How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberkelleher/

https://www.instagram.com/amber_kelleher/

https://www.facebook.com/matchonpurpose/

https://twitter.com/amber_kelleher

https://kelleher-international.com/blog/

Female Disruptors: Amber Kelleher-Andrews of Kelleher International On The Three Things You Need… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Jordann Amatea of Base Culture On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your…

Female Disruptors: Jordann Amatea of Base Culture On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

“Challenges render strength” — this came to me from my great grandmother, Gagi, who lived to be 99 years old. She and I were always very close. She was an incredibly inspiring woman who showed me that every challenge I face gives me the opportunity to grow and to be a stronger woman for both myself and for my family. She would say, “you can let the challenge run you over, or you can figure out a way to run over the challenge.” Throughout my life, I have faced many challenges, especially on this Base Culture journey. There are days when I don’t know if I am able to overcome the obstacle in front of me. However, when I am staring into a dark abyss and feeling hopeless, I remember these words… challenges render strength.

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

Amatea is the Founder of Base Culture, a natural food brand that produces delicious gluten-free, grain-free and Paleo baked goods and almond butters. In 2012, a 30-day Paleo challenge turned into a lasting lifestyle for then 22-year-old Amatea as she found herself feeling more energized, healthy, and simply better. After struggling to find convenient, satisfying, and delicious baked goods that met her clean eating paleo lifestyle, it became Jordann’s mission to create deliciously nourishing products that meet the needs of this lifestyle on a national scale, without compromising on taste, quality, and integrity.

I started Base Culture in 2012 after graduating from college and joining a CrossFit gym. I participated in a 30-day Paleo challenge with the gym and found that by eating meat, vegetables, seeds, nuts and fruit, I felt more energized, healthy, and simply better. However, I missed baked goods and snacks, and struggled to find paleo options that were convenient, satisfying, and delicious. So, I took matters into my own hands and spent about 6 months experimenting with recipes in my apartment to create my own Paleo, gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free baked goods. My brownies became a hit with friends and family, and the business initially grew by word of mouth. I received unexpected national news coverage, and it was at this point that I knew I needed to dedicate more time to building this business. I quit my day job, rented a small space in a commercial kitchen, hired a baker, and started selling to independent stores. From then on, it became my mission to create deliciously nourishing, Paleo Certified, clean ingredient products on a national scale, without compromising on taste, quality, and integrity.

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

When I started Base Culture, Paleo Certified baked goods and snacks did not exist in the market. Once I received news coverage and widespread interest in the products I created, I realized that so many people are looking for delicious, better-for-you, clean ingredient foods they can trust. It is for this reason that we built our own manufacturing facility to ensure the highest level of quality throughout the entire production process. Given the growth and success we’ve seen so far, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of room for growth in the space. We’re constantly thinking about ways to grow and evolve with our consumers, while staying true to our brand and its values. We have some exciting new products coming out this summer, and will continue to explore opportunities both within and outside of our current categories.

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?

On my first day in the small commercial kitchen I was renting space from, I was on a mission to make 300 muffins. Everything that could have gone wrong did. I showed up at 5am to get an early start, only to find that my code to the keypad on the entrance did not work. Once I got in, the AC would not turn on, so it was about 150 degrees inside, with active ovens in the middle of July. Then, once I started baking, I realized that I only brought 12 eggs when I needed about 200 to complete the order. To top it off, I threw my car keys in the trash at some point during the day, so before I could go home, I had to jump into the dumpster to find them. I figured if I could make it through that, I could make it through anything! This was the first of many challenges I faced during the early days of Base Culture.

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?

My dad has been my greatest mentor. He not only taught me to believe in myself and to follow my dreams no matter how big they may seem, but also how to start, grow and run a business. Even though I did not attend business school or get an MBA, the real life lessons I have learned with him by my side throughout the journey of Base Culture, are incomparable to any type of degree. There is not a chance in the world I would be where I am today without his love, guidance, patience, and understanding.

In my opinion, being disruptive is always a good thing, however it is never the easy thing. History writes itself every day. We learn from the happenings of yesterday to shape our tomorrow. If we, as innovators, are not disrupting the tradition of the past, there is no opportunity for growth in the future. In Base Culture’s move to bringing a product to market that did not exist, we took the “disruptive” leap. We could have fallen flat on our faces if the market was not interested in learning more about grain free, gluten free, paleo baked goods and snacks. Fortunately, we launched our product line during a time when the customer took interest. This leads me to say that educated disruption with tireless persistence and unmatched passion can change the tradition and open an opportunity for something new.

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

1 — “never give up” — It was 1997 and I was 7 years old. I was running in the mile race during my elementary school field day. I had practiced for months with my dad, making sure that I was prepared to give it my all. On the day of my race, I was placed in the 3rd grade heat rather than with my peers in the 2nd grade heat. This meant that I would be running against older and faster girls. I remember being so nervous I could faint. The race started at a faster pace than I had practiced. I did everything I could just to keep up. As I approached the final turn, my dad was standing on the corner cheering me on. Tears streamed down my cheeks because I didn’t know how much longer I could hold on. We made eye contact and he said, “don’t give up, you can do this.” A switch flipped in my brain at that moment, and my doubts turned into motivation. I ran as hard as I possibly could, and I won the race. I remember that day like it was yesterday. This simple story of believing in yourself, no matter what challenges you are facing, changed the way I will think forever. No matter how big the mountain may seem, you simply cannot give up. Just put one foot in front of the other and sooner or later you will get to the top.

2 — “If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?” This piece of advice came from my mom. I was a gymnast growing up, and competed at a high level. During the last practice before my Level 8 Sate competition, I was bombing everything. I could not complete any of my routines without messing up or falling down. I left the gym that night with so much doubt in my ability to perform the next day. My mom took me to dinner to try to distract me. When she figured out that small talk was not going to cut it, she wiped a tear from my eye and said, “look, if you don’t believe in yourself, who will?” I realized then that I had the power within me to be courageous and believe in myself. The next day, I ended up winning the entire competition and then went on to win Regionals as well. I carry those words with me every day, and think about them when I get nervous. It is with this mindset that I walk into every room, no matter what is going on that day.

3 — “Challenges render strength” — this came to me from my great grandmother, Gagi, who lived to be 99 years old. She and I were always very close. She was an incredibly inspiring woman who showed me that every challenge I face gives me the opportunity to grow and to be a stronger woman for both myself and for my family. She would say, “you can let the challenge run you over, or you can figure out a way to run over the challenge.” Throughout my life, I have faced many challenges, especially on this Base Culture journey. There are days when I don’t know if I am able to overcome the obstacle in front of me. However, when I am staring into a dark abyss and feeling hopeless, I remember these words… challenges render strength.

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

We’re constantly thinking of what’s next — so that’s definitely a loaded question! But like I mentioned, we just launched our new Chocolate Chip Brookie and also have some new bread innovations coming this summer that we’re really excited about! We certainly want to continue fueling our passion for creating Paleo and Keto Certified products that everyone will enjoy, but also want to make sure we’re thinking ahead of the trends. As we look to the future, we will absolutely be shaking things up with new innovations in existing categories along with potentially expanding into new areas. We want to make sure we’re always staying true to who we are as a brand while transforming and improving where we can.

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

In my experience, my challenges as a woman disruptor were the same as those of my male friends also disrupting the CPG industry. I have never let my gender hold me back from accomplishing my dreams. My mindset has always been, I am a founder and a CEO and I am here to do business. Whether it’s that I have turned a blind eye to it or I truly have not experienced gender discrimination, I am eternally grateful to have had all the opportunities I have had in the CPG world. I have felt supported by both men and women every step of the way.

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

I used to listen to Brené Brown’s TED talk about being vulnerable prior to every meeting. The messaging in this lecture struck a chord so deep with me and inspired a confidence in myself that I never knew I had.

I would create a social platform free of filters and of hate, to support young girls and women and encourage them to be their authentic selves. This would be a safe place for females to bond over authenticity, love, and honesty. It would help them feel that every ounce of their being is perfect and no matter what shape, size, color, or gender they are, that they are special and matter. This platform would be designed to liberate girls and women from the daily judgments and comparisons they face, and to provide them with support on their journey to find their purpose and to plant their feet in their own lives. I want to create a safe place for them to explore personal values, goals, and beauty so they can take control of their lives and feel empowered to live how they want.

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 lesson quote is — “everything happens for a reason.” This quote, if you really truly believe it, can provide much comfort even on the darkest of days. Starting a company is scary, especially when you are doing it for the first time without any prior business or industry experience. You risk a lot, and when you hit bumps in the road, it is easy to want to throw in the towel and walk away. However, I have found that if you take a deep breath and remember that everything happens for a reason, more often than not, you are able to start seeing the way forward again. Maybe it wasn’t what you were expecting, but in the end, you are able to look back and say, “wow, if that unexpected difficult thing did not happen, who knows where we would be today.”

How can our readers follow you online?

They can follow Base Culture on Instagram (@baseculture) and Facebook (@BaseCutureLLC) to learn about everything we have going on as well as my personal Instagram account (@jordannwindschauer)!

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

Emily Weiss of Accenture On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World

…There’s this idea of the conscious traveler. Since the pandemic, people are more conscious of the environment, health and safety protocols, and the benefits of local-everything. So, there’s a real need for sustainable solutions and technology innovation in areas like contactless interaction across the whole travel experience. There’s also a marketing and brand element to this — customers need to trust that yours is a company it’s safe and secure to travel with.

As part of our series about “The Future Of Air Travel”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Emily Weiss, MD and global industry lead, Travel at Accenture.

Emily Weiss heads up Accenture’s global Travel Industry practice. In this sector, digital technologies, shifting customer expectations, and now COVID-19 impacts are catalyzing immense shifts. Emily guides the strategy and offerings of this practice, helping hospitality, aviation, and travel services clients worldwide reinvent their offerings, become more agile, connected and competitive.

Emily has 25 years’ consulting experience, working across the travel, hotels & leisure, media & entertainment, and consumer goods sectors. She is recognized for her CRM expertise, her ability to launch new products and services, and her understanding of how the workforce contributes to the customer experience. With broad industry insight, she has helped leading clients harness technologies like AI, XR and analytics to drive intelligent operations, equip responsive workforces, make real-time, personalized client experiences possible, and design and deliver transformative solutions.

As a strong leader of multi-disciplinary teams, Emily is passionate about leadership and mentorship at all levels. She believes it’s important to stay connected and learn from those on the front lines, but also to explore the edge — where innovation lives.

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

I’m a very analytical person, and I’ve always loved to solve puzzles. As a child I loved all kinds of word games, number puzzles, and choose-your-own-adventure books. I also loved foreign languages, which as a kid felt a bit like a puzzle. And I still love all these things now, especially Bananagrams, Sudoku and Spanish! Plus, I was a math and Spanish double major at college — the most logical combination, right? So, overall, there was this problem-solving thread that ran throughout my early life. And consulting was a very natural progression from that, because it’s really all about solving problems too.

I’ve also always had a passion for travel and for seeing and exploring the world. That goes right back to my college days when I studied and travelled in Europe. So it was amazing to end up leading Accenture’s global travel industry group. I just thrive on the variety of the work we do here, and it’s been incredible to have been involved in so many different projects, in so many different places, for so many different types of client.

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

Early on, I was lucky enough to be able to spend six months supporting the Child Sponsorship NGO Plan International as part of Accenture Development Partnerships. Plan is an amazing organization that focuses on advancing children’s rights and equality for girls across the world. And it was incredibly exciting on a personal level to be able to explore far-flung places like Ecuador and Sierra Leone while performing important work and making a real difference for people on the ground. In fact, we were creating a Digital Hub for Plan International, which was a really advanced thing for an NGO to be doing at that time. It was just the most rewarding experience in so many ways.

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?

Early in my career, I bumped into my very first client supervisor as I was walking back from the cafeteria with my lunch. He spontaneously asked me to bring my food and join him for a lunch meeting. And, obviously, as a young, driven and ambitious consultant, I said yes. But as I followed him to the meeting, I started to realize something was up. We were walking outside, across a big parking lot, and up to a patch of grassy land at the back of this beautiful client campus. I tried to play it cool and just go with the flow. But apparently there was nothing cool about me in that moment as he stopped and started laughing uncontrollably. He said he’d never seen anyone look so utterly panicked to go plant tomatoes in the community garden! He then revealed he’d called it a meeting because he knew I’d never have stepped away from the desk long enough to join him if he’d invited me to dig in the dirt with him during work hours. Needless to say, that was a fabulous lesson for me and one that I value to this day.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

I think there are two important things here. The first is to understand what’s non-negotiable for you as a person. And the second is to have the courage to set boundaries around that and make decisions that are right for you. An example for me is the importance of spending time with family. Every year since 1988 my family has spent early August in Cape Cod. It’s a really special place, time, and tradition for me — hands down the most important break of my year. But, as we all know, work doesn’t always fit neatly around vacations. So, for me to be part of this family tradition consistently, I chose to be flexible and work around it, whether that was getting up extra early to send emails or staying up late for calls. When something’s that important, you can almost always find a solution. Too many people think you have to give up your personal life to make things work at work. But you don’t. You just have to be creative.

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?

100 percent my mother! She’s been my rock throughout my whole life and my career. She’s such a great person to speak to in those moments when I need to regain balance or perspective. Her favorite phrases are “wait to worry” and “they don’t pay rent to live in your head”, which I’ve always loved and I rely on often. If I’m honest, I sometimes used to wonder whether she really understood what I was talking about or whether she was just being an awesome mom! But then one day I heard her speaking with a friend and I realized she’d been absorbing everything I’d said for the past 20+ years. She totally got it! It was a really wonderful moment.

Thank you for that. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries? Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation? And how do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

There’s such a lot happening in the travel industry right now, especially as we’re all so focused on the recovery from the pandemic. And there are several really big areas of innovation that we’re looking to help the industry drive forward.

One is around digitalization and data. Of course, this isn’t exactly new! But the fact is, the travel industry still has a way to go in fully using its data to digitize and personalize travel experiences from end to end. And we’re talking about more than just creating digital boarding passes or room keys. Everyone needs to be thinking much bigger — digitizing entire itineraries, using VR to preview destinations, building “third space” working spaces into traveler journeys, and so on.

Then, there’s the cloud. Again, not a new thing! But it’s no secret that travel has been behind the curve on cloud adoption. Fixing that won’t only help the industry cut costs, it’s also going to be a crucial part of their future innovation — whether that’s enhancing customer journeys, getting more personalization, or connecting with other industries to offer different kinds of products, services, and retailing opportunities.

Finally, there’s this idea of the conscious traveler. Since the pandemic, people are more conscious of the environment, health and safety protocols, and the benefits of local-everything. So, there’s a real need for sustainable solutions and technology innovation in areas like contactless interaction across the whole travel experience. There’s also a marketing and brand element to this — customers need to trust that yours is a company it’s safe and secure to travel with.

As with the previous question, we’ll definitely see a lot more focus on having COVID-secure and contactless experiences end to end. “Touchless everything” will be the mantra across the industry. That’s relevant to the workforce too — workers need to have confidence that hotels and airplanes are safe and secure places to work.

Otherwise, the big changes are likely to come from the fact that the industry is focusing more on domestic leisure travel in the immediate-to-short term. Everyone is expecting the business market and the international market to recover more slowly.

So, for example, travel companies will be rethinking their customer acquisition and marketing strategies for the leisure market. To do that they’ll need to be more active much earlier in the customer journey, especially on social media and travel inspiration channels. And they’ll need to be able to deliver personalized content, across all channels, with messaging tailored at a local level for different tastes and cultures.

Customer loyalty programs will also need to evolve. The simple fact is that most leisure travelers just don’t make enough trips to accumulate enough points in traditional loyalty schemes. So I think we’ll see a big shift to other kinds of “emotional” or experience-based rewards, based on a better understanding of what matters to leisure travelers.

And then there’s the technology and data that enables all this. Again, that’s about having cloud technology and data platforms to support the advanced customer segmentation and personalization — plus the organizational agility and innovation — you really need to capitalize on the leisure opportunity.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

For me, a great vacation has to be centered around exploring the new. So, going to a new location, exploring a new culture, eating new food, meeting new people, finding out cool new places and hidden gems, maybe even learning a new language. That’s my perfect holiday!

I think this speaks to a broader point about personalization. If they’re to deliver truly personalized leisure travel experiences, companies need to be thinking bigger than letting me choose what kind of pillow I get or what drinks are in the refrigerator. Real personalization is about understanding what’s important to me, why I’m making this trip, and then helping me do that in the best way possible.

Thinking further ahead, I’d also love more of the stress to be taken out of traveling. By that I mean having a completely seamless experience from home to home. So perhaps the hotel could know exactly when my flight landed and have me checked in already. Or knowing my flight out is delayed, so having me confirmed for late checkout. Really, it’s about joining up all the dots in the travel experience. Not an easy thing to do! But it’s definitely where the industry is heading.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

What I love about this career is that I get to help such a variety of people and organizations and I get to share my expertise with such a diverse audience, whether that’s with clients, colleagues, or in doing voluntary work. I also think there’s a lot of good you can bring to the world in the small things — the everyday interactions that make up most of the experiences we all have all the time. My philosophy is to stay curious and positive and intentional in these moments, and I always try to be honest and transparent and accessible, whoever I’m speaking with. Life is lived in the details. And it’s in these details that we can really make a difference in the world.

What I’d like to see more of in the world is listening. This is about taking the time to not just hear but also listen to what people are saying. We can all be a little guilty of not doing this sometimes, especially when we’re busy or have other things on our mind. Or when we pass someone in the hall or start a conversation with “Hi, how are you?” and don’t expect or even wait for an answer! I think a little more care, a little more deliberation and a little more listening would make such a big difference to the world. Because the more we feel heard, the more we have a voice. And the more we have a voice, the more our ideas, beliefs, concerns, and questions are taken seriously. I think that would be an incredibly powerful thing.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Emily Weiss | LinkedIn

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

Emily Weiss of Accenture On The Future of Travel in The Post Covid World 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: Samara Walker On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up Th

The Future of Beauty: Samara Walker of Àuda.B On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Beauty Industry

If I could inspire a movement it would be “Celebrating All Cultures”. Oftentimes people of color are tolerated but never celebrated. If we all learned how to respect everyone’s differences and appreciate all cultures then I think the world would be a much better place.

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 Samara Walker

Samara Walker is a creative at heart who recognized that the products and services of the beauty industry did not fulfill the needs of people of all skin tones. With her entrepreneurial background and passion for inclusivity and diversity, Samara created Àuda.B, a luxury vegan nail lacquer brand that delivers ultra-rich, glossy colors to your nails with chip-resistant wear and a gel-like pigmented finish.

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?

Not feeling validated or seen within the beauty industry amongst luxury beauty brands has led me to this specific career path. My passion for beauty started at a very young age while watching my mother faithfully paint her nails during her Sunday beauty routine. I was truly inspired to create a brand that reflected women of color from A-Z. Through product curation, branding, and marketing, I knew that I wanted to build an inclusive brand that kept women of color top of mind.

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

A few years ago, when I first started the brand, I participated in a tradeshow. At the event, I met a woman who expressed her concerns regarding my price point. She told me that I was narrowing my potential opportunities to pick up retailers. At that moment, I didn’t allow her personal opinions or experience to impact or reflect the vision I had for Auda.B as a luxury vegan beauty brand. Now that Auda.B has been picked up by Nordstrom, I am so grateful that I remained true to myself and the brand and didn’t let the opinions of others alter the original path that I had set out on.

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?

The tipping point began to happen for us when we started partnering with designers for New York Fashion Week. These partnerships allowed customers to experience the brand in “real time” with behind-the-scenes action by showcasing our products on models. That opportunity allowed us to engage with our audience in a different format than other brands. Customers really started to want to wear our brand in order to recreate the looks and color schemes that they saw on the runway because it made them feel like they were a part of the show. From this, I’ve learned that it’s important to understand your audience and what they expect from your brand. This realization allowed me to tailor our customer experience and branding to be more engaging with real-life content that gets consumers involved.

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?

First, I’ll start off and say that my entire family is a great support system! In particular, my uncle, Gamal Walker (who is also Auda.B’s co-founder), has supported my dreams of becoming a founder and building a brand. When I initially shared the idea of Auda.B, he made sure I had access to any of the resources that he had at his fingertips and expressed to me how important it was to follow my dreams and made sure that I understood that anything was possible. Being an entrepreneur is extremely challenging, so it’s important to have people like him in your corner who truly understand the journey that you are embarking on.

The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

We are currently working on creating a unique experience for our customers that allows them to connect with our products virtually. We are revolutionizing the way customers experience beauty products by using our technology to align their skin tones with specific products through the use of features such as VR. This reduces fragmentation within the customer experience and allows for improved product alignment across diverse skin tones, which has always been lacking in the beauty industry.

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 think that one of the potential drawbacks could be massive beauty brands picking up on the technology. With that being said, as a founder, I always pride myself on being innovative and setting myself apart. The biggest advantage that I have in my position is being authentic and genuine, so that allows me to set Auda.B apart from major mainstream beauty brands. As these companies start to adopt more of the technologies that smaller brands are using, it could become more difficult for the smaller brands to be recognized for their unique efforts.

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

Three things that excite me the most about the beauty- tech industry are having the opportunity to change the narrative of the industry, allowing the multifaceted consumer to experience new shades through the use of technology, and providing unique experiences to consumers.

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?

Three things that concern me about the industry are the ability for diverse founders to successfully enter the space without being viewed as 1) Charity 2) Diversity Initiatives and or 3) 15% Pledge. The most successful companies put diversity first without forcing their hand. Unfortunately, this issue is bigger than implementing 3 reforms, this is a top-down issue that impacts the entire industry and presents barriers to entry for diverse founders to expand across retailers and raise capital along with a slew of other variables.

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

1. Manicure + Pedicure: Book a manicure and pedicure at your favorite nail salon and bring Auda.B Nail lacquer.

2. Gym: Book a SoulCycle class! SoulCycle is a great cycling studio that I personally love — it allows me to blow off steam and work on my physical beauty. If cycling isn’t for you, choose another type of physical activity that you enjoy and put the time aside for yourself to do it.

3. Bubble Bath: Bubble baths are extremely relaxing and allow your mind to rest and reset.

4. Reading: Stimulating your mind through activities like reading allows you to connect with yourself on a personal level.

5. Therapy: This is highly recommended by many of my friends based on their own personal experiences. Therapy is extremely beneficial for all aspects of your well-being, and may even help increase your overall beauty and self-love.

All of these are personal measures that I use “to feel beautiful” at every touchpoint of my life. For me, feeling beautiful is mental and physical, both external and internal.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

If I could inspire a movement it would be “Celebrating All Cultures”. Oftentimes people of color are tolerated but never celebrated. If we all learned how to respect everyone’s differences and appreciate all cultures then I think the world would be a much better place.

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

“Without struggle, there is no progress” — Frederick Douglass. The reason that this quote is relevant to my life is because when I was growing up I struggled to fit in. I always knew that I was different, and I wanted to provide a different life for myself. I never let my circumstances define who I was or where I was going. As I look back today, I know that without life’s hardships I wouldn’t have made it this far — and this is just the beginning.

How can our readers follow you online?

Auda.B: @audabbeauty ( IG, Twitter, FB)

Website: www.audabbeauty.com

Sam Walker: @iamsam_w

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

Hilken Mancini of Punk Rock Aerobics: “TAKE UP SPACE and MOVE!

Hilken Mancini of Punk Rock Aerobics: “TAKE UP SPACE and MOVE! Just start doing anything, it’s better than doing nothing; Even if it is just a walk around the block or dancing to your favorite song”

TAKE UP SPACE and MOVE! Just start doing anything- it’s better than doing nothing. Even if it is just a walk around the block or dancing to your favorite song- remember that it’s OK to make mistakes, to have fun and laugh at yourself- not to be great at whatever it is you try, and not perfect! The figures are still shocking in terms of people who don’t exercise or realize its importance. Exercise truly saves your life- so just start!

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hilken Mancini.

Hilken Mancini is a household name in the Boston punk scene who fronted a band that was signed to Atlantic Records and wrote “one of top 50 songs of the 1990’s,” according to Rolling Stone.

After years in the music industry, she co-created Punk Rock Aerobics, as “the anti-exercise fitness revolution,” and held classes exclusively in rock clubs. Punk Rock Aerobics is the original DIY exercise program that provides an alternative for those disenchanted with rigid body-image based gym culture. Her punk-inspired fitness program provides a great workout while staying true to its DIY and punk roots! Hilken has created an inclusive community for those who stand out from the traditional gym atmosphere and want a unique workout with punk camaraderie!

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

In the nineties, I fronted a band called Fuzzy that was signed to Atlantic Records and that Rolling Stone Magazine named as writing “one of top 50 songs of the 1990s”. I released two albums and toured extensively. After years in the music industry, I co-created Punk Rock Aerobics in 2001- the anti-exercise fitness craze and held classes in rock clubs only. Punk Rock Aerobics (PRA) is a DIY exercise program, providing an alternative for those disenchanted with rigid body-image-based gym culture, employing “rock star” DJs to play punk anthems. In 2004, Da Capo Press published our exercise book, Punk Rock Aerobics, and we ran exercise classes in rock clubs in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and London. Around the same time the Rock-n-Roll camp for Girls started, a similar mission, and I volunteered to run self-empowerment assemblies and Punk Rock Aerobics at their sessions in Portland, Oregon. By 2010 I co-founded my own non-profit Girls Rock Camp in Boston. In 2005 I also opened a vintage clothing boutique in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

In the ’90s, my band Fuzzy played a show at a small local club in Boston on a weeknight with not many people there. When I stepped off the stage, a man appeared with a business card in his hand and said he worked in A&R for Atlantic Records and wanted to sign my band. It was a magical moment, and it completely changed my life. The next thing I knew, I was touring, recording a three-record deal, had a manager, a publicist, and an entertainment lawyer. What I learned from that was no matter where you are or how small a group you are presenting to, you have to always give it your all and be your best. You never know who is there watching or listening. You must always be consistent and devote all you can towards your end goal: always believe in yourself and work hard to be your best self, and eventually, you will be seen and heard.

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?

I love this question because when I used to talk to our volunteers at rock camp, I would always quote this statistic which is: researchers say people who go on to be successful and who have the most resiliency in their lives have one thing in common, and it’s one positive, caring adult role model that was not in their family. I have been lucky and have had quite a few mentors in my life and have always thought it was important to make friends with people older and wiser than me. One person specifically took me under his wing and showed me how to run my vintage clothing business. He owned the shop previously, and he very much believed in me, which helped me more than I would have ever thought.

Another person gave me the courage to keep going because I knew that I could rely on them if things fell apart. Since I don’t come from much, and my family has modest resources, it made all the difference in the world knowing this person had my back. Having a mentor and being a mentor is huge and sharing information is the best thing you can do because, ultimately, we should all strive to help make other people’s lives better. I think people who hoard information think they hold power, which is disappointing, because you should share the wealth to help others around you.

Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

Well, my vintage store offers a recycle and reuse policy, which is an environmentally sensible option!

The Punk Rock Aerobics class was created as a “safe space” for people to exercise before the term safe space existed. The end goal always had more to do with attitude than muscle mass as we told participants to “Flex Yer Head” and “take control of your body and take control of your mind!” It empowered people (I call them punxxx) to leave with a positive attitude about themselves and accept their bodies as they are. The class has no mirrors, no obnoxious gym music, and happens in rock clubs and DIY spaces only. We use bricks for weights, special guest DJ’s spin killer punk anthems, and whether you’ve had prior fitness experience or not, you leave the class empowered to take on any challenge you may face.

The non-profit I co-founded ten years ago is simply as the mission statement says: to empower girls, transgender youth, and gender non-conforming youth to believe in themselves by providing a supportive community that fosters self-expression, confidence, and collaboration through musical education and performance.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

It’s a great coincidence you are asking me this because I am currently working a retreat this summer where I will be teaching these five modules:

1. TAKE UP SPACE and MOVE! Just start doing anything- it’s better than doing nothing. Even if it is just a walk around the block or dancing to your favorite song- remember that it’s ok to make mistakes, to have fun and laugh at yourself- not to be great at whatever it is you try, and not perfect! The figures are still shocking in terms of people who don’t exercise or realize its importance. Exercise truly saves your life- so just start!

2. LET IT GO: Meditation is a great way to learn how to do this. In life, you have to give up all controls and accept that none of us ever know what will happen in our lives. Learning to rest in that uncertainty and accepting that will subside some of the stress you feel about whatever is going on for you. This is not an easy thing to do, but meditation helps with this.

3. SAY NO to the status quo. Nobody ever tells you that you aren’t supposed to be doing anything. Pursue what interests you and let the great narrative of your life emerge. Become accomplished at something you love and don’t make money the end goal. Find your own way. I love this quote in the bible from the gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” That means that whatever is inside you is what makes you truly special- so listen to that voice. Do what you want to do and think for yourself. Real punks think for themselves, and I always hung out with them or artists and people considered “freaks” or “weirdos,” because they don’t care about what anyone thinks of them and are pioneers and trailblazers for the rest of us. The true aristocrats of the world!

4. DIY- Do it yourself — No one but you can learn from your mistakes and do what needs to get done to make you become truly accomplished. Your boss or clients will expect you to do good work, but you should expect yourself to do great work. You are the only one who will care enough to make that happen, and that person won’t disappoint you. You can’t rely on anyone but yourself, and the hardest part is just tolerating the gap between the glorious image you had of your end goal and the sad thing you’ve just made. Remember that everything great you see started as someone else’s bad first draft, so forgive yourself. Just remember that anything you do should be better than anything you did before.

5.BE BRAVE: “PUSH YOUR CHOSEN VOCATION FORWARD WITH INNOVATION AND BRAVERY.” This is a quote from Mike Watt of the band The Minutemen, and I love it. It means everything. If you get scared, don’t ever give up, and work hard to be consistent always. Consistency in behavior is the most important thing as an artist, an entrepreneur, or a leader.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Well, it sounds completely crazy and would cost a billion dollars to do. It’s not very realistic, but- since COVID happened and everyone realized how you can work from home, and you don’t need to “be anywhere” (unless you are an essential worker and have an in-person job) but, those that are more privileged and can work from home — you ask them to move. You move communities- like whole groups of people from blue states and cities like San Francisco, Boston, NYC -people from the cities of the blue states -and you build small villages and make communities happen smack in the middle of really Republican and red states. You make the coffee shops, the clubs, and restaurants, and DIY spaces and get people residency in these states so that they can vote, and you flip those states so the electoral college can no longer exist as it is. It’s a completely crazy idea but think of the change it could bring. It’s an idea that would let people live more equally here in the US. When you have kids starving here, families that can’t pay their bills or their rent, mothers who die from poor healthcare in childbirth, it is insane. You know there is something deeply wrong in this country when some people are remodeling their kitchen for what could pay to feed an entire family for a year.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

The five things I posted above that I teach in my retreat are the same five things I wish someone told me before I started, except for the MOVE part — I was already doing that as a young ballet dancer.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Right now, I am slowly cutting more and more meat out of my diet. I am trying not to eat pork and beef, and instead eating farm raised poultry (and fish). Hopefully, that will lead to more vegetarian ways because I think that makes me feel the worst- cruelty to animals. Also, it’s a plus that replacing meat with vegetarian sources of protein reduces carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook, and you can find Punk Rock Aerobics on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

Hilken Mancini of Punk Rock Aerobics: “TAKE UP SPACE and MOVE! was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.