Participate in worthy causes. As a whole, and as a brand, it is good to be involved with your community, and also involved with those who need aid. Giving back is one of the most important components to monetizing anyone’s brand. It is not only good relations, but also it feels really good to give back to the people that have helped you grow.
As part of my series about “How Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lillee Jean.
Lillee Jean is a New York City influencer, entrepreneur, actress, model, beauty and lifestyle blogger, self-taught makeup artist, environmentalist, and anti-online bullying advocate. She focuses on creating beauty and health content for her YouTube Channel, as well as now hosts an online live celebrity web series on IG Live. Lillee Jean also uses her channel to advocate for mental health, as well as to talk to her fans about the effects of bullying and cyberbullying, weaving education into her conversations.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit more. What is your “backstory”? What brought you to this point in your career?
I was an extremely imaginative little girl, and I loved collecting dolls, such as Barbie and American Girl Dolls. When my mother gave me my first AG Doll, I told her that I would take care of her if she bought her for me (I never broke that promise, and she is still mint to this day). I started filming my dolls in different fun play scenarios, such as, “the girls take gymnastics”, when my parents bought me an iPhone. It was so much fun that I began creating stop-motion blogs with them and uploading the videos to a blog I set up.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you in the course of your career?
Filming a video or attending an event is simply unpredictable, which is why so many funny things can happen when you are in the middle of a shoot. One of the more colorful experiences I had, was when I was filming a short vlog in New York City, and it was an extremely breezy day. We are a small team, so we all kind of do double duty on things that need to get done. We had a small table set up with makeup, etc., and I wasn’t looking as I was talking, and banged into the table, setting off a series of events, with everything falling all over the city street. That was funny looking back, but stressful too!
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I try to help people as much as possible, as I am blessed to be doing what I love to be doing, and appreciate all that I have. Whenever I can, I ensure that I pass it forward to someone, specifically when it comes to donating makeup to women shelters etc.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
If you truly love doing something, nothing should take you off your game. Never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. You got to stick to your own convictions, and no matter what, as long as it makes you feel good, stick with what you feel is going to be a profitable and good fit for you. Remember, you are the one that is ultimately going to have to live with that job, nobody else but you.
None of us can achieve success without a bit of help along the way. Is there a particular person who made a profound difference in your life to whom you are grateful? Can you share a story?
Hands down my parents. They have been so supportive of what I want to do, I’m very lucky. When I was about 15, I started getting more and more offers to do content, etc., so my parents supported my vision and allowed me to switch to home schooling, so I could pursue my passion, without sacrificing my education.
So what are the most exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I’m very excited about a documentary on online bullying I am working on. Fortunately for me, a family friend is a director and writer, who has had several notable projects in Tinsel Town. I’m very excited for people to hear my story, which I’ve written a lot about. The most exciting part that I am looking forward to accomplishing is educating people on online bullying, and what is and what isn’t acceptable, as well as attempting to get a law put in place, that places more resources at people’s fingertips, as well as a credible federal law, that will deter anyone from acting the way the people who have attempted to hurt me have done.
What are your “Top Five Ways That Influencers Can Monetize Their Brand” . (Please share a story or example for each.)
Cross-Platform. It is really important to ensure that you are cross-platformed on each social network site you use. If you don’t have yourself optimized you are not utilizing the internet to the fullest for yourself;
Participate in Networking. It has been extremely valuable to me to network with my peers, as well as people that I come across on the internet, even if they are not in the same field. You never know who might be the next important supporter of yourself;
Know Your Brand. In my situation, I am the brand. It took me awhile to realize that, and know who Lillee Jean was. Once I was able to define that in my head, it has become easier to market myself;
I suggest for anyone breaking into any entertainment business to get a good publicist. You are the brand, even if you are selling a product, but how do people know who you are, or what you are about, if they don’t know that you are there?
Participate in worthy causes. As a whole, and as a brand, it is good to be involved with your community, and also involved with those who need aid. Giving back is one of the most important components to monetizing anyone’s brand. It is not only good relations, but also it feels really good to give back to the people that have helped you grow.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I wholeheartedly would like to see medical care become more assessable for people in the United States. I came to realize that with the Lockdown, how many people need mental health services, and unfortunately can’t obtain them, due to the high cost of medical insurance and providers. I would support an easier way for people to be able to keep themselves well and happy.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. 🙂
I would love to meet Rep. Pramila Jayapal. She is so strong in her ideas and steadfast in what she wants for this country. I’ve admired what she has done in moving a progressive agenda forward in the face of Senators and Representatives that have been in Washington longer than she has. I am betting it would be a fascinating luncheon.
What is the best way our readers can follow your work online?
Dare to be in a state of uncertainty — and not know the answers
As individuals and as leaders, we need to learn to live with the unknown and with uncertainty. We are living in a hectic reality that is continuously changing and we can’t always see the full picture. We need to learn to trust ourselves and the process. For example, say you are a manager who needs to figure out with your team a new product, service or just a challenge you have with one of your clients. Start the meeting by allowing time for the solution to emerge and unfold. Invite your team members to share their experiences and their viewpoints. Create space for the unknown, and, if you can, tell them that they don’t need to find a solution by the end of the meeting. In a paradoxical way, there is a bigger chance that the solution will emerge even more quickly when we give it enough time and we create the space.
As a part of my series about “How To Develop Mindfulness And Serenity During Stressful Or Uncertain Times,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Keren Tsuk, PhD.
Keren Tsuk, PhD is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and thought leader in 21st century leadership. As founder of the consulting firm Wisdom To Lead, she specializes in the development of senior management teams and corporate leadership. Tsuk guides companies and senior management teams to reach their full potential using various techniques in the field of mindfulness. She is also the author of Mindfully Wise Leadership: The Secret of Today’s Leaders.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
I was raised in a home where my father, a scientist, managed large institutions, and my mom, a spiritual woman, worked in education. I always searched to blend these two aspects of life in my work: the material world and the spiritual world. Then, when I was a child, we relocated to South Africa for a few years, and this taught me how to adapt to change and increased my curiosity for people and cultures. In my youth I was active in Scouts, and I loved the activities with all my heart. From all of these experiences, I witnessed and learned how to lead and impact others.
What is also important to my journey is that I was raised in Israel. It is a country of contradictions, a country in survival mode, in conflicts with its neighbors. At the same time, it’s also a cosmopolitan country made up of various identities, known as a start-up nation at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. When I reached eighteen, I served in the Army as part of my mandatory service to my country. I was a combat sniper instructor, which is a masculine role. I found that taking on this work strengthened and nourished my leadership abilities and provided me with qualities such as toughness, focus, determination, and structure. Later on, when I went to university, I decided to study to become an organizational consultant.
Along my journey, I understood that I was meant to lend my skills to bring on meaningful changes in organizations and within leaders. However, during my journey, I also began to understand that I needed to transform and connect to the other side within me, to the side of me that brough support, empathy, compassion, and being vulnerable to my work. I understood that I must evolve and engage in inner work, increasing my consciousness and my self-awareness to be in service to leaders who wanted to evolve and develop their own organizations.
In my PhD, the core question I wanted to answer was how leaders could combine two aspects of life: the material world and consciousness. How can leaders enable financially-successful organizations and still engage their employees from a place of intrinsic motivation, meaningfulness, and self-transcendence? And, from this place, how can leaders enable employees to be creative so that the organization can bring cutting-edge innovation into the mix?
In my research, I have found that mindfulness is a crucial element for successful leadership. So, based on my academic background, professional and personal experiences, I developed my Mindfulness Based Leadership course, retreat and lectures.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
About five years ago, a colleague started a mindfulness course at Tel Aviv University. Another colleague suggested that I should attend the course and collect examples for a book I had planned to write. I immediately told myself no; I have nothing to learn there at all. And here’s what’s important: we all have an automatic response that we lean back on. I call this our inner automaton. My automaton wanted to push away from the opportunity, claiming that I already knew everything about the subject. Even so, I decided to push back and attend, and I assisted my colleague in collecting and writing the material. I just went to be there, to learn and help. During the course’s last session, I met a visiting professor from Hong Kong who had developed a Masters’ program in leadership that included a thirty-hour mindfulness course; he invited me to teach there. This opportunity opened a whole new window in my career and a new world of work.
What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?
To create a fantastic workplace, leaders have to start by seeing their employees as whole human beings. Create a sense of community so that people will feel seen and connected to each other beyond functional work. When people feel seen and when they feel that leaders care for them — and not in a cynical, output-oriented way — they will want to be part of the company and will be engaged.
In addition, leaders have to embrace Triple Bottom Line principles: profit, people, and planet. Work with the environment and with people in mind, and strive for a profit-to-employee ratio connecting employees’ personal goals with the organization’s financial goals. Search for ways you can enable your employees to flourish and grow in parallel to the organization’s goals. Don’t try to fit employees into organizational needs; rather, try to find alignment in parallel growth.
For example, if you see that an employee has already fulfilled themselves in their current job and wants to grow toward the next challenge, explore this. Explore whether there is alignment between his path and the organization needs. Then, custom-tailor a new job description for your employee so that they might want to stay and flourish. This approach creates a workplace that engages talented people and enables them and the organization to thrive, be creative, and innovate.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron teaches us how to handle uncertainty and adversity. When I read the book, it gave me a wider perspective on challenging situations and how to handle them. Each and every one of us go through tough times, especially today under pandemic conditions which are transforming the world. We are experiencing uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity. It looks like the uncertainty is here to stay. This is why being present and being able to navigate in uncertain and challenging times is a crucial skill that we need to embrace and nourish.
In the beginning of her book, Chodron shares a difficult experience she went through when her husband divorced her and her life felt apart. She felt a lot of anger and fear. However, this turning point brought her closer to her mission in life, as she encountered Buddhism and went on a path to become a teacher. At the end, she was thankful for the experience, and that is a major theme of the book — the idea that life is all beginnings and endings. Moreover, she talks about becoming familiar with fear, and looking it right in the eye so that we can really come to terms with what we feel that we cannot address. This resonated with me so much; this is what being mindful truly means. Being mindful is to feel our various emotions without disconnecting from them, and choosing freely how to react instead of being managed by our own feelings and emotions. So, if I feel fearful right now, I will accept that part of me feels scared right now but I won’t let this fear paralyze me. Acknowledging fear allows us to keep on going toward our goals.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. From your experience or research, how would you define and describe the state of being mindful?
Mindfulness is the ability to be aware of an experience in a nonjudgmental way and not be managed by it. As Victor Frankel defined it, mindfulness is the space between stimulation and response. As we broaden that space, we can choose our behavior freely. The state of being mindful is the ability to be aware of our feelings and emotions and give them space and expression, as opposed to becoming alienated, fragmented, and even detached in a moment of challenge.
For example, if I am being triggered by a colleague shouting at me, instead of shouting back, I would connect to my own feelings of discomfort. I would become mindful of my emotions such as anger, frustration, or whatever arises. Taking a deep breath, I would acknowledge those unpleasant feelings and decide how to react from a place of awareness. My ability to move between these two realms and choose my behavior, this is moving into mindfulness.
This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to spell this out. Can you share with our readers a few of the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of becoming mindful?
In chapter 3 of my book, I go into these benefits in a lot more detail, but here are the major benefits of shifting toward a mindful way of life.
Increased focus. Mindfulness meditation affects people’s ability to focus and not be distracted, which increases our quality of attention and memory and decreases repetitive thoughts.
Awareness. Mindfulness practitioners have a higher level of awareness and fewer depressive symptoms or bad moods, and are less affected by mind-wandering.
Stress reduction. Mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety, and have much lower levels of depression.
Emotional regulation. Regular meditation reduces emotional reactivity and alters people’s ability to use emotional regulation strategies in a way that allows them to experience emotions selectively.
Better relationships. A mindful person may experience a higher level of satisfaction in a relationship because of his or her ability to communicate and respond well to pressures created in the relationship.
Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. The past 5 years have been filled with upheaval and political uncertainty. Many people have become anxious from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. The fears related to the pandemic have only heightened a sense of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and loneliness. From your experience or research what are five steps that each of us can take to develop mindfulness during such uncertain times? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Step 1: Meditate
When we practice meditation, it changes our brain for the better. Meditation increases activity in the prefrontal cortex, the advanced part of the brain that is connected to self-regulation, focusing, and planning for the future. As we practice meditating and staying with any discomfort that arises, it actually helps us to cope better with uncertainty and uncomfortable situations in real life. We can practice this by being present with unpleasant postures or thoughts during meditation, without trying to change them. Sometimes, during meditation practice, when we do this, our feelings transform. For example, in one of the Mindfulness Based Leadership courses I facilitated, one of the participants shared that during meditation she felt a really strong, painful physical sensation. Instead of trying to move her body in an automatic way, she acknowledged the feeling and it transformed to a different sensation entirely.
Step 2: Give place to and speak your feelings
Usually when we are stressed, we act upon stressful emotions. This means that our emotions manage us. However, by connecting to those feelings and giving them space to exist, we can acknowledge what we are feeling right now. This means that we might actually talk our emotions. For an example, if you feel anger arising in your body in an interaction with your child, instead of shouting and getting angry you can say, “I am really feeling angry right now. I think it’s better to have a break and continue this conversation later.” In this way, you connect to the complete experience of your emotions, but you aren’t creating a barrier between yourself and your child.
Step 3: Spend time in nature or outdoors
I’ve learned that spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Practice being in the moment and not in your wandering mind — take a break and go to a walk in nature. Go to a park next to your office or home and feel the wind in your hair, smell the flowers and the trees. Practice being in the here and now, enjoying the moment.
Step 4: Change your automaton
Each and every one of us has automatic behaviors that don’t serve us anymore.Mindfulness allows us to see our implicit and automatic patterns of thinking and behavior, as well as the results they create. By identifying these patterns, we can decide to change course. Acknowledge what triggers you — and reflect upon it. See what doesn’t serve you anymore. For example, if your automaton self listens to the radio and watches television, and most of the information you receive increases your stress, shift and do something that fills you with energy, like jogging, walking your dog, or seeing a good friend. Through mindfulness, we can recognize at any moment how we feel and if we don’t feel well, we can choose to change and react differently.
Step 5: Dare to be in a state of uncertainty — and not know the answers
As individuals and as leaders, we need to learn to live with the unknown and with uncertainty. We are living in a hectic reality that is continuously changing and we can’t always see the full picture. We need to learn to trust ourselves and the process. For example, say you are a manager who needs to figure out with your team a new product, service or just a challenge you have with one of your clients. Start the meeting by allowing time for the solution to emerge and unfold. Invite your team members to share their experiences and their viewpoints. Create space for the unknown, and, if you can, tell them that they don’t need to find a solution by the end of the meeting. In a paradoxical way, there is a bigger chance that the solution will emerge even more quickly when we give it enough time and we create the space.
From your experience or research what are five steps that each of us can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling anxious? Can you explain?
Step 1: Listen
In order not to feel unpleasant feelings ourselves, we often wait for others to stop talking and we offer them our advice and what we think of as “solutions.” This way we feel in control, and avoid being present with someone else’s unpleasant feelings. However, that is not what people need when they are suffering and anxious. When people are experiencing anxiety and stress, they need us to listen to them. Let them share what they are going through, be present with them, and enable them to have a safe space to share.
Step 2: Let them feel that they are seen
Listen deeply to others’ emotional experiences and reflect these back to them. Once they feel seen and safe, they can start working with their emotions, instead of being paralyzed by them.
Step 3: Ask them how can you be there for them
After listening fully from presence, you can ask them how they want you to be there for them. Listen to what they are asking. Maybe they will only want your presence for venting, or maybe they will want you to acknowledge their pain. Maybe they will need your help in an active way. Be open-minded and curious as to what they need from you in this moment.
Step 4: Practice meditation together or invite them to join a meditation group
When we practice meditation with other people, it helps to contain stress and anxiety, and be present with the uncomfortable feelings.
Step 5: Be compassionate
Empathize with their feelings. Silently, make connections between your own experiences of emotions and theirs so that you can build a greater understanding of what they are feeling.
What are the best resources you would suggest for someone to learn how to be more mindful and serene in their everyday life?
Use a calendar or app to start meditating, even 5 minutes a day as a routine. Create a steady slot on your calendar whenever it’s convenient for you. It can be early in the morning, or late at the evening — or any time in between. Find a calm place to practice. Apps like Headspace, and Calm are a good place to start.
Make nature a priority. You don’t need to go far, it can be close to your work or home.
Practice journaling. Take three pieces of paper, sit down, and write intuitively what’s on your mind, without stopping. If you don’t know what to write, simply write, “I don’t know what to write.” This kind of free writing enables us to clear our minds and make space for new insights to emerge and creativity to flow. If you have time, do it every day for ten minutes or so.
Reflect on your automatic behaviors that don’t serve you anymore, and try to change small things one at a time until you can change this behavior permanently and embrace a new one.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
“Everyone dies at the end, but not every one lives.”
This quote has been attributed to many different leaders in the past, from the warrior William Wallace to the spoken word poet Prince Ea, but it is an idea that ought to matter to all of us.
As a young woman, I was disconnected from my own feelings and emotions, and I led mainly from my head rather than my heart. I was afraid to feel unpleasant feelings and to be vulnerable. However, I got to a point in life at which I understood that I was not really experiencing my life fully. I didn’t allow anything, bad or good, to affect me, and I closed my heart to protect myself.
As I see it now, all of the traits that are crucial for a fulfilled life nowadays reside in our heart. Traits such as compassion, passion, creativity are needed so that we might live a passionate and meaningful life. This is why I love this quote so much. A lot of us are sleepwalking through our lives, and we miss life this way. Life is short and we need to utilize every moment to be present as much as we can, and act out of awareness. We have to dare to lead, as Brené Brown advises us, with an open heart. Living this way brings risks, but it also presents an opportunity to experience emotion freely, connect to our passion, and live a fulfilled and meaningful life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would start a mindful leadership community in order to increase self-awareness among business leaders, to connect, evolve together and to create better workplaces that are in service of their employees, customers and communities. As I wrote in my book, I want to ensure that organizations can become a platform for humanity’s development, and allow their employees to develop and grow and to fulfill themselves. The jobs that leaders create can serve employees, customers, and the environment, from a win-win paradigm of profit for all.
I believe with all my heart that this is the change we, as humanity, need to go through. We must move from a place of alienation, exploitation, and separation to a state of unity, service, attentiveness, and harmony among people, between people and the environment, and among organizational activities so that optimal work will be done to enable prosperity and growth.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Female Disruptors: Nhat Nguyen of Autonomous.ai On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
“Just put in everything you can to pursue your dreams so that you won’t regret whatever the result is.” This helps me to get over the detours in my life. Sometimes I try so hard to steer the wheel of life in a certain direction, but it may not end up being where I wanted to be. As long as I did everything I could with the information I had, there is nothing to regret — just lessons learned both about myself and the world as I moved forward in the direction of my northstar.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nhat Nguyen.
Nhat Nguyen is Head of Global Projects at Autonomous.ai, a California-based technology company and global leader in integrated and collaborative office supplies, designed for the remote workforce. She recently graduated from the dual masters programs at Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan School of Management, where she worked with multiple tech start-ups.
Nhat is currently co-leading Autonomous.ai’s new Employee Purchase Program — an initiative that aims to tackle the now ubiquitous WFH issue; how to supply remote employees a high-quality and ergonomic workplace at scale.
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?
It was a series of interests that led me to this career. When I was working with an ed-tech start-up at MIT, I connected with an investor who then introduced me to a project regarding workforce upskilling. While working on it, his colleague connected me with his friend who knew Autonomous well. I love the mission of the company to unlock productivity for people by building innovative tools and the culture of continuous improvement and collaboration, so I joined the team in my last semester of graduate school.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
We build technology to help businesses streamline their procurement process for their remote employees. We offer a marketplace with tools and equipment that support work from home employees holistically — from ergonomic chairs and adjustable standing desks to fitness equipment, and home office pods that can be built within a day. Anyone can add their orders, request approval from their managers, and get the products shipped to their home. Employers will just log in, pay, and Autonomous takes care of the rest. No reimbursement, no lengthy process, and cost-savings for businesses.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I have been lucky to meet many great mentors along the way. One of them is Kevin at Harvard Kennedy School. We were in a class focused on organizing people to create change in communities. Most recently, I was invited to share my views on the future of work on a podcast. Truly, I was nervous to be on it, but Kevin encouraged me to go for it and expand beyond my comfort zone. Most importantly, he said, “I saw your talent in our class, and I know you can do it!” Imposter syndrome is real, and as I fight it myself, I am lucky to have nudges from mentors like him to make the jump.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Being disruptive is both positive and negative depending on the angle and the time horizon that we consider. For example, looking back through history when the first textile machine was invented, it was opposed and in some cases, violently fought against. Millions of weavers lost their jobs, which was a short-term but severe and real damage. It is easy for the winners to argue that productivity improved in the long run, so it is better for society overall, but it is not true overall for people who are on the other side of change. That being said, if businesses are not looking for new ways to disrupt the industry, they’ll fall behind and eventually fail. Job loss will be the result of this scenario as well.. You can see this in the case of the camera and film company, Kodak. Their scientists, while standing on the shoulders of the most reputable optics and photography company, and with over a hundred years of experience and credibility, discovered CCD digital cameras, embracing the new “computer era.” But management did not want to lose the intoxicatingly profitable business of selling traditional camera film, so they shut those scientists down. Eventually, they failed, walking a slow death to oblivion while hundreds of thousands of people in Rochester, NY lost their jobs. Innovative disruption is necessary for the world to move forward, to lift the living standard for everyone, eventually. But economic and political institutions should be mindful to be more inclusive, to bring everyone together and build a better future together.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“If you work on improving yourself 1% every day, you are 36 times better by the end of the year.” This is advice I received from Dr. Rati Thanawala, a former senior partner at Bell Labs Consulting. I can be quite impatient, and I think that I should be much better faster — it creates a lot of self-doubt. The key is that I am putting in the effort to improve myself every day, 1% at a time, and not comparing myself to others, but to myself.
“Just put in everything you can to pursue your dreams so that you won’t regret whatever the result is.” This helps me to get over the detours in my life. Sometimes I try so hard to steer the wheel of life in a certain direction, but it may not end up being where I wanted to be. As long as I did everything I could with the information I had, there is nothing to regret — just lessons learned both about myself and the world as I moved forward in the direction of my northstar.
“Build your absorption capability” — Professor Don Sull at MIT Sloan School of Management in his last lecture to our MBA class. The absorption capacity is not only about saving to have the financial cushion during tough times but even more important, the trusted relationships we build and maintain with family, friends, and the different communities that we are in.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Impact has always been the northstar for me as I think about my work, and there are many problems out there to be solved in the future of work, education, finance, healthcare, etc. The current challenge I am tackling is about the future of work, and our solution is to provide products and services that help businesses support their remote employees better. It is a big problem to solve, and if we do a good job at it, hundreds of millions of people could work remotely, productively and have more time for themselves, with their families and friends. This is only just the beginning, so it is difficult to say what’s next, but I know it would be something that aligns with my northstar
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Women disruptors have many unique challenges including lack of funding, advisor and mentor networks, and defying society expectations. In 2020, US startups raised a record of $143 billion, but merely 2.4% of it went to startups founded solely by female founders, and even worse, it was $1b less than in 2019. When building disruptive businesses, funding is a crucial factor, and the lack of funding really hinders many women disruptors from bringing their ideas into reality. One time, I was in a pitch competition with two other teammates for a healthcare start-up, and a woman advisor recommended to us that the man on our team would be the best presenter and the best chance of getting funding. It was a painful reality to experience. Secondly, the majority of unicorns are founded by men, and only 14.6% have at least one female founder — the network of female advisors and mentors who have gone through the rope with similar challenges is smaller. Third, defying society’s expectations, including the idea that women should prioritize family. Doing something disruptive requires a village, and sometimes women have to redefine their village as they work on executing their disruptive ideas.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
The book “Why Nations Fail” by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. It had a deep impact on my thinking. The focal point of the book explains why exclusive institutions fail and how inclusive institutions that encourage innovative disruption prevail through various historical events. This links back to my comment above about disruption, and especially giving opportunities to anyone regardless of background, gender, or ethnicity to disrupt the status quo with better solutions for the future. The book reminds me of how much we can learn from history, and as the writer and philosopher George Santayana said “those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it”. Learning from history, living in the present, and working toward a better future for everyone is how I want to live my life.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I believe that talent is equally distributed around the world but opportunities are not. That means billions of people with brilliant ideas and execution capability in different corners of the world are being hindered and never reach their potential because of a variety of factors — their social-economic background, gender, ethnicity, and religion or lack thereof. If I could inspire a movement, it would be about creating a safety net with equal access to food security, education, healthcare, and equal opportunities for everyone to unlock their potential.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“When one door closes, another opens.” by Alexander Graham Bell. There have been many doors closed in my life, and the first and biggest one in my adult life was when the door to pharmacy school closed for the second time when I took the national exam in Vietnam after high school. After that, I decided to go to the University of Economics instead, with the same idea of helping other people. While studying there, I learned more about study abroad opportunities and came to the U.S. three years later. This started my educational and professional career here. So many doors have closed in my journey since then, but every single time, it reminds me that other doors are open as I continue finding ways to leave the world a better place than when I was born.
The pandemic has made companies of all sizes rethink how they plan and execute their business strategies. This is my take on how hospitality companies will adjust in the coming years: Digitalization and the use of tech will continue to rise and become essential to any company’s operations.
As part of my series about “developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Antonio Teijeiro, Chief Operating Officer at Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts.
Since February of 2021, Antonio Teijeiro has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts, a leading all-inclusive brand with properties in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Spain. As a brand and hotel strategist, Teijeiro has executed everything from conceptualization to operational deployment, spearheading many of the brand’s initiatives with cultural-focused strategies, including brand development, nurturing relationships with guests, as well as growth strategies.
Teijeiro, a University of Vigo alumni and a law graduate, has also recently attended an executive course in cross-cultural management from INSEAD Business School.
His professional path has up to now developed in three continents, including 10 years in Mainland China and Hong Kong SAR, leading international and regional brands.
Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Although I studied Law, I have always loved interacting with people, yet people in that field tend not to get along and not precisely love each other. Over the years I ended up living for months at a time in hotels and realized I had a passion for the hospitality industry.
I now get to work in a fun environment with wonderful people. Hospitality clients and people in general are moving targets and I love it because it makes my job very interesting. The industry is no easy feat, but that’s one of the things that makes my job so rewarding.
I’ve lived in 8 countries, three continents and speak 5 languages, there is nothing more special than meeting and working with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
I pride myself for being the first Spanish general manager to open a Chinese-branded and operated hotel, Wanda Hotels & Resorts. The hotel owner is among the wealthiest businessmen in China, and I had to quickly adapt to their culture and preferences. I am proud of my work as a cross-cultural leader as I strived to understand each team member while delivering strong results for the brand. The resort was able to secure several awards, in part thanks to my team’s job, including Best Hotel of the Year.
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 once checked in a guest and forgot to click the button that marked his room as occupied. Another guest ended up in that same room because it appeared as vacant on our system; you can imagine how the rest of the story went.
What I learned from that is to always make sure you have checked off all the boxes and to pay close attention to detail, otherwise you might end up with two strangers in the same room!
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?
Very simple, breathe. You can focus and work better when you are properly breathing or when you take a few minutes to listen to your body and feel the air go into your lungs.
Getting burnt out is very easy in our industry so taking a moment to rest and breathe properly is crucial. Also, spending time with family is important, you must take advantage of that time.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I believe very much in the position of mentors — one of my personal mentors was great at being strict yet fair with me. She convinced me and pushed me to go to Dubai and China which catapulted my career.
Others helped me understand different cultures and how to succeed while being surrounded by professionals with contrasting backgrounds.
Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?
We believe in continuous improvement: our brand and service offering must evolve and improve based on the current client needs and current landscape. With the Covid-19 pandemic, we have learned to use technology to our advantage, and this includes client-facing technological advancements as well as implementing technologies that facilitate our internal operations. Examples of tech updates that our guests may notice when visiting one of our properties are: online pre-check-in minimizing person-to-person contact, QR codes for restaurant menus and at other key locations across the properties, online reservations platforms for restaurants and for other on-site services and amenities. We hope to inspire our stakeholders and other members of the industry to properly utilize tech for their own development.
Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?
The pandemic changed the travel landscape as we used to know it. There’s a new version of a traveler who is well-versed on hygiene and safety measures and on the latest Covid-19 requirements. At Bahia Principe we are committed to staying at the forefront, meeting or exceeding traveler expectations, therefore we are constantly working to improve the guest experience and keeping our guests top-of-mind.
How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?
Hotel companies who ignore our new, post-pandemic “normal” and refuse to adapt will likely struggle in the near future. As our customers notice our efforts to provide a safe stay, we hope for positive reviews across the board, to garner repeat visitors and referrals. Our aim is to increase brand identity and brand loyalty while further cementing our footprint in the all-inclusive space.
As you know, COVID19 changed the world as we know it. Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers will prefer to travel?
The pandemic has made companies of all sizes rethink how they plan and execute their business strategies. This is my take on how hospitality companies will adjust in the coming years:
Digitalization and the use of tech will continue to rise and become essential to any company’s operations.
Sustainability will be at the core of strategic thinking and will no longer be considered an add-on component.
Travelers will continue to seek flexibility when booking and paying for hotel stays.
Guests increasingly want to avoid experiences where they are just a number, or one more guest, and want hotels to recognize their individuality. Customization and a one-on-one approach will be highly requested.
Exploring, learning from, supporting, and giving back to local communities.
You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?
I like to use the DLD acronym to describe my ideal vacation: disconnect, local and discover. My wife is my travel partner and I truly enjoy unplugging at our Bahia Principe Resorts. Beyond exploring big cities, one of my personal off-the-beaten-path favorite destinations is Samana, Dominican Republic, where our brand has four distinct properties.
Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
An effective leader must be faithful to his or her values and beliefs. I strongly believe in the golden rule: treat others how you’d want to be treated. Additionally, I love mentoring others and seeing other professionals grow thanks to my guidance and advice. Modesty aside, being a nice person and an approachable leader has allowed me to succeed in the workplace and beyond.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I believe in making an effort to understand and empathize other cultures, both in business as well as personal relationships.
Many conflicts come out not of disagreement but rather because of not understanding how other cultures think and manage.
Having lived in 8 countries across three continents, I have value when someone learns how to say hello to me in my language or the great smile when I sincerely welcome the opportunity to try my host country’s favorite dish (even if it is snails or worms!).
Being understanding and kind to others are key characteristics for any well-rounded leader.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Bahia Principe’s social media handles can be found here: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. Also, I try to be active in Linkedln, when time allows.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Founders: Katy Thorbahn of Shiny On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Enjoy the ride. There will always be something nagging at you and you’ll always want to do more, faster. But don’t let that stop you from pausing now and again to appreciate all that you’ve accomplished and take stock in the good.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katy Thorbahn — Partner, Managing Director, Shiny.
Katy is a dynamic and inspiring leader who has spent over 30 years serving as a trusted advisor for some of the world’s most respected brands.
Her big agency experience at reputable firms like Razorfish paired with co-founding strategic creative agency, Shiny, allows her to forecast on-trend branding and execute best-in-class directions for her teams and clients.
Katy’s strategic thinking and game-changing results have garnered her recognition as a Woman of Distinction in the Philadelphia Business Journal, Best Executive in the Services Business for the Stevie Awards, and several honors with the Addys and Dead Work Awards.
Over the course of her career, she has created award-winning campaigns recognized for their effectiveness. She has led work for brands like JPMorgan Chase, Lutron Electronics, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and Rite-Aid, to name a few. Katy continues to drive transformative growth in the industry through her passion for empowering 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?
Thank you for having me. The short story is that I grew up surrounded by advertising. My father owned an outdoor advertising company, my older sister started her career at an agency, and my uncle directed commercials. By the time I graduated high school I knew it was what I wanted to do, though I thought I’d be a copywriter. Literally one day at my first internship in college disabused me of that idea, and luckily I quickly found client services was the fit for me. And the rest just went from there.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One that springs to mind has to do with our name. My agency’s name is Shiny, and an unintended but beloved result of that is that our clients often say “oh hi Shiny people” or “we get to work with the Shiny people” and so our name becomes a descriptor of our team. It always makes me smile when I hear it, and I know it does the same for everyone on our team.
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 funny, and highly instructional story, comes from my second job. For context, one of my terrible faults is that I cannot remember people’s names — it’s a real flaw of mine. So I’m working one day and out of the blue a client calls to introduce me to someone on her team who was going to be covering for her during a vacation. We do a quick set of introductions and I scribble down the new contact’s first name, and totally miss her last name, which I don’t realize until after I hang up and need to send her something. Panic sets in, amplified by the knowledge that I’m just the worst at names, and so I concoct an approach that I think will cleverly cover up that fact. I called her back, asking if she could spell her last name. There was a pause and then she said, “You need me to spell Smith?” and I had some ridiculous comeback like “Yes, is that with a Y?” It was horrible — so incredibly cringeworthy. But it was a great lesson about not ever trying to be untruthful or sneaky or whatever word you want to use. It always backfires.
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?
That is so true. And there are many, many people who have been helpful to me along the way but if I had to choose just one it would be Brad Aronson. Brad was the founder of i-FRONTIER, one of the first digital agencies in the US. He saw something in me and brought me on to lead Client Services and then pushed me into an Operations role a couple of years later. I did not think I had it in me to do that job and told him so. He listened to me, let me decline, but kept coming back to it, reassuring me that I could indeed do it. I eventually agreed to try and he was right — it was a very good fit for me and helped propel my career. I’m eternally grateful that he saw something in me that I did not, and didn’t take no for an answer.
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?
The fact that 20% is great progress underscores what a significant challenge it is for women to become founders. In my opinion, there are a host of external factors at play. The first is that it is simply harder for women to be taken seriously by VCs and other financial institutions so getting seed money to launch a business is not nearly as easy for women as it is for men. So if you want to do something, you often need to self-fund it (as I did) which is simply not an available option for many, many women. And then there are other very big issues like she may have children to care for, or aging parents to support. The ability to do something entrepreneurial that involves financial risk and an enormous amount of time and focus may be impossible without an extremely strong support system which, again, a lot of women simply do not have. Because those issues reduce the number of women founders, it also creates this terrible ecosystem where there are fewer role models. It creates this false narrative that it’s not possible to do. It’s a vicious cycle that is really challenging to break.
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?
Individuals who are founders or who support them need to act as mentors and sounding boards for people who are considering taking the leap. VCs and other financial institutions need to take real, concrete, and focused steps on eliminating their ingrained biases against women and other groups like people of color. The government, at the federal and local levels, needs to offer financial incentives to increase the number of women starting their own businesses. As a nation, we need a more stable and affordable solution for childcare. And efforts like those that Authority is doing help a lot, by shedding light on what it takes to be a founder to help demystify it for people who are curious.
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?
First and foremost, society benefits when more people are in roles of job creation and innovation. So from a purely mercenary standpoint, it’s better for all of us if females, who make up over half of the US population, are creating businesses to drive our economy. On a more human level, women should become founders because for the right person, being your own boss and having more direct control over your future is what ultimately will give them financial success and personal satisfaction.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That you need to be somehow outrageously smart, have an enormous ego, be a raging extrovert, and be ready to do whatever it takes, even if that means mowing people down in the process. There’s just way too much focus on people who fit that bill which then gives the idea that that’s the only path. Successful founders can come from many different walks of life, with many different personalities.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t think everyone is cut out to be a founder, because there is no single career or job that is the right choice for every person on this planet. To start your own company requires a level of hubris, entrepreneurial spirit, and a strong stomach that not all people have. That said, I bristle a bit at the notion that working for someone is a “regular job” implying that being a founder is somehow more important or special. I don’t think that’s the case; it’s just that for some people taking the risk of creating your own business makes sense, and for many people, it doesn’t.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Only five? I’m sure there are many more but here goes:
There’s more below the surface than you realize. There is a huge amount of running a business that has absolutely nothing to do with the business you think you’re in. Things like figuring out insurance, stocking the kitchen, dealing with legal documents…the list goes on. It’s all stuff that needs to be done, but it’s not why you started the business. Prepare thyself.
You will be wrong more often than you think. And that’s okay, but you have to be prepared to zig when you planned to zag, or ask for help to untangle an issue you find yourself snagged in. The secret is not to make the same error twice, so make the decision, deal with the fallout, and take it all as a critical learning opportunity for the future.
Never underestimate the power of a single person. They can make or break you. Hire the right person, and the business becomes so much easier. Hire the wrong person and there’s a pain you cannot even begin to fathom.
Hire a great accountant who understands your business. They’ll save you time, money, and heartache.
Enjoy the ride. There will always be something nagging at you and you’ll always want to do more, faster. But don’t let that stop you from pausing now and again to appreciate all that you’ve accomplished and take stock in the good.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I’d like to believe I’ve had a tangible impact on my team’s lives through giving them interesting work, a financially rewarding job, and a great culture and colleagues. Beyond that, I’ve tried to share my experience and offer my support, particularly to women in advertising and marketing, as a way to both open more professional doors for them and act as a sounding board for those moments when they need another perspective. I would be happy if my work legacy were as much about helping other women achieve their success as it would be for me to reach my full potential.
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.
What an interesting question. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the notion of people’s worth and how so much of our culture and systems have been created to hinder what individuals can accomplish because they aren’t deemed “worthy.” We’ve touched on that in this interview about women and how we’ve been marginalized as one example, and the other that has been very in the forefront for me of late is the same for people of color. It is infuriating how much effort has been made to keep people down, when all of us would be so much better off if we found ways to hold each other up and let people fly. I would love to find a way to really dismantle the structures that were purposefully created to limit opportunity and growth and instead, work to build the scaffold that people could scale to reach their full potential.
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.
Without hesitation, it would be Sara Blakely. Not only has she created a product that I love, but she also created an entire category and did it her way, bucking the system. As a mother, I am deeply moved by how she has put her motherhood front and center in her professional life, including her children in really critical moments of Spanx, and shining a light on that as part of who she is. Through her foundation and other efforts, she’s a clear champion of women. She is whipsmart and seems incredibly empathetic as well. I’m sure a conversation with her would be one I would remember and go back to for inspiration many times over.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Women In Wellness: Lisa Lukretia Fischer On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Learn to deal with unpleasant feelings, past hurts, and traumas quickly. There are so many trauma-resolution and somatic release strategies that help you move through them. Just experiment a bit. The earlier you do that, the easier it is. Old negative stories tend to not only affect us mentally, but also physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Lukretia Fischer.
Lisa Lukretia Fischer is a certified professional coach who helps female entrepreneurs build a holistic framework for emotional resilience, mental focus, and improved productivity to succeed in business.
Having grown from her own serious health issues, physical and psychological trauma, she is now deeply passionate about the importance of wellbeing and resilience. With this awareness, she loves providing the space and structure to develop the former with the aim of bringing entrepreneurial desires to fruition.
Pulling from her background as an environmental engineer, trainer in competitive sports, teacher at inclusive schools and yoga instructor, she combines aspects of high performance, intermittent relaxation, and loving acceptance into her coaching philosophy.
Lisa holds degrees as Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, COR.E Dynamics Wellbeing Specialist and Hatha Yoga Instructor (RYT200).
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Hello, I’ll keep the backstory short and sweet because I am not into re-telling my story over and over. (Or I might have gone on too many Tinder dates.)
I come from a working-class family, and I’m the first academic to graduate with A-levels and go abroad to do voluntary service. By training, I am an environmental and water management engineer/scientist. Alongside school and uni, I used to teach and coach a lot in terms of sports, maths, and languages. Now, besides coaching, I focus on dancing and yoga as well as reading and writing. There you go, my 5 page CV in 5 sentences.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I don’t think there was a particular interesting story. It was more of a general realisation of how different the workplace was from anything I was used to before. I quickly got to know how naïve I was, how protected school and uni life is, and how many different agendas there are in the marketplace that I was not prepared for. And that it is all wonderfully complex and interesting, and I love to learn from this school of life now. I also understood the importance of knowing yourself, your values and vision, and how to be flexible in your approach.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I stayed at a job where I did not feel valued, I experienced sexist treatment, and I felt like no one listened or valued my input. I was running against so many walls with my ideas. I went completely against my own intuition and thought I could change them (or their perspectives of me). And I let this go on for way longer than necessary, out of loyalty, out of fear of not finding another job, and out of maybe not even knowing what other job I would have liked to have. From this I mainly learned to trust my initial gut instincts. I also wanted to avoid people where the communication just feels too destructive and not productive or constructive in any way. I have more self-worth than that now.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I have no single particular story to tell, and it also might sound a bit like a cliché, but I would say my mom. She is a very strong, emancipated person with a very alternative, rebellious view of the world. And she has always believed in me and she always supported me with everything I wanted to do, even though she might not have understood it or liked it. And believe me, there was more than one occasion where that happened, like me wanting to live abroad right after school, or like me going into business for myself, etc. I am deeply grateful to her for what she taught me and is still teaching me about her way of thinking and feeling. She is such a fountain of wisdom that it sometimes takes me years to understand something about myself that she already knew years ahead of time.
Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
In coaching new and aspiring entrepreneurs to set a holistically healthy and balanced framework for their business and learning energetic leadership, I believe that it has a ripple effect on how they continue to build their businesses; examples include team building, finding innovative ways of work-life-play-integration, higher valuing of family, less stigma on mental and emotional health issues and gender-equal pay. After the saying “you can only give from an overflowing cup”, I know that healthy and balanced leaders contribute to very anabolic, stress-free, happy workplaces, which in turn contribute to the overall life quality of the communities.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
I think I am pretty much back to basics in that regard, so here we go:
The all-time classic: journaling! It structures your thoughts, lets you find out your strengths and areas of improvement, helps to get into a creative flow, and is also something to remember the lessons you learned. Every time I cannot get over a particular situation or a repetitive pattern, I write about it to get more and different perspectives on it. That usually also helps me release the attachment and the negativity around it.
Single-tasking: I cannot recommend it enough! It took me a loooong while to learn, and I am in no way perfect at it yet, but it was so worth it. It really improves precision, process enjoyment, and in learning new things, speeds it up.
Learn to listen to your body: Become very acquainted with the slightest signal it is telling you. It wants to communicate with you. So, if you pay attention, it will signal you any disbalance there is. If you pick it up early enough, you can easily prevent diseases and other negative patterns.
Create a vision of your optimal wellbeing scenario. Make it nice and beautiful and whatever adjective you wish to attribute to it. If you know the destination, it is easier to get there.
Learn to deal with unpleasant feelings, past hurts, and traumas quickly. There are so many trauma-resolution and somatic release strategies that help you move through them. Just experiment a bit. The earlier you do that, the easier it is. Old negative stories tend to not only affect us mentally, but also physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Introducing yoga and the concept of energy leadership into schools on a global level. Because kids learn fast, because these are incredible tools to have from a young age onwards and because I believe in the spill-over effect that kids have on their parents. So, it would be like a grassroots societal change movement towards more calmness, de-stress, and improved communication.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
I knew entrepreneurship was all about taking responsibility for your own results; I just did not know that involved THIS many individual decisions. They can really wear you out at the start. So, I wish someone would have told me to learn how to make my best decisions quickly and then get the confidence to stick with them.
Also, I wish someone would have told me before that I am now the person to give myself the permission to do things and waiting on someone else to tell me what to do is not going to work from now on.
Everyone will always “know it better” but you are the one doing it. Remember, words are cheap. So, don’t take criticism from anyone you would not even be willing to take advice from.
Really start valuing self-care, a schedule, offline times for family and friends as well as going outside, good food and sports. That’s a major point in keeping you grounded, stable and with enough energy to keep going.
You don’t have to figure out everything by yourself. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You can also take things from others that already work and incorporate them into your system. It is totally allowed to be a bit more street-smart and savvier.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
They all belong together, and for me, they are all about coming into balance with oneself, the planet and humanity. It is about caring for ourselves and others, overcoming selfishness, greed and learning to live in harmony with ourselves and the planet. So, I would not want to decide.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Women In Wellness: Carly Stein of Beekeeper’s Naturals on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Resilience is the key to everything. Entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs. The more you flex that muscle of resilience, the more you build a tolerance to hard things. Eventually, the goal is to stay grounded in the face of the discomforts that inevitably come your way.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meet Carly Stein.
Meet Carly Stein, the founder of Beekeeper’s Naturals, a company that provides wellness remedies that are clean, effective, powered by the beehive, and backed by science.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I grew up in Toronto and spent a lot of my childhood under the weather. I struggled with severe bouts of tonsillitis that kept me home from school, and I was allergic to most antibiotics. My health struggles continued into my college years until one day, while studying abroad, everything changed. In Florence, I came down with a severe case of tonsillitis and wandered into a pharmacy, where I was first introduced to propolis: the medicine of the beehive. After a few days of taking propolis, my tonsillitis cleared up. I became obsessed with the ingredient (and basically everything the bees made.)
When I returned home to the University of Victoria in Canada, my newfound curiosity for propolis, honey, royal jelly, and pollen made me seek an apprenticeship with a local beekeeper. I began formulating my first propolis products in the chemistry lab during my spare time and sharing them with my friends and family. Even as I moved on to pursue a full-time finance career after university, my passion for the bees never really stopped. So, eventually, I quit my job on the trading floor at Goldman Sachs to dedicate myself full-time to Beekeeper’s Naturals.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
When I first had the idea to build the brand, I shared it with some of the smartest people in my life: mentors, my finance colleagues, my family. I was very shy and nervous about it, and people gave me a lot of bad feedback on the idea.
There was one person in particular who I’d really hoped would understand my vision and even join on as an investor. So I put together this pitch deck and went into a meeting with them feeling so ready… and they basically ripped me apart. It was a painful experience at the time, but it was also really transformative. At the end of that meeting, I was left with this question: “Do you still want to do this? This crazy, bad idea?” And I just remember in that moment feeling so much gumption and just thinking: “Oh yeah, I need to do this now.”
It reiterated to me how much of a force of change Beekeeper’s Naturals could be. And it also taught me to look at my company from different angles, see the potential weak points, and account for them in a pitch. After that, I felt more ready to raise my Series A funding than ever before. What I took from that is: When you’re feeling uncomfortable in a situation, get curious. What’s making you uncomfortable? What are you not seeing? What can you take away from it?
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
At the start of Beekeeper’s Naturals, I was casting a wide net trying to get us into stores and making products in my spare time. Finally, a chain of stores expressed interest in carrying Beekeeper’s Naturals, and suddenly I realized: There’s no way I will be able to make the amount of product they need with such a short timeline. I basically had no idea how to bring a product to market, so I went down a Reddit rabbit hole and cold-messaged people on Linkedin. I managed to get them their product on time (well, almost) and salvaged the relationship in the end.
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?
Daniel Millar, who currently works at Beekeeper’s Naturals as our Chief Growth Officer. When I started Beekeeper’s Naturals, Daniel was a successful lawyer. Something that was really important to me when it came to making and marketing my products was scientific validation. I did a ton of research, and I really wanted to make sure that all my formulas had something called an NPN Number: a Canadian certification that basically says you’ve legally validated all the health claims you’re making. I begged Daniel to help me for free, and he did. He saw the science behind all the products and fell in love with them. He believed in my vision, and he did me this insane favor. He’s stuck with me ever since.
When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
So much of modern-day, over-the-counter medicine is reactive and full of ingredients (like sugars, dyes, and unnecessary chemicals) that don’t actually care for your immune system as a whole. At Beekeeper’s Naturals, we’re devoted to making everyday products that support your immune system, brain health, and energy levels so that feeling your best becomes your default setting. Over the next few years, we’ll be working hard to move into new markets so that everyone can experience the power of the hive.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Propolis: Obvious, but important! I had a really poor immune system growing up, and it was only when I found propolis and started using it on a daily basis that my immune system transformed. Since incorporating propolis into my routine, I rarely get sick.
Engage in exploration: Not everything is right for everyone, so it’s really important to have a healthy level of skepticism and seek out legitimate scientific research when you’re on your health journey.
Meditate: I’m someone who struggles with anxiety, so meditation is key for me. Cortisol can be so damaging, so doing something daily to reduce stress is fundamental to my health.
Vitamin D: About 42% of the US population is vitamin D deficient, which can cause all types of health problems from low energy to skin conditions to chronic diseases. I love taking one of our B.Soothed Honey Lozenges as my daily dose of vitamin D. It’s so convenient, especially as we head into dark winter days here in New York City.
Practicing gratitude: I write a gratitude list every day, even if it’s just three items long. The more you get into the habit of writing gratitude lists, the more accessible positivity becomes when you’re faced with challenging times.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I’m honored to say that Beekeeper’s Naturals is this movement for me. Ever since I discovered propolis, I’ve been committed to sharing it with everyone possible. I truly see it as a vehicle for a healthier world, and I’ll be shouting about it from the rooftops until further notice.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Nobody is good at everything. The beauty of surrounding yourself with a team is understanding your strengths and weaknesses and finding people whose strengths are your weaknesses.
Resilience is the key to everything. Entrepreneurship is full of ups and downs. The more you flex that muscle of resilience, the more you build a tolerance to hard things. Eventually, the goal is to stay grounded in the face of the discomforts that inevitably come your way.
Ask for help. A lesson for me was to just ask. You do yourself a disservice when you walk around pretending you know everything already.
Stick to your vision. A lot of people will come to you with their perspectives on how your company should be. If you’re the creator, it’s your job to stay true to your vision.
Take ownership. Anything bad that happens at your company will come back to you, so you have to be comfortable taking responsibility.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Sustainability is a topic that’s extremely close to my heart — -particularly as it pertains to the bees. Honeybees are a keystone species that are responsible for about one-third of the planet’s food. In the last several decades, bee populations have been declining due to pesticide use and industrialization, so it’s to me as a founder to set a high standard for how these pollinators should be treated. At Beekeeper’s Naturals, we work hard to keep our bees away from pesticides and take care to never overharvest from our hives.
Women In Wellness: Tara Riley On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be yourself. Actually, I was told this one a lot, but when you’re first starting out it’s hard not to compare yourself to others, to those more experienced and successful. Heck — this is still hard sometimes! Everyone is unique, be you and your people will find you.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tara Riley.
Tara is a health and fitness instructor, teaching: Barre, Pilates, Cardio, pre/postnatal. Her goal and passion are to help people gain confidence and reduce stress and pain through positive and mindful movement that keeps you active and happy for life.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I was a competitive gymnast growing up and during college, so fitness has been part of my life for a long time. However, when I retired from gymnastics, I had an identity crisis and I left health and fitness completely for advertising and commercial production. Fast paced, long hours, boozy lunches and evenings replaced my formerly healthy diet and lifestyle. I was a successful (and stressed out and unhealthy) commercials producer for 10 years. A diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis at 27 years old brought me back to my healthy roots. And I’ve spent the past 15+ years trying different alternative ways to manage my RA, researching methods others have had positive results in, elimination diets to determine triggers and various forms of exercise to see what helps and what hurts. The method of fitness I teach incorporates the pillars of strength and resistance-based exercises with cardio and flexibility and its this combination that has helped me sustain mobility and strength in my muscles and joints and continue to move with agility and less pain. I teach with empathy and understanding what it feels like to move with pain — but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, or you can’t. The right types of movement do and can heal, and I do my best to share that belief with others.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I would have to say this Pandemic is the most interesting things that has happened to me. Of course, it happened to literally everyone all over the world and our normal lives flipped on their heads, but the lesson I learned from it cemented my true purpose and mission as a movement instructor — and that is to lead and teach with positivity, compassion and energy. It’s infections, its inspiring and it does help others. Here are a few snips of the feedback I received in the midst of the pandemic
“Thank you for keeping up my resilience during COVID with your fantastic classes. You’re a complete star with your energy and positivity”
“I wanted to say thank you — your weekly classes have been a very big part of 2020 and in what has been a very challenging year, they have done so much for both my physical and mental health”
“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed class today and how it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day”
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My biggest mistake was initially trying to correct every little thing on every single client. Yes, technique and positioning is important, but doing every exercise perfectly is not the point, it’s not possible and it’s not an encouraging or positive way to teach.
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?
Grandma — change something in your life every ten years.
I wouldn’t say there is just one person, but my husband and family have been huge supporters since day one. Switching careers with 2 children under the age of 5 isn’t easy — it wouldn’t have been possible without my husband who has remained unwavering and steadfast in keeping us going.
Ok perfect. Now let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I believe health and wellness is about so much more than how you look in your skinny jeans or graceful you look (or don’t) in a Barre class or the number of press ups you can do. It’s about finding movement that makes your body feel good, not moving as a punishment for something you ate. Finding and doing that type of positive movement for your body will seep into all areas — into your mind and your happiness in life. Let’s take it off the to do list of endless musts or chores and start having fun with it. I’d like see the dialogue shift from fitting into a certain body type or exercising to look a certain way into appreciating and celebrating what our amazing bodies can do for us. This will become especially important as we age — if we are confident and enjoying our exercise routines, we can a lot easier maintain that active lifestyle as we age. I’m passionate about inspiring and educating people to get active, stay active and build strong muscles and bones that will support throughout life.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
Schedule some form of movement into your life. Literally put it on the calendar and consider it non-negotiable. It can be anything, a walk whilst on a work call, a fitness classes a couple of times a week, or an online short class every morning, a scheduled strip to the gym or swimming pool. Put in in the diary and treat is exactly as you do client meetings, business opportunities, collecting the kids from school.
Eat the rainbow. Processed foods and refined sugars and grains tend to be beige. Add colour to your plate with fruit and vegetables at each meal and you’ll automatically be eating healthier.
Sleep — it’s the one many (myself included) tends to take advantage of. Your body and brain will function better on a good night’s sleep not to mention your patience and mood exponentially improved on a great night’s sleep. Aim for 7–8 each night between the hours of 10pm and 8am.
Intention setting and Morning mood. Set your intention and your mood for the day. A positive outlook can change so many things for the better and I think we forget this is actually something we have control over! Sure, everyone wakes up in a mood now and again and it can be tough to pull yourself out of it. Top tip — When my kids wake up on the wrong side of the bed, I tell them to get back in bed, smile to yourself and think about something that makes you happy and start again.
Move more. You may hit the gym 3 times a week or head to a barre class twice a week, which is great, but I’m talking about moving more in your everyday life. Take the stairs, step away from your desk, take a quick lunchtime walk,
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Are we talking cultural movement or physical?
Physical I would introduce Anti-Desk workouts. Our modern world sees many of us sat in front of a computer screen every single day and often without the incentive to even get up out of your chair unless needing the toilet. Creating a program which allows for timed intervals where you could be taken through a 5–10 minute stretch and activation exercises to keep hips healthy, glutes from becoming inactive, eyes focusing on something further than 30 centimeters from your face and neck, shoulders back getting movement and tension release it so desperately needs.
If we’re talking about a Cultural movement, I would like to see more companies incentivizing their employees to actively engage in wellness. This could be a monetary amount offered to employees to used specifically on their own wellbeing or it could be subsidized activities. I believe wellness should include exercise of course, but also taking part in the arts — music, theatre, exhibitions, even travel. Offering free matcha green tea and granola in the office canteen isn’t doing enough to make positive behavior changes.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Ask for help. You can’t do everything, at least not well. Outsource what you can or ask for help from friends when first starting out
Ask more questions- even the ones that you feel are stupid and you should know
Take messy action. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect
Make time for yourself to recharge. As an instructor you will give and give and give and teach and pour yourself into helping your clients. Make the time to replenish and refill your own cup before hitting burnout mode.
Be yourself. Actually, I was told this one a lot, but when you’re first starting out it’s hard not to compare yourself to others, to those more experienced and successful. Heck — this is still hard sometimes! Everyone is unique, be you and your people will find you.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Wow, all important topics and all ones I pay attention to, but I would have to say Mental health is dearest to me. Our mental health affects how we feel, how we think and how we act — so essentially everything! It can also determine how we relate to others, the choices we make and how we react to stress.
After the past 18 months we’ve just endured worldwide, its more evident than ever that our mental health matters! It’s ok to not be ok! This conversation is finally getting more visibility and it is helping people. Mental health isn’t something to be ashamed of — though many still are, but that is slowly changing and there are many more options and ways to get help. Our minds matter as much as our bodies do!
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Female Disruptors: Content Creator Lillee Jean On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Be Proactive, Not Reactive: When the online bullying started, I did not know how to react. I mean you go through phases, like hurt, bewilderment that somebody could think they have a right to stalk, attack, defame and attempt to harm your life, your family, your reputation. I have learned through trial and error, it is better to be proactive in a situation, instead of reacting to a situation.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lillee Jean.
Content creator Lillee Jean is best known for her beauty, skincare, and lifestyle content published on her YouTube, website, and Instagram channels. She is also an accomplished writer, producer, director, actress, model, young entrepreneur, and blogger. The content Lillee Jean creates for her videos, are fun and entertaining for her fans. Her advocacy on online bullying, stems from her experiences with it on notable online platforms.She currently has a live web series, that is Season 2, called “Lillee Jean TALKS! Live” (IMDB accredited), and features well-known entertainers, as well as innovators in the arts. Her scheduled showtimes can be viewed on her media website.
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?
It’s in my blood to be involved with something in the entertainment industry. When I was little, my grandfather would sculpt and paint with me. It was this precious time, spent with him, that would inspire me to pursue my true passion, art. He passed away when I was 8, but the great love he had nurtured within me, coupled with my parents allowing me to have a laptop at such a young age, put me on the path I am on to this day.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
To me, a disruptor is someone who goes against all odds, shakes things up, and tips the scales back in their favor, no matter how bad the odds might look. As a disruptor, I strive to keep growing, learning, and teaching. I don’t let anyone’s disfigured vision of the world, or fantasies, deter me. That is really what disruptors do. Peacefully challenge and change what’s impossible to others.
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?
Off-set, while filming a video for a brand, I was joking around with the PR Manager and staff there on-hand, but I was not looking. I ended up tripping over the video camera wires, and it was suffice to say, lights out for me and everyone else.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
It has been an honor to be able to bounce ideas off the owner of Runway Rogue, Patricia Hartmann. Patricia is a former supermodel from the 1990s, who is not only business savvy, but beautiful inside and out. We are two peas in a pod, being Aries born on the same day. Throughout the years, she has given me amazing advice, when I was feeling down, knowing firsthand how it is to be bullied online and in person. As a result of her own experiences, I have learned about who I am as a person, what I want as a person, in the entertainment industry, and how to deal with the shaming and bullying I have experienced myself.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Shaking up an industry is never a bad thing, as long as it is done for the right reasons. Without different things that people add to the mix, it would be all stagnant and boring. Disruption is a diverse way of keeping everything moving and flowing in a positive way. Unless you are intentionally trying to be judgmental, or abusive, it is always good to bring new things to the table. For example, I love the beauty industry, but I do not consider myself a beauty guru. I consider myself an entertainer, who is an artist, that loves to express with makeup, however there is so much more to me than that. I define myself more as an entertainer who also is a director, producer, writer, actress, an advocate for a number of important causes. I love to share and teach, and I use makeup as one component of having that conversation with my fans. I like to take my fans on different journeys, such as my vlog on my orthodontic work, or talking about relevant subjects, without being overly political, since everyone has their own opinion. Being a disruptor can be bad if I distort my goal and make it one sided, of which I try not too. I always try to examine and put forth stuff that won’t betray who I am and what I want to project to the world, but it is a careful balance. My advocacy, if I was not so mindful of others, could end up on a level of disrespect to people in general. I choose to push myself to the limits, and keep that in perspective each day that I work.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Know yourself. A truer statement cannot be said. I know who I am, and what I stand for. As long as I am true to myself with that knowledge I can never go wrong;
Always speak the truth. No matter what, always say the truth, it becomes harder to keep facts in place if you consistently tell a different story;
Be Proactive, Not Reactive: When the online bullying started, I did not know how to react. I mean you go through phases, like hurt, bewilderment that somebody could think they have a right to stalk, attack, defame and attempt to harm your life, your family, your reputation. I have learned through trial and error, it is better to be proactive in a situation, instead of reacting to a situation.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
My advocacy for the internet holds no bounds. There was a time I thought for sure the cybercriminals that were attacking me would just stop. When that didn’t happen, I went through a phase of disillusionment, confusion, I just couldn’t understand why people, who don’t even know me, would act so judgmental, create fictitious, defamatory lies, and then continue to do so, non-stop day and night. It bewildered me to the point that I felt catatonic sometimes when I would get in front of the camera. Once I was able to access what was going on, I realized that it is true, that you are never given a burden too hard for you to bare.
Once I was able to identify these issues, I was able to channel the advocacy that I wanted to see occur for online platform behavior. I plan on shaking up the internet next year a lot. We are working on a documentary as well as pushing for federal law, not state laws, to combat any of this online behavior that needs to be monitored more.
At the end of the day, that is what a disruptor does. I refuse ever again to allow my life to be led by a crazed mob of people that pray to a Discord server, and talk about me, my family, my friends day and night. It is time for me, a disruptor, to show through the power of laws and education how things need to be handled better.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
I would say that men are taken far more seriously than women. This is only my opinion, but I feel that if a man is doing the same thing I am doing, they would be taken far more seriously, and in a faster time frame, than has been the case with me. We still live in the Men vs. Women universe. It is getting better, but I think a lot of work still needs to get done until women get more respected as to what they want and who they are.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
“The Art of War” by Sun Tzu is the book I think everyone should read at least once in a lifetime. It is not so much about military strategy, as it is lessons that even today can be applied to life, whether business or personal. Sun Tzu, although a magnificent military strategist, believed there was more power to be gained by knowing how to diplomatically end a fight. While you should always know your enemies’ weaknesses, it is better to find a way to break through the walls that cause the differences, instead of moving forward without a focus and a plan.
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. 🙂
It would be for people to start recognizing how they treat others, and show them a better way to act.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is “…he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”Sun Tzu,It is something I apply to myself on a daily basis. Nowadays, I focus on what I can change and what is good, instead of focusing on the negativity and darkness that can consume you when bitter people surround you.
Female Founders: Meghan Quinn of Bougie Bakes On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Don’t sweat the small stuff, and don’t forget to celebrate the small wins. A lot of things aren’t going to go your way and sometimes it will feel like you are literally trying to push a rock up a hill. Don’t drive yourself crazy worrying about every little thing that goes wrong. Make sure you take some time, even if it’s just a minute, to acknowledge and celebrate the wins. As founders, we tend to become fixated on obtaining a certain level of success, and we can often lose sight of how freaking cool it is that you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place. Take time to celebrate all of the wins — big and small.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Meghan Quinn.
Meghan Quinn is Co-Founder and CEO of Bougie Bakes, a Los Angeles-based maker, and distributor of better-for-you baked goods. Everything the company bakes is gluten-free, dairy-free, & sugar-free, and they have an expanded assortment of vegan offerings as well. Before baked goods, Meghan worked in marketing and consumer products, leading brand licensing for several high-profile children’s entertainment properties and billion-dollar toy brands like Barbie & Hot Wheels.
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?
Of course! Thanks for thinking of me for this opportunity. For as far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I never would have imagined it would be in the Food/CPG space.
I grew up in a family full of business owners, which should probably have dissuaded me from even considering it given I saw firsthand how hard it could be, but it was something I wanted from a very early age. I remember saving my birthday money and buying a VHS set about real estate investing and after watching it incessantly, a few of my cousins and I tried walking into a bank to secure a mortgage to buy a house we wanted to flip. Needless to say, we didn’t get the mortgage, and that was only one of a handful of failed business ventures that started before I even graduated college.
After graduation I secured a job at Viacom/Nickelodeon, working in Ad Sales, and it’s also where I met my now-husband, Ryan, who shared my same passion and fueled my entrepreneurial fire even more. He and I founded Bougie Bakes together. After a few years in Ad Sales at Nickelodeon, I yearned for something a bit more creative-focused and made a pivot that landed me at a company focused on creating children’s entertainment, where I worked directly under the CEO and managed outbound licensing of our owned IP. Years later, we acquired an iconic retro toy brand, and I assumed inbound licensing responsibilities as well. We had rights to the best of the best names in kids’ entertainment, including a Barbie license, which is how I first started working with the team at Mattel.
A few years after that, an opportunity to join Mattel is what brought my husband & me out to Los Angeles and changed our lives forever. We quickly became immersed in the healthy way of living in LA, but with a serious sweet tooth, we found ourselves struggling to find sweets that would satisfy our cravings without making us feel terrible. The gluten-free products we found in the market that tasted good were packed full of sugar and the sugar-free products tasted gross and fake, so we started baking what we wanted to see ourselves. We made those same baked goods into a business that began as a side hustle and grew to employ both of us and a team of people full-time. To this day, we remain committed to delivering healthier alternatives to life’s indulgences to people just like us around the country.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
My husband & I started this business as a side hustle. We were baking out of our home kitchen and spent our nights and weekends selling locally in Los Angeles — showing up at farmers markets, popping up at boutique fitness classes, and doing pretty much anything we could to get our bakes in front of as many people as possible. It took us six months until we had enough proof of concept and the confidence to invest some of our own money into building out a commercial kitchen, marketing our baked goods, and (fingers crossed) taking the business to the next level. It was another 18 months, of very long nights and no weekends off, before I could focus on this business and my passion full-time. The timing of this also happened to coincide with a global pandemic, and made the decision to quit a steady and stable job in the midst of just chaos and turmoil even more interesting (read: terrifying), to say the least.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We knew from the start that we wanted to focus our efforts on selling direct-to-consumer and so our website was going to be key. What we didn’t know though was how to build one, and we definitely didn’t have the money to hire someone to do so for us. So, I took to Google and taught myself how to build a website through Wix. It was a grueling process, but I was so proud of it and it served us well for the first two years we were in business.
I’ll never forget the night before our expected launch date on October 15, 2018, when we were trying to push the site live and kept getting a DNS domain verification error. We had no idea what the heck was wrong and we were up until 4 am trying to figure it out. We finally did figure it out, but it was then a waiting game to get verified, which can take anywhere from 24–48 hours. By some stroke of luck, we got approved and were live by 10 am the following morning, which wasn’t ideal but still allowed us to start accepting orders that first day, as planned.
That was just one of the countless times things haven’t gone according to plan since starting this business and taught me one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned — always having a contingency plan is key. Looking back, it was foolish to assume the website would go live without a hitch, and we now try to always think through any/all scenarios and have plans B, C, D & so on.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’ve been lucky enough to work for powerhouse women in literally every chapter of my career to date. Each of them has played a big role in getting me to where I am, but there are two women in particular that without, I’m not sure I would have ended up in Los Angeles or subsequently had started this company. These two women were my bosses at Mattel, and the way I met them and the series of events that lead me to get a job at Mattel is still to this day one of the most serendipitous things that have ever happened to me.
The company I was at before Mattel had acquired an iconic retro toy brand, and we had been working on a rebrand and new line of products. We were reintroducing the new toy line for the first time at Hong Kong Toy Fair in January 2016, and licensing was a big part of the toy strategy. We had meetings planned with buyers and retail partners, of course, as well as with executives from a lot of the studios that represented the brands we had licensed. Very unfortunately, my boss at the time and the President of our company came down with an illness the day before the show started and wasn’t going to be able to make it to any of the meetings we had set up. It was just him & me at the show, so by default, all of the meetings fell to me to lead. To be honest, I was terrified — I knew my stuff, but I was not expecting to have to run the show, especially with heads of networks and executives from some of the biggest retailers in the world.
The executive team of Mattel was coming through, because we held the license for Barbie, and I remember being so intimidated. Mattel was notorious within the industry, of course, given its size, scale, and brands in the portfolio, but they were also known for hiring the best and brightest in the field. Trying not to let my nerves get the best of me, I began by taking them on a tour of the showroom and slowly but surely got into my groove. As the meeting progressed, the questions were getting harder, but I was gaining more and more confidence. The meeting had gone as well as it could have, and I was genuinely proud of how I handled it, but mostly just happy it was over. On the way out the door, these two women, who ran the group, came up to me and told me how much I impressed them.
That was the beginning of what ultimately led me to be recruited by Mattel to join the team, what moved my husband & me to Los Angeles, and eventually led us to start this business. Still to this day, I often reflect back on that experience and how that one meeting changed the trajectory of my life, and more specifically how those two women — who went on to be two of the best bosses I’ve ever had and even greater mentors — changed my life. That experience also taught me 1) to always be over-prepared in case you have to step up and cover for someone or something and 2) that confidence is key.
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 obviously a lot of layers to this one and a lot of systemic gender inequalities that have led to the underrepresentation of women in entrepreneurship. I think what’s holding women back from founding companies is multifaceted. The disadvantage in terms of funding is real and added to the more universal setbacks like wage gaps, lack of universal childcare, and gender stereotypes about women’s strengths and interests have made navigating this world even more challenging for women. While we’ve made an encouraging amount of progress in recent years, we still have a long way to go, and I think with even more female representation, we’ll hopefully inspire the next generations and keep closing in on the gender gap.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
We need to first and foremost acknowledge that men and women are different, and that’s okay! Those differences don’t make women any less superior or ill-equipped to lead. We need to continue to prioritize women’s representation in positions of political and economic power. COVID-19 even further heightened the reality that women still bear more of the responsibility for caring for their children and families, making all of these obstacles even harder to overcome. Federal paid leave and child care could help tremendously.
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 think women are innately better entrepreneurs. We are great communicators and multitaskers, which are both keys to success. Women are also naturally good at building relationships, and since your network is literally your net worth when it comes to starting a business, it’s a great skill to have. More than a high IQ, I think EQ is what sets great leaders apart from the rest, and as women, I think we tend to have an advantage here and often lead with empathy. We need to keep leading by example and positioning future generations of females for success by showing them how it’s done.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
“You need to quit your day job to start a successful business.” Obviously, every business is different, but we were able to build this business as a side hustle for a solid two years before we quit our day jobs to focus on it full-time. Though insanely challenging at times, in hindsight, I’m so grateful we chose to build it that way. We had our hands in literally everything because we were the only ones doing it in the beginning, and it made it a lot easier to hire when the time was right. It also forced us to get scrappy and act very results-driven, especially when it came to finances.
“You need to raise money before launch.” Speaking of finances, we bootstrapped the business ourselves until we hit our first $1M in sales. Our day jobs and savings are what funded the business in the early days, so we were hyper-focused on getting returns for every dollar we were putting in. This forced us to make more educated decisions and to prove things out thoroughly before investing money into different aspects of the business. Of course, not everyone is in a position to do so and each business is different, but I’m very thankful we chose to build the business this way, and to this day it keeps us laser-focused on profitability first and foremost.
“You need to be an expert in the industry you’re starting your business in.” We knew literally nothing about the food space before starting Bougie Bakes. Neither of us even really knew our way around a home kitchen, yet we were able to navigate the licensing and permitting to start the business out of our home kitchen and then eventually figured out how to scale it to a commercial facility. You’d be surprised what you can learn on Google, and we’re constantly amazed at how willing to help successful people in our specific category were to us. You don’t need to go into it as an expert — you just need to want it badly enough and not be afraid to ask for help.
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?
Definitely not. I always knew being a founder would be challenging, but I never in a million years would have expected it to be this hard. It takes an insane amount of perseverance, grit, and passion for what you’re doing. In some cases, you have to be okay with making less money than you’ve ever made and working harder than you’ve ever worked for many years until you start to see some of the fruits of your labor. You have to keep going, even when the going gets so impossibly tough. I think you also have to genuinely love the chaos that comes with entrepreneurship too — every day is different and very few go according to plan, but you have to be okay with that. Those who like structure and clear lanes and want to master one certain thing probably aren’t the right fit for entrepreneurship. I have a newfound respect for people who feel fulfilled and happy working a “regular job” as an employee — there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. For me, I just always felt like I was meant to do something different.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
There are going to be people who don’t like what you’re doing. Whether it’s customers who aren’t a fan of your product, or potential investors you pitch that just don’t get the vision, you’re going to get a lot of no’s and for every 10 people who love everything about the brand you’re building and the product, there’s going to be 1 or 2 people who don’t. That’s okay. I like to focus on the positive, but we keep our customers (lovers and haters) at the forefront of every decision we make. Negative feedback regarding the amount of waste in our initial packaging ultimately led us to rethink the entire thing and we launched a huge sustainability initiative featuring reusable cookie tins. It’s important to consider all feedback because you never know what idea it might prompt and it could even end up helping you to make your product and business even better.
You can’t do everything yourself. It’s important to acknowledge what you don’t know and your weaknesses, and hire or outsource accordingly. We prioritized bakers and fulfillment people when we were finally in a position to hire, which didn’t leave us with any help on the sales, marketing, accounting, design, or operations front. We leveraged various agencies and consultants to help support until we were able to bring people on full-time. Better yet, we have been able to transition some part-time help/consultants to full-time employees, which is a win-win because you know you’re bringing people on that already get it.
You’re going to have to pivot from time to time. Whether it’s product-market fit, ever-changing retail landscapes, supply chain issues, platform changes that impact marketing, or something else entirely, there are going to be times when you need to pivot your strategy quickly and the quicker you can do so, the better off you’ll be. Just this year, our digital marketing efforts were impacted pretty significantly by the iOS and privacy changes. We needed to act swiftly and shift our budgets away from underperforming platforms where costs were skyrocketing and the results weren’t favorable. As a company, we continue to navigate some of those challenges as we speak, but we’ve been able to test and learn across several new platforms, and have been seeing some promising results. In doing something new and untested, you run the risk of it failing, sure, but there’s also the possibility it will become even more successful than what you were doing previously.
Accessing credit when you need it will be challenging. The worst time to look to borrow money is when you legitimately need it. Stay hyper-focused on cash flow. When we were raising money we had a group of investors that wanted to give us a lot more money than we were raising, which obviously meant they would get more equity too. For that reason, we said no. In hindsight, it was for sure the right call, but there were definitely times when that additional cash would have been helpful.
Don’t sweat the small stuff, and don’t forget to celebrate the small wins. A lot of things aren’t going to go your way and sometimes it will feel like you are literally trying to push a rock up a hill. Don’t drive yourself crazy worrying about every little thing that goes wrong. Make sure you take some time, even if it’s just a minute, to acknowledge and celebrate the wins. As founders, we tend to become fixated on obtaining a certain level of success, and we can often lose sight of how freaking cool it is that you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place. Take time to celebrate all of the wins — big and small.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
We have been focused on doing good through business since launch, and it’s something we want to continue to scale as the business scales. In the early days, we focused our efforts on feeding the homeless and donating our baked goods to women’s centers. While this continues to be something we are passionate about, we have also been working hard to reduce our carbon footprint and offset carbon emissions. We ship all orders in a reusable cookie tin and reorders are shipped minimally packaged. Alongside our partner, EcoCart, we also fund carbon offset projects like planting trees or building wind farms with every order, ensuring all of our shipping is 100% carbon neutral.
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.
What a great question. I’d love to help people, especially our youth, build a connection between their personal health, food, and community. Things have been trending in a better direction and the demand for healthier options has been growing steadily. We see populations of people that have been making healthier decisions with their food, but there are still many communities around the globe that are starving, malnourished, and do not have access to healthier options. These healthier options should also not come at the expense of our planet. We need to work harder to make healthier eating more feasible for communities around the globe and we need to work harder to protect our planet from the negative effects that change can sometimes bring.
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.
Sarah Blakely, Founder of Spanx, is top of mind given the recent headlines and majority investment. Her founding story is inspiring in it itself, but even more inspiring is how she bootstrapped the business for the last 21 years to a $1.2B valuation without raising any outside capital. As a fellow female founder, I am so incredibly inspired by her.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
