Female Founders: Jeni Bukolt of HAVEN Creative On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as…

Female Founders: Jeni Bukolt of HAVEN Creative On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You must have a vision and goals as a founder. You can’t get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re headed. Setting a vision, sharing it with your team, and setting intentional goals is how you grow a business. Just this year, we’ve had several goal-setting and check-in meetings with the focus of treating our company as one of our clients. With this goal, we’ve been able to create great new avenues for growth within HAVEN that we wouldn’t have had without that goal.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeni Bukolt.

Jeni Bukolt is the founder and CEO of HAVEN Creative, a community branding agency based in Charlotte, NC. She started HAVEN in 2012 with a laptop, a personal loan, and the goal of paying for childcare to maintain her sanity. Today, HAVEN Creative is an award-winning agency with a team of five full-time employees and a community of mavens across the nation.

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

Thank you for having me. I did not actually start HAVEN to grow a business beyond myself and a laptop. I sort of fell into this career path after years of working in video production. The video production house that I worked for tasked me with marketing to help grow the business; I soon realized that my favorite part of video production was the storytelling aspect to help raise awareness or inspire action. This passion for storytelling is still the undercurrent of everything we do at HAVEN.

My family moved to North Carolina from California when my husband, Jason, got a job in the Charlotte area. I was looking for work and decided to buy a laptop to earn side money for childcare expenses, both to maintain my sanity and allow me to continue that job hunt. Instead of finding a job, I founded HAVEN and here we are!

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

Running a business comes with many stories, but the most impactful story in my career is both interesting and traumatic. In 2015, I was hired by the Town of Waxhaw in North Carolina to facilitate a rebranding project, which took just over a year to complete. We launched the new brand in September of 2016, which is important to the story because a hurricane came through and canceled our in-person brand launch event. Instead of being able to control the narrative in a coordinated way, the launch was shifted to an all-digital launch where the online trolls and commenters took over the storyline.

A huge debate ensued about a tagline, which was, “Life Happens in the HAW.” A group of residents were infuriated over this and assumed we were trying to rename the town. They brought in local news, who ran a package with clips of the “Hee Haw” show. That snowballed into a major online debate over the tagline which drew attention across the state of North Carolina. My business was harassed online and I received physical threats. All of this over a tagline! What’s worse, it was happening in the community that my family and I called home. I couldn’t go out without hearing about it. I truly thought my career was over and I didn’t think my business would survive. I finally had to speak up at a public meeting and eventually, the harassment died down. Thankfully, we got through that moment and are doing better than ever. The funny thing is — the rebranding still stands to this day, except for the tagline.

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?

“Have Fun” is one of our core values so there are a lot of funny moments inside our agency. However, one of the funniest “Be Brave” moments — which is another core value of ours — involved one of our biggest clients, who asked us to help them define their core values, which we did. Then they asked us to put the core values up on the wall in their offices to proudly promote them. So, we got a contractor to create a 10’ long vinyl graphic of all of the words and got it approved by the client before sending it to print. The contractor did the install, the wall was beautiful and we took photos in front of it. Then, a week later, the COO walked by and started laughing, pointing out that we had misspelled “perseverance”, one of their core values.

He notified me, and I was mortified that we had spelled the word wrong and that no one caught it. I rushed to get the contractor back to the client site; we fixed the mistake, and all was good — or so I thought.

About 2 weeks later, I received a phone call from another executive on the team who spotted that there was STILL a spelling error on the wall and it was in the same damn word! There was an “e” where there should have been an “a.” After laugh-crying through the call, we joked that it was a team mishap and that we had great perseverance in getting it fixed! I’ll never spell that word wrong again — actually, that’s a lie. I still can’t spell it.

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?

This is a difficult question for me to think through because I have so many mentors and figures in my life who have helped me get where I am today. But the first one that comes to mind is my father, who taught me so many great lessons about business. But two things that stand out are “why go to work if you can’t have fun?” and that “you can’t put a price tag on going to work and loving what you do every day.” That has stuck with me and been my motivation. I want to make sure I love what I do, who I do it with, or all of the chaos of being an entrepreneur is not worth it.

My dad worked at NASA TV and I always thought my career would involve television and video production. I joke that I grew up in an editing bay. Back in the 80s, “Take Your Daughter To Work Day’’ was just becoming a thing — not many people had heard of it. I told my dad about it and asked him to take me to work with him on that day. I probably just wanted to get out of going to school, but he brought me to work and I got to spend the day following along while they put together a video package. What was funny looking back now is that no one inside of NASA’s Goddard Space Center had really heard of it, but the next year, they announced “Take Your Daughter To Work Day” company-wide and hundreds of girls showed up. There’s no doubt that day inspired my career path and hopefully inspired another generation to explore engineering or video production, and that was a pretty cool memory with my dad.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I can’t speak for all women, but I assume that several reasons hold female entrepreneurs back, aside from the funding issues. First, the juggling of work with family life; there is a whole headspace that is often overlooked. It’s the invisible labor that goes along with managing the day-to-day family responsibilities. Whether we are wives, parents or caregivers, women are generally the strategic builders of the household to-do list. It’s hard to focus on all of that while also trying to run a business. And, quite frankly, most of us want to put our loved ones first.

I think that women have a greater fear of failure and are generally more risk-averse. I also think this historically comes from women not having the same access to mentors to learn the ropes of business or see what is possible for them to achieve. This is a big thing when it comes to how we think about networking. We have to see people around us who look like us for us to think — “wait, maybe I can do it too.”

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

We need to start mentoring our youth, especially young girls, earlier in their lives, when it comes to encouraging entrepreneurship. It’s certainly better than when I was growing up and had to take the aptitude test in school (the one that decided whether I’d be a teacher or a secretary!). I think if we can continue to encourage young girls to try career paths that are “not for girls,” it will help.

Seeing is believing and we can do more as a society to help women believe in their abilities to found companies if they can see it’s possible. Inclusion starts with intentionality and we need to ensure the leaders of today are encouraging the next generation to follow in their footsteps.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Creativity and innovation are inspired by diversity. Creativity is driven by having various points of view in the room and you can’t have diversity with only the same type of people. You’ll get better products, better services and better data points with multiple perspectives than you would if everything came from one place.

This diversity of leadership leads to what I call the “Maven Mindset,” the belief that better leaders who care about their colleagues, employees and peers lead to overall better business outcomes. More women who decide to found companies will lead to more companies with better workplace policies, like pay equity, empathetic leave policies and overall better work-life balance.

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

There are a lot of myths about society around ideal founders and “head trash” that I could dispel, but I think for me the biggest is that “You can’t be a good mom and run a business, because you’re working too hard.” I’ve learned that I am inspiring my children to know they can follow their dreams and pursue their passion. It’s been really amazing to see that thought manifest in them. While starting out, I constantly worried that I wasn’t being a good enough parent and not doing XYZ well enough. But one day, I was sitting at my desk with my then five year old and he looked up at me to say “Mommy, one day, I want to tell my story.” This was a special moment because it came from him seeing me work and follow my passions. I figured I wasn’t screwing up too bad for not remembering what theme day it happened to be at school that day.

Another myth I want to dispel is that you have to work within your business to be successful. When you grow a business, you have to be able to step away. If you’re not able to step away from the day-to-day work, you don’t have a business, you still have a job. Your job as a founder and leader is to be the visionary and grow the brand. This is hard for a lot of people because they often start companies around their passions and are doing the work until they burn out. It’s important to hire people you trust so you can step out and away as the business grows to focus on what’s next.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

I don’t think it’s fair for me to judge who’s cut out to found a company and who’s not. In the traditional mold of what traits a founder has, I shouldn’t be here. I don’t have a business degree; I didn’t start my company with a grand vision of a product idea and niche in this market to fill. I became a founder because I had a passion and wanted to help other people grow and pursue their dreams.

I think it’s important to follow your dreams and try starting a business. Overcome the fear and try it. You’ll find out quickly if you’ll sink or swim or if you’re cut out to be a founder. But it does take a special kind of crazy: an ability to put up with self-torture and that’s a trait you’ll find out about yourself along the way.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

  1. Most importantly, I think you need a community. It is what we do at HAVEN, but I also wholeheartedly believe that we need like-minded individuals to grow and learn from. If you want to fly, you’ve got to hang with eagles. It’s really important to see what’s possible by keeping like-minded people around you. This is why I’m so grateful for each one of my business mentors throughout the years; each one of them guided me in one way or another and showed me the possibilities before me.
  2. Speaking of, you need a coach, a mentor or someone to keep you accountable. I believe it’s very lonely at the top. You can’t share everything with your team: your head trash and struggles that you feel, your 3 AM worries. That’s not your job, you need to lead and inspire others. You have no one above you to keep you honest and help you work through your concerns, so having a coach is the best way to hone in that growth. I try to check in with my coaches several times a month to talk through problems and challenges I’m facing, just having an understanding partner to counsel me keeps me sane!
  3. You need to have that Maven Mindset. By traditional definition, “maven” means expert or connoisseur, but at HAVEN, it’s a compilation of characteristics. It’s how we do business and how we treat our team. We believe it to mean leading with courage and lifting others to recognize and achieve their full potential. It’s also about being creative and being brave to speak up — to be a disruptor and achiever to make sh!t happen! Some companies talk about culture and values and it’s just words on a wall, but at HAVEN we live and breathe them. We do a ‘making mavens’ session every Monday in our team meetings to sharpen our skills and share knowledge. We even pull our clients into our culture to “make mavens” of them.
  4. You must have a vision and goals as a founder. You can’t get somewhere if you don’t know where you’re headed. Setting a vision, sharing it with your team, and setting intentional goals is how you grow a business. Just this year, we’ve had several goal-setting and check-in meetings with the focus of treating our company as one of our clients. With this goal, we’ve been able to create great new avenues for growth within HAVEN that we wouldn’t have had without that goal.
  5. Lastly, you can’t lead if you’re not taking care of yourself and are not fit in body, mind, and soul. Fitness comes in all of those forms, whether it’s physical, mental or spiritual. I make sure to focus on each of those pillars of self-care and it was a big priority over the past 3 years for me. There’s no doubt in my mind I would have cracked and crumbled if I had not set intentional time to take care of myself. It’s like the announcement on the plane to put your mask on before you help others. You can’t be a good leader if you’re not keeping yourself healthy.

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

For every client or project we work on, we make it a point to give back to the communities in which we work. This can be time, talent or treasure (money) to support the places and people we serve. We started HAVEN Heroes to support this mission.

I also feel strongly that everyone needs a mentor, so I’ve carved time out to mentor and support other young women to start their own businesses. We’ve also given scholarships to mentorship programs to allow others opportunities to learn about business development.

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

If there weren’t bigger problems in the world, I think it would be to end the practice of wearing socks with sandals! But on a more serious note, I think the movement I’d like to start would be the Maven Mindset and what that really means. It means supporting your coworkers’ and partners’ growth and learning to create better leaders. With better leaders, people can go to work, love what they do, and come home feeling better about themselves and not feeling burned out. If we invest in our people, they’ll be better family members, community members, neighbors, or faith leaders because they’re not getting beat up at work. To do this, you need great leaders and culture and a Maven Mindset.

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

By far, the person I’d most love to have a meal with is Brene Brown. I have been building community within organizations for years and I didn’t realize that what I was doing was my “Why” until I did the work to figure that out. I came across her work and learned that she talks about vulnerability and being brave and that’s the key to creating a community. Brene’s work inspired our core value of “Be Brave” and the practice of radical candor.

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


Female Founders: Jeni Bukolt of HAVEN Creative On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Sadie Higgins of Gleam On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Sadie Higgins of Gleam On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be yourself: there’s a reason this is the number one suggestion. You don’t have to be what people think a female founder needs to be, wherever that is. Just be you. Your unique set of traits brought you to where you are and that experience will make all the difference in the company you lead. I never thought I’d say I’m the founder of an app, and to be honest, it still feels a little funny coming from a creative background. But creativity and tech are a beautiful pair and I love thinking of solutions in a different way.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sadie Higgins.

Sadie, an entrepreneur at heart, is a busy mom of three from greater Boston, by way of Florida. Her first business was an on-site brow shaping company that was founded in 2014, three months after having her first child. After seven great years, Pluck came to a screeching halt when the pandemic hit. Literally, the day before lockdown, she had begun working on an idea that would eventually turn into Gleam. During quarantine, her mental load was weighing heavily on her, like most parents. She started forgetting birthdays and turned to big box companies at the last minute to get gifts out as quickly as possible. What she was sending and how she was sending it didn’t reflect how she felt about the people she was sending gifts to. Sadie knew there had to be a better way. Gleam was created to help relieve the mental burden of gift-giving, while also wanting to support small businesses rather than big retailers.

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?

From as young as about 12 years old I knew that I wanted to be my own boss. That knowledge led me to continuously explore different interests; sports writing, travel writing, working as a barista (as every starving artist does at some point in their lives), until I jumped into my first real solo career as a makeup artist. After years of making my mark as a beauty expert I started my first company, Pluck: an onsite brow bar, right after my first son was born. Making my own schedule was the most important thing to me at the time. Then the pandemic hit and Pluck tanked. Luckily, I had already begun thinking about the idea that would eventually turn into Gleam.

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

Gleam started out as an entirely different company. I wanted to find a way for people to connect during the pandemic when they couldn’t see their family members. The idea of making it easy to sign and send an electronic or physical group letter was originally what I was working on. Turns out there was no real way to make it a profitable company. During this time, starting a business while raising three children during a pandemic while my husband was working full time and renovating our home was absolutely wreaking havoc on my mental load and I began forgetting birthdays. And this is how Gleam was born. Had I given up when the original idea failed, I wouldn’t be sharing this story now.

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

I created my own website. It was awful… not even functional. But I had to start somewhere and I wasn’t afraid to just put something out into the world. I remember a developer friend of mine saying at the time, “Wow, you really went for it,” which was code for “wow, this is terrible!” But it was a start and I needed to make the company real.

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?

Business-wise, I’ve been very grateful for two developers who were super helpful in guiding me in the right direction, Tim Noetzel and Jeff Whelpley. They both came with years of experience in startups and shared multiple resources to help me think and rethink the company. The most amazing person has been my best friend, Michelle, who would offer to watch my children for a few uninterrupted hours of work. Some of my favorite early days were spent at the dining room table with both of us glued to our laptops, eating hummus, and finding the coolest small businesses to partner with Gleam. Ladies… have friends in your corner cheering you on and be the cheerleader for all of your girlfriends. If you’re really lucky, you won’t just find cheerleaders, but teammates, too.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

First things first — women are still not paid equally for the same job as a man. That needs to change, stat. When men have more wealth they have more opportunities. When a seat at the table is full of men, it can be difficult to relate to an idea. Representation matters.

We are definitely progressing as a modern society but there is still work that needs to be done as far as gender roles are concerned, especially in regards to a family. The mental load of females is greater than that of a man. Companies treat men and women differently when hiring mothers versus fathers. With more female founders, change will naturally occur.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Pay women equally. Read Eve Rodsky’s “Fair Play” to work on equality in partnerships. Champion the successes of women by supporting female-owned businesses. Become a female founder!!

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Sheesh, this is tough to articulate because it really is just so intuitive. If more women are founders, more role models are created, the seats at the decision-making tables are more diversified, and equality will be easier to achieve.

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

I’m a female in tech so clearly, I’m organized, powerful, and uber-wealthy because I just sold my company for $10.5 million to some gigantic tech company. While I do like to think of myself as powerful, my three notebooks with chicken scratch ramblings will tell a different story about my organization (if Siri doesn’t remind me, it isn’t happening). I would describe myself as more of an artist or creative than a tech guru, and there’s plenty of room for that in business. Then there’s this myth that every app idea is sold for millions within the first year after minimal effort. Some companies take years and years to just break a million in profit themselves. You’ve got to put the effort in.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

No, not everyone is cut out to be a founder and that’s okay! You have to be fearless in the sense that you have to be willing to completely put yourself out there. As an extrovert, this can still be incredibly difficult for me some days. If you really want to succeed you have to be willing to compromise, to pivot when something isn’t working. Sometimes that means starting over completely. That requires incredible patience and conviction.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Be yourself: there’s a reason this is the number one suggestion. You don’t have to be what people think a female founder needs to be, wherever that is. Just be you. Your unique set of traits brought you to where you are and that experience will make all the difference in the company you lead. I never thought I’d say I’m the founder of an app, and to be honest, it still feels a little funny coming from a creative background. But creativity and tech are a beautiful pair and I love thinking of solutions in a different way.

2. Find your people: in life and in business. I couldn’t lead without constant support from my husband, friends, and mentors. Having people who hold me accountable on days that feel impossible keeps me going. Having a support system makes all the difference on those days. My team is diverse and unique and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Again, representation matters.

3. Be willing to adapt: you won’t hit every idea out of the ballpark. You might have to stop, reassess, and make major changes. The dream you had might come in a different form and the path to get there most certainly will change at some point along the way. This definitely happened to me in the beginning stages of Gleam when the idea shifted so drastically. It was terrifying at first, but when I thought about being the actual user and how much this app would help my life, it wasn’t so overwhelming to shift gears.

4. Give yourself grace: starting a business is constant. There are big wins and sometimes big failures but mostly your days are spent somewhere in between these moments. Talk to yourself like a friend would in all of these instances. Women especially feel like they have to “do it all’ and enjoy a proper “work/life balance”. But that’s garbage. Just do your best and know that sometimes you’ll be at your worst. It won’t stop you from succeeding. In fact, it makes you human.

5. Enjoy learning: read. There are few moments in my day I get to just spend leisurely sitting around but I manage to sneak in some pretty amazing books when I can, some that really helped me during the seed stage like Lean Canvas and “The Storyteller’s Secret.” I also follow and learn from people on social media who inspire me like Jenna Kutcher, Suneera Madhani, and Morgan Harper Nichols. Albert Einstein said, “Once you stop learning is the moment you start dying.”

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

Gleam could have gone in a different direction — we could have easily used big box companies with free shipping for our gift suggestions. But instead, we decided it was more important to support small companies with as minimal of an environmental impact as possible. It is vital to our mission that we don’t create more “stuff” to end up in landfills but instead to help people give more intentionally in order to reduce waste.

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

Not to sound to cliche, but Whitney had a point when she said “I believe the children are our future.” Hire underprivileged youth. Everyone needs an intern, an extra hand. If you have a business, consider giving kids a shot by helping them to build their resumes which in turn will give them a better chance to go to college and maintain steady jobs in the future.

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

Tina Fey. If the arts make the world go round then she’s surely helping to spin it. While she’s an incredible storyteller and all-around badass, she’s also used her voice to speak on behalf of women and pushes to defy the norms of women in business. Besides, it would be awesome to hang with someone who enjoys a good cupcake sandwich as much as I do!

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


Female Founders: Sadie Higgins of Gleam On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Trish Ahjel Roberts of Mind-Blowing Happiness On The Five Things You Need To…

Female Founders: Trish Ahjel Roberts of Mind-Blowing Happiness On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Know Your North Star — Your north star is your purpose, your calling, your guiding principles and ultimate destination. You may not have every element together, but you should have an overarching picture of who you want to serve and why. If you don’t have a compelling reason to keep going when times get hard, it’s easy for things to unravel.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Trish Ahjel Roberts.

Trish Ahjel Roberts is a bestselling author, self-actualization coach and inspirational speaker. She is the founder of Mind-Blowing Happiness LLC and Black Vegan Life™. Her company is committed to teaching her 12 Steps to Mind-Blowing Happiness to 12 million people over the course of the next 12 years.

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

I grew up in a brownstone house in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York in the ’70s and ’80s. We were a tight-knit family with my mom, dad, grandmother and three sisters all living together. Both of my parents were from the Caribbean, my dad from Jamaica and my mom from St. Lucia. Like many immigrant and minority families, we were taught to pursue careers that would be financially lucrative and stable, so I studied business and got my MBA. I was always interested in writing, so I did it as a hobby while working in corporate telecom sales servicing financial firms. Even though I knew about racism in the U.S., I was still surprised at the level of institutional racism that I encountered in my early working years. I sought refuge by purchasing a fitness center franchise when my daughter was about three years old. I always had entrepreneurial dreams, but I was divorced, and it was difficult managing the business while being a single mom. The franchise started off well but quickly began going out of favor, so I made the difficult decision to shut it down and move to Atlanta where the cost of living was lower. When I got to Atlanta, I followed an interest in finance that developed when I served financial firms at my previous employer. I worked as a financial advisor for 12 years encountering much of the same racism and sexism that I had before. I still loved my work, but I realized that although my clients were wealthy, very often they weren’t very happy or fulfilled in their lives.

I’ve turned my aha! moment into a business that helps successful people find more joy and meaning in their lives. Despite many experiences with trauma in my own life, I’ve found a path to deep joy and fulfillment through my study of yoga, Buddhism, life coaching and therapeutic techniques. I’ve been told that I’ve experienced more trauma than most people beginning with early childhood sexual assault, a violent teenage marriage, working in 2 World Trade Center during 9/11 and multiple documented cases of institutional racism and sexism throughout my career. I’ve turned my authentic experiences into invaluable fodder for my books, coaching and speaking engagements. With the right tools, you can overcome anything. And, even more than that, you can thrive.

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

I launched my business in 2019, right before the pandemic hit. I was so excited about hosting what I thought would be my signature, plant-based wellness retreat at Callaway Gardens Resort in Georgia. I named it “Thinking Outside the Chrysalis” and scheduled it for April 2020. I wanted to create a guide for the retreat participants to share what I’d learned over so many years of study. I woke up in the middle of the night when ten of the lessons popped into my head. I wrote them down and went back to sleep. I could not have imagined that the world would be hit with a global pandemic. The retreat was destined for failure, and my fledgling business was on even more shaky ground, but my little participants’ guide turned into my self-help memoir, Thinking Outside the Chrysalis: A Black Woman’s Guide to Spreading Her Wings. I put my whole heart and soul in that book. I love telling the story because it would have been so easy to just be devastated. Instead, I learned to surrender and look for the lesson. I realized I could reach a lot more people with books than with the retreat. As I started speaking about my book, I realized that the 12 lessons I taught were my path to self-actualization, what I now call Mind-Blowing Happiness™. It also created a space for me to share my authentic story to inspire others along the path.

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

I like to do things organically, so I didn’t start my business with a branding strategy. I had been using the name HoneyButterflyz on social media for a long time, so initially I used it as the name for my company. People would interview me, and I would just laugh and tell them it used to be my dating app name! I still think it’s funny, but I might have saved some time and money if I started with more of a strategy. I work with many successful executives and entrepreneurs as a self-actualization, publishing/writing and business coach. Because of my personal experience with my own branding, I always recommend that my clients own the URLs for their name and book title and think strategically about their company’s long-term vision from inception.

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 met Tamara Guillou in 1995 when we were both working for a major telecommunications company. It seems like we’ve been through all of life’s ups and downs together. She became a senior executive while I moved on to entrepreneurial ventures. In 2019 when my daughter graduated high school and I launched my company she was able to take a package and retire early. I was so lucky to be able to tap into her wisdom in building my company. She has been my business consultant, market strategist, beta reader, first-draft editor and one of my very first coaching clients. She’s my best friend, and I’m so grateful for her. I don’t think I could have done any of this without her expertise and support. Recently we went on a Deepak Chopra retreat together. I signed up because I really wanted to meet Devi Brown. As soon as Devi finished speaking, I walked over and introduced myself. I didn’t know until after that Tamara was playing defense making sure no one else would interrupt us while we were chatting! That’s a great friend!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

We live in a society that teaches people how to become employees, not entrepreneurs. Unless you come from an entrepreneurial family, most of us don’t think of business ownership as our first or most viable option. For women those numbers are even smaller because women didn’t enter the work force in big numbers until the 1970s. We just don’t have the same historical experience and education, plus we have to deal with ongoing sexism. In 2021, women make up only 8% of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies. For Black women, that number drops to an abysmal .4%.

The mission of my company is to help people slay self-doubt and limiting beliefs so they can juice up their life’s journey and find Mind-Blowing Happiness™. Limiting beliefs are often born in our environment and upbringing. If we haven’t seen successful entrepreneurs in our families or peer groups, it’s less likely we will choose it as a viable option. If the only entrepreneurs we know are overworked and underfunded, we may see business ownership as undesirable. So, first we must break past our limiting beliefs around entrepreneurship and gain access to successful business founders. Self-doubt is also a huge issue even among the most talented and educated women. Because we live in a society that oppresses and marginalizes us, successful women are often fraught with self-doubt. The numbers are even higher for women of color.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

Yes! Women need access to programs, education, powerful networks and funding. The work that I do coaching individuals and providing workshops and coaching packages to corporations helps people get out of their own way by reducing self-doubt and limiting beliefs, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes at least 12 weeks to work through the 12 Steps to Mind-Blowing Happiness, but for most, it’s a 6- to 12- month program.

Our society needs to continue to advocate for progressive legislation around women’s rights. Women need full control over our bodies. It would seem to be an obvious thing, but it’s been an ongoing debate for decades now. Women must have access to birth control and family planning in order to maintain their own agency and pursue their aspirations.

Because I worked many years in the banking industry, I would love to see the government team up with banks to reach out to women entrepreneurs. Many times, federal programs are available, but the average person only interacts with the government when it’s time to pay taxes. They don’t have a very good marketing plan. When entrepreneurship succeeds, the country succeeds. It’s a win-win all around.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder, but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

For women to have equality, we need representation everywhere. We are 50% of the population so we should own 50% of the businesses and be 50% of the CEOs and 50% of Congress. Women bring a different energy to the table. We give birth and give life. We are lauded for our intuitive nature. When women aren’t present, business is out of balance. That imbalance causes global issues from environmental destruction to social injustice and war. A variety of opinions and perspectives are necessary when decisions are made. Women can bring that to the table when we are present, diverse and in numbers.

When a woman becomes a founder, she is empowered to share her vision with the world. There is nothing more beneficial than that, both for the woman and for the world.

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

I think one of the biggest myths about being a founder is that you don’t report to anyone. While you may have a lot of latitude when you work for yourself, you will always have others to report to whether it’s clients, investors, coaches or consultants. I enjoy working with corporations, which are essentially large clients. No matter how your business is structured, it’s incredibly important to maintain a disciplined approach.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Being a founder isn’t for everyone. Unless you inherit a family enterprise, you will likely need thick skin, a healthy dose of courage, perseverance, creativity, passion and access to resources to be a successful founder. It helps if you have a business education or if you can find a business consultant to guide you. I say this because as a founder you will have a lot coming at you. Your friends and family may think you’re crazy. You will have setbacks. You will need vision and branding. And, of course, it all comes back to the issue of seed money. A full-time business is not for the faint of heart. Anyone can launch a side-hustle or hobby business, but to take a business from start-up to profit requires a level of focus, attention and luck that not everyone can attain.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need to Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

  1. Know Your North Star — Your north star is your purpose, your calling, your guiding principles and ultimate destination. You may not have every element together, but you should have an overarching picture of who you want to serve and why. If you don’t have a compelling reason to keep going when times get hard, it’s easy for things to unravel. For me, I’m obsessed with self-actualization and lost potential. It drives me crazy when I think what an amazing world we could have if people just got 20% closer to their potential and used it to serve others. That’s why I’m committed to teaching the 12 Steps to Mind-Blowing Happiness to 12 million people over the next 12 years. It’s part of my quest to help people reach their potential, not only to benefit the people I serve but for the incredible ripple effect when each person that I touch develops personally and professionally and is able to impact more people.
  2. Work with Passion — Much like knowing your north star, working with love and passion makes your business worth having and worth sacrificing for. It doesn’t mean your business solves a large problem. It might be a small problem that you’re passionate about. Sara Blakely’s Spanx is a great example of a small fix that turned into big business. Even Oprah Winfrey’s dedication to integrity in daytime television is an example of a seemingly small commitment that made all the difference in the world.
  3. Learn Self-Care — Being a founder can be grueling. You will likely work long hours and burn the candle at both ends. With mounting deadlines and commitments, and the-buck-stops-here responsibility it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. I’ve found when I put myself last, the whole model collapses. I make time every day to exercise and spend some time in silence or meditation. Whether you take the dog for a walk, go for a run, hit the gym or head over to the yoga studio, find time to tend to your physical body. Take your sleep seriously. Eat nutritious food. Drink plenty of water. Start a gratitude practice. Journaling is a great way to relieve stress and document your business journey. Find ways to nourish yourself that feel right to you.
  4. Build a Trusted Team — No matter what business route you choose, you will need support. Whether you are hiring employees, finding investors, working with a volunteer advisory board or a team of vendors and consultants, you must choose your team wisely. I find that referrals from people I trust are one of the best ways to find good people. You’ll also need a powerful network. Join organizations that excite you that allow you to connect in meaningful ways. I love working with The Humane League and the Junior League here in Atlanta. I belong to a wonderful professional club called The Gathering Spot. I’ve met incredible people who have values and goals like mine, and we help each other progress.
  5. Get Creative and Never Stop Learning — No matter how many impressive degrees you might have, the world is constantly evolving. Even if you have decades of experience in your field, the business landscape is everc hanging and you must keep up. When you look at businesses that have gone under, you can often see rigidity as the common thread. Blockbuster, Tower Records and Ringling Brothers are all examples of businesses that didn’t pivot when the time came. Participate in industry events and stay abreast of new information. Read books, blogs and digital media. Listen to radio and podcasts. Watch relevant television. Be creative and contribute your own ideas to your industry and media. The back-and-forth flow of information that you receive and share can be the lifeblood of your business.

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

I share 20% of the proceeds from 12 Steps to Mind-Blowing Happiness with Black Lives Matter and The Humane League as part of my commitment to social justice, environmental preservation and animal liberation. I sit on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Junior League of Atlanta. I’m Consulting Editor of African American Issues for Natural Awakenings — Atlanta. I make monthly donations to Kadampa Meditation Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. I want to grow my business so I can do even more to advance social justice initiatives and environmental preservation.

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

I’m asking people to take the pledge for a juicier life’s journey on my website, TrishAhjelRoberts.com. When people live in purpose and passion, when they are deeply fulfilled and joyful, they don’t want to hurt other people or destroy the natural beauty of our world. By taking the pledge you can make a commitment to living a purposeful and joyful life and uplift others along the way. Plus, you will get inspirational and informative content from me and join an incredible movement to global joy and fulfillment. Who wouldn’t want that?

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

I’ve been so blessed already to connect with prominent people. Marci Shimoff wrote the foreword for the 2nd edition of 12 Steps to Mind-Blowing Happiness which was just released. Jack Canfield endorsed my work, and Iyanla Vanzant has also offered her help to spread the word. I would love to have lunch with Oprah Winfrey. She has such an incredible influence in the publishing industry and is a big proponent of spirituality, memoirs and personal development — all in my wheelhouse. I imagine us drinking tea and giggling on SuperSoul Sunday. I would also love to spend some time with Trevor Noah. He’s so smart, funny and culturally astute. I want to be a guest on his show when I release my next book about the 5th step to Mind-Blowing Happiness™, extinguishing anger. I imagine us having a thoughtful and hilarious conversation. I adore India Arie’s work. She’s such an inspiring artist. I’d love to collaborate with her to uplift more people through spoken word and music. I’d love to connect with Lisa Nichols and Devi Brown. They are totally different personalities but are both such an inspiration. I’ll round my list out with Michelle Obama. I’m so impressed with her grace under an incredible amount of pressure when she was first lady. Maybe we could encourage folks together on her podcast. I could go on and on, but let’s just call that the starting lineup of my dream team. I can’t think of a more amazing group of people.

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

Thank you. It was my pleasure.


Female Founders: Trish Ahjel Roberts of Mind-Blowing Happiness On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Amrita Saigal of Kudos On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Amrita Saigal of Kudos On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

FOCUS. Think about that one differentiator, or that one product you want out there. Don’t think of a zillion different things. Women tend to want to do it all. But you are going to be shipping a zillion mediocre things that way. You really have to focus on that one thing you are going to do GREAT.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amrita Saigal.

Amrita is the founder of Kudos, a cutting-edge and high-performing sustainable baby diaper brand set to launch in the spring of 2021. Prior to Kudos, Amrita co-founded Saathi, now one of India’s leading manufacturers of eco-friendly sanitary pads made from waste banana tree fiber. Her work experience spans manufacturing for Procter & Gamble’s Always pads and Gillette razors, operations & manufacturing for Google Glass, and all-around-all-hats-wearer as one of the earliest employees at Thunkable.

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

I studied Mechanical Engineering at MIT. I’ve always been fascinated by the consumer products industry, so right out of college I joined P&G and worked on the engineering side for a few different brands including Gillette razors and Always pads. I saw firsthand how much plastic goes into all these products. I left P&G to start my first company called Saathi, a leading eco-friendly sanitary pad brand in India which manufactures sanitary pads out of waste banana tree fiber. As I entered my early 30s, my friends started having children and kept telling me they couldn’t find a natural baby diaper that actually worked.

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

We set out to make the most plant-based baby diaper on the market from day 1. Our goal was to get as much plastic out of baby diapers as possible. We decided to test cotton early on as one of our materials for its environmental benefits of being 100% biodegradable and compostable. As we started beta testing the diapers with a 100% cotton top sheet, we started to get tons of positive feedback that parents were seeing significantly less diaper rash. When we started, we were not expecting to be building a diaper that helps parents ditch diaper rash, but that has now become one of our leading features!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

Women tend to doubt themselves way more than men. There is no doubt (pun intended) about that. Women need to rise above the imposter syndrome. We all have it at times, but we cannot let this stop us. We have all seen it. A man may not be qualified for a job but will still apply and explain why he is qualified. A woman who may be perfectly qualified for a job doesn’t apply because they are worried they aren’t perfect — they doubt themselves.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

So many of the problems that are being solved for women today are in male-led companies. Isn’t that crazy when you think about it? For example, when I worked for Always Pads, the majority of the engineers were men. Shouldn’t women be designing products and solving problems FOR women. They know best.

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

I find one of the biggest myths to be that people think founders need to have knowledge about every part of the business. This just isn’t possible. No one can be great at product development, design, marketing, sales, finance, etc. What you do need to have as a founder is a strong vision and know where your strengths lie. You need to know your weaknesses and be able to hire talent smarter than yourself to fill in the gaps for things that are not your strength. This is exactly what I have tried to do at Kudos. Yes, technically the people I have hired “report” to me, but in all honesty we are a 3-person team and we all learn from one another daily.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Anyone and everyone is cut out to do anything and everything they want. You just have to believe in yourself and put in the work. You have to be willing to put yourself out there and ask for help when needed. You just need to be ok with a lot of rejection and people not always believing what you are doing. I think this is often harder for women to deal with than men. Nothing is ever too big for someone to achieve. You have to want to manifest the infinite power within you.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Take advantage of your network and connections. Don’t be shy. ROAR. Make your network work for YOU.

2. FOCUS. Think about that one differentiator, or that one product you want out there. Don’t think of a zillion different things. Women tend to want to do it all. But you are going to be shipping a zillion mediocre things that way. You really have to focus on that one thing you are going to do GREAT.

3. JUST GO. Focus on shifting and moving over PERFECTION. Keep moving, keep iterating. Women tend to only ship things when it is PERFECT. But by then you have lost. You need to keep going.

4. SPEAK UP. Women tend to lean on being quieter, letting others talk, etc. You need to make sure your voice is heard.

5. Your thoughts matter. Often times, the points you make will actually be the most profound. Don’t hide them.

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

Sara Blakley…. Need to explain why

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


Female Founders: Amrita Saigal of Kudos On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Amy Norman of Little Passports On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed…

Female Founders: Amy Norman of Little Passports On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be clear about your own definition of success. Today’s media and culture are very focused on unicorns in a few sectors such as tech and healthcare but there are success models outside of this bubble.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Norman.

Amy Norman is the founder and CEO of Little Passports, a series of award-winning and one-of-a-kind activity kits designed to awaken kids’ curiosity about geography, culture, science and art. Founded in 2009, Little Passports now has five subscription kits and a line of complementary standalone toys, games and activities kits.

Amy’s sense of adventure began at an early age as she frequently moved between the US and England with her family, and was exposed to various cultures and traditions. In addition to studying Spanish and International Studies at The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, Amy’s countless travel experiences throughout her life further ignited her passion for learning about the world, and sharing that excitement of knowledge with young children. Drawing on this background, Amy designed Little Passports to give children the opportunity to see the world in a new way, via hands-on activities, exciting games, and stories that draw from science, nature, and global experiences.

Amy is a well-versed leader with over 20 years of experience in general management, strategy, and finance from leadership roles at McKinsey and eBay. She is a member of the Small and Medium Business Council at Facebook, was recognized as an Ernst and Young Winning Woman, was a finalist for Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2019, and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization.

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?

Looking back on the years since starting Little Passports, I often reflect on the fact that I didn’t cultivate enough strong mentor relationships early on. I have since been able to foster close relationships with numerous mentors, but I wonder if I could have avoided some of my early pitfalls had I had more insights.

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?

There have been many people along the way but Aaron Miller is one who immediately comes to mind. Aaron and I met when we were classmates at Wharton/The Lauder Institute. We met again at a class reunion and Aaron encouraged me to raise money from our classmates. Aaron’s first role with Little Passports was as an investor and informal mentor to me. I found his advice so valuable that I invited him to join our board three years ago. Aaron is a phenomenal mentor and counsel to me across a multitude of strategic and leadership issues.

According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I think it comes down to pattern recognition. While the landscape is changing, the majority of funding is still done by men and given to companies founded by men. That presents an intimidating picture for women seeking to start their own business. In the same way that young girls look for role models, female founders look for inspiration from women who have done it before. My sense is that when those stories are too few and far between, some potential female founders get discouraged. I think there is still unconscious bias by investors in that they are also accustomed to seeing male entrepreneurs. This is definitely changing, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

We need to provide better child care options for women and better family and medical leave to take care of loved ones. Too many women still have to choose between having a career and taking care of their children. A disheartening number of women dropped out of the workforce due to childcare issues during the pandemic and we have a lot of work to do here.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

I’ve found being a female entrepreneur to be a fulfilling and truly impactful career path. It’s thrilling to work on something that you feel so passionately about and to go home every night being able to measure the impact of your individual efforts. I don’t think that’s always the case in large organizations.

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

I’m not sure it’s a myth, but I have met many really smart women along the way who have been afraid that they may not be able to juggle the time demands of a startup with their family’s needs. They get trapped in a false dichotomy believing that if you are a parent you can’t start a company. It’s true that being a founder requires a tremendous amount of dedication and commitment but it also provides an invaluable level of flexibility over your own schedule.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder. Two traits I think are absolutely necessary to becoming a successful founder are self motivation and absolute faith in yourself. There are a lot of naysayers in the early years before you prove out your concept and it’s important to be able to dispassionately cut through that noise.

Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

It’s going to take longer than you think! With almost 13 years of Little Passports under my belt, it took a ton of time, hard work, and determination to build our brand into what it is today. Becoming a profitable brand does not happen overnight so I’d say #1: patience and self motivation are key.

Surround yourself with people who believe in you. Without a doubt, my husband has been a huge rock for me in recent years. He has always believed in my potential and provided emotional support but also, literally, the physical support I needed during the pandemic. I can’t count the number of days he has brought me a healthy lunch while I’m stuck in back-to-back meetings or cooked a healthy dinner for our family while I kept working.

Have a back up plan… or two. It’s been a huge learning lesson for me to have the ability to foresee potential points of failure or roadblocks within this business. I have become very skilled at having Plan A, B and C lined up.

Be clear about your own definition of success. Today’s media and culture are very focused on unicorns in a few sectors such as tech and healthcare but there are success models outside of this bubble.

You will need more cash than you think. Understanding a path to profitability will give you a lot of freedom and we focused on that early in our journey.

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

The mission of Little Passports is to inspire children to discover the wonders of the world we share. My aspiration is that we help make the world a better place by sharing knowledge about the world and planting the seeds of curiosity that inspire the next generation of leaders.

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

I believe that if we hold a curious mindset when we meet people from different cultures and who hold different beliefs than us, that can build a more peaceful world. I go to work every day inspired by the knowledge that every package we deliver opens a child’s mind to the wider world around them.

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

I would love to meet Melinda Gates. She is focused on advancing equality for women and families and has the resources to deliver on her mission.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!


Female Founders: Amy Norman of Little Passports On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Laura Lorta Co-Founder of BellaValiente On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: Laura Lorta Co-Founder of BellaValiente On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

This is not an exact quote but, some of the best advice I’ve gotten is that fearlessness isn’t something to aspire to because fear will always be something to deal with. Instead, we should aspire to do things that scare us, in spite of that fear. Leaving the teaching profession, launching a new business — these were not things that I did fearlessly. I’ve never been afraid of change, but the magnitude of these changes was scary because their outcome would affect my family. I did them anyway and I have no regrets.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Laura Lorta, Co-Founder of BellaValiente.

Laura is a teacher-turned writer, with a passion for helping others be the best version of themselves. She launched her professional copywriting career in 2017 and teamed up with her accountability partner to create BellaValiente, a goal achievement coaching service that helps women from all walks of life to accomplish their goals. When she’s not writing, you can find her spending time with her husband and two kids.

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?

In the words of Marie Forleo (who I would absolutely love to work with one day), I am a multi-passionate entrepreneur. By the time I was 25, I’d already had so many jobs that I was losing count, and it wasn’t because of a lack of commitment — I’ve just always been interested in different things and want to try them all. It’s also been clear to me from a young age that I didn’t want to work a “regular” job, but rather work for myself.

The career path I’m on now started because of my desire to pursue so many dreams. I would get started with one, then get distracted or lose interest and move on to something else, eventually chasing too many goals and never actually accomplishing any of them. My partner and friend, Ashley Durden, and I became accountability partners. We would read books on topics that we needed to work on (time management, goal setting, boundaries, etc.), and discuss them weekly, also holding each other accountable to whatever steps we said we’d take to work towards our goals. Eventually, we came up with a system to set and track our goals and stay hyper-focused on them for a certain period of time, and things just started clicking! We made so much progress and were both able to quit our “regular” jobs to pursue our dream business ventures full-time.

BellaValiente was born out of our desire to take what worked for us — having an accountability partner, working on our personal growth, setting and tracking our goals — and share it with as many women as possible.

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

At BellaValiente, we’re changing the way women do personal development. One of the biggest frustrations Ashley and I would come up against was lacking tools and resources to put everything we were learning from the books we were reading into practice. The tools and resources existed — workbooks, conferences, VIP groups — but they cost hundreds of dollars that we just didn’t have the luxury of spending.

We’ve created a way for women who are working on themselves to be a part of a community, receive guidance, and use a tool specifically designed to help them keep track of their goals and stay motivated daily to work towards them. Our BellaValiente Goal Setter is the only product of its kind (as of this writing). It’s a planner, notebook, affirmation-holder and vision board all in one, cute package, and our community membership is cheaper than your Netflix subscription. The price doesn’t mean a lesser quality, either. We believe so much in our process and product that we know we’ll grow our community over time, and we’ll make our money through volume, not by outrageous prices.

It’s worth mentioning here that we aren’t throwing shade at the authors, life coaches, and professional speakers that charge higher rates for their services. We have the utmost respect for the people who we have learned so much from. We just want to offer an alternative for the everyday woman who has dreams she wants to make a reality, needs help and guidance doing so, and doesn’t have the financial means to pay for traditional coaching.

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’ve made was actually recently on social media. We’d planned to announce the winner of our raffle on Facebook Live — but neither Ashley nor I had ever done a live stream before, much less using a business page. (Note to all the new entrepreneurs read this — test your platform before any scheduled event!) I was supposed to start our stream and had planned to log on 15 minutes before we were set to go live to test things out, but as luck would have it, everything leading up to the live stream time was going wrong and I was only able to log on about 5 minutes before. The level of panic that I felt when I couldn’t figure out how to add my partner into the live stream can hardly be described. We did eventually figure it out, but we didn’t get the amount of people watching that we’d hoped for because we started so late. It’s funny to think about now, but it was a sweat-inducing level of stress!

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 only met one of the women who I consider a mentor, but there are three of them.

Marie Forleo, author of Everything is Figureoutable, helped me accept and embrace my multi-passionate nature. She showed me that it’s OK to want to pursue more than one career and that it doesn’t make me weird or wrong. In fact, it’s my superpower.

Luvvie Ajayi Jones, author of Professional Troublemaker — The Fear Fighter Manual, and I’m Judging You — The Do Better Manual, has helped me to be unapologetic about who I am. She has inspired me to do the things that feel scary, and to view that fear as a sign that I’m doing something important and necessary (unless it’s actually dangerous, then I should absolutely see the fear as a warning).

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?

There are, of course, systems that have withstood the test of time — education and law & order being the first to come to my mind. In my opinion, children need to be in school to learn, and human beings in general need structure — rules and laws to follow to avoid chaos. However, as the world changes, those systems and the people in charge of them should change with it, and there’s a low level of disruption necessary to make that change happen. By that I mean that the system itself should stand, but the way in which its carried out should be fluid, evolving to meet the needs of the current population.

For example, classrooms today can’t look the way they did 50 years ago, when students sat in rows of desks and listened to the teacher talk all day. Humanity has evolved, and children’s learning experience should be centered around their preferred learning method, which is through play and socialization. Classrooms today need movement and diverse methods of both instruction and assessment.

The law-and-order system today can’t be the same as it was 50 years ago. The world looks completely different today than it did then, and laws that were in place half a century ago simply don’t make sense for humanity as it stands in 2021. Again, humans have evolved, and we now know that the color of a person’s skin shouldn’t be a factor in the opportunities they’re afforded, just like their sexual preference and religious beliefs shouldn’t be either. We need laws to follow, but they should reflect our needs as a society now.

Both the way things are done in classrooms and the way things are done in courtrooms have evolved all thanks to the disruptors of the world, who were willing to speak up about the changes they felt were necessary to move humanity forward. They were so disruptive, in fact, that they got enough people to agree with them to put those changes into action. That kind of disruption will always be necessary and, in my opinion, always be a positive thing.

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

This is not an exact quote but, some of the best advice I’ve gotten is that fearlessness isn’t something to aspire to because fear will always be something to deal with. Instead, we should aspire to do things that scare us, in spite of that fear. Leaving the teaching profession, launching a new business — these were not things that I did fearlessly. I’ve never been afraid of change, but the magnitude of these changes was scary because their outcome would affect my family. I did them anyway and I have no regrets.

In a similar vein, I’ve heard from many people that real change happens outside of our comfort zone. This is something that I always keep in mind because my goal is to constantly grow and evolve, and that can’t happen without change.

Finally, a piece of advice I got from a fellow teacher that has stuck with me is “the work will be there tomorrow.” When you find something a job that you’re passionate about, it’s tempting to work around the clock. It’s important to nurture other areas of your life — your relationships, your health — so that you can still be at your best to do the job you love, and just to live a more well-rounded life. I try to manage my time so that I’m not always working — although my kids will tell you I could be doing better at it.

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

Hopefully, what’s next is that I’ll be a published author! I’m working on a book to help career switchers find a job that not only pays the bills, but that also fills them up with joy and purpose. In our country, we are super obsessed with higher education, and as a former teacher I see the value in going to college, but I believe that the real learnings happen beyond the walls of the lecture hall, and we don’t necessarily have to find a job that aligns with our field of study (unless you’re going to be a doctor or a lawyer — those jobs definitely need formal education in their specific field).

My book will give people actionable steps to find a job that marries their skills, education and interests, and if they find that the job they want doesn’t exist, then they’ll be given the steps to answer the call to create it.

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

Let me preface this by saying that I know many men who are courageous disruptors, fighting to leave the world a little better than they found it. The disparities between men and women go too far back in history to blame the current generation of men, especially when they acknowledge the inequalities between genders and use their platforms to raise awareness and make a positive impact. That said, when a male encounters something that he doesn’t like and takes a stand against it, he’s seen as courageous and brave, while a woman who does the same is viewed as difficult. Since women’s rights have evolved so much, society expects us to be happy with where we are, simply because we used to have it so much worse. The fact that we strive for more equality and have the audacity to believe we deserve it can be viewed as greedy, when we are simply demanding to have what’s rightfully ours.

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

The Marie Forelo Podcast is one that I can’t recommend enough. Oftentimes, we talk ourselves out of pursuing our dreams because we don’t think the world needs another writer, life coach, mentor — whatever your dream may be. One of the things Marie says at the end of every podcast is that we should keep going for our dreams because the world needs that very special thing that only WE have, which is ourselves. Listening to her episodes reminds me that even though there are people who have done what we’re doing at BellaValiente — offering coaching and accountability — no one has done it the way that we are doing it. It reminds me that what we’re doing is necessary and that we have a responsibility to keep going so that we can help as many women as possible to be the best version of themselves.

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. 🙂

Right now self-care is really popular, but if I could inspire any movement, it would be that each person prioritizes their mental and physical health. It sounds a bit naïve, but I believe that if we were healthier and happier in our own lives, we’d move differently in the world. We would be kinder, friendlier, more willing to help, and that would make the world 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?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” — Marianne Williamson

The first time I heard this quote was in a movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, called Coach Carter. I’m going to age myself here but I was in 10th grade when I watched it, and this quote has been a constant presence in my life ever since. It serves as a reminder that the things that scare me the most are the things that I should pursue the hardest because it means that they’re going to be the most impactful.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow BellaValiente on Instagram, and you can follow me on my personal Instagram profile and read about my work on my website.

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


Female Disruptors: Laura Lorta Co-Founder of BellaValiente On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Prepare to be as adaptive as possible” With Felicity Chen of

Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Prepare to be as adaptive as possible!” With Felicity Chen of Potli

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Prepare to be as adaptive as possible! You are writing history and there is no playbook. Laws, buyers, economies change with a blink of an eye, and your original plan will likely change. We are still very early in recreational cannabis and we are all building the plane as we’re flying it.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Felicity Chen, CEO & Cofounder of Potli.

Felicity Chen is a third-generation sauce and spice maker who launched Potli as a way to promote healthy living. Potli expands upon Felicity’s heritage and passion for functional ingredients by creating high-quality, hemp-infused craftsman kitchen staples for everyday use. Beloved for its award-winning honey, Potli’s original hives were planted in Felicity’s father’s backyard and harvested to treat her mother’s asthma. Born and raised in the Bay Area, Felicity remains committed to sourcing delicious ingredients from her home state. As the CEO, Felicity oversees Potli’s revenue and operations, ensuring the quality of ingredients — the primary reason consumers choose Potli — are at their highest. Prior to confounding Potli, Felicity worked in the food tech space at companies like UberEats and Gilt.com where she consistently innovated new ways to bring food to consumers.

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

Thank you for having me! When I left for undergrad, my father started beekeeping in my parents’ Northern Californian backyard for my mother who is an asthma patient. Hyperlocal honey does wonders for allergies which is what sets off her asthma. Her coughing spells would be terrifying during allergy season, and as there’s no way my conservative, immigrant, Asian mother would ever smoke a joint, we decided to put some weed into her honey and thus created Potli’s first product. To this day, we still harvest all of our honey from my parents backyard (we’ve grown to over 50 hives), and it’s how we began our journey creating recreational cannabis edibles for the pantry.

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?

I’m quite proud to lead a team of six women, all from different backgrounds and across the world. I didn’t set out to hire only women, but the best candidates from my search were clear. Through my fundraising journey, I have spoken to many investors, some of whom didn’t care about this statistic even though they were very interested in investing. In the end, I rejected their offer because it wouldn’t be a long term fit. I was days away from running out of capital and desperately needed the money. In the end, a better offer came and I am so glad I stuck to my values that day.

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?

Because of banking constraints (banks being federally insured), cannabis businesses have almost always operated on a cash basis. I remember my first time going to our extractors without any cash or my checkbook, I hadn’t realized they’d be ready to transact and so I offered my debit card. I remember the look on their faces and felt so embarrassed, I had to run to the nearest bank to pull out cash! It was honestly hilarious looking back, I was so green and precious.

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

Although my parents have come around to cannabis, particularly with the healing effects, they are still very against smoking because of carcinogens. Years ago my dad came over to my apartment and he took away my bong. He said he’d give me $5,000 to stop smoking. I said, double it, and we’ll make a deal. My dad and I shook hands and I took that money and put it into starting Potli.

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?

In 2017 I had the incredible opportunity to pitch Andrea Denz (Dre) from Sava as Potli’s first account. In that meeting she said she’d carry our honey (back when we had a honeycomb in each jar) and also invited me to a Women in Cannabis meetup happening later in the week. It was at the meetup that I met two other women also looking for a path to licensing. Two weeks later we signed the lease for our manufacturing space in San Francisco that allowed Potli to apply and receive our Cannabis licenses. Potli would not be here today without Dre, Ruby and all the women who band together in this industry to keep each other going.

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

Potli is constantly innovating on the latest foods that spark joy, aiding our customers to reclaim their relationship with cannabis, specifically with edibles. The first collection we launched was the Pantry collection, featuring Honey, Olive Oil, Chili Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Sriracha — all crafted using delicious ingredients sourced from California that represent the farm to table movement. From that collection, we began innovating on our Heritage Collection utilizing products from the Pantry Collection. For example, Potli Shrimp Chips are Potli’s hero Heritage Collection product, and are made with Potli Olive Oil. You will continue to see products in our Heritage Collection that are ready-to-eat and ready-to-serve nostalgic snacks featuring originals from our Pantry collection. I can’t wait for everyone to try what we launch next!

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

1 in 4 is actually better odds than most other industries, so I’ll take that! The single most important thing an individual can do is to support and buy their cannabis from women. If you are going to buy cannabis, support the women-owned brand that is guaranteed to have less shelfspace than her male counterparts.

As a company (specifically to startups), diversify key hires of your leadership team! It helps prevent groupthink and may allow you to glean insights you previously didn’t have. Promote women into leadership positions!

As a society, we also need to accept that just because the product is made by women, it’s not just for women. Let us normalize buying, supporting and being thoughtful about where we spend our dollars.

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

  1. Ask yourself what your purpose is! If you aren’t really here to heal, then you will not last very long.
  2. Prepare to be as adaptive as possible! You are writing history and there is no playbook. Laws, buyers, economies change with a blink of an eye, and your original plan will likely change. We are still very early in recreational cannabis and we are all building the plane as we’re flying it.
  3. Have an extended network of friends outside of the industry. I have friends from all walks of life that contribute a different perspective than that of being siloed in one frame of mind.
  4. You’ll need access to a lot of capital in order to scale your business and finding good partners who can and are interested in funding your company is more difficult than a “normal” startup, and it’s already really hard to close money as a “normal” startup! There’s really no such thing as bootstrapping your growth in this industry! Which segways nicely into my next point:
  5. Everything costs more to operate a cannabis business. You will get your bank account shut down a few times. Your packaging might be seized at customs. Your payment processor will charge you more because you’re categorized as a “risky” business. The cost to rent a space will increase because of the same reason.

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

The opportunities to:

  1. Innovate and create new edibles
  2. Heal people, and actually make a difference in their lives
  3. Write history

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

  1. I am concerned that legal weed is too expensive for the average consumer to purchase at dispensaries. Legal weed is expensive and because of overtaxation, overregulation and increasing pricing of real estate. For the average consumer, it’s quite expensive to buy through legal channels thus creating the largest illicit market there ever was. The increased price of recreational cannabis products are not because brands are charging more to make money. Write to your senators, tell them you are a tax paying, voting member of the community, and you need to be able to purchase your medicine at an affordable price by simplifying taxes and regulations.
  2. I am also concerned that the Child Resistant Packaging (CRP) requirements create a large amount of waste for our poor planet. Regulations state that all Cannabis products have to be resealable and child resistant if it has more than one dose. These requirements in the regulations created a large issue with waste because most CRP is made with plastics. While biodegradable options are available (i.e. hemp plastic), they are actually very difficult to source and extremely costly. They also typically do not look aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Research conducted by consultants have also found that certain plastics actually have a lesser carbon footprint. I am looking for startups that are disrupting this space to innovate on creating affordable, beautifully designed CRP!
  3. Finally, I am concerned with overregulation stifling the possibilities for real small businesses to thrive. I mentioned before that it is extremely capital intensive to be able to operate in the cannabis business. In a given week, our products can be rejected for the smallest of reasons because of how the dispensary interprets the laws are different from how the distributor and the manufacturer interpret it. These rejections are costly and trickle down, and it’s just one example of how gummed up our industry is. The governing bodies have now reorged to be under one roof the DCC, and I am hoping that with one set of leadership, redundancies and contrasting language can be smoothed out.

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?

The industry needs federal legalization of cannabis to create interstate commerce. This needs to happen sooner rather than later. Currently, each state that has a cannabis medicinal or recreational policy requires for all cannabis to be grown, harvested and sold within the state. It doesn’t really make sense for a small state like Rhode Island to harvest and grow cannabis indoors when there is perfectly grown cannabis in California because it actually has the right temperature and terroir to grow it under the sun. There is no other industry regulated in such a way. We should urgently push for federal legalization, so that we are not creating infrastructure that will be obsolete in a few years.

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?

Although the taxation of cannabis is creating barriers for normal consumers to buy legal weed, I don’t think we can conflate that with why cigarettes are marginalized. Cigarettes can be purchased at gas stations or grocery stores. Cannabis can only be purchased in a licensed dispensary where patients and customers are IDed. Multiple studies on smoke and nicotine have shown long term effects on how it can be carcinogenic, and because of such is socially marginalized. Cannabis can be used recreationally, but is fundamentally meant to be used medicinally. Higher taxes created the largest illicit market than ever before. This is due to legal cannabis being inaccessible and not because it is socially marginalized.

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

YES, my absolute favorite quote is from Teddy Roosevelt, also known as the ”Man in the Arena” quote. It’s got me through the darkest and loneliest of times.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

This quote reminds me that though this industry is tough, I took that risk and chased my dream. I have the amazing and incredible opportunity to build something so completely creative and different, and for that I am so grateful.

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. 🙂

I am doing that already with Potli! We are inspiring our community to reclaim their relationship with cannabis. We are inspiring aunts, uncles, moms, and grandmas to solve their ailments with plant medicine. We are helping people feel better by hacking their health through rituals with food. The movement I wish to inspire is that one day, people will refer to Potli as a verb to infuse and elevate foods.


Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Prepare to be as adaptive as possible” With Felicity Chen of was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Suky Sodhi of Professional Selection On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Suky Sodhi of Professional Selection On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

Resilience: Women founders need to be resilient because of the challenges we face. When I moved to Canada, it was just me and the kids initially. My partner joined us later. I’d moved to a new country and was trying to sort out schooling for our kids, buy and settle into our new home, whilst trying to launch the Canadian business. I had to dig deeper than ever before to keep moving forwards. Most women face some variation of these challenges, and you simply can’t meet them without the resilience to get through.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Suky Sodhi

As founder of Professional Selection, Suky has helped recruitment leaders build stronger businesses for over fifteen years. She is a trusted consultant, advisor, and partner to recruitment businesses and executives around the world.

Her clients include global staffing brands, startup and mid-sized agencies, and European recruitment businesses growing into the North American market.

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

I hadn’t thought much about a career in staffing until I found myself looking for a recruiter to help me make a move from my previous career in retail management. Anyone that has worked in retail will understand the diversity of people and challenges that you can face on any given day. Although it hadn’t been on my radar, temporary staffing turned out to be a very natural move. I was able to bring my retail experience to bear and here I am all these years later.

I started in sales and moved into leadership after a couple of years. That’s when I got really got to grips with what it takes to run a business and be fully accountable. But after eight years working in and helping to run a highly metrics-driven environment, I started to dread my one-on-ones with my own leadership. We spent more time focusing on how we could drive more activity in the team, meaningful or otherwise, rather than better supporting them. I’d learned a lot and I wouldn’t be where I am today without that experience, but I knew that wasn’t where I was meant to be.

So, Professional Selection was born. I’ve been focused on helping people throughout our industry find the right place for them ever since.

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?

Being an entrepreneur, I’ve made many mistakes. I’ll probably continue to make mistakes. But I really believe that we grow when we learn from our mistakes. It comes with the territory when you’re out of your comfort zone and that’s where growth lives and thrives.

Launching my business was exciting and liberating and a little scary, too. I remember sitting down with my partner and going through the business plan I had put together. I knew exactly what I had to do in order to generate revenue. I’d anticipated when I’d need to make my first hire or take on some office space. I’d been running teams for years and was no stranger to building them out. But my husband looked at me and asked for my cash flow projection.

My response was that I didn’t need to worry about that just yet. In hindsight, that was the craziest thing that I could have said. Of course cash flow is important! It’s practically the lifeline of the business. It quickly dawned on me that I was still thinking like an employee. Whilst I had always been responsible for the full P&L I never had to worry about ensuring that money was in precisely the right place at precisely the right time to pay employees and vendors.

It was a defining moment that made me realize I was in control, this was my business, and its success was down to me.

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 recruit recruiters, salespeople, and leadership for recruitment businesses. I’m so grateful to one individual who is one of my longest-standing clients. I’ve recruited them across the world and throughout their businesses from top to bottom. And it all comes from them taking a chance on a new startup in a new country without much of a local track record.

As anyone in my industry knows, your reputation and network is everything. When I was starting out from scratch in Canada, it was so hard to open doors. The only way to really bootstrap a recruitment business is to get someone to take a shot and let you prove yourself. But you’d be surprised how many people in our industry aren’t willing to take a chance, including people who had been in your exact same position themselves. But my client did.

I delivered. I’m sure that, to my client at the time, I must have just been a minor vendor who worked out okay. But it’s turned into a relationship that has driven so much growth and success for both our businesses. I’ve helped them rebuild teams in multiple countries on multiple continents.

I’m sure every entrepreneur has a similar story. If you’re a buyer, I’d just say this: take a chance once in a while. Nevermind customer loyalty, the loyalty and hard work you will get from many entrepreneurs if you’ll just give them a chance isn’t something you can just buy anytime.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Women offer different perspectives on how to meet the challenges ahead. I think we all agree that we need diversity of ideas to help the world confront the future for the better. Things won’t improve if we have the same people making the same decisions. This goes for business, too: you can’t innovate in an echo chamber.

Women can help change the landscape of many industries just by being present and being allowed to lead in their own way. Many women are gifted, knowledgeable and intelligent and that needs to be seen and celebrated. There can be value in leading differently rather than simply trying to live up to the established template for leadership. For example there is a mistaken belief, largely based on studies of male students, that the default response to stress is “fight or flight”. Subsequent studies have shown that females of species express a different response: “tend and befriend”. Women founders are instrumental in creating the kinds of structures that can let these differences shine rather than suppressing them.

Women are natural motivators. That’s not to say men aren’t motivators, but on the whole women will more freely manage others through compassion and empathy. Women founders help create environments where that’s not mistaken for weakness. As we create more safe spaces for different management styles to emerge, I think we all benefit. But you’ve got to have those spaces and leaders who will empower women to challenge the status quo and find new ways of doing things. Women founders are so well-placed to build these environments.

Women founders have a better understanding of the issues that affect other women. Women founders can give advice and support to help women thrive in a business where their unique needs are met by design and not as a D&I afterthought. But if you’re a woman and you’re thinking of starting your own business, you can put all that aside: it’s enough to do it because you want to. Nobody ever asks why a man wants to become a male founder.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I absolutely love this question, because it truly resonates with me as my expertise is in recruitment. You’re right, 20% is still better than 10% but it’s nowhere near good enough. I think there are a couple of reasons for this.

Culturally, women are seen as more family-oriented rather than business-oriented. To this day, many women are made to feel guilty about trying to balance their personal and professional lives as employees, let alone as entrepreneurs. Just look at Hollywood: movies continue to portray mothers as primary caregivers and fathers as primary breadwinners. This narrative is starting to change a little, but there’s along way to go.

We need to move away from these biases and offer real support to women out there. Too many women buckle under the pressure and self-select out of the game altogether because they don’t have anyone to turn to for help, encouragement, or motivation. The reality is that women do continue to bear the brunt of acting as caregivers which leaves precious little time to develop themselves or prepare to launch a business. And remember, as women are held back from leadership positions in general, they’re starting on the back foot when it comes to leading businesses of their own.

The world loses because these women with phenomenal ideas and great business strategies never really get a chance to get going. Women are simply expected to choose one or the other: a family life or career progression. Their worth in business is treated as less than her male counterparts’. Her business is too risky, too frivolous and as a matter of fact, she should be home taking care of the children. And when she does take the leap, it’s because “her husband’s paying for it”.

Men don’t have to deal with these types of judgements. Even the most unstable businessman is sometimes more revered than a woman simply because of his gender. A men can spend 80–90 hours a week working on building his dream and he still gets all the support and accolades because that’s somehow what “he should be doing”, but a woman doing the same is just not acceptable. We’ve got to change the way we think.

Social stigmas and expectations, unequal treatment and development in the workplace, and a lack of support as caregivers hold women back from founding companies.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

I think we’ve all heard this one before but I can’t emphasize it enough: affordable childcare. Affordable childcare takes a lot of pressure and burden off women allowing them to concentrate on their business or preparing themselves to launch their own. Making child care more accessible and affordable will really help women progress and focus on what they need to do. It helps remove a lot of the “mommy guilt” that comes with being a working mom helping women feel better about the choices they’ve made.

I think most founders will agree that there’s so much that goes into the decision to go out on your own. I think affordable childcare removes so many of the indirect barriers to more potential women founders even considering the decision. It’d let more women pursue higher education and professional qualifications, develop themselves and their careers, and take more risks. If childcare was readily affordable and accessible, we might finally put paid to the old myth that women aren’t suited to leadership roles because they might have kids and they won’t be able to focus on their work.

Lastly there definitely needs to be a mindset shift with society. We need to stop thinking that a woman’s sole role is that of running a household and raising children. Too many people define a woman’s success by how great she is as a mother but no one defines men’s successes by their role as a dad. That’s got to change.

As individuals, Carol Dweck’s work on mindset is absolutely essential reading. It also provides an actionable framework you can work within to help remove your own mental barriers. I also highly recommend reading Joe Dispenza’s writing on the topic. But if there’s one small step individuals can take, it’s simply to recognize that systemic barriers to women’s entrepreneurship exist.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

So, not every not every single person is designed to be a founder. Even Gary Vaynerchuck (Author of ‘Hustle’) who is a huge advocate of entrepreneurship recognizes that they are a rare breed. In addition, being a founder can be an extremely lonely road, especially when you’re starting out or you’re trying to launch something new. Let me share some of my own experience.

When I moved to Canada and launched my niche recruitment business — recruiting for recruiters — I was told multiple times that it would never work. Some even told me I’d lose the shirt off my back. Being in a new country and not having an inner circle I could turn to, I found myself second-guessing and questioning everything I had worked so hard to achieve. Yet that inner feeling, the one that had told me it was time to move on, was dormant. In hindsight it was still there telling me I needed to believe in myself and do it anyway.

Some of my darkest moments happened during those initial years but now I realize they were teaching moments for me to become the woman I am today.

In the end, it’s critical that you see your vision, work hard to lead a team toward that vision, and build a tribe around you. You’ll need to do this with no certainty of reward. You’ll have people relying on your ability to execute that vision. And you’ve got to stay the course and see it through for better or for worse. I don’t know whether to call it perseverance or endurance but if you can’t find that staying power somewhere inside you, being a founder probably isn’t the right choice.

If you do not have the resources to take these risks or that does not sound like you then maybe paid employment is a better path for you and your family.

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

One of the myths I want to dispel about becoming a founder is that you’ve got to be an expert at everything it takes to run a business. You don’t: you’ve got to be good at the bits that you do and smart about hiring in outside talent to do the rest right.

For example, I think nowadays people expect a founder to be tech savvy. I think there is a danger that a potential founder thinks their lack of technology smarts means they don’t have a shot or they’d just get overtaken by someone more tech-focused. But it’s just not true: surround yourself with the right talent and hire in services to complement your own skills.

I won’t pretend you don’t have to wear a lot of hats — or even all of them — as you get off the ground. But if you recognize your limitations and invest in hiring the right expertise, things will go a lot faster and a lot smoother for you. If we were as open to hiring outside help for something like your service delivery processes as we are to hiring outside help for the accounting process, there’d be a lot less burnout. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed trying to do it all yourself.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Resilience: Women founders need to be resilient because of the challenges we face. When I moved to Canada, it was just me and the kids initially. My partner joined us later. I’d moved to a new country and was trying to sort out schooling for our kids, buy and settle into our new home, whilst trying to launch the Canadian business. I had to dig deeper than ever before to keep moving forwards. Most women face some variation of these challenges, and you simply can’t meet them without the resilience to get through.

Tribe: In the book “Tribes”, Seth Godin outlines a key human principle of having a tribe of true believers. I firmly believe you need a tribe to keep you going, whether it’s personal friends or a professional organization or your family. You need those extra eyes to see if you’re slipping and those hands to help pull you up when you need it. And you will need it.

Your tribe, what Seth Godin calls your “One Thousand True Fans”, will keep you going, help you solve problems, and be there to bounce ideas off. Even when you’re having a bad time and you’re on the brink of a meltdown your tribe is going to help you pick yourself back up and, without judgement, give you the motivation and inspiration to continue.

Balance: There is no getting away from hard work as a founder. As female founders in addition we need to balance our family life with our business life; our client’s wants with our individual needs. When you’re starting a business, you are giving so much of your time and your energy and at times it can become overwhelming to try and be there for everyone. If you’re not careful, you can give so much that you don’t leave anything for yourself. Taking that time for yourself or even taking up a hobby can truly help you achieve that balance. But you’ve got to carve out that time.

Boundaries: One of the things that I feel strongly about is managing your emotional bank account like an actual bank account. If you’re not careful, people can drain you emotionally, your friends, colleagues even your family may just keep taking and before you know it you’re exhausted. Like your bank account, you can’t keep withdrawing from your emotional bucket without replenishing it.

As you become a leader, more and more people will start coming to you making demands. They demand your time and expertise or your money in the form of loans, freebies and discounts — make no mistake that “a friends and family discount” is demanding money from you. You have to stand strong and do what’s right for you. That may look like changing your circle from time to time with people who can actually recharge and replenish you rather than take advantage. When you view emotions, energy, and time as “currencies” you’ll soon realize how little some people offer you in return. Those are the people you need to put strong boundaries around.

Learning: I think you’ve got to have an inquisitive mind that is open to learning new things because the truth is you don’t know what you don’t know. Learning how to take feedback and criticism is also crucial. I know it may make you feel a bit uncomfortable but understand that it’s an opportunity to grow so take the information, learn from it and do better. Stay open.

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

I have made a few mistakes in my business, but I pride myself on helping others by being transparent about the lessons learned. I’ve launched a Facebook group called Elite Global Recruiters where I coach once a week free of charge to help my members grow and build their brands. It is my way of helping elevate my industry and helping business owners evolve in business.

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

It’s funny you should ask this as I was having this very conversation with a friend of mine recently. We were talking about how everything is extreme: the attitude that “you’re either with me or against me” translates to so many of the conversations in our society, whether it’s politics or even a simple television show. There’s just a huge lack of tolerance.

Stephen Covey said that “strength lies in our differences and not in our similarities.” I firmly believe in embracing this and having more constructive two-way conversations in all aspects of our lives. I have spent my whole career working with people from all walks of life and it’s always been so important to me to be able to really understand and empathize with the person across the table.

I couldn’t have built my business by myself. None of us could have. I’m sure I’ve dealt with people that I wouldn’t see eye-to-eye with on some issues. But I’ve always tried to put pointless divisions aside and I’ve had all the more success for it. You’ve got to see people for who they are and do your best to find a way to work together.

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

Ashley Horner has been a great inspiration for me and I think she is a great role model for founders everywhere. She has created a tribe of women from all walks of life and helped them empower themselves. She’s made it normal for women to recognize when they are looking after themselves, everyone around them reaps rewards. She inspired my own personal love of weight lifting and kickboxing. I would love to meet her and thank her for everything she has done for promoting strength for women.

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


Female Founders: Suky Sodhi of Professional Selection On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Caryn Noel Werner of KOYA Innovations On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Caryn Noel Werner of KOYA Innovations On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Support and encouragement from a few friends or family members. They don’t have to understand or believe in what you are building but knowing they believe in YOU and will back you no matter what helps. My grandparents have supported us from day one. Half the time they have no idea what we are building but they understand our hearts to make an impact and they support our dreams. That level of undying support is the biggest vote of confidence.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caryn Noel Werner. Over the last decade, Caryn has pursued projects that promote social change. She is the co-founder of KOYA Innovations and is committed to finding ways to use tech for good.

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

I grew up in an entrepreneurial home where dreams were nurtured.. I know, I am really lucky! During dinner, my dad would bring up new ideas, patents he was filing or prototypes he was working on. He was always ideating and invited us into that world with him.

With the support of my parents, I started a photography business when I was 16.Post-college I worked as a humanitarian photographer for various ,and socially conscious companies.. I also led teams and developed a global communication department.

Somewhere along the way, I felt dissatisfied with my work. I desired to not only document micro-economic initiatives and ribbon cutting ceremonies — I wanted to fund them.

A few months later, at a family birthday dinner, we started brainstorming ways we could use tech to make the world a better place. This is where we dreamed up KOYA — a hyper personalized way to stay more meaningfully connected. I would say that my life has been full of risks but starting a business with my family is by far the riskiest decisions I have ever made. It has also been the best decision. I would do it again because of the ways we have grown and evolved on this wild adventure.

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

I don’t know if this is the most interesting story but I can’t tell you how many times different people have mistaken me for my dad’s assistant in meetings. It’s a terrible assumption and shows how there is still progress to be made in this area. I try to laugh it off instead of taking it personally. *chefs kiss to karma*

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?

Yes! We developed a product before conducting . It was a silly mistake. It’s important to question your hypotheses and listen to potential customers.

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 have so many people I could list here, however, the first person that came to mind was my sister, Courtney. I’m insanely grateful for her and the ways she has pushed and believed in me! There were so many moments in the first year of our startup where I hit imposter syndrome hard. I didn’t know if I had what it took to be a successful startup founder — I was a free spirited globe trotting creative! She was the first one to remind me of who I amand the qualities I possess and she also encouraged me to do whatever it took to grow my business skills. We all need people like this along our journey! Being a female founder is hard — Having people support and encourage you along the way makes all the difference!

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

I think it is harder for women to believe that they have what it takes (resources, experiences, qualifications, connections, capital, etc.) to take the level of risk needed to found a company. To your point, historically, men have had a much easier time dominating this space. As a female looking at that 20% can either discourage females from taking the risk aor it can be seen as an invitation to to shake things up.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?

The more we have considered raising capital, the more I have noticed different VCs speaking up about how they are committed to including diverse founders in their investment portfolios. It’s been encouraging to see people challenge each other to not just commit with their words to making a difference but also follow through with their actions. The 20% statistic won’t change until investors also change.

This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

Absolutely! Women are often more in touch with the customer and the feelings or pain points that they experience. This is because culturally, women are raised to embrace empathy. . This is insanely valuable for shaping new products.

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

Some of the myths I heard and believed about this role: you won’t have a social life, you won’t sleep, you will constantly be stressed, etc. I’ve learned that simply believing these myths takes the responsibility out of my own hands. You can decide how you live your life and how you run your company. If you want to prioritize a social life, sleep and inner peace — you have the tools you need inside of you to set up boundaries to make it happen. Life doesn’t just “happen” to us, we make choices. You can make powerful choices that counteract any myths you have heard of about founder life.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

Anyone can be a founder if they are passionate about solving a problem and have the conviction and grit to see it through. From what I have seen, dreamers, executors, optimists, problem solvers, risk takers, futurists, rebels, and strategists have an easier time with the founder life. If you are a rule follower, need an environment that has low risks and security, desire traditional working hours and a stable paycheck,struggle with change and need consistency, the founder life might not be a good fit. Is it impossible? No way. Nothing is ever impossible. It will just take more passion, conviction and grit to get you through hard days.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Support and encouragement from a few friends or family members. They don’t have to understand or believe in what you are building but knowing they believe in YOU and will back you no matter what helps. My grandparents have supported us from day one. Half the time they have no idea what we are building but they understand our hearts to make an impact and they support our dreams. That level of undying support is the biggest vote of confidence.

2. Know your why. Shit will hit the fan and you will need a deep passion and conviction to get you through. Make sure you know your why, because it will keep you grounded. I remember the moment we heard back from a prominent accelerator program that out of 500+ applicants we made it to the top 20… only to find out that we missed the opportunity by one slot. It was hard to hear that out of 10 companies we were number 11. We were so close but not close enough. It would have been easy to look at the other companies and wonder how they got a spot and we didn’t. Instead, we re-centered by remembering our ‘why.’

3. A side gig, savings or the ability to be savvy with money. Not having constant financial stress will alleviate a lot of stress as you build your company. Yes, you will make sacrifices while bootstrapping but if you aren’t constantly stressed with your personal finances, you will be able to think clearer and make decisions from a better space. This is one of the top things I recommend to people who are in the idea stage of their founder journey. I wish I would have kept some contracts going on the side while starting our company. I think I had to be fully ‘in’ for me to gauge how serious I was about the process, but with hindsight I can see how it would have been easier to maintain a balance between startup life and contract assignments instead of the personal financial stress I had to navigate.

4. Join a female founder group. It could be in person or virtually but make sure you have people in your life that will be able to empathize with what you are going through. I’ve met so many amazing women on different parts of the founder journey and I have been encouraged by all of them. Early on I joined ALL RAISE’s female founder SEED raising bootcamp. It was such an impactful course that lended me so much advice, encouragement and support.

5. Wild optimism. The founder journey can be really difficult but optimism will hold you through it. At the end of the day, this is your company, your life and your decisions. Nobody else lives with them. Are you proud of yourself and your journey? Do you believe you have what it takes? If so, you will thrive as a female founder. The challenges you face will be reframed as beautiful growth opportunities and you will find yourself feeling excited about every ‘NO!” that comes your way because you can see how that brings you one step closer to your next yes.

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

Honestly, I would say that I’m still on the journey to success. I’m three years into founder life and we are beginning to scale. I know success looks different for everyone, but for me, I am still trekking. In the meantime, I am passionate about encouraging other founders and mentoring college students. I think everyone has the ability to make the world a better place just by being intentional with their time, resources and talents. One day, my dream is to fund startups alongside my sister.

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

I would want to inspire a movement of connection. We are in a day and age where checking social media is confused with “staying connected”. No wonder there is a global loneliness epidemic. We need each other and beyond just a like or heart — we need depth, authenticity, and real connection.

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

I would love to have a coffee with Whitney Wolf. I respect how she overcame adversity, built an impactful company, and became a pioneer for female founders.


Female Founders: Caryn Noel Werner of KOYA Innovations On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Michelle Connell of Portia Capital Management: 5 Things We Need To Do To Close The Gender Wage Gap

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…Women must learn to take calculated risks. The risk of being a business owner is worth it. Average, self-employed individuals are four times wealthier than those employed by others.

As part of my series about “the five things we need to do to close the gender wage gap” I had the pleasure of interviewing Michelle Connell, CFA.

Michelle owns Portia Capital Management, LLC, a registered Investment Advisory firm specializing in the investments of foundations, charities and high net worth individuals. Portia Capital Management is the only investment management firm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to be owned by a female CFA charter holder — an important resource in a world where 60% of women retire in poverty. Michelle’s expertise is backed by more than 20 years of financial experience in management positions with large investment boutiques and private banks.

She is also one of the highest-rated finance professors in the U.S, currently serving as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. She works with her students and clients to understand the value of crafting a portfolio that includes conventional products as well as alternative assets, including private equity, private debt and real estate, and allows investment portfolio creation with greater downside protection and more consistent returns. In addition to her work with students and clients, Michelle teaches the CFA Review through the DFW CFA Society — The Chartered Financial Analyst Designation is considered the highest designation in the investment management profession.

She also founded “Portia’s Children,” though which up to 10 percent of her company’s profits are donated to the North Texas Charity, Educational First Steps.

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

I grew up with an academic father. Every weekend, I used to accompany him to work on his dissertation at the University of Washington. Before I was 12, he became the Dean of a Business School. I always assumed that college was in the cards for me. I was wrong-at least in the short term.

My parents divorced a short time after my father became Dean. My mother, who never graduated high school, could not hold a job. At the age of 15, I was put to work at an inner-city McDonald’s working 40 hours a week. It became my responsibility to help support my mother, sister and me. Frequently, we did not have much to eat at the end of the month. I quickly realized if I was going to make a decent living, I would have to acquire an education. I narrowed my educational focus to accounting and finance. I had seen what a lack of financial literacy had cost my mother and I didn’t want to suffer the same fate.

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

In the mid 1990’s, the stock market was on tear-especially technology stocks. Starting from December 13, 1994, the Dow, S&P 500, and Russell 1000 tripled within five years, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq grew five-fold.

This was a period of many private companies going public with their stock and my firm participated in several of the IPOs. If losses were to be avoided, IPO’s required an extreme level of analysis.

I was an analyst and portfolio manager for a firm that managed small and micro-cap mutual funds during this period. I had the privilege of meeting Steve Jobs when he took Pixar public in November of 1995. I didn’t get eaten alive like the analysts that were “winging it.” I had over-prepared for the question-and-answer section of the due diligence presentation. Jobs did NOT tolerate fools-even if you were providing funding for his company!

The lesson: As a female, ALWAYS over-prepare for business everywhere-especially Wall Street!

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

My first job out of Graduate School was being the CFO for a Natural History Museum in San Diego. My job duties also included overseeing the exhibits, the retail area and the physical structure.

While managing the operations and investments of the museum was challenging enough, maintaining the physical structure was a full-time job. The building, along with the rest in Balboa Park, was built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The buildings were built to last for the exhibitions and not permanency.

Things were always going wrong with the building and grounds.

One day, the first floor of the museum started to flood. The flood proceeded to go on for 30 minutes and then an hour. During this period of time, the exhibits stated to flood, and employees did their best to remove expensive and irreplaceable artifacts.

No one, not even the maintenance staff, could figure how to turn off the water that was pouring into the building. And this wasn’t your “run of the mill” flood; the museum’s water supply was connected to every building within a park that covered 1,200 acres! Thus, the flow of water was extremely large.

Finally, one of the maintenance people called the city of San Diego and found out that there was a master key that controlled the spigots for every park building. The key was located, and the flooding stopped. However, there was significant damage to the museum.

The moral of the story: Think about everything that could potentially go wrong regarding the areas under your expertise or management. Determine possible solutions before a crisis occurs.

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

First, women are the caregivers in society. Approximately 66 percent of the caregivers in the United States are women. (This may be even higher due to the pandemic.). This fact results in the following (NOTE: THE FOLLOWING STATS ARE FROM 2013. THE CURRENT NUMBERS ARE NO DOUBT HIGHER.)

-42% of women have reduced their work hours at some point due to caregiver responsibilities

-39% of women have taken off a significant amount of time for this reason.

-29% have quit a job

-13% have turned down promotions.

-Due to caregiving, women lose on average $324,044 in wages, pension and social security (Source: “Care giving in the U.S.,” National Alliance for Care giving in collaboration with AARP, 2009 “The MetLife Study of Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs,” MetLife 2010)

Second, women comprise the highest percentage of the lowest wage-earners in the country. The following statistics and examples were cited in The National Women’s’ Law Center’s “When Hard Work is Not Enough” (2018):

Across the United States, more than 22.2 million people work in the 40 lowest paying jobs — and women make up nearly two-thirds of this workforce. (Less than $12/hour)

More than two-thirds of mothers in the low-paid workforce (69 percent) are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families.

Nearly six in 10 mothers in low-paid jobs (57 percent) fell near or below the poverty line in 2018, compared to 48 percent of fathers in the low-paid workforce, 27 percent of mothers in the workforce overall, and 22 percent of fathers in the workforce overall.

Examples of the lowest paid jobs and the percentage of women who hold them:

  • #2 (lowest paid). Combined Food Preparation and Serving Workers, (62% Women)
  • #5(lowest paid). Hosts and Hostesses, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop (82% Women)
  • As a former boss (female) liked to say, “Only the poor would work so hard for so little.”

Third, women constantly discount their economic worth. Even the most educated and privileged:

  • According to an internal Hewlett Packard study:
  • Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them.
  • 22% of women indicated their top reason was, “I didn’t think they would hire me since I didn’t meet the qualifications and I didn’t want to put myself out there if I was likely to fail.”
  • LinkedIn’s study (no date):
  • “Less likely to apply for positions that were more senior than their current position (what LinkedIn call ‘stretch roles’)”
  • “More likely to be hired when compared to men applying for the same position as them”
  • Conclusion: More often than not, women will not apply for a role senior to their current position. Instead, they will apply for an equivalent position-and get it. (Another point for consideration: Maybe women get hired more often when they apply for the same position because they’re easier to handle than their male peers.)

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

I have taught the CFA Review in Texas for the last ten years.

As of last year, I was the only female to be teaching this review in my state.

The CFA charter it’s considered the platinum standard on Wall Street. The suggested level of study for each of the three exams is 300 hours. The odds of passing all three levels sequentially are less than 12%. In addition to the three exams, four years of relevant work experience is required.

I not only take the time to teach the exam, but I also mentor students. It’s important that they see a female role model.

Can you recommend 5 things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the gender wage gap. Please share a story or example for each.

One, child and elder care needs to become less of a hurdle for women:

  • Help families pay for this essential service
  • Build more accredited centers so that the quality of care is high and acceptable.
  • Employers need to work with women and other caregivers and provide flexible schedules. Also, caregivers shouldn’t be penalized or held back in their careers.

Two, women need to be lifted out of low-paying jobs. The best means of accomplishing this is by providing advanced education to more women. This doesn’t necessarily mean college. Train women with bankable and desired skills.

Third, instilling confidence and self-esteem to women (and minorities) is critical. This must occur in the schools, businesses, and society. However, it really begins at home.

Fourth, women should take hold of their own destiny by starting more businesses. Otherwise, they risk leaving their fortunes and futures in the hands of employers.

Fifth Women must learn to take calculated risks. The risk of being a business owner is worth it. Average, self-employed individuals are four times wealthier than those employed by others.

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. :-).

Require every child in grade school to adopt a cause or charity. The requirements of adoption would be to report on the status of the charity throughout a school year or more. Have the child visit the organization or have conversations via Zoom. If possible, organized fundraising could be done at the school level and then proceeds divided among the students’ causes.

The result would be a more empathic and charitable society. Perhaps, less people would be left behind if more pitched in to lift others up.

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

In 1984, the villain of the movie, Amadeus, is Antonio Salieri. At the end of the movie, he confesses to Mozart’s killing. Salieri then announces to the priest that he is “the patron saint of mediocrity.” (He was comparing his talents and music to Mozart’s.)

I am determined that no one calls my work or life mediocre.

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

I would like to meet either Maria Bartiomo or Liz Clayman. Both women have been financial reporters since the 1990’s and have serious professional “chops.” They are good journalists and do their best to showcase minority and women experts.

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


Michelle Connell of Portia Capital Management: 5 Things We Need To Do To Close The Gender Wage Gap was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.