Month: September 2021

Female Founders: Dionna and Danyelle Gray of Womanish On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Dionna and Danyelle Gray of Womanish On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be okay with rejection: You’re going to be rejected by businesses, consumers, people, etc., throughout your entrepreneurial journey. However, you have to be able to keep pushing despite the “no’s” and “no thank you’s”.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dionna and Danyelle Gray.

Sisters Dionna and Danyelle Gray are the Black female founders of Womanish, a national, playful, and thought-provoking art exhibition and interactive experience curated by womxn for womxn bringing awareness to important womxn issues such as the pink tax, mental health, and the gender pay gap. After its successful launch in their hometown of Chicago amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Womanish opened its doors this summer in Miami. Through Womanish, the Gray sisters hope to cultivate a culturally inclusive, safe space that provokes imagination, conversation, and change around breaking single-definition stereotypes, and celebrate and uplift women.

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?

Before Womanish, we were working on an app called Baby, it’s Our World. The app was supposed to be a place to connect women online and create a safe space for them to feel empowered. We worked on that app for six years, and it never went anywhere! We decided to give up the idea, and we’re like, okay, we need to re-group! We then decided to continue our vision but switch it from an online app to a physical location. That’s how Womanish was born! We thought it would be even more powerful to create a physical space that embodied the same mission as our app: a place for women to connect and feel celebrated in a place imagined and designed for them.

Danyelle — I went to college for events, so the transition to experiential was pretty much up my alley.

Dionna — I went to college for communications, so this was also not too far off of my career path.

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

I think the most interesting reoccurrence that happens to us is when people come into the space and sometimes ask to see the “man in charge.” They are always very surprised to see two young African American women who are the head of Womanish. We love to see people’s faces when they see who is behind 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?

We are eternally grateful for our parents. They were the first people to invest in us. As black female founders, we had two things going against us, being a woman and a person of color. It was very hard to secure funding for our business. We are so thankful our parents believed in us, spoke success over us, and invested in us! Without them, we would not be where we are today.

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 touched on it a little in our previous question, but definitely funding. It is statistically more challenging for women to get funding than men. In many cases, you need funding to start your business. We believe that this is a huge reason that is holding back women 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?

Creating more opportunities/access to funding for women. Making it easily accessible for women to get the funding they need to start their businesses.

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?

Financial freedom and independence is the biggest reason we think more women should become founders. We need to teach women the importance of being financially free as it can be life-changing, especially for working moms, etc. It is such a wonderful feeling to have the opportunity to set your own schedule and do things on your own terms. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does afford some luxuries such as freedom and independence.

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

“It’s fun and easy to be an entrepreneur!” It seems like they push this narrative that being a founder is easy and carefree, but that is not true. Being a founder is incredibly hard, can be incredibly lonely and difficult. The path to being a successful founder is usually not short and easy. However, the positives like financial freedom and independence do make all of those hard times worth it.

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?

We believe everyone could be if they put their mind to it. However, it’s not easy! Also, it’s simply not everyone’s calling. We need powerful women in their own companies and also in corporate America! Traits that increase the likelihood of a person being a successful founder are a go-getter, a self-starter, independent, and strong-minded.

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.)

Be okay with rejection: You’re going to be rejected by businesses, consumers, people, etc., throughout your entrepreneurial journey. However, you have to be able to keep pushing despite the “no’s” and “no thank you’s”
Have a sounding board: It’s important to have someone to bounce ideas off of. Entrepreneurship can be lonely; make sure you have someone to discuss ideas, frustrations, issues, successes, and more.
A positive mindset is key: There will be hard days, but it is important to keep a positive outlook. Positivity goes a long way in business and your personal life!
Have tough skin: As a woman founder, there will be looks, comments, and more that people make as you lead your business. Do not be discouraged or internalize other people’s doubts or beliefs about you and your business.
Believe in yourself no matter what: No one is going to believe or understand your vision as much as you are. If people don’t get it, so what. Keep pushing and striving until you achieve your goals! It’s so important to always believe in yourself and your vision.

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

Absolutely. In May, we gave away $20,000 with Cresco labs to black and brown female founders. We can’t wait to do more of this. It’s so important for us to give back to the community. We understand the struggles of entrepreneurship and want to help make it a little easier for others if we can!

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?

We believe in our movement to connect, empower, and create safe spaces for women. We have a tagline that says all are welcome, but women are celebrated. We want to continue with that movement as we expand and take Womanish to new heights.

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?

We’d love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Mark Cuban. We absolutely love watching Shark Tank, and Mark is our favorite! He has built some powerful businesses and always has excellent advice. It would be a dream to have him as a mentor!

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

Female Founders: Dionna and Danyelle Gray of Womanish 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: Kate Weidner of SRW On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman…

Female Founders: Kate Weidner of SRW On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

This whole thing is hard. Founding a company, even when you have partners by your side, is incredibly lonely. You have to find time to be still, reflect on what you’ve done, and love yourself for all the good and bad moves you’ve made. You cannot waste time questioning yourself or beating yourself up. You have to be your own greatest champion.

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

Kate is the co-founder and CEO of SRW, an independent, full-service marketing agency with a penchant for growing health and wellness brands like Simple Mills and Kite Hill. A mom of two young children and former journalist, Weidner left her roots in production to co-found SRW with her partners Charlie Stone and Brian Rolling. They ‘quit advertising’ more than five years ago to start an agency that focused on doing great work with and for people doing good in the world.

My dad was an entrepreneur and used to say all the time, “Trust me, Kate, you want to be your own boss.” In spite of his sage advice, I did a few tours in corporate America, working for massive entities like the U.S. Government and NBC Comcast. Along the way, I also got my Master’s in Journalism during a time when traditional media was declining and all things digital were rising. After working in broadcast television and then a digital agency, I knew I wanted to combine both arenas. But I also knew my dad was right: I did want to be my own boss.

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

I discovered that entrepreneurs are just lucky people who notice opportunities that other people might have passed by. I wish I could say that we founded this agency knowing we would work with wellness brands, but we really just set out to work with good people, and the universe did the rest of the work. A few weeks after we launched the agency, a mutual friend connected me with the VP of Marketing for a new, unknown brand called Simple Mills. They were on the hunt for a social agency. A week later, the founder of a startup collagen company — Vital Proteins — moved into the office across the hall from us at WeWork and he needed help with graphic design. From there, they referred us to all their other wellness startup friends. Together, we grew some pretty impressive empires.

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?

Pitching a sugar-laden, bad-for-you gummy bear brand after establishing all that goodwill in the wellness world was a colossal mistake. Thankfully, we lost the pitch. But we learned so much about ourselves in the process. Above all: stay true to ourselves and know what we do best.

Of course, my business partners, family, and husband have been the strongest and most supportive humans in my orbit. But we would also be nowhere near where we are today without the amazing business relationship we built with Simple Mills CMO, Michelle Lorge. She pushed our agency at every turn to be the best we could be and also trusted us to be experts in our craft. Michelle is the type of client that knows how to get the best work out of her agency partners while motivating them and making them feel appreciated in the process. She has always looked out for us, from referring us to other brands to taping testimonials and even just giving me her thoughts and feedback on our business. It’s rare to find such a strong friendship through the agency-client relationship, and I’m truly grateful to have her in my life.

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?

In a word: childcare. Michelle Obama famously said, “It still ain’t equal, y’all,” and she couldn’t be more right. I’m floored by how much progress we’ve made since my mom’s generation, but it still ain’t equal, y’all! Even if a mother is given paid leave, it’s likely given only to her and not her partner. That means, from day one, children start from relying on just their mom for all their needs — and moms, in turn, learn to fill those needs. Who do we think kids will want to stay home with when they’re sick? Who knows what to pack in their lunch every single day? We are too hard on working moms, and we treat them like it’s their job to coach their partners into equal responsibility as parents. Society has stacked the deck against them, and then we give them that extra job to do, too? We, as a nation and a society, need to do better for women. I would love for everyone to stop treating mothers like it’s their fault for doing too much.

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 believe the two most important foundation points are universal childcare and paid leave for all parents — any gender, whether birth or adoptive. When paid leave is equal, parenting can begin on equal footing. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, too — I wouldn’t have been able to leave my previous job and found my company without marketplace insurance to make sure my family was covered.

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 have discovered that caring is a superpower that feels especially strong within women. We need more people in charge who truly recognize and care about the impact they’re making every day — on the people around them, on the planet, and on the women who follow in their wake.

And, when more women are in charge, the world will begin to work better for women, instead of everything feeling like an uphill battle. Often workplaces have rules and policies that don’t work for women because women were never part of shaping them. When women have a seat at the table, the whole world can change.

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

The most common thing people would say when I launched the company was, “How are you going to run your own business and raise your ten-month-old?!” Therein lies an enormous myth: that being your own boss is more challenging than having a boss. When you’re a founder, you can set your own schedule, and the number one thing parents crave in the workplace is flexibility. I work hard, and I work a lot, but I do it on my schedule. That’s something people massively underappreciate about entrepreneurship.

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder. Most of the people I have known in my life would likely be pretty terrible entrepreneurs…and that’s ok! I think, more often than not, people want to do a job and leave work at work. They want to go on vacation and literally forget what they do for a living. A regular job is exactly what 99% of people need. If someone is considering striking out on their own I would highly recommend they go work for a startup first. If you can love building someone else’s business, then you could likely love building your own. A successful founder should have a strong stomach, a tolerance for risk, the perfect combination of confidence and humility, and the knack for finding opportunities that others can’t see.

Resilience. Clichés exist because they are true. The truest cliché about entrepreneurship is that it’s a roller coaster. But what I discovered is that the key to riding this roller coaster is understanding that nothing is permanent. The bad times will not last as long if you have the strength to keep going. And the good times won’t last forever, either, so you better enjoy them.
A thick coat of armor. I have worked in politics, sports, and the agency world. These were not always easy places to be a woman with an opinion. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “Sometimes it helps to be a little deaf.” That’s the truth. A few times in the past, I have wasted my energy fighting with people who ultimately just don’t respect or want to work with or for women. Now, I save my energy and move on to those that do. Thank you, next.
Patience. We are still in a place in the world where women have to prove themselves. As a female founder, I took every speaking engagement thrown my way. I gave free advice left and right. I went to every networking event I could attend. Over time, my star rose, and the people I met then who might not have believed in me at first started to call back. Seeds I planted during those four years came to bear fruit when I needed them most.
Boundaries. On the flip side, you have to know what you won’t do. We all have caretaker and people-pleaser modes programmed into us by society and our upbringing. We will work ourselves to death if we don’t set the boundary ourselves.
Self-love. This whole thing is hard. Founding a company, even when you have partners by your side, is incredibly lonely. You have to find time to be still, reflect on what you’ve done, and love yourself for all the good and bad moves you’ve made. You cannot waste time questioning yourself or beating yourself up. You have to be your own greatest champion.

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

SRW has worked with charitable organizations and nonprofits including the National Parks Conservation Association. We’ve given our time and talents to local nonprofits and donated to charities. We’ve also given opportunities and internships to folks who might not have had the chance elsewhere. But the biggest impact we’ve made is very close to my heart.

My second year into founding the agency, I gave birth to and lost my infant son at 33-weeks pregnant. One of the most healing activities I went through was donating my breast milk to a local milk bank that supported babies in the NICU. I was surprised to learn how many mothers who lose their infants are unaware of this option. Once I got back to work, I reached out to the Mother’s Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes to see if there was anything we could do to help them spread the word about their important work. Over a few years, we re-did their website, launched their social channels, created new brochures, spoke on their behalf, landed them a front-page story in the Chicago Sun-Times, and made one of the greatest videos we’ve ever created as an agency. Their organization has grown tremendously and even moved into a large, new space to help continue their life-saving efforts. It’s probably the greatest thing I’ve ever done, and it was all possible because of SRW’s success.

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 am incredibly passionate about paid leave. If we could inspire a movement that allowed for our nation, rather than our employers, to prioritize paid leave the same way other developed nations do, that would be a dream come true.

I am currently reading Glennon Doyle’s Untamed, so, at the moment, there is no one I would rather have breakfast with than her. I find it so inspiring that she continues to share her story as it evolves. I love the way she approached parenting. Her book is speaking to me at a pivotal moment in my relationship with my kids, and I’m just so grateful that she wrote it.

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

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

Female Founders: Naomi Furgiuele of Nuria On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Naomi Furgiuele of Nuria On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Believe in your idea and take up space — Even if you are the only woman in the room, you deserve to be there. Take up space, have confidence in your idea, don’t fall victim to imposter syndrome. As a Chemical Engineer, I was in a male dominated field, both in school and then at work, and I learned that I couldn’t let gender make me feel like I didn’t belong. I learned to focus on my ideas and skills.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Naomi Furgiuele, Founder, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Curator of Nuria Beauty.

For nearly two decades Naomi Furgiuele led product development and scientific teams for some of the world’s biggest global brands in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products. As part of her work, Naomi met women from all over the world, learned about their families and their health, and became intrigued by each woman’s unique skin health journey. Inspired by these women, and her travels, Naomi created Nuria to distill this global beauty wisdom into clean, effective skincare products that support girls’ education.

Prior to launching Nuria, I led product development and scientific teams for some of the world’s biggest global brands in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer products. Most recently, I was the Vice President of Face and Sun R&D at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., leading a global team to create award-winning products across Neutrogena, Aveeno, Clean & Clear, and more. Before leading the Beauty R&D team, I led the development of medical devices for global businesses in pain, allergy, oral care, and diabetes care.

Nuria was born out of my experiences traveling the world and speaking with women about themselves and their families. I found that women around the world really connect over their skincare and I wanted to work to help make that a positive connection. They recognized their skin health was a reflection of their lifestyle and environment, not a static skin type. Whether they faced rough skin due to Europe’s cold climates, or dullness due to environmental stressors in Asia, these women turned to time-tested, local, plant-based ingredients to create their own solutions based on what their skin needed to be healthy. These skin problems are truly universal, and I knew women everywhere could benefit from these gems of skincare wisdom.

At the same time, I also frequently confronted the reality that many women lacked equal opportunities within their culture, often stemming from a lack of education and professional development early in life. In 2018, I founded Nuria with a mission to connect women globally, to share our skincare wisdom with each other, and to help girls achieve their full potential. As a part of my mission, I am proud that Nuria donates a portion of every sale to She’s the First, a non-profit that fights gender inequality by providing education to girls.

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

One of the most eye-opening things that has happened since founding Nuria was the Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal. As a small but still global business, it was amazing to me how much one bottleneck could disrupt supply chains that touched our business. It felt a bit poetic in a way, since Nuria’s mission is very much about these global connections — sharing women’s local skincare rituals from around the world. Coming face-to-face with the impact on me of a canal on the other side of the world was a wonderful reminder that what we are doing is important because whether we sense it or not, we are all impacting each other every 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?

I’ve definitely made some funny mistakes along the way as I learned about skincare product development. Early in my career when I was developing my first cosmetic formulas, I didn’t understand yet how to use the concentrated dyes that give lipstick and eyeshadow their beautiful colors, and I once had orange lips for days. Active ingredients often come in concentrated solutions and can be the most expensive part of a formula, so naturally, yup, I’ve tripped while adding the active ingredient to a big batch of face lotion! At the time, these mistakes felt embarrassing and amateur, but now I realize they were an important part of my journey to becoming a more confident and skilled scientist and entrepreneur. Most importantly, I learned to own my mistakes — take action, talk about them openly, accept responsibility, don’t hide from them. Not only is this the right thing to do, but it’s the best way to learn from mistakes and teach others what to do when they inevitably make mistakes (we are human after all!). When leading a team, it is important to create an environment where it is acceptable to share the mistakes we make so everyone feels empowered to rapidly learn and grow. By owning your mistakes, you also influence the narrative about your mistake, taking them from something to hide or judge to something to learn from and use as a learning example.

People often talk about mentors, but about halfway through my career I learned about sponsors — people who not only offer advice but also advocate for you. As a Chemical Engineer, I was in a male dominated field, both in school and then at work. Six years into my career (and two kids later!) I met a woman, also an engineer, who had become a senior leader at Johnson & Johnson. She was honest, caring, and tough. I would go to her for advice, and when she asked me a question that I couldn’t answer, she would send me away to think. She was an incredible role model, and years later I realized how many opportunities she opened up for me — she was really my sponsor, not just my mentor. She certainly had an impact on my career, but she also changed the way I developed others, so her impact was much further reaching.

In my experience, women in the workplace often take a supportive role — don’t get me wrong, they work hard to succeed in their own careers, but they also often work hard to help others succeed. Women are more likely to compromise the space that they take up themselves to enable other people to take up space. We do this on a personal level as well — in the US, family leave is more often taken by women, and we juggle the needs of our family with our careers. I think this supporting behavior is amazing and I know I spend a lot of my time doing the same thing, but it can lead to women not jumping in 100% on an idea that they have themselves and pursuing the founding of their own ventures.

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?

Become a mentor or sponsor for other women entrepreneurs
Find other people in your life to take on a supporting role
As a society, continue to make more changes that support men taking family leave, men being the stay at home parent

For women already in a leadership role, I think it is important to take on the role of sponsor or mentor, particularly for other women entrepreneurs. Sponsoring is such an important role because it is not only the imparting of all that career wisdom or guidance, but it is the act of helping women founders dig in on the paths that will allow them to be seen as successful. Creating actionable opportunities for women entrepreneurs can be an incredibly powerful tool for putting more women in sustainable roles as founders.

In partnership to that idea though, as individuals, it is going to be equally important for any woman starting off as a founder to find other people in her life to take on some of those supporting roles. I’m not just talking about finding someone to do laundry or send a fax — sometimes you are going to need someone to stand in for you and even help make substantial decisions because you simply can’t be everywhere or think of everything at once.

As a society, we need to continue with the progress we are making in shifting the gender roles of the domestic landscape to standardize men taking family leave or even being the primary caregiver in some cases. This requires continued, long-term reform at an institutional level, particularly when it comes to finding a career path back to work later in life, an issue that many women confront as well.

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?

Diversity is one of the greatest engines of progress. Great ideas come from everywhere, from different perspectives, from different life experiences, and putting more women in founder roles allows us to solve problems that may be currently unaddressed, unseen. No one should be held back from pursuing a great idea.

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

Being a founder sounds elevated and powerful, but the reality is as a founder, you have to be willing to be everything from the shipping manager to the financial officer, willing to package your first orders and set up your business bank account while on the same day giving an interview for a national publication. I remember some days feeling like I was spinning my wheels with all of the little things that needed to get done to launch our first product, and I had no one but myself to delegate those tasks to. It didn’t seem elevated and powerful when I was rushing to FedEx before they closed, or when I was testing 25 prototypes to develop the perfect formula, but those were frankly the moments that made me feel most like a founder, like I was working on something that was mine to build and grow.

I think being a successful founder takes a strange mix of boldness and humility — you have to believe that you have an idea worth pursuing, since you have to convince other people to invest in and work on that idea, but this boldness has to be coupled with humility, because you have to have the flexibility to adapt and change. Maybe your original idea will work better if you tweak it a little, maybe the market has changed and you need to adjust your launch plan, and most importantly maybe you hear from your consumer and you realize you need to make a change to make your idea more impactful. Most people would say that being a founder is also about shouldering risk, and while that’s true, I think it is important to realize that you aren’t just shouldering financial risk, but you also risk a lot personally by putting your idea out there for other people to pick apart, so you have to be interested in learning from feedback and not take it personally when something doesn’t work. I learned a lot early in my career at a “regular job” that has helped me become a founder, so I don’t believe in the philosophy that you are either born with the qualities that make a good founder or you aren’t.

In the end, as a founder, you are still part of a team. That team may change from being just you and your first customer to you and your partners, employees, and peers, but adaptability is the thread that connects it all. You must adapt not only your business plan, but also your understanding of your role and interdependence in order to continue finding satisfaction with the project you founded.

Believe in your idea and take up space — Even if you are the only woman in the room, you deserve to be there. Take up space, have confidence in your idea, don’t fall victim to imposter syndrome. As a Chemical Engineer, I was in a male dominated field, both in school and then at work, and I learned that I couldn’t let gender make me feel like I didn’t belong. I learned to focus on my ideas and skills.
Being a founder isn’t being a team of one — If you truly believe in the project, you should want your work to find other people who can carry it just as well as you can. Set yourself up to be a leader but also make sure you are continuing to provide support for your partners to help you take your vision and give it its best life.
Take time for yourself — Sometimes we are the last on our own list of priorities, and frankly that doesn’t help anyone! You have to take the time to keep yourself whole and healthy to be effective at home and at work.
You will fail — Statistics tell you that something you work on will fail. Just accept that fact, and then when the time comes, you’ll more easily pick yourself up and try again.
Have fun — Work doesn’t need to always be a slog, and you don’t always have to be the most stressed out or overworked. Have fun! That isn’t a sign that you aren’t working hard enough, it’s actually a sign that you are working on the right thing for you!

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

Nuria works to combat the reality that so many women lack equal opportunities within their culture, often stemming from a lack of education and professional development early in life. With a mission to set a higher standard in the beauty industry, Nuria also connects women globally, to share our skincare wisdom with each other, and to help girls achieve their full potential. As a part of this mission, Nuria donates a portion of every sale to She’s the First, a non-profit that fights gender inequality by providing education to girls. To-date Nuria has donated six figures and based on their total donations, they have provided 4.5k months of education.

Beyond working to improve education, some of the things that set Nuria apart from other brands are that Nuria products are not only cruelty-free (Leaping Bunny certified), vegan, allergen-free, effective, and safe, but also carbon-neutral. We have offset the carbon footprint of every product over its entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction and manufacturing through product use and recycling. So our consumers can confidently use Nuria products and know that they are taking great care of themselves and the planet, while empowering the next generation of women.

All women should have the same chance to realize their full potential. I want to help create a world where every single girl finishes high school. That might sound ambitious, but I don’t think that’s unreasonable. It is unacceptable that, in 2018, 63 million girls worldwide didn’t have the opportunity to get a high school education. Once a girl is given an education, she has experienced irreversible growth, and this cannot be taken from her. In 2017, Project Drawdown published the top ways that we could combat climate change. In the top 5, higher than plastics recycling and electric cars, was educating women and girls. Educated girls realize higher wages, contribute to economic growth, and improve health outcomes for themselves, their family, and their entire community, and all of these improvements lead to lower emissions and improvements in global climate change. Providing the support for every girl to finish a high school education would truly change the planet.

I would love to talk to Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo. Not only has she had an absolutely incredible career, but in some of her public writings, she has expressed her ability to maintain her core family values through all of it. I would like to learn more from her experience on what we could continue to do to support women’s leadership positions in the workplace without simultaneously discarding what may define us as women in the process.

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

Female Founders: Naomi Furgiuele of Nuria 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.

Grant Kruft of Altura Wellness: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis…

Grant Kruft of Altura Wellness: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Keep your expectations reasonable and your goals within reach. This may not be agreeable with everyone but having goals to reach each month has been key for us. As long as the needle is moving in the right direction, we know we’re on the right path. Getting past small roadblocks each week instead of hitting a wall with no way around will help achieve steady growth.

As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Kruft.

Arizona native, Grant Kruft, founded Altura Wellness with his father in 2016. Kruft’s experience in the high-stress Accounting and Business Management world made him quickly realize that he wanted to live a different lifestyle; a lifestyle that was beneficial to himself and others. After personally experiencing the healing benefits from using CBD, Kruft saw an opportunity in the market to create something that was lacking in the CBD space — a clean and trusted household brand. Following extensive research while also encountering firsthand positive stories of healing and transformation with use of CBD, Grant knew it was time to become a part of something larger. Altura Wellness allows Grant the opportunity to help people in a way he didn’t know was possible. Never a fan of taking medications, Grant loves how Altura Wellness allows him to help everyone from people to pets improve their wellness in such a profound way. With Altura Wellness, Grant’s mission is to provide the cleanest, high-quality product on the market, break the stigma of CBD use and have a positive impact on the lives of Altura Wellness’ customers by creating high quality products.

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

In my late-twenties I really started to focus on what kind of life I wanted to live and how I was going to achieve this life. Something that continued to present itself to me, was how I was spending my time. At the time, I had a great job with a company that was amazing to work for. However, at the end of the day I still felt handcuffed to a schedule that wasn’t mine to set. As I began working towards my overall goal of designing my ideal life, another area that was important to me was being able to work in an industry where the focus was helping people. At that point in time cannabis, and CBD specifically, were in the emerging stages of becoming more widely accepted and I saw an opportunity to help shape this industry. Founding Altura Wellness not only gave me the opportunity to design my life how I wanted, but to branch out into other areas that I was searching to grow in.

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?

Persistence is everything. When we first started to reach out to facilities to help with the manufacturing process, we’d been turned down by 19 out of 20. The legality of CBD was very much a grey area so not many Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facilities would even talk to us. In the end, the connections we made, and partnerships we created have turned out to be some of the strongest. This hurdle of working with the right partners led us to talking with hundreds of manufactures. The facilities who were open to working with CBD we’re all very transparent and gave us the opportunity to meet in person and walk through the facility. The GMP certification isn’t just about paperwork but how clean a facility is, so having the opportunity to tour the facilities in person was crucial. Persistence was the key to getting our product where it is today, because sometimes you must turn over a lot of rocks to find that gem.

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

When we first started cultivating hemp in the early stages, we were very quiet about the company and what we were doing. As the company grew and we began bringing products to market, I was still hesitant to bring it into conversation. Over time and the more often CBD came up I started to realize that people were not only open to talk about it, but they were very excited to learn more. Now, I bring it up as much as I can and am almost always able to help answer someone’s questions. Don’t be afraid to talk about what you do. This is a great way to connect with people, allowing you to scope out trends based on what people are asking and what types of products they like. This is also a great marketing tool that allows you to build a level of trust with a potential customer.

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

We always have a few irons in the fire and are currently in the research and development stages of things. We’ve seen great success with our most recent product, specifically designed to help you sleep. There was a lot of research done in the early stages not only from an ingredient standpoint, but how it would be marketed to produce the level of sales needed. Developing products that will not only help people but can also effectively be marketed and sold is one of the hardest challenges.

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?

The growth of our industry, especially after the farm bill of 2018 was passed, increased at a breakneck speed in late 2018. What we saw was a constant stream of get rich quick schemes grandiose business ideas enter the industry. We had a group pursue us as a partner with all sorts of promises and dollar signs in their eyes. Sometimes it’s hard to see past the reality of a situation, and over time the agreement shifted making it clear what their true intentions were. Sticking with this partnership would have required us to compromise our values, and that is just something we were not willing to do. In hindsight, even after all the investment of time and money we had put into this possible opportunity, walking away was one of the best decisions we made. It’s not always the people that help lead you to success but also the ones that help make your focus clearer. My advice is to continually step back and look at the opportunities. There are a lot of people out there that will not align with your morals, ethics and how you want your company’s reputation to be written in stone. That’s something you don’t get back.

However, I have also had some incredible mentors too along the way who were there to listen and offer advice after having an honest conversation. When they don’t have any skin in the game and are truly looking out for your best interest it is very clear. Having these people around you who aren’t afraid to tell you when you’re wrong or help steer you in the right direction are incredibly invaluable. Sometimes just having someone to talk something through with helps you find clarity in your own mind.

This industry is young dynamic and creative. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

While the industry is young, dynamic and creative, ultimately, we have to focus on who our customers are. “Where do we reach them?” “How do we speak to them?” “How best do we service them?” are questions we are always asking ourselves. While our products appeal to a wide variety of demographics, we still have a clear target audience. We had to trust our gut on who that was in the early stages and now have a very honed target market. Ultimately, is goes back to the basics of trying to create a relationship with our customers and building trust over time. We’ve stayed away from flashy marketing and taken a long-term approach to grow the company and its reputation. There have been several opportunities to go for a big impact type strategy but that is just something that doesn’t resonate with who our target demographic is.

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

The first thing that excites me is the growing access to cannabis and marijuana. For decades, cannabis has been demonized and the stigma around it very strong. With recreational marijuana becoming increasingly legal in the U.S., it has helped with that stigma. The second thing that most excites me is education. As the industry has matured over the years, there are more and more resources out there to help educate consumers. This has also helped the ‘bad eggs’ go away, allowing consumers to now find quality resources on how cannabis may help them. The third thing that most excites me is that the industry is still growing. There is such an opportunity to help people discover the positive benefits of CBD and educate them on how they can incorporate it into their live.

However, what also concerns me about the industry is also the fact it is still growing. After the 2018 Farm Bill passed, there were a flood of companies that came to market. What helped spur this was a glut of CBD oil from the excessive raw hemp that was grown the year after. White label manufactures flooded the market with cheap, ineffective product. Anyone with a credit card could spin up a bottle and sell the same product hundreds of other companies were also buying and labeling. Most of these were and still are not efficacious products. Another area that is troubling to me is the claims that companies are making about the benefits of CBD. I can sit here and tell you story after story of the positive benefits of CBD, but they aren’t clinical studies and may not be the same for everyone. The FDA over the years has cracked down on incredibly outrageous claims made by companies, but they don’t have the resources to get all of them. It’s overall detrimental to the industry when you have companies that are playing out of bounds and possibly putting someone at risk. When you only have one shot to show someone that CBD does do wonderful things, these products took a potential, benefiting customer out of the market. Lastly, the biggest concern I have is the lack of standards in the industry. This ranges from cultivation and manufacturing to how the product is marketed. There are so many terms tossed around when marketing these products that can oftentimes just be very confusing for a consumer. This can be a major turnoff to purchase when you don’t know specifically what is in a product or the actual amount of CBD and cannabinoids you’re taking. Over time this has gotten better but there is still work to be done to keep companies accountable.

Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

Know when to say yes, know when to say no. Take the time to do your research of vendors, suppliers, manufacturing partners trying to pitch their services. There is a lot of noise in the industry, and you must focus on what it best for your company and customers.
Understand your target customers and know how to reach them. Market research can and will point to nearly any demographic you want it to. However, look at the cost to reach them and what it will take to acquire the customer. It’s important to find the lifetime value of your customers. You can adjust your branding and marketing to meet the demographic you have the best opportunity to reach.
Start small and plan steady growth. Your path will change, and your business model will become more focused over time. Steady growth has proven to be best for our brand and we continue to hone in on our demographic. Most cases I’ve seen with rapid growth and product placement didn’t last past a quarter or two.
Have a reliable and consistent supply chain. As the industry matures, some companies will cease to exist. Having the consistency in all your channels along with backup suppliers and manufacturing partners will pay dividends sooner than you expect.
Keep your expectations reasonable and your goals within reach. This may not be agreeable with everyone but having goals to reach each month has been key for us. As long as the needle is moving in the right direction, we know we’re on the right path. Getting past small roadblocks each week instead of hitting a wall with no way around will help achieve steady growth.

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

First off, be adaptable. The CBD space has changed so drastically over the years, and will continue to shift, so if you cannot move with it then you will be left behind. Don’t be afraid to change your mind and go in a different direction than originally planned. Lastly, trust your gut. If something or someone sounds too good to be true, they most likely are. However, don’t forget that your employees are still the heartbeat of the company. Take the time to know about their lives and recognize their contribution to a company’s success will pay off in the long run. Be generous around holidays and find grace when life and personal problems arise. We’re all human and being human from a management standpoint will bring them in closer to the company.

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. 🙂

One of the most lifechanging things for myself is to be able to take time to be with myself and just reflect. I keep a steady routine of trying to walk every morning for about 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes I’ll listen to a podcast, but mostly I just enjoy the peaceful silence. Our brains need time and space to wander, reflect, dream, and contemplate. I feel that if people took more time to be comfortable to be with themselves and not plugged in or looking for constant instant gratification there might be a little more calmness in the world. Great things come when you can spend time inside your own head. Take the time to check in on how you feel and not be afraid to keep asking the question of why. When you ask yourself why enough times, it’ll help get to the root of the problem. From there with clarity, you can start to make decisions or changes.

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

You can check us out on Facebook and Instagram @AlturaWellness to learn more about us and to educate yourself on CBD. We pride ourselves in educating our audience so that they can make an informed decision and it’s been a great way for us to connect with our audience and learn more about them and what questions they have.

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

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

Female Founders: Carter Barnhart of Charlie Health On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Carter Barnhart of Charlie Health On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Compassion: if you don’t have compassion for both your clients and your team, you’re not going to build a sustainable network of support for your company. If you don’t care about other people in a substantive way, why should they care about you and your company?

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

Carter serves as Co-founder and CEO of Charlie Health, a virtual IOP mental health program that provides services to high-acuity adolescents and young adults (ages 12–27) with mental health primary diagnoses including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and other mood disorders. Prior to Charlie Health, Carter worked at Newport Healthcare for 11 years serving as Chief of Staff to Newport’s founder and CEO. In 2018, when Carlyle hired a new CEO, Carter was promoted to Chief Experience Officer. Carter was the youngest-ever female member of a Carlyle portfolio company C-suite.

My journey into behavioral healthcare started as a patient. When I was a teenager, I really struggled with my mental health. My family tried just about everything to help, but I couldn’t find any relief from my symptoms on my own or in more traditional talk therapies. By age 17, I was admitted to Newport Academy, a teen residential treatment program, as one of their first patients. Newport was the first place I found community, connection, and ultimately, healing. Two years after I left Newport, I reached out to their founder and CEO to ask if I could join their team as an intern. Over the next decade, I worked side-by-side with him, helping to grow Newport from 10 employees to over 2,000.

My passion for mental healthcare stems from my personal experiences. I wouldn’t be who or where I am today without receiving high-quality, compassionate care. Doing this work is more than just work. I can’t imagine doing anything else, and I’m honored to be able to serve kids who are experiencing many of the same mental health issues that I did.

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

Both the most interesting and one of the most rewarding aspects of my leadership at Charlie Health is that I get to do it alongside my co-founder and life partner, Justin Weiss. It’s a unique experience to navigate both business and personal life together, and I’m incredibly grateful to have his energy and expertise behind Charlie Health. We’ve shared the same vision from the beginning: to save millions of lives through providing high-quality, accessible mental health treatment programs. And while it’s sometimes challenging to work with someone you also are in a relationship with (we’re definitely a yin/yang type duo), it’s also forged a sense of resiliency and compassion between the two of us that actually benefits the growth of our business. We work well together and both have a personal connection to expanding access to teens and families who need it. It’s definitely one of the more unique chapters to the story of Charlie Health.

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 committed a huge Zoom mistake that still makes me cringe a bit to this day. On a Monday morning, I logged into a meeting to introduce myself in one of our virtual group therapy sessions with 6 of our adolescent patients, and my background was still set from a virtual birthday party I went to over the weekend. It was a zoomed in, blurry, and very silly picture of me and my friend sticking out our tongues as teenagers. Too much makeup, embarrassing outfits, the whole thing. Everyone laughed at me, of course, but it also was a cool moment to connect with our patients. Despite me feeling silly for forgetting something as basic as my Zoom background, I hope it showed them that I’m just as human as they are and that therapy, treatment, and recovery can be full of funny moments too.

Without a doubt, Jamison Monroe Jr, Newport Academy’s Founder and my first boss. He provided me with a foundational education in how compassionate, evidence-based care should be delivered. He also taught me when to talk and when to shut up, which is incredibly important! He pushed me and gave me the flexibility to fail then learn from my mistakes.

My experience working for him has allowed me to think more critically about how to best serve our patients — how do we build a company and provide healthcare in a way that’s cemented in the best, most cutting-edge clinical practices? Without Jamison’s guidance, I simply wouldn’t have that context to lean on.

Fear — fear of failure and fear of rejection. We constantly hear that most companies fail in the first few years and this narrative causes people to question if they should even try. I believe that it’s my duty as a female founder to inspire, mentor, coach, advise, and most importantly empower other people to take risks. And then offer unconditional support if they do fail, which is really just an opportunity to learn and grow.

I am lucky to have a tribe that I know supports me. I’ve had that mentorship and really benefited from people who refused to let me be afraid. So I really view it as a privilege to be a female founder. I hope that young girls now who see more and more female-founded companies like Charlie Health will feel inspired to start their own companies.

I think it is important to also note that there is a clear and disproportionate lack of women of color, trans women, and non-binary founders. We have to advocate for those who are still left out of the progress of female founders, which includes making sure our definition of “female” champions inclusivity. Pinning our success on a narrow definition of who a female founder is or who they look like is completely counterproductive to the mission of diversifying business for the better. The more perspectives and critical conversations we can engage in as founders, the better. Diverse and inclusive hiring and promotional opportunities are a must. You can’t just pluck a resume from a pile for the sake of diversity then do nothing to foster and help that person grow into their fullest potential. At Charlie Health, we treat a lot of LGBTQ+ kids and it’s critical that our team reflects the diversity of our patients to provide the most informed care. So for anyone in a leadership position, I encourage you to be thoughtful about how you think about inclusivity and how to put it into action.

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?

Talk! No conversation about mental health awareness is too small. Whether it’s Simone Biles or a middle schooler being vulnerable with their best friend about what’s going on, we have to continue to normalize transparent, honest conversations. We all face mental health challenges at some point, but when we build a network of people we trust around us, it reminds us that we’re not alone. And as more people feel comfortable talking about what they’re living with, more people will feel comfortable reaching out for help. Talking about my experience with mental health still isn’t always easy, but if I’m able to help even one person find the courage to seek support, it’s worth it. I want to be a role model to show that yes, you can have experienced trauma and depression and anxiety and substance abuse and make it to the other side and live an amazing, fulfilling life. But the first step is asking for help and then letting people in to provide it.

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?

To my point above, I think it’s important to acknowledge that the basis of developing more women founders in general needs to be tethered to a commitment to diversity. More diverse founders allow for more innovative solutions to problems. Widening the pool of people who are committed to solving those problems will only make our world a better place. Think of it this way: if, for example, we completely lacked any female-founders, we’d never address the issues that women specifically face, or at least approach the solution in a way that uniquely targets the experience of women. So if you have an idea: go for it! You can’t change if you’re not willing to grow. Which, by the way, is another skill I’ve found women to be great at — embracing change.

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

I’d like to change the whole narrative around success.

Everyone struggles. No matter how accomplished you may seem, what you look like, what you’ve done before, where you live — everyone struggles. And you are never alone in that struggle. In fact, chances are, there are other people in the exact same position as you right now who want to talk about what they’re feeling overwhelmed by or think they can’t handle. As founders, we all make mistakes. Lots of them. Founders are often glorified and defined by a single adjective–innovative, trailblazing, inspirational. In reality, everyone is fallible and it’s important to normalize it.

Of course anyone can be a founder! I don’t think there’s a special formula of traits or degrees or anything that would constitute a perfect person for the job. It’s really about commitment, passion, and vision. If you have a great idea that you care deeply about, start building a network of people who also think it’s a great idea and who also deeply care about it. There’s really no right or wrong way to do it if you’re guided by a shared mission — definitely stay organized though! And humble. Writing a thank you note after an introduction or making sure to actively listen when receiving feedback are both super important.

But to answer your question differentiating between a “regular job” and a founder job: I think we have to acknowledge the institutional barriers that often box people out from leadership positions, or make them think they’re not qualified enough to move up. Gender, sexuality, race, and disability status are still hurdles to upward mobility in the founder community. We have to acknowledge and overhaul that reality.

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.)

Compassion: if you don’t have compassion for both your clients and your team, you’re not going to build a sustainable network of support for your company. If you don’t care about other people in a substantive way, why should they care about you and your company?
Precision: it’s really easy to get distracted or bogged down by the occasional chaos that can accompany starting your own company. So tackling each project or task as it comes and remaining laser-focused on your founding mission and vision will help you drown out all of the other noise.
Unparalleled work ethic: This will come easily, if not naturally, when you’re passionate about what you do. Relentlessness is a fringe benefit of deep belief in the people you’re serving and the team you’ve entrusted to help you guide the company.
Chutzpah: In this fast-moving world, most people have the attention of a fly. To make a lasting impression, you only have a second. In those few seconds it’s not charisma that counts, it’s chutzpah.
Empathy: this is similar to compassion, but different in how it affects you on a personal level. Having empathy…for clients and employees…trickles out into your broader world views and informs how you deliver care. Empathy is at the core of what we do at Charlie Health and I believe that it sets us apart. Many of us at the company have experienced these same mental health issues as our clients. Empathy also gives us perspective when the work feels overwhelming or even fruitless in the face of such a massive mental health crisis.

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

The entirety of my career has been devoted to addressing the youth mental health crisis head-on. Charlie Health is an extension of that mission, and I believe through our innovative model of offering virtual care that’s anchored in both compassionate care delivery and virtual accessibility, we can make a fundamentally change in rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other mental health issues. Radically and relentlessly expanding access to mental healthcare by implementing a payer agnostic model is also part of this mission. Disparities in access only exacerbate the problem (such as the amount of time people spend on waiting lists for treatment; the barriers that family finances or insurance puts up around receiving care). Charlie Health exists to eradicate those barriers. We’re also hyper-aware that access for rural kids, kids of color and Native kids, and members of the LGBTQ+ community is even more difficult.

At a more granular level, building a company culture that equally commits itself to the wellbeing of our team will ultimately contribute to a healthier corporate landscape across the board. Just like we believe that wellness and recovery require a cohesive plan that involves the entire family unit, we believe that supporting the health and wellness of our clinicians and staff ensures that our patients are receiving care from people who are operating at their best. Care providers need care too.

I’m doing it. I truly believe that making high acuity care accessible by way of leveraging virtual therapy and other types of technology will change the lives of young people and their families across the country. I’ve seen it in real-time with the hundreds of patients we’ve already worked with. I learned about empathetic, compassionate, personal care as a teen myself, but it’s my mission to build a company that provides that to as many people as possible. We won’t stop until this crisis is tempered…and even then, we’ll keep going because there’s no shortage of people who need help.

I’d love to sit down and talk with Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube. Her career is absolutely prolific, and her leadership over the last two decades has shaped some of the most fundamental shifts in how we understand business and lifestyle today. I’m really inspired by the way she’s pivoted so many times as new opportunities arose over the years: from marketing and advertising to analytics and tech and now at the helm of one of the most influential companies. I’d jump at the opportunity to pick her brain.

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

Female Founders: Carter Barnhart of Charlie Health 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: Lauren Banyar Reich of LBR PR On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as…

Female Founders: Lauren Banyar Reich of LBR PR On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

A Village. This is different than a tribe! The village is HOW you get things done, especially as a woman and as a mother. In today’s day and age you MUST build your own. Fill it with people who have skills and time and talents that you don’t have and then delegate delegate delegate! Your village will evolve as your life and business evolve, but this support system is what allows you the peace of mind, the time, and the space to succeed at growing your business. It’s also who you can rely on when there’s a miscommunication on date night!

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

For over fifteen years, Lauren Banyar Reich has utilized her PR experience to help professional service firms, law firms, health and medical professionals, business leaders and consumer lifestyle brands gain visibility and credibility that moves the needle. Her firm, LBR PR, focuses on thought leadership and combines high-touch service and impactful results with a transparency and authenticity that is unique to the PR world.

I made two very important decisions when I was 18 — I picked a fabulous boyfriend out of the crowd who ended up being my husband, and I chose to study PR and Journalism. I’ve always loved writing — and speaking — in fact, I never really stop doing either of those things. So when I was trying to choose a major and a school, someone suggested PR and the rest was history.

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

I don’t know if this is interesting or not, but it was a really important lesson that finally sunk in a few years ago: There is no magic bullet. There are authors, consultants, coaches, operating systems, software — you name it — out there that purport to solve all of your business woes or show you the clear path the success. None of them are THE answer. I think THE answer to success is to find your own path. To find the tools and guidance that each of these sources bring to bear and then take what works for you and your business and apply it in a way that works for you. Talk to other founders, other women in business, ask questions and share experiences with them. Pilot an idea or a concept to see how it feels and if it works for you before pivoting your whole business to follow one idea. But understand that no one is going to give you the magic solution to the problems in your business — or your life — so continue to seek, to learn, to be curious, but always to follow your own path and what resonates most for you.

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?

Juggling the responsibilities of being an entrepreneur, being married to an entrepreneur, and having a family and a life gets really hectic, and sometimes things fall through the cracks. A few years after starting my business there was a communication snafu and our boys were both left stranded at their respective after-care programs. The fallout was minimal, there were no tears, and this was the first (hopefully, only!) time it has happened in now more than a decade of parenting. One thing that was not lost in communication? That mom and dad were out on a date night!

The kids know this time is important to us — though typically it does not preclude them getting picked up on time… The lesson? When you have a village, in this case, one that we built around our family, these slip ups end up being a funny story and not a total disaster! You can’t do anything all by yourself in business or in life, and having a “village” of people who love you, help you and can pick up your kids in a pinch, is monumentally important!

The story begins like this: I have a lovely mother. I never knew I needed to be adopted, until I was taken under the wing of my “business” mother and mentor, Beth Bronfman. I’ll never forget how we met — she was my client, as the communications chair of a membership organization that had hired the agency I was working for at the time — and our first conversation was in the ladies room talking about Botox. Then we went into this meeting, and she was the same person, no airs, no ego, just authentic and real and there for the greater good, whether it was an experience share on the best doctors or how to get brand visibility for this organization.

We really hit it off, and when I went out on my own she was there every step of the way. Reminding me that these growing pains are normal, that business is business and not personal, telling me, “don’t whine!” and always taking a fair and measured look at any situation whether it resulted in constructive criticism or praise. She has been my biggest advocate and cheerleader and I am forever grateful.

I think it’s the same feeling that is the root of why people do or do not take a chance on themselves: fear.

Being an entrepreneur is scary and wild and fun and that can be frightening for anyone, male or female. It’s human nature to stay in a situation until the pain of it outweighs the fear of jumping ship or making a change. Sometimes you get nudged out of the nest, like I did, and the question was: do I get another job or try and do this thing and start my own firm? I opted to “pilot” being an entrepreneur for six months and I never looked back. So, when women in particular have a job but want to make that shift to being a founder, it is a scary thing to make that shift, but it is important to feel the fear and then do it anyway!

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 need to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Instead of jumping to a distraction — scrolling social media, shopping, eating, drinking (all of which I’d much rather do than be uncomfortable!) — we need to sit in that feeling a bit more. Breathe through it, phone a friend, journal, etc. but force yourself to face the fear and look at why you are so afraid. It’s kind of corny, but if we all did a little more of this, we might be able to get out of our own way when it comes to taking bigger risks with bigger opportunities for success in business, but also to perhaps build some bridges in the community and the world that are certainly in need of repair.

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 don’t know if this is a woman-thing or not, but I think as people we often try to hedge our bets. Make a decision that feels risky but calculated. Look for a path that offers some sort of security or guarantee. And the truth is that NOTHING is guaranteed, and no one is coming to save you. This may sound negative or depressing, but I see it as the ultimate freedom. It means that no one — no boss, company, significant other or superhero — is going to rescue you, so you better start believing in yourself and act accordingly.

For me, this meant starting my own business despite having no cornerstone clients, no business plan and two small kids under five. If I was going to work this hard for something, I wanted it to be on my own terms, win, lose or draw. And the best part? This also means that we as female founders get to write and break and re-draft the rules in a way that supports the kind of life and business we want to have. I think that is the ultimate reason to become a founder.

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

You don’t have to know everything! Over the years I have worked under women founders, albeit from a different generation, and I was always confounded that they wouldn’t admit when they didn’t know the answer to a client question. They would talk around it, answer the question poorly or deflect, but never simply say, “I don’t know. Let us look into it and get back to you.” Maybe this was related to the era in which they came up and they thought it was seen as a weakness, but I see admitting you don’t know something as a sign of strength. Show your clients and your team that you are always learning, curious, honest and willing to do the work to get them a great answer instead of a garbage answer. It’s not about you and your ego, it’s about doing great work and providing value to your clients.

Can everyone be a founder? Sure. But you have to have a great number two… and a three and a four and so on. The team matters so much when it comes to the success of any business and the people in those roles are critical, so truly great people have to want to be in those roles too.

On paper, someone may have every skill that would make them a stellar founder, but they may not be comfortable using those skills. Just because I can write doesn’t mean I want to sit down and create the next great American novel. I want to use those skills in pursuit of my — and my client’s — other goals and interests. A good friend of mine once told me, “Lauren, not everyone wants to be in charge all the time.” I was dumbstruck. Really? Because I do. But not everyone does, even if they have those skills.

I think it’s less about having a specific skill set than it is about what you want from your life, what your values and goals are — and also where you are in your career and your personal life at any given moment. This is when necessity can become the mother of invention… I was not set up to be a founder until I was. I didn’t have the experience or the vision or the work ethic, especially early on. I didn’t get it. Then things started clicking and my life started to reveal itself to me and different things, like mentoring younger women and having control over my own time and working with clients that aligned with my values started to matter more. So it became more about following that vision, which certainly changes for all of us as we progress in our lives.

A Tribe. Whether it’s simply a group of amazing women who will support you or fellow entrepreneurs, success breeds success and growth-minded individuals make magic happen! In my case I have multiple tribes that I look to for support. When I first piloted my idea of having my own PR firm, the first group I told was my book club. They supported me unconditionally right out of the gate and even shared their own networks and expertise to help me get my business off the ground. Later on, I found Entrepreneurs Organization and joined the NYC Accelerator program which has been an incredible community to be a part of. Having a group of peers to learn from and share with is simply invaluable. Find people who will share their experiences without “should-ing” on you, who will be vulnerable about what has worked for them and what hasn’t and who you can help grow by sharing your own experiences.
The Ability to Listen to Your Own Intuition. Every single time I have had to convince myself to do something — taking on a client, adjusting a retainer fee, hiring someone I didn’t love because I was in a pinch — I have been sorry afterwards. I felt those red flags in my gut, but because I was afraid, or swimming momentarily in a scarcity mindset, I went against my own intuition and did the thing… and it was always disastrous. Not ruinous, but a mistake. For example, one client begged and flattered and cajoled us to take them on at a severely reduced rate. She signed the contract, paid the first month’s retainer and then worked us harder than any client has ever before! We continued in good faith well into the second month of work when they ghosted us entirely and then refused to pay even a deeply reduced prorated rate for the hours of work we had already completed. All along, I knew that this was going to be a stretch for her financially, but I believed in her passion and her mission, so I ignored the signs… and lost a few thousand dollars over it. All in, a cheap lesson to learn EARLY and not repeat. Now I know why and how to tune in and really listen to my own intuition in these situations.
Know That Freaking Out Never Helps. This is a lesson that I learned directly from Beth Bronfman. I was interviewing her for a project we were working on together and she said that this is one thing that she wished she had learned sooner. Me too! Months after having this conversation, we were going through a slow patch with new business and several clients had wrapped successful campaigns with us all at once, so the pipeline was not flowing as freely as I had hoped. Sometimes this is the nature of entrepreneurship, but that doesn’t make it fun or easy. When I had first been though a cycle like this early on in my business I really freaked — I wasn’t sleeping, I was irritable and as a result I wasn’t my best self as a mom, wife, or boss. This time, with Beth’s advice in my ear, I made a conscious decision not to freak out and instead focus on the things I knew I needed to do to find and win new business. I focused on the things I could control — the way I spent my time, the amount of networking events I attended, the number of emails and phone calls I could make to shake the trees, how I could reconnect and help those in my network to remind them of our value (and our work!), etc. Low and behold, the worm turned. No one — me, my family and friends, my team — had to suffer as a result and the outcome was the same. Often this is much easier said than done, but I relied on breath work, mantras, physical activity, and my own conscious decision to choose to be positive and I was able to keep those helpless freak-out feelings at bay.
Have Faith… Especially When it is Hard. Faith comes easy for many, but not for me. I want to know how we are going to get to where we are going, what we are going to need along the way and what happens when we get there. Alas, this is not how much of life works. Especially when you are a business owner. Years ago, I wrote out a vision for my day — from dropping the kids of at school to getting in a morning run, meeting my team at an awards luncheon where our firm was being recognized and ending the day with a networking event with my husband. At the time we only had one kid, I was working for someone else and commuted to the city five days a week. This vision felt like a fairy tale or a pipe dream. I was so scared it wouldn’t come to fruition that it took me months to get the courage to even write it down. About a year after starting my business I found this paper stuffed in a book and read it and cried. I had done and could do all this and more, ALREADY! If we can dream it the faith and the success will follow. I’m saying this now even as I stall on putting my next vision to paper (which will be much bigger and grander!), but I do know that having faith in myself and my vision will help me get there faster and with less resistance.
A Village. This is different than a tribe! The village is HOW you get things done, especially as a woman and as a mother. In today’s day and age you MUST build your own. Fill it with people who have skills and time and talents that you don’t have and then delegate delegate delegate! Your village will evolve as your life and business evolve, but this support system is what allows you the peace of mind, the time, and the space to succeed at growing your business. It’s also who you can rely on when there’s a miscommunication on date night!

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

I love helping young women navigate the world and build the life and career they want. Sometimes this has meant advocating for them for raises and promotions, or hiring and mentoring them at LBR PR. It can also mean having a conversation with a colleague’s sister’s friend’s cousin’s daughter about getting her first PR gig. The guys are not excluded here, but there are so many women in PR and communications — plus my passion for walking the walk as a female business leader — that this is often who I am speaking with and helping to connect within my network.

Before I get myself into trouble, I want to say that my husband and I have one of the most “equal” marriages and divisions of household duties of almost any couple I know… and yet. If I could inspire one movement, it would be to more equitably share the invisible workload of women, mothers and especially working mothers. I think it begins by modeling equity in the home and at the office and by placing value on the work of caregiving and family. In fact, it’s the men who advocate for things like paid leave or flexible work schedules who can help move the needle on this for all of us.

Tina Fey. She’s hysterical — if you haven’t read Bossy Pants, pick it up immediately — and a baller writer and producer in an industry where it is very difficult for women to rise to the top. She’s authentic and honest, a working mom and she’s from Philly near where I grew up. I figure I will just ask her a million questions and then we can talk about Wawa hoagies and feminism. It would be great!

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

Female Founders: Lauren Banyar Reich of LBR PR 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: Dr Theresa Welch Fossum of Dr Fossum’s Pet Care On The Five Things You Need To…

Female Founders: Dr Theresa Welch Fossum of Dr Fossum’s Pet Care On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I am a risk taker by nature. Once I have mastered something I am typically looking for my next challenge. I was recently asked by a mid-sized company to give a keynote presentation to their workers who are spread all over the world. Many of these employees were young women and my main points to them were “be willing to take risks!” and “be willing to step out of your comfort zone”. You will never get ahead if you aren’t willing to do these two things.

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

Dr. Theresa Fossum is a world-renowned board-certified veterinary surgeon and considered one of the most well-respected doctors in all of veterinary medicine. With over 30 years of practice, plus decades of research, teaching, entrepreneurship, and publishing five editions of her textbook Small Animal Surgery known as the top resource on its subject and is used in veterinary schools globally, Dr. Fossum has recently turned her attention to the burgeoning field of natural health. Now the CEO of Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care, this globally recognized pet doctor is creating plant-based remedies for cats, dogs, and horses that are efficacious without the damaging side effects of many pharmaceutical products.

I grew up on a cattle and quarter horse ranch in northern Idaho. I have loved animals since I was a young child and by the time I was in 3rd grade I had decided that I wanted to be a veterinarian. Human medicine never really interested me. I graduated from veterinary school at Washington State University and because of my background, I thought that I would end up being an equine veterinarian. However, I did a year as an intern at a small animal clinic in Santa Cruz, California, and fell in love with surgery. I went on to do a surgical residency at the Ohio State University and then received board certification in surgery. I have never officially practiced on large animals. Developing wellness products for pets was a natural extension of what I love to do most — help animals!

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

Founding and starting this company has been a huge learning curve for me. I knew from the start that I only wanted to provide the highest quality products possible and that I wanted to develop products that met unmet medical needs in the animal world. It wasn’t my original intent to have the company called Dr. Fossum’s Pet Care. I was thinking of something more generic such as Vets4Pets. However, my advisors (we all need them!) recommended using my name because of my reputation, both domestically and internationally, in veterinary medicine. Over 25 years ago I wrote the most used textbook in veterinary medicine, Small Animal Surgery, which is now in its 5th edition. Having your name on the company has led to a whole different realm for me. I didn’t expect to be the primary person being interviewed about products or appearing on talk and radio shows. While I do a lot of speaking around surgery, I am an introvert by nature so I am not only learning everything about designing and selling our products but I am also learning new skills to help get the word out about our products.

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?

This isn’t really funny, but when we came out with our first CBD/CBG product we thought that veterinarians would be interested in recommending and/or selling CBD products because they were getting inquiries every day from clients who wanted their advice on what product to use and how to dose it. Because CBD had recently become legal federally, we thought that state boards would also consider CBD legal. What a mistake! Instead, most states have failed to give guidance to veterinarians regarding CBD products and that has left these veterinarians not knowing what they can say or do when clients ask about cannabis. Once we realized this we knew that we needed to produce products that did not contain cannabinoids as well. Our first non-cannabinoid-containing product, CogniCaps, was recently released to the market. This product is intended to help maintain cognitive function in aging dogs and we are very excited about it. In fact, my 11-year-old Labrador is taking it and it seems to be helping him immensely.

I have had a number of important mentors during my career but in regards to starting a Wellness company, my most fortunate find was my COO, Sean Ford. Sean has been in the cannabinoid space for years and he understands the benefits of the different components of the cannabis plant. I have learned a lot about how to source great ingredients to make our products and what components, when combined, give the best outcome. There are very few pet products on the market that contain anything other than CBD and CBDA. While we likely weren’t the first, we were one of the earliest companies to add other cannabinoids such as CBG and CBN plus additional terpenes to our products.

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?

There are a number of things in my opinion that hold women back from founding companies. First, starting a company is a risky business — most fail not because they aren’t a good idea but because they are undercapitalized. I think it is still significantly harder for women to get the necessary capital to grow their companies than it is for equally qualified men to do so. Additionally, women may have a harder time stepping out of their comfort zone. Anytime you start a company there are so many unknowns that you have to have a lot of faith in yourself that you won’t fail or if you do fail, you will learn a lot from the failure and will be able to pick yourself back up and start again. Lastly, there are fewer mentors available for women and mentors are exceedingly important for anyone starting a business.

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 more mentors. These could be retired individuals who desire to give back and are willing to take a woman founder under his/her wings and save them from making critical mistakes. Women can’t spend significant time on businesses when they have young kids without additional help. High-quality, affordable child care would be a boost for many women. Also, I would love to see more government funds that are strictly for women and minority entrepreneurs.

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?

There are plenty of issues that relate more to females than men and, not surprisingly, women are much better at discerning these issues and coming up with solutions. Having women entrepreneurs that have started successful small businesses means that more workers will be employed (sometimes more women than men) which will help grow our economy. Women tend to be highly creative and may be more likely than men to become serial entrepreneurs. All of this is important for our economy.

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

There are many people who believe that becoming a founder is relatively easy work. You come up with an idea, find some funding, and “BAM” you will be successful. There is so much more work, HARD WORK, that goes into it. I once had a friend tell me that when you are putting a company or funding together, it will fall apart 4 times before it actually comes to fruition. That has happened to me numerous times and knowing that has made it a little easier to take the times when it all seems to be falling apart because I know it is just part of the process.

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?

The two most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur are that 1) they need to be visionary, and 2) they need to be comfortable taking risks. Visionary entrepreneurs can see what they want their business to look like 5 or 6 years down the road. They may not know how they are going to get there, but they see the outcome. These visionary entrepreneurs need to surround themselves with “detail” people who can fill in the gaps as they move along. The “detail” people will have a tough time seeing the long-term goal but they are essential in helping the visionary person get where they want to go.

To thrive and succeed as a female entrepreneur, you 1) need to have confidence in yourself and be willing to take risks, 2) be willing to reach out to others who have been down a similar path that you are taking and ask for help, 3) be passionate about your company/products, 4) do your research, and 5) be or get good at selling yourself and your company to potential investors.

When I first started my company I had a partner who rarely did research on products and he talked me into moving forward on a couple of products that just didn’t have the science behind them. We lost money on these products because as I became more educated I refused to sell these products because I couldn’t back them from a scientific standpoint. I learned to do my own research and never be influenced by someone, whether it is a partner or a friend, who doesn’t.

I am a risk taker by nature. Once I have mastered something I am typically looking for my next challenge. I was recently asked by a mid-sized company to give a keynote presentation to their workers who are spread all over the world. Many of these employees were young women and my main points to them were “be willing to take risks!” and “be willing to step out of your comfort zone”. You will never get ahead if you aren’t willing to do these two things.

As I noted above, I am an introvert who has learned to be successful in an extrovert environment. You will have to learn how to meet people and interest them in your ideas and company “sell them”; whether you are asking for advice or investment. I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by great people willing to help me but if you don’t have those people in your life, consider hiring a coach to help you. It will be worth the time and effort.

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

My goal with this company is to help pets live better, healthier, and happier lives. When I receive an email from a pet owner telling me how much we have helped their pet, that is all the thanks I need. It does my heart good to know that we have made a difference in their pet’s life and by extension, their life.

This isn’t new and I likely won’t be the person to inspire the movement; however, I am 100% committed to providing opportunities to women and minorities to succeed in business. We need more “boot camps” for women — ones designed for women where they don’t have to leave their kids with someone else. Some of these can be virtual but networking is important so we need ones where women can bring their kids because there is daycare provided and funds available to help offset the cost.

I love Shark Tank and am always putting myself in the place of the participants and asking myself how I would do on that show. Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner I especially admire because they are successful, smart, tough women who can hold their own with the men on the show. I would also love to meet Richard Branson. He is an incredible businessman who seems to have fun with his job and company. A few years ago we were at a safari camp that he owned and everyone who worked there seemed to love and respect him. That’s my ideal business person.

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

Note from Susan von Seggern, publicist for Dr. Fossum — Hey Candice, I didn’t see a spot on the uploader to put the link for the company, but we’d really love that link to accompany the piece, it’s https://drfossums.com/. Can you make sure it’s included? Thanks!

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

Female Founders: Dr Theresa Welch Fossum of Dr Fossum’s Pet Care 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: Jenna Owens of Fitish On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman…

Female Founders: Jenna Owens of Fitish On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Ability to overcome fear- Entrepreneurship is terrifying. Going from a salaried job or something with a steady paycheck to the possibility of zero income, asking people you admire for a loan and dealing with the disasters that are inevitable are all alot to stomach. I had no idea how many sleepless nights I would have feeling wrecked over potential failures and cash flow. I’ve learned that you have to keep believing in yourself and your idea because as high the highs can be, the lows are far lower.

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

Jenna Owens, the founder of Fitish, has been making a name for herself in the beauty and wellness industry since 2017. She originally gained popularity as the co-host of the nationally-syndicated The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show. After 12 years on the radio, Owens decided to try something different and launched Fitish. As the athleisure trend continues to gain momentum and consumers seek beauty and wellness products that support their fitness goals, Fitish offers activewear, petcare and skincare that utilizes the buzzworthy self-care ingredient CBD.

I’ve never been one of those people that knew exactly what they wanted to do from a young age. I’ve been quite envious of that, actually. For me, life has been more about finding out what you don’t like and then also aligning yourself with what you’re good at and what you gravitate towards simply by trying new things all of the time. I was always a decent writer and speaker, which led me to a radio career for the first chapter of my adult life. I started to explore the idea of starting a business of my own around the age of 30. I knew I wanted to find a way to capitalize on this very genuine platform I had built from hosting a radio show every morning. I sat with the idea of something in beauty for a few years; I kept it on my mind through everything I did, waiting on a lightbulb moment. One day, it hit me while at a boot camp class. Women were wearing chic workout outfits, freshening up their makeup in the bathroom, and I realized there was something missing. Athletic beauty. Where were the products that helped get us from workout to boardroom and beyond?

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?

There are oh so many! The one that stands out the most because it caused the most damage at the time was letting an intern approve a production sample of a bottle. The lid was incorrect, and then I had 10 thousand lids that now no longer fit into the boxes we had made. A mentor of mine told me before I launched into a business that mistakes were going to happen at every level, and it was just about learning to handle them with grace and put checks and balances into place to try to best avoid them going forward. Being lean, as most startups are, you have no choice sometimes but to let employees have more responsibility than you might be comfortable with, and that was really hard for me to grasp at first.

There are those elders who, of course, encouraged and helped advise on decision-making, like my current CFO. However, I am, on a daily basis, most grateful for our customers. The single driving factor behind my business has been the customer testimonials about their experience with CBD skincare. I will never forget a series of photos I received from a woman whose mother was undergoing treatment for breast cancer and had the most severe burns from radiation I’ve ever seen. Her chest, breast and shoulder were burned and scabbed, and her daughter thought to try our Tone Down spray. Within days she was healed, and that moment for me was defining. I realized this wasn’t just a side hustle business as I first started out; this was about healing people. It gave me a greater sense of purpose and motivation, as well as the confidence to ultimately make the leap from my full-time radio gig to exclusively being an entrepreneur.

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?

Fortunately, I didn’t feel held back because I had created a platform for myself to do this. The biggest challenge I encountered and still do from time to time, was being taken seriously. For whatever reason, women don’t seem to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts even if more experienced or educated. I don’t know why that is, but I definitely feel there has been a vast improvement here especially with so many successful e-commerce businesses. You can start a store from your house and let it grow with minimal overhead and for me that was key. I would have had a much harder time pitching my idea about athletic beauty to strangers in a boardroom with my creative and zero business background. I haven’t had to do that yet for fundraising YET:) In general the financial strain is what is so hard. Women are paid less in general and when you have to toggle a job to start a business it can be impossible. I worked for years with two jobs just so I could live and make enough to pay rent while not taking money from the business. If women were paid more equally, there would likely be more options and opportunities.

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?

Personally, I think there’s a real lack of education in general around how to start and run a business. I never particularly understood why school curriculums are what they are. Sure, some courses are vital, but as a journalism major who minored in psychology, I always thought how important it would be to have younger kids learn more about psychology- especially mental health. Also, if there had been classes in high school or younger on how to start and run a business, even a lemonade stand, I would have gravitated towards that. I had zero knowledge of financials or how to start and scale a business and have learned MORE in the past two years of life than perhaps all of my undergraduate education.

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?

Financial freedom has always been so important to me. I never thought I would have the structure to be an entrepreneur. I’m a creative at heart and very nonlinear so there are many elements of running a business that were incredibly scary to me at first. I cannot express the liberation you feel at being able to wake up every day and set your own schedule. Sure, it’s terrifying to not have a set paycheck each month, but the payoff is far greater that feeling stuck in something unfulfilling. Also, being a founder has allowed me to live my life so differently. I am expecting my first child at the age of 37 and finally feel like I’m in a place where I can successfully manage this. I can bring him to work, which would not have been possible at my last job. Finally, I love the thought of inspiring even just one more woman to grow up and have the confidence to start her own business. I wouldn’t have done it without other women before me sharing their stories about taking risks and I hope to do that for others as well.

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

I never had the wool over my eyes about this, fortunately. I suppose I did think I would suddenly feel free from the daily grind, but this is such a different level of stress. I wake up constantly in the middle of the night and stress about cash flow OR scaling and new product delays. The other challenge for me has been managing people. I don’t think most founders are great at that. We are driven but at the same time used to starting and doing it all ourselves so learning to delegate, hire, fire and manage others is a tremendous responsibility and quite the learning curve for me at least.

Unequivocally not. In my opinion, those who live more fear-based lives will not be able to handle a founding role. The want has to outweigh the fear, and it takes a certain level of self-confidence to truck through the mud of it all. I would say intense motivation, passionate belief in what you’re doing, and an ability to stomach the fear and nerves are all crucial traits.

Ambition — For me this equates simply to work ethic. No amount of money or skill is going to offset a reticence to work hard. Alot of people want to start a business and have success. The number who are willing to put in the hours is far fewer. For years I worked a radio morning show job from 4 am until lunchtime and then would work on Fitish until midnight. I don’t doubt for a second that it was my effort that led me to this place.
Ability to overcome fear- Entrepreneurship is terrifying. Going from a salaried job or something with a steady paycheck to the possibility of zero income, asking people you admire for a loan and dealing with the disasters that are inevitable are all alot to stomach. I had no idea how many sleepless nights I would have feeling wrecked over potential failures and cash flow. I’ve learned that you have to keep believing in yourself and your idea because as high the highs can be, the lows are far lower.
Leadership. This was the hardest for me. I still don’t feel like a good leader sometimes. When you start a business alone, it can be challenging to hire, fire and delegate duties. I learned the hard way that the only way to grow a business is to do just that. You have to learn that no one will care about your business as much as you and that’s ok. You have to accept that you will ultimately need to relinquish alot of day to day responsibilities to those you hire so you can continue to grow the business. I have read alot of books on this subject and it’s still a process for me to figure out what kind of leader I am going to be.
Humility- Asking for help can be harder as a woman. When you already feel at a disadvantage or like people aren’t taking you seriously enough, it can feel impossible to have to seek counsel or ask for money. Starting a business into my 30’s rather than my know-it-all 20’s was crucial to allow me to acquire this skill. I have no shame asking for advice or admitting I needed help understanding a balance sheet. I have tried to learn as much as I can just to be familiar, but at the same time I recognize what my strengths are (sales and creative) while immediately outsourcing the other vital elements that I sucked at doing (accounting, inventory management). The tendency can be to do it all forever, but you will never scale successfully.
Expert mentality- You never want to be caught off guard not knowing every angle of your business, products, or mission. Take the time to be an expert in your space. Study competitors and really understand the niche that you’re in. I never gravitated towards science and I am by no means a chemist, but I have a very thorough understanding of cannabis and the plant’s benefits. This has come in handy on more that one occasion whether from a customer on the street OR in a retail pitch environment.

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

Though there is so much more I want to accomplish, I am proud of our annual Fitish Wishes. Having a platform to sell direct to consumer is such a blessing because we can speak directly to our customers and learn what they want and need and sometimes it’s not about the business or products at all. Gearing up for the holiday season, we ask for nominations for friends or relatives of customers that have been going through a hard time, and we surprise winners with money, gifts for kids, product, meal cards. It has been a very successful giveback campaign and our audience enjoys those feel-good moments and being able to contribute to other people in need. I’ve always wanted to use the platform for more than just selling goods, so to be able actually to help people on a deeper level is ultimately more fulfilling.

I am far too unqualified to accomplish a moment, haha. However, seeing the resistance and legal issues in the cannabis space is frustrating considering how deeply I believe this plant to be more healing than violence-inducing. CBD is far safer than alcohol and tobacco, yet there is still this stigma around it as a gateway drug. I would love to have more influence within the industry. The testimonials we have received from customers about how CBD has made an impact in their lives are jaw-dropping. For now, I try to serve as a vessel to educate consumers and the public on exactly what CBD is, how it works and why it’s nothing to be scared of.

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.

Someone once told me you don’t have to know your mentor. It can be a public figure that you admire and are able to learn about through their writing, interviews and work. I’ve always loved Sarah Blakely and her story about Spanx. As a female founder, I gravitate towards women who took huge risks and very easily could have lost it all, but believed so profoundly in their product they overcame the fear to continue. Now, despite her massive success, she remains relatable and continues to inspire women like me. I love following along with her social media and seeing how she manages to parent a herd of children while maintaining a successful career. Being pregnant with my first child and running a business I am filled with a new sense of fear about my abilities to do both well, but seeing a woman like her makes me more confident.

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

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

Female Founders: Estelle Garcia of LivaFortis On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as…

Female Founders: Estelle Garcia of LivaFortis On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Invest into your happiness, well-being, and health. At the end of the day, this is probably one of the most important things that you can do for yourself. Live your life, adopt a good work life balance, whatever this balance is for you. For me, it is spending time with my partner and pets, friends, and family. The time we spend together energizes and inspires me and I can use that energy to be more creative and problem solve at work. It certainly isn’t time that is wasted. You don’t have to live and breathe work.

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

Estelle Garcia is the Founder and CEO of LivaFortis Inc., a company that is taking on the low back pain market with a unique solution that combines an innovative wearable biofeedback device with a digital physical therapy clinic app. Estelle holds master’s Degrees in Translational Medicine (USCF and Berkeley) and Advanced Mechanical Engineering (University of Bristol, UK). Passionate about bringing innovative and accessible healthcare solutions to the market, her company’s telehealth enabled app is the first of its kind to explore concerns such as mental health, stress, and the physical and social environments when helping customers manage their chronic lower back pain.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/05c569b9d4378fb6afee8eb7b9440546/href">https://medium.com/media/05c569b9d4378fb6afee8eb7b9440546/href</a>

Growing up in France I was always fascinated with science and technology, so I decided to become a mechanical engineer and ended up specializing in medical technologies. I had the amazing opportunity to join UCSF and UC Berkeley where there is a rousing atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship. I was inspired to see what I could do for back pain sufferers beyond the somewhat frustrating, traditional implant and surgical options.

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

The most interesting thing that has happened to me since I began leading the company is the journey we went through developing these innovative technologies in order to respond to unmet clinical needs. I cannot tell you how amazing (and scary) it feels to have the conviction that you can develop a solution that will respond to the unmet clinical needs that you have identified. It feels amazing because you believe that you can help people and make a difference, but it is also scary because you start by being the only one that believes in the feasibility of your solution.

What was even harder was that, with our project, the specific technology we needed to develop was so advanced and new that it took us several years of trying (and lots of failures) to finally arrive at a working prototype and ultimately demonstrate that our concept was genuine. We had to overcome so many technical issues like having to develop specialized advanced sensors and unique signal processing algorithms for our technology. We also encountered supply chain issues on electronic components due to the Covid-19 situation.

Fortunately, I have an amazing team behind me that shares the same passion for the product and that is as determined as I am to always put our users first, and with this passion we were able to stay motivated through all the challenges that we have faced. All the bumps in the road that we faced on our journey to final product development have been worth it because of the enormous impact that we know our solution will have for customers and their quality of life.

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?

One day I was attending a talk given by a famous tech executive and entrepreneur (I don’t want to mention any specific names here) who was promoting entrepreneurship. I decided at the end of the talk to go and meet him and to introduce myself and my project since I was proud of being an entrepreneur myself. His first and only reaction to my story was: “And what do your parents think about it?” … I was completely shocked!

His question made me feel like a young girl who still needed her parents’ approval to be able to pursue the career she wanted, not like the confident woman that I had felt like just moments before. I was so disappointed that someone, who was supposed to help people achieve their entrepreneurial dreams could react like that. After this episode, I started doubting myself and my abilities to be a founder or CEO. It affected me so much that sometimes I did not dare introduce myself as such in front of successful entrepreneurs or executives for fear of being judged and belittled again.

Sometime later, when I was able to look back and reflect on this interaction, I realized that my real mistake had been to let his response affect me this way. I was still that confident woman who was starting her own business, no matter what he thought about it. It wasn’t the first time I encountered a situation like this one and I am sure it won’t be the last. It took me some time to regain confidence in myself and to be proud of my achievements, but my amazing team and strong support system has helped me a lot with this.

I wanted to share this story because I believe that there are quite a lot of female entrepreneurs and executives who suffer from imposter syndrome, some, perhaps after facing negative responses from men, as I did. As women we need to remember that we have earned our seat at the table and that we are just as entitled to sit there as men. Please, try your hardest not to let others affect you and define who you are. You are brave and amazing — own it!

My father is a successful business owner, and he has always been my biggest supporter and encourager. He was the one who helped cultivate my passion for engineering. When I had finally decided that it was time for me to make the leap to start my own company, I called him to let him know about my decision. My dad was so happy for me, and proud, but then he told me something that I had never known before. He said that he had wanted to start his own business at the beginning of his career, but that he hadn’t had the courage to do it at that point. It took him much longer to make the big decision to go out on his own and manage his own company. He was so happy that I had found the courage to do this from a much younger age and that I wasn’t going to be afraid of things like he was at my age. He has been my first supporter and advisor ever since.

There is still an enormous lack of support for female entrepreneurs, especially in the biotech world. Traditional stereotypes persist with perceptions of what women should and shouldn’t be doing. This can cause women to question themselves and their abilities. Imposter syndrome is still extremely prevalent and there needs to be more mentorship opportunities for female entrepreneurs to help them gain the confidence that they have as much right to be there as their male counterparts.

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?

There is a massive discrepancy in the resources and opportunities that are afforded to female entrepreneurs versus their male counterparts. Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia found that women had founded less than 10% of the 250 startups created by MIT professors. Female entrepreneurs need more access to VC funding, mentorship, education, and other resources. Studies have shown that women are only likely to apply to a job if they feel that they have almost all of the qualifications and skills required. Men, on the other hand, feel confident in applying if they have 50% of the skills required, and figure they can learn the rest along the way. We need to help women feel that confident in both applying for positions and feeling like they can receive the necessary support and training along the way. We also need to recognize the unique skills that women bring to the field and support them in unique ways that recognizes their individuality.

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?

Female entrepreneurs have a lot to offer the biotech industry. We bring a fresh perspective to customer needs as well as the fact that we have different viewpoints on where the gaps are in technology and what future trends may look like. Female entrepreneurs also often take a very different perspective to running a work environment and understanding the diverse needs of their employees. In my company I always try my best to work with my employees as individuals, helping them achieve a true work-life balance, which, I believe, fosters a happier, and more productive, workforce.

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

One myth that I have heard time and again from male founders is that if you want to have a successful business you must sacrifice your personal life. Many times, I have been made to feel guilty for wanting to do anything outside of running my company. I would be lying if I said that running your own company doesn’t require a lot of time and emotional investment but having interests outside of work is imperative for mental health. Running your own company is a marathon, not a sprint, and being able to balance a meaningful existence outside of that shouldn’t make you feel guilty. You were brave enough to start your company. This is your life, and you deserve to be in charge of it.

I believe that passion is the most important trait that you can have as a founder. When you are passionate about something you can naturally lead the charge and you will inspire those who work with you, and for you, to do the same. It takes a lot of courage and dedication to start your own company and those will come more naturally when you are following your passion. I don’t think that you necessarily need certain skills. There are many CEOs who have learned what they needed to know along the way and who have surrounded themselves with talented and skilled people to help them achieve their dreams. Anyone who has an idea with potential should be given the opportunity to work on it, even if it is just to determine true viability. We need to support women with their dreams and help them find the resources to achieve them.

Be confident. As women we must believe in ourselves even when we sometimes struggle with imposter syndrome. You are just as good as anyone else! The entrepreneur’s journey comes with a lot of self-doubt and self-questioning. Confidence and stress management are vital to success and need to be constantly worked on. I have found that there are many resources that you can find to help you, like life coaches, clubs, talks, etc. Don’t hesitate to reach out and make use of these resources.
Do what you like, love what you do! Be passionate, we only live once. I followed my dream to be an engineer and to put my skills to use helping people. It is easy to fall into the trap of working for existing companies and products because it seems like the least risky path. I risked a secure, well-paying job to start my own company because I was so passionate that we should be doing things differently to really improve the lives of customers. I will always know that I took that brave step and have no regrets!
Surround yourself with a strong support system that believes in you and in your project. Your support system can be composed of sincere friends, relatives, business partners, mentors, co-founders, anyone that trusts you and believes in you. You don’t have to deal with everything by yourself. It really does take a village to build a company. But remember, positive energy only! Do not give any credibility to anyone trying to bring you down because of who you are or what you do.
Invest into your happiness, well-being, and health. At the end of the day, this is probably one of the most important things that you can do for yourself. Live your life, adopt a good work life balance, whatever this balance is for you. For me, it is spending time with my partner and pets, friends, and family. The time we spend together energizes and inspires me and I can use that energy to be more creative and problem solve at work. It certainly isn’t time that is wasted. You don’t have to live and breathe work.
Respond first, and foremost, to the needs of your employees and partners. We all aim to create a business to respond to some people’s needs but I believe that it is vital to start by responding to the needs of your employees and partners. In my company I have hired people with diverse backgrounds and needs and I have found that by honoring their differences I am able to attract talented, hardworking, creative individuals who share the same passion for helping people as I do. Together we can challenge norms, think outside the box, and do great things!

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

I feel as if I am just getting started and I have so many things that I would like to achieve in this aspect. One thing that I have managed to do so far is to create a great working environment for my employees and to make sure that they feel empowered and fulfilled, regardless of their gender, culture, or background. 4 out of 5 employees at LivaFortis are women, at different stages in their lives and careers, and I want to do everything that I can to support them in both their personal and professional lives. Whether that is giving extra paid maternity time, allowing for flexible working hours to help balance child-care (or home schooling during the pandemic), time off for further studies, or even just supporting travel and time with loved ones.

My goal is to be able to accommodate the individual needs of employees as much as possible. Our work culture is based on mutual respect. I am proud to show that this type of working environment is feasible and that you can hire extremely talented women in the tech industry if you are willing to be flexible. This flexibility is not just for female employees, but my company recognizes that women are juggling many roles right now, and many have had to drop out of the workforce because of these issues. I want to retain these talented employees and find ways to work differently.

Wow! That is a tough question — but a great one! There is so much in motion right now, but I definitely see the movement to bring more diversity to entrepreneurship — which is amazing and long overdue. A big steppingstone to this, I believe, is education. I come from France, where education is mostly free, or at least significantly cheaper than it is in the US. I would love to be able to help improve access to education and make it more affordable for those wishing to pursue it. A great education can unlock so many doors and can inspire students to do new and amazing things. I was so fortunate to be able to access great education and to use it to start my company — it would be incredible if I could help others do the same.

Someone that I look up to is Sean Duffy, Co-founder and CEO of Omada Health, a digital behavioral medicine company that is dedicated to inspiring and empowering people everywhere to live free of chronic conditions like heart disease and type 2 diabetes. He came to pitch his company at one of my business classes when I was studying at Berkeley and he truly inspired me to start working on my own project, a digital behavioral clinic for low back pain. I would love to meet him again to share our experiences in the field and have his feedback on our business plan.

Our team are also very inspired by several entrepreneurs who have diverse educational backgrounds and work experiences but who share the passion to always put their customers first: Sarah Blakely (Spanx); Nicolas Jammet, Nathaniel Ru, Jonathan Neman (Sweet Greens); Katrine Bosley (Avila Therapeutics); Tina Nova (Genoptix), Julia Haart (Elite World Group), Neil Blumenthal, David Gilboa, and Jeffrey Raider (Warby Parker). Their social conscience, desire to challenge the norm, and to drive innovation are amazing! We would love to learn from them.

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

Female Founders: Estelle Garcia of LivaFortis 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: Amanda Stone of A&M Agency On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Amanda Stone of A&M Agency On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

My purpose is to elevate the life experience by creating experiences and places for people to enjoy with those who matter most to them. This influences not only the projects that my companies deliver for our clients, but also how I lead my teams and prioritize time with my family and friends.

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

Amanda Stone is an entrepreneur, consultant, micro investor, and mom of soon-to-be three daughters. An outside the box thinker, Amanda co-founded A&M Agency nearly a decade ago and launched her second business, Palmingo Pools, earlier this year. Amanda thrives on being invited into the magical worlds of her daughters, date nights with her husband, sharing moments with family and friends, and exploring fresh paths and business ideas.

Growing up, my parents owned and operated a small business in Oklahoma. My mom has always been endlessly loving and supportive while my dad has always encouraged me to think outside of the box and see what’s possible instead of simply what is. Between the two of them, I felt safe creating a life and career on the road less traveled. Entrepreneurship, a sense of urgency, and endless optimism are woven into my identity.

I wanted to work for myself since I was a kid, though my childhood aspirations of being a dolphin trainer in Oklahoma were a bit too outside the box. Over the years, I found my niche in the events industry, sought out as much experience as I could during my time at Vanderbilt University, then co-founded A&M Agency months after graduating. A&M Agency helps companies foster deeper, more authentic connections between people and brands through events and high-touch marketing channels. We funded the business through sweat equity and developed our people-centered values and processes over time through each experience.

Leading the team through a pandemic in the events industry released any sense of fear in me, which gave me a renewed sense of vulnerability and drive. You could call it FOMO! I was more afraid of wondering “what if” than of trying and failing. With this mindset, I launched Palmingo Pools to bring dreamy backyards to life with small pools that can be enjoyed more days of the year. Now, I’m investing my time and energy in both businesses while also stepping into other opportunities for consulting, speaking, and micro investing. Ultimately, the entrepreneurial path energizes me and also enables the mobility and flexibility to enjoy more time with the people who matter most to me.

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

Starting a business is a leap of faith that’s followed by many more at each transition point. When I was laying the foundation to launch Palmingo Pools, I knew that my skill set and past experiences were transferable and relevant, but learning the nuances of a new industry would be endless. Each day, I’ve taken a small step or a big leap that has pushed the bounds of my comfort zone further and further. Overtime, my comfort zone has expanded and I’ve accumulated new buckets of knowledge that I can draw from in the future. Each new experience is only new once, then it becomes familiar and over time, grows into an area of expertise.

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

When I co-founded A&M Agency in 2012, I had a full time job as a project manager and producer for a corporate event production company. I was so self-conscious about my two worlds colliding, despite my employer being aware that I was dabbling in side projects. I can only imagine how sketchy I came across! One day, a vendor I worked with through A&M Agency popped into the office of my full-time job and I literally fled the building. By not being fully transparent, I may have missed opportunities to learn, grow, and collaborate.

While I’m embedded in the entrepreneurial community and some seriously brilliant friends, the most influential people have been my parents and husband. Growing up with my parents’ support and encouragement to think outside of the box set me on this path. The year I co-founded A&M Agency, I met my husband. Our minds work very differently, yet we complement each other well and offset each other’s blindspots. We’ve rubbed off on each other over the years and we now approach challenges from more well-rounded, diverse perspectives. Whether we’re workshopping an idea or I’m sharing a peek into my day, his take unlocks a new layer of awareness within me.

Early in 2021, we were setting off on our first trip without kids since becoming parents. We were talking about investment strategies in the height of the Reddit mania around meme stocks. He looked at me and said, “this sounds cheesy, but the best investment I can make is in you.” He sees all of the highs and lows behind the scenes, yet is endlessly confident in my ability to lead and grow.

In general, the women around me tend to be more in tune with the facets of their lives and intentional about how they invest their time, energy, and focus in each. Many women are drawn to entrepreneurship with the goal of being their own boss opposed to achieving hypergrowth status. Ultimately, entrepreneurship can enable work-life harmony — the notion that contentment in each facet of our lives can elevate the other facets — as long as our expectations, goals, and drive align with our purpose, passion, and boundaries. Otherwise, entrepreneurship can be all-consuming and lead to frustration, discontentment, and even burnout.

While I’m fortunate to be surrounded by many fellow women founders, most have not sought investment. Similar to my businesses, many women founders self-fund or rely on sweat equity to get their businesses off of the ground. In my experience, plenty of women are founding companies, but fewer are scaling them above and beyond the million dollar mark. In many cases, women aren’t intimidated by the investment process or unaware of their potential, but steer away from relinquishing control over their day to day lives. Realistic expectations paired with opportunities and resources can help foster a more sustainable rhythm and mindset.

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’ve never been one to blindly adapt to norms instead of pushing deeper into the “why” or “how.” As an entrepreneur, I’m anchored to being content with where I am while being open to what could lay ahead. Many people get caught in the trap of comparing themselves and their businesses to peers or even unicorn companies. We need to broaden the way we think about entrepreneurship and encourage business owners to measure success on their own terms, not only benchmarks set by others or society. Otherwise, we may be discouraging a lot of badass women with micro businesses that may be around the corner from that special spark or a brainstorming session away from their next big idea. Even if these women simply pursue a career that brings passion and contentment to their lives, we should honor that as a measure of success.

While we’re broadening the definition of entrepreneurship, we should also modernize the picture of investors. The most financially successful people that I know didn’t just accumulate wealth through entrepreneurship, but through multiplying their money through investment. Historically, non-traditional and riskier investments have been reserved for those who have already achieved a certain level of wealth. The emerging popularity of crowdfunding has opened the door to non-traditional investment opportunities for micro investors, like me, who are exploring this space earlier in our careers. Entrepreneurs certainly have the stomach for strategic risk.

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 should become founders because of the uniquely deep, rich way in which we experience the people and world around us. Generally speaking, we tend to be in tune with the needs of others, which serves as the foundation for incredible leadership capacity. In my opinion, the most effective — and enriching — leaders are servant leaders and the leadership tendencies of many women naturally sway in that direction.

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

Despite owning a business for a decade, I still picture the quintessential founder as someone who sacrifices sleep, well-being, and any sense of happiness from other sources to devote all of their time and energy to getting their business off of the ground and into hyper growth mode. While it isn’t always rainbows and sunshine, entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be all-consuming either. It’s possible, and more sustainable, to launch a business with boundaries that promote work-life harmony.

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder and that’s perfectly ok. I have so much respect for entrepreneurs, but I share the same respect for people who are self-aware and honest about the career path that’s right for them, their contentment, and their goals. When we operate in strengths-based roles and optimal-fit environments, we can conserve more of our time and energy for the people and things that matter most to us instead of exhausting ourselves by constantly putting on a front. The qualities that have contributed to my success and sanity as a founder are servant leadership, vision, intentionality, vulnerability, and the sheer will to push through, deliver, and provide for my teams and myself, even when the road feels tough.

VISION

The ability to see what’s possible instead of simply what is.
Five years ago, a realtor told me that we could never have a pool at our current home because the house is built into a slope. This sparked a fascination within me that ultimately led to my second business, Palmingo Pools, that makes dreamy backyards real for more homeowners.

INTENTIONALITY

The discipline and self-control to make decisions and take action purposefully.
As a founder and especially a woman founder, I’m very intentional with my time, energy, and focus. I often think through decisions through a retrospective lens. How will I feel about each decision down the line? I also approach each project and task with intentionality, pursuing the most effective and efficient path forward.

VULNERABILITY

The ability to let go and lean into the unknown, despite risks and discomfort.
Some leaders feel like they need to have all of the answers in order to maintain authority. Others make assumptions or gloss over blindspots instead of engaging other people and resources to offset their knowledge gaps. Being real, open, and transparent is not only more effective, but it’s also more fulfilling.

DRIVE

The sheer will to keep pushing day after day, even when the circumstances feel tough.
Entrepreneurship isn’t the easiest path forward, but it’s part of me, just like being a mom, wife, daughter, and more. I have unwavering optimism that I can work through or around each challenge to keep pushing forward.

PURPOSE

The force that anchors, drives, and guides us.
My purpose is to elevate the life experience by creating experiences and places for people to enjoy with those who matter most to them. This influences not only the projects that my companies deliver for our clients, but also how I lead my teams and prioritize time with my family and friends.

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

I hope that my road has encouraged others to take agency, embrace vulnerability, and pursue what matters most to them in pursuit of contentment. Many people think of their baseline as neutral, but I strive to help those around me adopt an elevated baseline of contentment. If more people can lift their spirits from neutral to content, and help others to achieve the same, then the world could be a better place.

Grand gestures can be overly daunting, which inspires helplessness instead of hope. Similar to crowd funding and micro investing, I believe that the most good and the greatest impact comes from more people doing a little better, being a little kinder, opening their minds a little more, and looking out for each other in this life and world that we share together. Whether we’re tackling issues from climate change to international relations to COVID-19, the more people who come together, see beyond themselves, and take action for the greater good, the better. This is how we can elevate the life experience for ourselves and others.

Word on the street is that it’s best not to meet your heroes, so I’d rather grab donuts or tacos with my family!

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

Female Founders: Amanda Stone of A&M Agency 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.