Day: February 6, 2022

Women In Wellness: Christina Thomas of MY Self Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Switch harmful beauty products out for cleaner alternatives. Most women only think about what they’re putting into their bodies and forget that a lot of the products they put on their bodies are actually filled with harmful toxins and chemicals.

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

As President and Founder of MY Self Wellness, Christina Thomas leads management and operations for the ketamine clinic — ensuring employees, partners, and customers alike experience the highest level of support and assistance. Christina has over a decade of experience in the hospitality and management industries and received her undergraduate degree from Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).

When Christina isn’t working at the clinic, she’s a mother to her 2-year-old son, Charlie, and is a loving fiancée to Charles Patti, the clinic’s Brand Ambassador. Together, they are on a mission to serve southwest Florida. Christina believes that healing happens in a community and is proud to run one of the nation’s first female-led and owned ketamine clinics.

MY Self Wellness’ documentary, “Lighter: A Ketamine Experience,” chronicles Christina’s work and provides a deep insight into ketamine therapy.

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 know firsthand what it feels like to battle depression, anxiety, and PTSD after being involved in a life-threatening jet ski accident in 2007. I was prescribed a medley of pain killers and mood stabilizers to help suppress trauma caused by the accident, but the drugs left me feeling joyless and lost. I knew there had to be a better way and embarked on a self-healing journey. Using meditation and positive lifestyle changes, I was able to wean off prescription medications, but it wasn’t until my fiancé, Charles Patti, introduced me to the healing powers of ketamine that I discovered a faster way to heal. It was through Charles’ passion for psychedelic medicine and my personal recovery that MY Self Wellness was created. We saw firsthand the positive impact ketamine was making in our lives and knew our mission was to bring this healing modality to the world.

Today, I’m on a mission to share the restorative benefits of ketamine with anyone suffering from mental, emotional, and physical distress. Opening its doors one week before the COVID 19 lockdown of 2020, MY Self Wellness stands as a beacon of hope and healing to anyone suffering from mental health issues.

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?

Since opening MY Self Wellness, I’ve never had to look for staff. All of our team members have shown up synchronistically.

Our registered nurse (RN), who’s also a yoga instructor, originally wanted to help us lead community yoga events, but once she realized her RN background could be of service at the clinic, she decided to come on full-time. Likewise, we met our company therapist through an unfortunate food poising accident. My fiancé had gotten very sick from undercooked chicken, and the EMT who assisted us during the incident said his wife was a therapist and would love to work for our clinic. Then, our on-staff nutrition health coach came knocking on our office doors one afternoon after seeing our company brochure at a local gym. She said when she picked up the brochure it was 5:55 p.m. on her phone, and she knew she had to follow the signs. The very next day, she was at our clinic with her resume in hand.

The lessons I’ve learned from these miraculous events are to be open and to trust that the Universe is always working on your behalf. When you’re ready, it will bring you exactly what you need.

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?

The biggest mistake I made when starting out on my entrepreneurial journey was ignoring the red flags and not listening to my instincts. Throughout my career, I’ve been presented with business opportunities that looked fantastic from the outside, but my gut told me something wasn’t right.

In my early days, I would ignore my feelings because if everyone else was raving about this opportunity, it had to be a good fit for the business, right? Wrong! It took getting burnt a few times before I learned one of the biggest lessons in my career — always listen to your gut.

When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

MY Self Wellness is helping to give people their lives back when they feel like all hope is lost.

We’ve helped clients with depression and anxiety so bad that they hadn’t been able to leave their house in over five years overcome their fears — and even bought a plane ticket to a vacation destination after just six treatments! This medicine is powerful, and not only is it healing for the individual, but it’s also bringing families back together. There is no greater feeling in the world than reuniting a family after they thought they’d lost a loved one forever to addiction or trauma. We’re giving families their loved ones back.

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.

Tweak #1 — When you start to have feelings of anxiety or feeling overwhelmed, instead of giving in to your emotions and letting your mind run wild, take a step back, inhale a deep breath, and check in with yourself. Ask yourself, “Is everything ok in this present moment?” The majority of the time the answer will be “yes” and in those moments gently remind yourself that everything is going to be alright.

As a new mother, it’s easy for me to worry about worst-case scenarios when it comes to my two-year-old son, Charlie. There have been so many nights where I laid in bed thinking about all the dangers he might face in the world, but I’m learning to let go of my fears about what could happen because right now in this present moment, he is safe.

Tweak #2 — Make time each week (even if it’s just five or ten minutes) to prioritize yourself. Self-care is so important to your health.

Each week, I dedicate a few hours on Wednesday to myself. I check Charlie into daycare and rest easy knowing that the clinic is in my staff’s capable hands. Then, I focus on refilling my cup and refueling my soul with self-care activities. It can be as easy as getting my nails done or as intentional as journaling for hours. Whatever the practice, the important thing is that I make time for myself.

Tweak #3 — If you’re not currently taking vitamins, I recommend incorporating a high-quality regimen into your schedule.

I didn’t realize how depleted my system was until I started receiving weekly FastVitamin IV injections from the clinic. The serums can be administered in 60 seconds or less — quickly flooding your body with key vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. Since beginning the treatments, I’ve noticed an increase in my energy, my skin is glowing, I’m getting better quality sleep, and I’m much more focused at work.

Tweak #4 — Begin each day with gratitude. Starting your day with thankfulness is a powerful lifestyle tweak that will make a big impact on your life. The simple act of being grateful raises your vibration and sets you up for a day of success. Even if it’s a challenging day, this practice will better equip you to tackle issues head-on when you’re coming from a place of positivity.

When my alarm clock buzzes, I silently say three things I’m grateful for in my bed before my feet ever hit the floor. Most days I give thanks for my healthy body, my beautiful son, and that MY Self Wellness is able to be of service to our greater southwest Florida community.

Tweak #5 — Switch harmful beauty products out for cleaner alternatives. Most women only think about what they’re putting into their bodies and forget that a lot of the products they put on their bodies are actually filled with harmful toxins and chemicals.

Before I opened the clinic, I was an esthetician, and I was shocked to learn that women on average are exposed to over 168 chemicals per day in their beauty products! I love using products like Osmosis Beauty Products knowing that they’re nontoxic and doctor developed.

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’d help people in marginalized communities have greater access to ketamine therapy and mental healthcare programs.

At MY Self Wellness, we’re proud to offer Group Ketamine Therapy. These community sessions are held every Tuesday at the clinic and are hosted by our psychiatrist, Dr. Andrew Ferber, and therapist, Hanna Pratico. Group Ketamine Therapy is 60% off of private individual packages, making this treatment package more accessible for individuals in need.

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

1.) There will be a lot of tears. When you’re a business owner, there’s a lot of responsibility on your shoulders — and, in my case, there are lives in your hands. Some days you will feel overwhelmed, but as long as your purpose outweighs the hardships you will be ok.

2.) Don’t start a business and have a baby all at the same time. Being an entrepreneur and new mother has been the greatest adventure of my life — but it’s also been a true testament to my mental and emotional strength. I recommend taking time to let your business be your baby before adding a newborn to the mix.

3.) Never give up. As a business owner, you will get kicked down several times throughout the course of your career — but never give up. Your perseverance is a sign of your strength and is a catapult for growth. Don’t stop. Don’t give up. Just keep going. Believe in yourself. It can be done.

4.) Use your strengths, delegate everything else. We built this business from the ground up, and everything was created from scratch. As an owner, I wanted to hold on tightly to all aspects of the business, but what that ultimately meant was that I was stressed, overburdened, and was not focusing on my strengths. Once we started staffing up and letting our teammates take on some of the responsibilities, we truly started to flourish.

5.) Trust. Let Go. Be Open. For me, money isn’t the most important thing in the Universe… it’s frequency and alignment. I strive every day to be of service and to be in harmony with MY Self Wellness’ purpose of helping others on their healing journeys. I trust that when I am giving my all the Universe will take care of everything else.

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

Of all the issues happening in the world right now, mental health is dearest to my heart. We are facing a global mental health crisis — and, for many, current medical practices and prescription drugs aren’t working to ease the pain of those suffering from anxiety, depression, trauma, and more.

MY Self Wellness exists to improve people’s lives and to change the way the industry treats mental health issues moving forward. The healing powers of psychedelic medicine need to be more readily discussed in the mainstream and given as a therapeutic option to those who are suffering. We hope to shine a light that there are other treatment options available.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

You can learn more about myself and the clinic at our website: myselfwellness.center or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Christina Thomas of MY Self Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Alexandra Chu of MedCreate On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Practice makes permanent, not perfect. If you keep doing something over and over again, there’s no doubt you’ll get better at whatever it is. However, if you learn it wrong and practice that, it won’t become perfect. I try to avoid this by always striving to learn more.

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

Alexandra Chu founded MedCreate, an international non-profit dedicated to merging the worlds of medicine and creativity, when she was fourteen-years-old. Her organization promotes empathy and imagination as well as fosters a community of students who are enthusiastic about science and the humanities. She has impacted thousands of students all around the world through her work to bridge the divide between the two fields. Now sixteen, Alexandra is continuing to inspire Gen-Z by making an impact in healthcare and education all while juggling rigorous schoolwork and college applications.

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 a pleasure to be here. When I was younger, I didn’t have a fixed thought on what I wanted to be when I became an adult. I see myself as a polymath with a love (and knowledge) of biology, writing, art, figure skating, dance, etc., so I really didn’t know which field to choose. Over the years, I started wondering about what would happen if I combined some of my interests instead. This led me to start my organization, MedCreate, which combines medicine and creativity.

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

Reading, writing, and art are known as the “humanities,” which is often thought to have little connection to science. On the contrary, the two actually have a lot to do with each other. Medicine brings the objective research of science and the creative aspects of the arts together because it uses a lot of factual studies as well as innovation and imagination. Still, many people think that science and the arts are complete opposites. MedCreate works to dispel this belief through education and our works of writing and art.

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?

Our funniest mistake would still probably be not being clear about the intended audience for our team applications. MedCreate is a youth organization; all of us are under eighteen. It’s stated in the bio of all of our social media and job-posting-site accounts, so I didn’t think I would need to write it again on the opportunity post itself. However, we started receiving applications from adults who were way older than eighteen. Because of that, we realized that we needed to add a sentence at the top of each post saying that we were looking for applicants between the ages of twelve and eighteen. The funny thing is, we sometimes still receive applications from people who clearly aren’t in that age group. We write the required age range in all caps and in bold in the first line of each opportunity post, but some people just don’t read it. It’s annoying sometimes, but we find it hilarious as well. Because of that experience, we now carefully word everything we publish online to make sure our message is easily understood.

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?

To be honest, I haven’t really had a mentor throughout this journey (my guide has mainly been Google), but I would like to take this time to thank my support system. First off, thank you to everyone on the MedCreate team for believing in me and our dream. You guys push me to be a better person, and I can’t wait to see what we’ll accomplish next. Thank you to my friends for helping me out when needed and literally being the best people ever. Lastly, thank you to my family for being there every step along the way (even if you didn’t know it).

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?

People often say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Why should we disrupt an industry if it’s popular and effective? Honestly, I don’t think there’s a true answer to this question. No matter what you do, there will always be people who disagree with your perspective towards disruption. Since this is the reality of the world we live in, the best I can say is to trust your instincts and do whatever you believe in.

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

1. Practice makes permanent, not perfect. If you keep doing something over and over again, there’s no doubt you’ll get better at whatever it is. However, if you learn it wrong and practice that, it won’t become perfect. I try to avoid this by always striving to learn more.
2. You can’t do everything by yourself. Believe me, I’ve tried. What ends up happening is that you become miserable and burnt out. It may be fun at first to do big things on your own, but we all need some help along the way.
3. Know when to fake it. ‘Fake it till you make it’ works a lot of the time, but sometimes you’ll be thrown into situations when it’s better to be honest about yourself. Understand when to act with confidence and when to act with modesty.

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

Last March, we launched a series of virtual pilot classes for kids to learn more about medicine and creativity. Since then, our team has been working hard to improve them in order to make each class as educational and fun as possible. We’re planning to kick off the new batches of classes soon, and we’re also hoping to have some of them implemented in children’s hospitals!

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

Women are often not taken seriously. Society will praise male disruptors as ambitious innovators while criticizing women for being the same. We lack supporters and people who believe in us, so we often need to work twice as hard and act twice as confident to be accepted by male standards.

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

I recently read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson, and it really helped me reevaluate a lot of things in my life. The book taught me how to prioritize things I truly care about while overcoming obstacles. I was a bit skeptical at first of the ideas in the book, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying it and learning a lot. I highly encourage you all to read the book if you haven’t already!

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

I would like everyone to know that science and the humanities aren’t disparate fields. Society often puts pressure on us to choose between the two in terms of hobbies, majors, and careers, but the reality is that we don’t need to make this choice, and we shouldn’t be forced to. Science and the humanities have a lot of connections, and at the core, they’re both meant to explain the nature of people and the universe, albeit in different ways.

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

“Maybe I made a mistake yesterday, but yesterday’s me is still me. Today, I am who I am with all my faults and my mistakes. Tomorrow, I might be a tiny bit wiser, and that’ll be me too.” -Kim Namjoon

We all need to learn to love ourselves a little bit more. We constantly express regret over what we’ve done in the past, and we worry about who we’ll become in the future. I’m sure that I made a lot of mistakes when I first started MedCreate. I had no experience in business or entrepreneurship, and I often doubted myself. There was even a point when I thought about quitting and shutting down the organization. However, I realized that it didn’t matter if I didn’t know what I was doing because mistakes are inevitable. Everything I do becomes a part of my identity, and I’ll always have the chance to further my actions or correct them tomorrow.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow MedCreate on Instagram (@medxcreate), Twitter (@med_create), Facebook (@medcreateusa), and LinkedIn (MedCreate, USA).

You can follow me on Instagram (@alex.mchu) and LinkedIn (Alexandra Chu).

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

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

Female Disruptors: Erica Anenberg of Girl Flip On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Think outside the box. Most people don’t want to be uncomfortable, so they conform and act in ways that keeps their world very small. If you want to do anything big in life, you have to think in ways that most people don’t. All the changes this world has seen come from people who realized there were different ways to find solutions. So be different and be okay with it.

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

Serial entrepreneur and CEO of Girl Flip, Erica Anenberg is an agent for change, a disruptor, a passionate creator, and a prominent leader in the arts and business world. Erica brings more than two decades of hands-on experience in the business and home remodeling world to Girl Flip.

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

I have been a builder and creator my entire life. I’ve been working with my hands, creating something from nothing, and building brands for decades. My first trade was as a glass maker. I created big stained-glass windows and installations but quickly realized the best way to touch as many people as possible was mass production. I created a brand called e-glass in 1996 and sold small glass boxes to department stores. Every warehouse I rented, I would knock down a wall, build a loft, finish the concrete floors with an artistic touch, and of course, put in some kind of funky glass window. Similarly, every house I rented in my early 20s would need some upgrading. Whether it was pulling up carpets and refinishing floors or texturing an accent wall — my living space was altered to express who I was at that time. Self-expression through art was a prerequisite to everything else. My space had to reflect my inner self. When Covid hit and my wholesale business halted, I turned to what I love and am passionate about: building and creating space.

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

I love construction and building however, every time I worked on any project it was always with a bunch of dudes. If I pulled out my tools and did any type of work everyone noticed. They made comments like, “Oh, she’s a handyman now” or “Let me do that, I don’t want you to get hurt.” I have always been a bit of a rule breaker, disrupter, and played to the beat of my own drum, so seeing such a huge gap for women in the trades was not acceptable. With less than 2% of construction employment comprised of women, I decided that someone needed to empower the female engineers, architects, contractors, electricians, carpenters, and other trades women that were out there. GIRL FLIP helps women infiltrate traditionally male professions with the goal of a future where it’s not unusual to see a woman welder or trucker or auto mechanic. GIRL FLIP is ready to repair the world and change the perception of women across all trades.

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

When I was in my 20s, I was very idealistic about changing the world. I read the Ben & Jerry’s book, The Inside Scoop and I wanted to make a difference for people. One of my first big jobs was making 5000 glass boxes for a department store. This was in the early ’90s, so I wasn’t aware about outsourcing or manufacturing overseas. I decided I was going to hire disabled people and give back. I didn’t understand that I needed more experienced workers than inexperienced workers and although my intentions were good, the practicality of having to train 80% of my laborers with disability challenges was more than I could handle. It ended up costing me all of my profits to have to redo the order, but I learned and that’s what business is all about!

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 always learned by doing and there have been many people along the way who are like-minded and supportive but there isn’t one person who I would consider my mentor. I know this might sound strange, but Home Depot has been a place where I have learned, explored, figured out solutions and grown up with in the last two decades. Before I put together a team of builders, Home Depot was my spot. If I needed electrical work done, I’d hang out in the electrical aisle; if I had a plumbing question, I would go to the plumbing aisle. I would scope out the people and wait to find the perfect person who looked kind enough to help. If it was something I thought I could do myself, like installing a drip system in some planters or sanding and staining a deck, I would talk to the manager and find a salesperson that could walk me through the process. Home Depot is my home away from home.

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?

You may find yourself to be ahead of the times, where your vision isn’t accepted the way you would have liked, but the bottom line in today’s world is, that women in construction are disgustingly unrepresented. They are under appreciated and underutilized. We have an industry that is dying and in the next 10 years 50% of tradespeople will retire. We have 50% of the population that is just as capable of being in the trades, but what we haven’t done is embraced and educated women that working in construction trades is a viable option. We haven’t taught our young girls that this career path is on the table for them. Women in non-traditional roles is ‘a thing.’ It shouldn’t be a thing. Just like two decades ago women in computer engineering was a thing and now it’s not a thing. We need to make these changes for women in construction, so that we are not a rarity, but a commodity.

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

Pivot. As a business owner this is a must. There is not much certainty in the business world but there is one thing that is certain and that is — everything evolves and changes. Having an open mind and being able to pivot quickly to find the best solution is key.

Don’t take no for an answer. I have always had an issue with the word “no.” I literally had a physical reaction when I was younger, where my entire body would tense up when someone would say “no.” As an adult, I realize that the answer is never “no,” it is just the answer for that one person in that particular space and time. When you hit a roadblock, or an obstacle, use it as fuel to your fire. Show all the “no’s” out there that there is a “yes” that was their missed opportunity.

Think outside the box. Most people don’t want to be uncomfortable, so they conform and act in ways that keeps their world very small. If you want to do anything big in life, you have to think in ways that most people don’t. All the changes this world has seen come from people who realized there were different ways to find solutions. So be different and be okay with it.

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

Within Girl Flip, there are so many projects stacking up that will shake things up even more. Some I can talk about and some are still in flex. One of the key components is building a community of women who can rely on each other’s expertise and support in a world where non-traditional gigs aren’t easy to come by. There are many job boards out there, but there aren’t many real communities where women really help other women succeed. Girl Flip is changing that. It takes trust and strategy to build a community and we’re doing it. We’re also shaking up the old version of a tool belt with our Utility Babe, the Everything Belt. They’re not just for DIY projects. Hair stylists, make-up artists, event planners, gardeners, painters, waiters, and teachers can use them. We’re shaking things up wherever we can!

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

There’s a general consensus that a woman disruptor is an automatic bitch that’s hard to deal with, rigid, and doesn’t play well with others. So, when we set out to change something, we have to do a quick fear factor analysis and put an extra amount of energy into how we present the idea so it will be heard, instead of labeled, challenged, and struck down before it has a chance to grow. Men don’t have to deal with that as much. When I’m fired up, I’ve been told to slow down. When I have big plans and want to make them happen, I’ve been told that I’m a handful. This wouldn’t happen if I were a man. Expending that extra energy to make my ideas palpable for everyone else can be exhausting.

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

I love listening to Glennon Doyle. I can relate to her so much. I was married to a man and had a child. I met a woman, (who played soccer for the University of Denver) and she is the love of my life. My world changed when we met and going through a divorce was challenging however there is nothing like living life with your true love. My wife and I just had a baby girl, and we are excited to help create a world where there is gender equality in construction.

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. 🙂

#createspaceforlove Meaning, wherever you live, whatever your cultural background is, whatever your talents, there’s honor in creating a space to hold that expression — and always leave room for love.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life? “Whatever you set your mind to, you can accomplish.” And, “Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty.” I learned both of these from my dad, and they’ve served me very well. I’ve been digging in and getting my hands dirty and going after my dreams for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I can do. Sometimes, not. I’m human, but as long as I’m willing to get my hands dirty — it’s always a win.

How can our readers follow you online?

Website: GirlFliip.com

IG: girlflip

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

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

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Kristina Cahojova of Kegg On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Get to know your colleagues well so you can recognize their strengths and areas for growth. By recognizing their full potential and helping them pursue their passions, they will grow alongside you. As a result, you will be challenged in new ways and able to tackle new obstacles. Communication is key, and while time-consuming, I think one-on-one time with each team member is vital to the company’s success.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristina Cahojova.

Kristina holds a double Master’s Degree in International Management and Business Administration from CEMS in Europe. She was named the Student Entrepreneur of the year in 2011 for her first business venture, TailorMySuit.

She continued her career in London, where she led growth at AppyParking. Following that experience, she joined the marketing team at Amazon, later moving into the C2C marketing space at eBay in San Jose, California.

Inspired by her personal difficulties with cycle and fertility tracking, Kristina began prototyping kegg in 2017; she launched the brand under the Lady Technologies umbrella in 2020. Over time, Kristina hopes to expand Lady Technologies’ reach beyond fertility, and innovate in the service of perimenopause, menopause, postpartum, and more.

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

I have always struggled with tracking my fertility; my cycles are irregular due to stress and traveling, so ovulation prediction tests and temperature methods always provide me with limited information about my ovulation and fertile window. Later, when I refused to “fix my cycle” with hormonal birth control, I was told by a fertility specialist to track my vaginal fluids. I was shocked that there was no technology to help me with this.

After 7+ years spent working at Amazon and eBay, I decided to pursue kegg. For decades, we’ve accepted that our fertility is only good for conceiving. In reality, it is the rhythm of our being and our fifth vital sign — so I set out to create kegg, the first convenient and accessible, easy-to-use, modern medical device, to help women understand their fertility cycle with tangible data.

More information can be found here.

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

Early on in kegg’s journey, I hired someone who misread requirements for an impedance device and frequency, which caused us to struggle with the development of the product for more than 6 months. We eventually righted the ship with a new team.

I learned that attention to detail is the key to success at a company. And while it wasn’t funny at the time, it’s definitely humorous in hindsight!

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

We are trailblazers in the vaginal and intimate women’s health space. We are the first company to offer a convenient and accessible, easy-to-use, modern medical device that offers women a large scale of tangible data on their cervical fluid and fertility options. The data kegg provides on vaginal fluids is key to understanding natural birth control, affordable fertility management systems, menopause, infections, and many other women’s health conditions.

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

We are excited to extend beyond analyzing fertile window prediction and further into the health and wellness space, by detecting and alerting the kegg user to possible infection, such as a UTI or BV, as well as working toward helping users by providing feedback so they can proactively work to maintain a healthy vaginal environment.

Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

No, but I try to lead by example. I had an idea and a passion and with hard work, it came to fruition. I think encouraging young women to be passionate about femtech is a step in the right direction — this can be done by making women’s health and sex education mandatory topics taught in schools, offering more resources to young women, so they can learn more about their bodies, etc. I have and currently do employ students striving to work in this space. I also encourage my team to think outside the box for ways we can not only work well as a team, but also be pioneers in the science and technology field for future generations to come.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?

I think women in STEM face similar challenges to women in any other field where they are a minority — I think we can fight these challenges by encouraging women to follow their dreams and passions. I strive to create a working environment where all of our team members can pursue their passions and fulfill their potential. I hope to help women realize that anything is possible if you set your mind to it!

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?

The myth is that women have equal opportunities as men — this is not true. Many men’s health brands do not struggle with the same issues (or at least not to the same degree). It is way more difficult to fund a company led by a woman, proven by the fact that historically, brands helmed by women receive less funding from investors, meaning that these companies are being asked to do more with much less (VCs have invested 98% of their capital in startups led by men). We need to work to change this statistic to better the system!

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

Get to know your colleagues well so you can recognize their strengths and areas for growth. By recognizing their full potential and helping them pursue their passions, they will grow alongside you. As a result, you will be challenged in new ways and able to tackle new obstacles. Communication is key, and while time-consuming, I think one-on-one time with each team member is vital to the company’s success.

What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

Again, I think the success of a large team results largely from effective communication and organization. A company is successful if the team is collaborative and works as a united front.

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

It is impossible to launch a product without tremendous support from others in the field. kegg and other women’s health brands have supported one another, mutually resulting in beautiful collaborations and friendships. For example, I recently started a petition regarding unfair social media censorship of women’s health brands — in less than a week, 25 likeminded founders signed on board to instigate change. It’s clear that we’re stronger together than we are on our own.

Beyond this, I am thrilled that kegg has helped so many women receive data that was never easily accessible before — allowing couples to grow their families. On average, most couples are able to get pregnant within six months to a year. However, a study of couples using a cervical fluid-tracking method (known as the Creighton Model) found that 76% of the couples conceived within the first month of trying. 90% of the couples conceived after the third month and 100% after seven months. Focusing on cervical fluid allows couples to recognize when they are fertile and therefore, when they are most likely to conceive. The positive results and feedback we receive from so many couples using kegg that were struggling to conceive (or even just women trying to understand their cycles!) fuel me; we are making a difference in so many lives. kegg users were surveyed in the first six months from launch, and 27% of respondents noted that they had successfully conceived. In Spring 2021 the first kegg baby was born, and since then over 15 women have confirmed that they will soon be mothers thanks to kegg. Based on data and feedback from the growing community, the team also anticipates many more pregnancies to be announced.

You are a person of enormous 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?

I think too often we compare ourselves and feel the need to compete even amongst women. Women should be supporting women! So much good can come from women supporting each other and celebrating their differences, which is why I work with many other women’s health brands to support their causes, as every woman should have access to medically-backed devices that they can benefit from.

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

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Kristina Cahojova of Kegg On The 5 Leadership Lessons She… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Dr Angela Swain On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Foster A Wholesome Life And Holistic Success Rooted In Spirituality

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I’ve watched myself silently disappear in between the cracks of parenting as I willingly gave of myself to nurture my boys while failing miserably to find time for myself. While redirecting your energy may not be easy, with spiritual fortitude and a healthy blend of mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, and social influences, you will yield lifelong success.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Angela Swain.

Dr. Angela L. Swain is the epitome of multifaceted and purpose driven. Dr. Swain is the Trifecta Business Coach who earned her coaching certification from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) and is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from the International Coaching Federation. Her coaching acumen supported countless leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs in healing through trauma, health, and wellbeing through times of transitions while supporting their teams to do the same. But her prowess doesn’t end here. Dr. Swain is a highly sought-after business psychologist, researcher, author, and speaker. She served as a researcher and moderator for The Emotional Intelligence Leadership Institute in Chicago.

Dr. Swain is the author of COVID-19 and Beyond: Supporting Your Staff in Times of Stress and Transition, Navigating Change: Breaking Barriers to Unleash Full Potential, and her book, Kitchen Table Talks with Dad: 5 Simple Tools to Become a Transformative Leader became an Amazon International Best Seller in Organizational Change Management and Conflict Resolution on launch day. An accomplished retreat speaker for pastoral and business leaders, she is also a recurring guest lecturer at Loyola University Chicago and North Park University. Currently, she is pursuing her MCC and BCC to become both a Master Certified Coach and Board-Certified Coach.

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?

My life from birth has always been defined by pain due to multiple painful diseases. I entered this world with a folded stomach and twisted chin bones. From a tender age, I have understood the struggle to thrive when your body is plagued with limitations, first with MS and then Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I have lived with Multiple Sclerosis for almost 25 years now. MS has a host of symptoms, with the most dominant being numbness, tingling, fatigue, memory loss, and loss of balance. But before MS, a three-year-old me was unknowingly suffering from a Hiatal Hernia and learning to live with excruciating pain.

I vividly remember attending a routine doctor visit, and as the doctor examined my stomach, I shrieked in pain. My constantly aware mother was shocked and enquired why I never once related to suffering like this. I casually told her I was always in pain and didn’t know I shouldn’t be.

This was just the beginning. By the time I was 12, I had started suffering from Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. I guess you can say I had to learn early to be steadfast, as I refused to live in a world where diseases and pain dictated my life.

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?

It was when I realized that people would pay for what I brought to the table. When I became aware of my value and that what I had to say needed to be heard and I had a waiting captive audience, it was the catalyst I needed. When someone blatantly expressed they would have had no problem paying me more than my fee, I knew it was time to reevaluate my sense of self and self-worth.

When I think of it now, I am reminded of King David. I hold tight the scriptures that speak about what happened when David perceived he was king. The ironic part is, it’s not that he didn’t know he was the king. Instead, it was the oozing of confidence and the overwhelming boldness he exuded when he perceived he was king. At the core of my coaching and speaking, I always aim to convey the importance of people harnessing the power of their desires, grasping them, and perceiving the ideal timing to go for 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?

My biggest mistake, which I have realized is a constant recurring plague for many, is self-comparison. It’s a vicious cycle giving in to your inner saboteur, forcing you to compare yourself to others. In return, you feel even worse when you think you have fallen short.

I constantly compare myself to others and measure myself to the standards of others. I spent much time annexing myself with many “should haves,” including the type of client I took on. And I did it not because it was satisfying or worthwhile, but merely because, to me, it shouted from the rooftops, “Hey, look I am successful, just like you!”

But it isn’t real. It’s hollow, and most importantly, it isn’t sustainable because I wasn’t being my authentic self. Frankly, it’s exhausting. I couldn’t continue like that, so I turned to my solace, the Psalms.

Those feelings of inadequacy can quickly take root and bury you in a rut. But when I lean on the words that feed my whole being, I know I am enough because God is my safe space, and he made me, so of course, I am enough. Guided by this dogma, I blossomed in my strengths and was confident that there was no need to use anyone else as a measuring stick with Him in my corner.

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 my many hats, I aim to be purposeful. Whether it is lecturing to burgeoning minds at the university levels or pastors, I am dedicated in my pursuit of showcasing the benefits of being healthy and holistic. Wellness is a whole-life approach that isn’t limited to how you look. It’s as internal as external, and I am a proud purveyor of this. I am constantly open about my ailments and the fact that every day won’t be a great day. While this is the case, I also know that each day is still a chance to take up space and be the best version of yourself.

Whether you’re a leader or a mom being pulled in a million directions, I never fail to stress the importance of meaningful rest, meditation, and unabashedly committing acts of self-love. I think these are the core facets that make us successful in all aspects of our lives, which is the impact I continue to generate. Every book, every engagement, every executive coaching session is a lesson in love, light, health, and success.

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.

1. Stillness — We live in a constantly moving world. We aren’t presented with enough opportunities to embrace a lack of motion combined with perfect silence. So, to truly grasp the power of stillness, we must take it. Our lives foster anxiety and downplay the importance of stillness, despite it being the force that combats stress. Stillness requires relinquishing the power to God, knowing that his strength is more significant than another. It means being aware that while things may not go as planned, you can’t see the big picture, and you need to trust God and be assured of your stillness. This lesson was not the easiest for me. Suffering from an autoimmune disease makes it almost impossible to calm the wheels constantly turning in my head. My autoimmune disease made me constantly unstill. How would I be able to connect with my clients and give them the attention they require of me? Will I become bedridden? But I understand that I must accept the things I cannot change, I must trust God’s process, and all I needed to do was to embrace stillness, taking much needed time for myself actively.

2. Being dynamic — We are not one thing. We are many parts of a beautiful puzzle amalgamated to be a whole. It is time we normalize embracing all of our parts and do away with compartmentalizing. Every bit of who you are matters. I acknowledge that I am a beautiful cornucopia of dyslexia, MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis. They affect me, but they don’t define me. I live with them while being a mom, wife, trailblazing professional, and anywhere else, my faith will lead me.

3. Imagine — I often use the exercise of imagining no ceiling above and no floor beneath. What do you feel? Most clients say exhilaration, and others say fear. Both are normal, but what truly matters is that at that moment, you get to decide which serves you in that particular moment. And that perspective is a simple yet life-changing concept that can be applied in many ways.

4. Self-awareness — Ask yourself what do you REALLY want? What are you building and what does it take to get there? Don’t just go with a surface or default response. Dig deep and go to the inner places you often shy away from.

5. Name your outcomes — Never underestimate the power of envisioning yourself doing and being what you want. Then seek help in designing a strategic plan to get there.

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

Hands down, I would assist children battling food insecurity. I’d purchase land and have sensitization courses on sustainably producing from farm to table to feed themselves, their community, and how to make a profit. I know this model has been explored before; however, it’s so powerful and very much needed.

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

1. Entrepreneurship feels like riding a wave — The highs are high, the lows are low, and you must master balance to leverage the power of the tide.

2. You are both your greatest cheerleader and worst critic — You have to learn to cheer for yourself when no one else will, and you have to believe in yourself. Being your hardest critic makes you accountable, but it leaves the door open for you to fixate on your flaws with little room to be forgiving to yourself.

3. Achieving your goals is not a linear process — Despite our best-laid plans and preconceived milestones, life can and will happen. Your goals most likely will not be achieved consecutively, and that’s perfectly fine.

4. The marketplace determines the value of your service or product — You may love your product, but that won’t define its success. Learning quickly to keep your thumb on the pulse of the market is a crucial step in guaranteeing the success of your service or product.

5. Practice excitement — Entrepreneurship allows numerous opportunities for you to question yourself, including the value of your ideas and motivation. Here’s an invitation to trust the process and be excited about what is to come.

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

The cause that’s dearest to me is mental health, primarily because it’s not easily recognized to the naked eye, just like some of the ailments I suffer. I possess the intimate knowledge of having people completely ignore or downplay your disease because it isn’t staring them in the face. I think we must make strides to accept that merely looking is not an accurate summation of what someone is going through.

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

Please follow me on LinkedIn.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Dr Angela Swain On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Foster A Wholesome Life… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Julianna Carella of Treatibles On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

There’s light at the end of the tunnel, although it’s a very long tunnel. I never imagined that 13 years after our founding date, cannabis would still be a Schedule 1 narcotic. We may be years away from full federal legalization but there has been tremendous progress in the past decade. This speaks to the necessity for activism as well as the success of the grass roots cannabis movement.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Julianna Carella, Founder and CEO of Treatibles and Auntie Dolores.

Julianna Carella is the embodiment of a successful serial entrepreneur; fearless, focused, driven and always ahead of the competition. Her story is noteworthy in that she’s built one of the world’s first medical cannabis brands and since 2008 has created not one, but two multi-million dollar enterprises. These brands are dramatically altering the quality of life for health-conscious consumers and their pets by both providing broad access to safe alternatives and educating the public on the therapeutic value of cannabis and hemp.

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

In 2008, my daughter was approaching college and my career as a bookkeeper became stagnant. I saw an opening that existed in edibles within the cannabis industry and that’s when I decided to launch Auntie Dolores. I started making medical cannabis edibles for friends and relatives who suffered from various ailments and Auntie Dolores ultimately became one of the leading lifestyle cannabis brands in California. In 2013, my loyal customers began inquiring if Auntie Dolores products could be used for ailing pets, which led me to create Treatibles, the pioneer and current industry leader in creating full spectrum hemp CBD products for pets.

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?

The growth of the Auntie Dolores brand happened during a time when advertising for cannabis brands was illegal and yet within a year of our founding date, the demand for our products spread from the Emerald Triangle all the way to San Diego. Our success was made possible thanks to word of mouth, guerilla marketing and social media. The main lesson I learned was to never underestimate the ability to create brand loyalty and generate good will through direct interaction with our customers, even if the law makes it difficult.

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?

The funniest mistake I made in business was doing an interview early on in our cannabis days and divulging sensitive details. The reporter asked me about how we managed the difficulty of operating on a cash only basis, being that we were denied true banking services. I jokingly stated that hiding cash to stay in business is not necessarily the easiest or best model, but a necessary one. The reporter then decided to write that I stash cash in my car every night. Once that story went to print, I started having male employees escort me to my car at night. Our kitchen was in East Oakland at the time. It’s a funny mistake now when reminiscing, but at the time it wasn’t so funny!

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?

At Treatibles we believe that by being part of this industry and by educating the public on the benefits of CBD, we are making a positive impact each and every day. In a world where anxiety seems to be one of the most common complaints, we work tirelessly to advocate the calming benefits of CBD for ourselves and our pets, truly creating harmony for the whole family. We believe in this statement so deeply, it’s become our tagline.

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.

1. Stay on top of a supplement regimen that keeps your whole system in tip-top shape because our food supply has become less than stellar, and many common foods are denatured and lack the minerals and vitamins we need.
2. Treat your pets with CBD when you treat yourself, to truly create “Harmony for the Whole Family”. Holistic approaches for a well-rounded and holistic outcome make for a happier pet and family!
3. Recognize that everybody is a little different, including our pets. We can dial in their happiness requirements by experimenting on dosage.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of good diet, exercise, and sleep — all things needed in healthy doses by human and furry family members!
5. The microbiome is where immunity lies; keep yours and your pet’s microbiome healthy with the right diet and supplements.

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

Cannabis and hemp have the ability to change the world in a good way so much so that I’ve dedicated my career to this movement. There are endless benefits and rewards that the plant provides, including a safer and more sustainable alternative to medicine, in addition to improving overall health and wellness. With the numerous ways the plant can be cultivated, extracted and researched, we have much more to learn about it’s uses. I’d love to end the stigma surrounding this miraculous plant, as it can bring calm, balance and ease to both humans and pets.

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

1. Banking challenges may slow you down, but they won’t take you down. It’s been a bit of a challenge running successful cannabis/hemp brands with limited banking. I look forward to some of this changing with hemp’s new classification.
2. Be prepared to spend a lot of time studying regulatory compliance. To be a successful cannabis or hemp brand, it’s essential to be knowledgeable of current and changing laws for proper marketing and labelling of THC and CBD.
3. Balancing both adaptability and tenacity is an ongoing effort. In any emerging industry, entrepreneurs need to be agile enough to manage the unexpected, while still maintaining a tenacious follow through on the original business objectives.
4. Don’t be afraid to overcome the stigma. Thanks to the discovery of CBD and other beneficial cannabinoids, more and more opportunities are beginning to exist for entrepreneurs.
5. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, although it’s a very long tunnel. I never imagined that 13 years after our founding date, cannabis would still be a Schedule 1 narcotic. We may be years away from full federal legalization but there has been tremendous progress in the past decade. This speaks to the necessity for activism as well as the success of the grass roots cannabis movement.

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

Mental Health is an area of special importance due to the potential impact cannabis can have on our mental health and how the plant is underutilized in this area. With a large percentage of our population on various anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs, we are not taking full advantage of the cannabis and hemp plants to address mental health issues. Hopefully the regulatory environment will ease up eventually so humanity can enjoy the full benefits of this plant.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

We’d love for your readers to keep up with our blog at Treatibles.com. We’re also very active on social media:

Facebook: Facebook.com/Treatibles

Instagram: @Treatibles

Twitter: @TreatiblesPets

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Julianna Carella of Treatibles On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Celebrate Story — To me, joy within your home begins with story and celebrating with enthusiasm what makes your own unique. Within my own home, that means featuring objects and experiences that have grown me. Travelling to remote places with my camera and featuring those photographs in my home, bringing home unique and treasured pieces to remind me of those travels and placing them in spaces that can spark unique conversation with guests such as dining rooms, powder rooms, or the entry.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy’’, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paige Gray, Partner and Lead Interior Designer of Parker&Harlow Interiors.

Parker&Harlow — Parker&Harlow Interiors is a boutique interior design firm on British Columbia’s West Coast. Powered by the dynamic mother-daughter duo, Deb Vanderkemp and Paige Gray, their team provides an intuitive reflection of your lifestyle and vision. With a passion for transforming the holistic qualities of the coast into refined spaces that live beautifully and inspire ease, Parker & Harlow has been working in the design industry all along the coast of British Columbia for 28 years.

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

I would say my love for design started at the threshold between adventure and creativity. I’ve always loved stories, in evocative objects, meaningful spaces, and intentional daily practices especially when integrated into our coastal culture. To this day, when I’m not in a creative headspace, I’m finding inspiration in the wilderness hiking in our endless backcountry, chasing waterfalls, and climbing peaks. Our breathtaking landscape here on the west coast of British Columbia is an endless source of inspiration for me.

I began designing furniture and exploring various creative mediums from a young age, which inevitably lured me to attend Emily Carr University for industrial design. At the time, the campus was in the heart of Vancouver on Granville Island, and those years were truly some of the most valuable contributors to my creative practice today. Pressing through personal thresholds, celebrating new discoveries in both success and failure, and finding the pulse on my own design processes gave me insight into the methods I now carry forward into business. I am so grateful to have worked alongside some of the most incredible leading professionals in BC. Over time my love for the coast and deep appreciation for family brought me back to my roots to partner with my incredible mother who’s entrepreneurial expertise added the perfect touch to our longtime dream of launching a design company together. This is where Parker&Harlow was born!

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

My commute to work has to be the most interesting part of my job. Boats, barges, and ferries are a regular day-to-day occurrence for me. It is something I love about the specialty process of designing on remote islands. Unless of course it’s in a February winter storm, on a very small ferry boat headed to a secluded coastal island where the ocean is lapping through the boat deck- but still a very interesting adventure!

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?

Heels on the job site just isn’t the most practical situation when you work on islands in the heart of a west coast rainforest and your project is in the thick of landscaping, masonry, and a water irrigation upgrade! Luckily, the precarious situation was resolved quickly with a pair of Blundstones I keep in my vehicle for hiking. A practical and very “west-coast” solution.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

Many of our clients hire us because we specialize in full-scale renovations on remote islands up the coast. One of our current projects is located on Cortes Island, BC and the residence serves as a second home for our clients who lived primarily in Vancouver before purchasing their coastal retreat during the start of the pandemic. During these precarious times, lifestyles are shifting and with these changes many of our clients and trades are looking to embrace new avenues of escaping to, and harnessing, the immeasurable gifts of our secluded coast. This helps our clients find balance, and helps us to employ an extensive trade resource on projects that are unlike any other. Many of our trades have been living on Cortes Island over the past year as this comprehensive project has come through an intense upgrade. The results are a beautiful reflection of what it looks like when passion meets the design process on many levels. It has been a magical process, and we have lapped up every moment of our time working on this gorgeous island with our amazing team.

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

“Do or do not, there is no try”. -Yoda

Although many Maya Angelou quotes come to mind, the intense commitment that comes to play with the specific work we take on requires a more direct inspiration. This quote is still on a sticky note on my bathroom mirror, and I soak it in every morning. Although there is merit in trying, it is a mindset driven by the fear of failure. In my own life, personally and professionally, when I was able to cut my own internally constructed excuses and exercise a “do” mentality, it took the fear out of leaping into unknowns. Let go of the fear of failing and trust that your innate human grit has the potential to propel your life into meaningful spaces where fear becomes your fuel not your roadblock.

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?

Many people within the industry that I’ve gained the most experience from are also those who have oddly caused me the greatest heartache. There is a standard in interior design that needs immense overhaul — that junior designers are an expendable resource.

Unpaid internships for big names in the industry were something I felt niched into accepting, and although it came with valuable life lessons, I knew right away that this type of leadership wasn’t a practice I was willing to bring forward into my own business.

Both of my parents have been business owners their entire lives. Leading with a “people-first” mindset has provided them the opportunity of guiding the same employees for over thirty years. There is tremendous value and honour in this type of leadership, and I’m so grateful to have been raised with such tremendous examples of how to respect and honour employees while fostering a nurturing environment for them to succeed.

It is the main contributor to partnering with my mother, who’s grace, patience, and attention to detail has become a cornerstone in the way we celebrate our team at Parker&Harlow. I have gratitude for both sides of my experience in this industry, to the companies who gave me the gift of feeling undervalued and the incredible woman who stands beside me now in business to ensure no employee in our own team ever feels that way.

Thank you for that. Here is the main question of our discussion. What are your “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

Celebrate Story

To me, joy within your home begins with story and celebrating with enthusiasm what makes your own unique. Within my own home, that means featuring objects and experiences that have grown me. Travelling to remote places with my camera and featuring those photographs in my home, bringing home unique and treasured pieces to remind me of those travels and placing them in spaces that can spark unique conversation with guests such as dining rooms, powder rooms, or the entry.

Organize and Edit

Taking on a minimal lifestyle is difficult for everyone, but paring down your functional spaces so that you spend less time moving things you don’t need to get to the things you do, makes cleanup so much faster and gives you more time to enjoy the space rather than working on it. Also upgrading mismatched items like mugs, cups and cutlery has oddly given me immense joy when setting the table and gathering with friends and family.

Our furry friends

There is a dynamic humour and joy that radiates from our dogs in my own household and I’m sure any pet owner can agree that they just make life better. They give balance to the otherwise overwhelming perfection of a “still” home. They’re the movers and shakers, keeping life on its toes. They also drive us to go outside our home, exploring our coast, which keeps life inside our home more holistic and centered. For Deb and I in business, they’re also the inspiration behind our name!

Make a Mess

Spaces are made to be used, and this means bringing people in to celebrate it with you. Whether it’s kids’ science experiments on the dining room table or dirt and mud from messy paws that have galloped through gardens leaving trails across the floor for you to find, find joy in the moments that would usually cause you to feel anxiety or stress. The dirty paw prints belong to those creatures you can’t live without. The erupting volcano on your table is a precious pillar to childhood exploration, and the aftermath of that dinner party is also the moment your home feels most relaxed and appreciated by those you love.

Never Stop Evolving

Spaces should be a reflection of ourselves, and with that, they are ever-changing, complex, sporadic depictions of where our lives are at any given moment. Play around with your layout. Growing up, Deb (My Mum) and I would often spend the evening rearranging furniture while my Dad was out of the house. He would come home to a whole new design and smile at the faces of the two ladies in his life feeling very accomplished for their efforts. Who would have known back then that those very women would be running their design company together with equal enthusiasm and joy!

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 have to return to the time in my own life that influenced me to reach beyond my own capabilities and direct this question/conversation to the field of education. University is an incredible space for young adults to grow and find the unique ways they fit into and influence the world. Finding ways to bring enthusiasm and funding initiatives that aim to send more kids on the path to higher education would be amazing. Quite often the task of applications and the pressure to know exactly where to go outweighs the act of simply going out and doing! My own path began with fine arts, shifted to architecture, and circled back into interior design. Minds can change, career paths shift and accommodate, and if there was a way to spark passion and support more kids to take that leap on to university level learning — I’m all for it! Especially in the fields of creative arts, design, and more philanthropic-centered education paths.

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

The roots of this particular family-run multi-faceted company have inspired me since the beginning. With the many initiatives and brands they have come to lead as well as the cadence, spirit, and vigor clearly expressed in each member of their team, I have to say Joanna and Chip Gaines. Now, I’m aware that’s two people, but some of the best things come in pairs especially with family-run business. Their quirky authenticity together, as well as the baseline they hold for family and personal space, is something I truly admire.

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

Paige Gray of Parker & Harlow: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Kim and Keyondra Lockett On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

We think more women should be founders because it helps women mold and create the business model that they want to see and insert more women in the workforce. It also helps a woman to be a legacy builder. As black women, in particular, we do not see a lot of black women, or women in general, having the opportunity to leave a legacy.

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

Kimberly Lockett, Keys2LuxLife, is an Atlanta based celebrity fashion stylist. Kim is no stranger to the fashion industry, having spent over 10 years as a personal and celebrity wardrobe stylist, she has gained experience coordinating all aspects of a client’s image. While Kim’s work has been seen on various national platforms and television networks such as BET, HypeHair.com, Essence Magazine and more, her personal style has been featured and recognized in major online publications and blogs such as Essence.com, 50 Fab Fashion Instagrammers (2012) and a Fashionbombdaily.com, Fashion Bombshell of the Day (2015).

Keyondra is a #1 Billboard Chart Topping singer-songwriter. She has shared the stage with artists such as Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, and many more.

She’s also the first and only gospel artist to have a licensing deal with a toy company.

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?

We are honored to share! Thank you for having us. We both share a love for fashion and have always wanted to be entrepreneurs. As kids, we were the girls who had to have every doll and all her accessories. When we couldn’t get the accessories we would create dresses and handbags from socks, tissue, scrunchies, rubber bands, and cardboard (for purses)! We were also the girls with the lemonade stand going door-to-door to make a sale. In high school, I (Kim) had a dream to one day design my own clothing and have it sold in all the fashion capitals of the world. In 2009 Keyondra had the idea to create an online eyewear brand. We named it The Red Glasses Sisters (RGS) because we wore red glasses then. What we didn’t realize is that business wouldn’t be our breakout thing, but it was the catalyst to where we are now. We learned a lot about what not to do while running RGS. We desperately needed a rebrand because RGS was very limited in the name alone. We had a decent sized male following and the glasses part didn’t allow us to seamlessly grow. So we sought out a new name. As we sat and thought about new names and the direction of our new venture Keyondra continued her singing career where she found a passion for encouraging women and girls. I continued in my wardrobe styling career and worked towards a master’s degree in counseling. In my studies, I learned of several statistics that shed light on the state of black women, in the US alone, which made me dig deeper for names for our new business venture. Since we’re from Louisiana we decided to tap into French culture and name our business, Jolie Noire. We could have said Pretty Black but we wanted it to spark conversation. It only made sense that we advocated for black women because Keyondra used her platform for women’s empowerment and the statistics shed light on the need for a community and safe space for black women to be celebrated. The cool thing about our mission is even men find it valuable so we had to create a small space in the Jolie Noire closet so they too can be represented. Our main mission still exists, to promote and show representation of black women, but we do realize underrepresentation is a blackness issue, not just black women.

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

The most interesting thing that’s happened to us since starting is when Target approached us for the black history month partnership. It was so cool and unbelievable at the same time. The Sr. Buyer of the multicultural dept contacted us via our business email and Kim’s personal email addresses. When Kim read it, she couldn’t believe it so she sent a screenshot of the email to our group text between the two of us, our mom and our business coach, at the time. After our business coach confirmed it was her, we screamed and cried with joy, before knowing what “opportunity” she had in mind! We had a meeting with her a few days after responding to her email and here we are now with an exclusive Jolie Noire collection sold in all Target stores and target.com!

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 can think of several mistakes we’ve made when we first started but we can’t say they were funny… Hah! We’ve made jokes about them but at the time we couldn’t see the humor. One of those mistakes is we trusted the numbers of a large Instagram influencer without really looking at their history. We took the word of their manager as gold and because they had a lot of followers, we didn’t do sufficient homework. The influencer had an event that they wanted emerging black businesses to sponsor. We were to provide clothing for them to get ready for the big day and pay $700 for our name to be featured on the step-and-repeat, at the event. The process was so rushed and went so fast. That should have been a red flag for us, but we proceeded. Once the day came, they were supposed to wear the pieces and mention what they were wearing and where it was from and create a video that we could share on our platform. They wore one piece but never mentioned where they got the piece, they never did the video, and the other pieces conveniently got lost in the mail. We followed up with their team several months without any resolution. We had to count it as a loss. We made several funny moments when speaking about influencers, based on that experience, and learned to slow down and research each opportunity. If we cannot take the time to research, it’s not the collaboration for us.

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?

Not to sound cliche, but we must thank our mom. She has supported us in EVERYTHING we’ve ever done and Jolie Noire is no different. She has been our financial investor. Keyondra and I had very little finances to start Jolie Noire. We started with about $100 of our own money, added roughly $2000 more, over time, and she has funded the rest, which is A LOT!

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?

While we’re proud of the progress women have made, we can’t agree more that there is still a lot of work to be done! We think women are the group that the phrase “representation matters’’ resonates with most. We haven’t had many examples of women doing things outside of the norm, such as founding companies, and it’s hard to see ourselves in all types of spaces. If you’ve never had someone encouraging you, at home to be whatever you wanted, or whatever you deemed achievable, and you rarely, if ever, saw an example of women doing those “out of the box” things outside of the home, finding the courage to step out can be tough. It’s tough for those of us who have had examples of fearless women around us. We believe it starts in the mind. Your mind is initially shaped by your home environment. If we can overcome the obstacles of the mind, we can achieve a lot more. Another obstacle is finances. It’s tough finding funding for women-owned businesses. Unfortunately, women aren’t as respected as men are when it comes to finances and lenders and investors don’t take us as seriously. We often have to rely on our own resources just to start.

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?

If it’s the obstacle of the mind that we’re overcoming, we suggest as an individual, seek counseling to help reframe thoughts as well as to assist in planning. Have a circle of close friends or family who are eager to see you win. Network with other women founders and even men founders to see how they went about starting their businesses. Decide what of that information will fuel you and what of it is information to be stored to help another aspiring woman founder. As a society, we need to support women founded businesses. We feel men should use their voices to speak on their view of the importance of women, in business, and women should continue to model why we are so valuable. On a governmental level, there should be a nurturing of programs to teach women about business and incentives to owning or supporting women founded businesses.

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

We think more women should be founders because it helps women mold and create the business model that they want to see and insert more women in the workforce. It also helps a woman to be a legacy builder. As black women, in particular, we do not see a lot of black women, or women in general, having the opportunity to leave a legacy.

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

A myth we’d love to dispel that everyone can be and should be a founder. Not everyone has what it takes to lead or grow a business. Being a founder of a business can be super stressful, at times, and honestly, everyone cannot handle the stress. Also, to build a business, with a team, you have to display great leadership skills or at least be able to delegate that responsibility to a partner. Though all great leaders are great followers, not all great followers are great leaders. The reality is not everyone wants to be a founder of a company. Some people truly love to help someone else see their vision through. Everyone can’t do everything. It’s not realistic.

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 guess we should have read ahead! Ha. Other than having great leadership skills, some other traits a great founder would likely be open to change, a critical thinker, self-motivated, just to name a few. We always say never be married to an idea. A founder should be open to changes that take place, within their industry, be that daily, weekly, monthly, or every 5 years. The ability to adapt to that change, and accept it, makes all the difference. Critical thinking is a necessary life skill that unfortunately not everyone uses. As a founder we have to be able to solve problems such as how to adapt to the changes mentioned previously and how to continue moving your business forward in an ever-changing economy. The most important of them all, in our opinion, is the ability to be self-motivated. If you need someone to push you to do your job, you probably should choose a “regular job”.

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.)

Five things we wish someone would have told us before we started are influencers with a large following will not automatically turn into sales, don’t depend on family to support your business, there’s no perfect timing, just start, develop a solid marketing strategy, you have more in your hands than you think. Concerning influencers, it’s important to understand, not all user generated content, including the content you pay for, will yield an immediate financial gain. It’s best to view influencers as a potential sale but a guaranteed ad. That way, you will be able to strategize and select your influencers wisely.

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

Our initial mission was to empower black women to build them up to continue being incredible forces in society. Since we’ve started, our mission has grown to encompass black men as well. Now that we have the Target partnership, we’ve been able to further our message all while bringing a sense of unity between cultures, with non-black women taking interest in supporting our efforts. We now have other races of women asking if they can be a part of our movement, by purchasing. We are normalizing wearing whatever because it’s beautiful, not because of who did or didn’t create it.

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

It’s our hope that our business concept is that movement. Our efforts don’t solely impact black women, men, and children but it can continue to bridge gaps in the fashion industry and ultimately several others causing a greater surge of unity across cultures.

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.

We’d love to sit down with Oprah Winfrey. She’s broken so many barriers as a woman and person of color. She’s so inspiring and her efforts aren’t specific to one generation of women.

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

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

Female Founders: Ivana Darmawan of Kasih Co-op On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Learn fast, try a lot of things and fail fast. You need to always iterate to see what is working. I started out with jewelry and then ikat pouf, to batik face masks and now iterating into wooden home goods and linens. If you keep on testing fast, you’ll find your product market fit and invest in those.

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

Ivana Darmawan is the founder of Kasih Co-op, which partners with Indonesian artisans to create authentic and unique pieces for home and lifestyle, including batik kimono robes, linens, wooden home goods and handwoven ikat throws.

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

I grew up in Indonesia and Singapore and moved to Los Angeles for college at UCLA. Growing up, my mom was always entrepreneurial and I’ve always been taught to start my own business since I was young. In middle school, I’d be selling greeting cards at school and I worked as a cashier for my family’s business during summer break. I also saw the challenges that my mom went through to start her own business as a female and that inspired me to have my own business supporting other women.

In Indonesia, I grew up loving handmade products because many artisans have learned this craft for centuries, so I appreciate our handmade, hand-dyed batik fabric, handwoven ikat fabric and wooden home goods that our Indonesian artisans make. Now that I call Los Angeles home, I long to bring these handmade artisan products that I grew up with and share with people who appreciate handmade and unique items with stories behind them. That’s how I started Kasih Co-op.

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

I started Kasih Co-op because of my love for handmade products and wanting to bring artisanal products to the world. Most recently, while working with a batik artisan in Central Java, they shared with us that they don’t produce much batik made using wax and dye technique anymore because it is more costly. It is more difficult to produce because they have to use copper plates to apply the hot wax onto the white fabric and then hand-dye the batik, sometimes multiple times. Instead, they have been producing printed batik fabric that is more cost effective and there is more demand. Kasih Co-op was one of the few companies that are still requesting batik fabrics made with hot wax and dye. I feel a little sad thinking that these artisans’ skills are not being preserved and may one day be forgotten and that is something that has really inspired me to do more with our brand. I’m also glad that we are able to continue to keep these artisans and their businesses going.

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

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, my husband read an article in The New York Times in April 2020 that batik fabric is one of the best materials for face masks because it is made with tightly woven cotton fabric. I’ve been working with artisans in Indonesia to make pillows with batik fabric, so I pivoted and started making batik face masks. We were so ambitious that we decided to make 10,000 face masks as our first order — we designed the masks ourselves and got started making them with the artisans in Indonesia. To make a long story short, we should have started with a smaller number of masks ordered so we could perfect the design first. Being in different continents means that some misunderstanding is bound to happen — even though I speak the language fluently. It all worked out because we were eventually able to fix our issues. We got the first batch of products in LA within one month of coming up with the idea and then spent some time fixing the design issues too.

Since then, we learned to always start with a sample of products, document everything and we also now have a Quality Control team in place to ensure all our products are up to standard. Because we work with artisans, they tend to be smaller businesses and also specialized, so we will have to account for this when creating products to ensure smooth production.

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’m very grateful for my mom. She is my biggest mentor and supporter. She’s been training me on how to be a female founder since I was in elementary school. My mom helped expand her family’s business in the 1990s and she would travel on weekdays all over Indonesia to open new stores and then spend weekends with us. I also saw the challenges she faced being a woman in Indonesia to have her own business so I have a lot to learn from her.

She always pushes me to learn how to make Kasih Co-op bigger and to figure out product market fit. Since she is in Indonesia, she is my go-to-person to see the details and finishes of our products.

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

Since I have children on my own now, I see the problem partially starts with an unconscious bias we do while raising our girls. As parents, I will remind myself to always encourage my children (son and daughter), to always try new things even if they are not familiar with it. I also want to ensure I am not limiting what my daughter and son do so they do not grow up with this unconscious bias of what their gender can or cannot be and achieve. I want my daughter to grow up being confident that they can try what they set their minds to, even if they may fail and things don’t have to fall perfectly.

Another thing that is holding back women from founding companies is their network. As females, we need to band together to support each other. When I went to UCLA for business school, the majority of the students were male and for raising money or mentorship — a lot of this network to raise funding will be male dominant. To start a company or raise money, you will start from your network first and that is partially why it’s harder for women.

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?

• Start young. I talked to my daughter since she was 5 years old about the day-to-day operations of running Kasih Co-op. I shared about the batik making process, marketing, how you have to spend money in marketing to get sales, fulfillment etc. She also helps me when I have a pop-up shop from time to time. Let them see how women lead and start businesses.
• Expose and introduce girls and females to your female networks. I get together with female founders locally and check in with them. What are the things that they are struggling with, what can we do and brainstorm to solve it. It’s like an informal Vistage — founders network.
• Don’t be afraid to reach out to your networks to ask for introductions. This is something I learned from business school that I was not accustomed to otherwise. I was not used to going to events and to go to a group and start introducing myself, or reach out to people I know in my network to ask for informational interviews.It’s a good skill to learn.
• It’s great seeing the corporations and society start to include diversity in leadership.

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

Women are 50% of the world population but yet underrepresented in companies and governments which create future innovations, technology and products. We need more women to voice out what the 50% of population is yearning for, to represent our point of view

Coming from the technology and finance industry, it’s quite common to have more men and when designing products, I see how women add a different point of view in creating products. With women founders, we will be able to bring our point of view in design and product development.

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

That you need to raise large amounts of money to be a founder. You create a company that works for you — and sometimes that means you will need to raise money from outside sources to achieve the vision you want. Other times, you can raise money from friends and family or bootstrap to achieve it.

That other founders in the same industry won’t want to share and exchange ideas. I have found that many founders are willing to share their experiences — sure they won’t share their secret sauces for their company but I have found that they are willing to share learnings that will benefit others.

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

No, I don’t think everyone is cut out to be a founder. Specific traits that will likely make a successful founder are risk-taking, grits and conviction. There is a lot of uncertainty in starting a business — some days there are small successes and other days there are lots of failures and lows. To be a founder, you have to believe in your idea so much that you’ll take risk — quit your job, invest a lot of your own money to kick start the idea, and also grind just to keep on chipping away at the obstacle to get to your success.

It’s a little tough thinking about what type of person should seek a regular job because I have also met people who are not as risk-taking but they are successful founders, so there is a combination of traits, timing and network going on.

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.)

1. Learn fast, try a lot of things and fail fast. You need to always iterate to see what is working. I started out with jewelry and then ikat pouf, to batik face masks and now iterating into wooden home goods and linens. If you keep on testing fast, you’ll find your product market fit and invest in those
2. You have to spend money to make money. For ecommerce, you need to be willing/ budget for marketing spend for trade show, advertising, PR and more to get people to know your brand and willing to try out your brand
3. Always be testing. Test out with a small set of products and see which ones resonate with people. Going to pop up shops, meeting people, getting their feedback is useful to understand this.
4. Own your competitive advantage. When I first started out my business, I brought over another woman owned business products to sell here, but I don’t own the design and product process. There’s a lot of risk in that — can that business scale with me if needed, can I have input on the design and product. Now with all our Kasih Co-op’s offerings, I am involved in the design and product. You can’t find our products elsewhere because we work with the artisans directly, design the pattern and color, and work with our seamstresses or wood workers for the end products.
5. Talk to other business owners to learn or to get mentorship. They are always open to helping.

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

There are a few ways we are marking the world a better place:

We prioritize working with women owned businesses, over 50% of our artisans are women owned businesses.

During the pandemic, we are one of the steady few customers that are still working together with our artisans despite the economic slowdown.

Furthermore, we are preserving this centuries old batik wax and dye technique. Some of our artisans are only producing hand-stamped and hand-dyed batik for us because it is too expensive to produce and people prefer printed batik.

A portion of our profit goes towards supporting Indonesian girls’ education by working with Yayasan Usaha Mulia, a non profit organization highly rated by Global Giving. This is because for high school, I received a fully paid scholarship to study in Singapore where I met people from different countries and backgrounds and saw how the scholarship they received in Indonesia allowed them to improve themselves. One of my good friends in Singapore came over to study with all her savings with very little help from her family, and now she is a cancer researcher. That really opened my eyes on how the education system can help you.

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.

When you die, people don’t remember how much money you make in your life — but instead you’re remembered by how many people were touched by your life.

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.

Before choosing to stay in the US, I had wanted to return to Indonesia and start a microfinance business investing in women entrepreneurs. I had a chance to meet Muhammad Yunus in 2009, who received a noble prize winner for pioneering the concept of microcredit. It’ll be great to meet with him again to exchange ideas on social entrepreneurship.

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

Female Founders: Ivana Darmawan of Kasih Co-op On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Dr Lauren Bachman On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Team work, makes the dream work: If it makes sense, consider a partnership — working with skilled, equally driven people to achieve the same goal can make the experience much less painless and more rewarding. As humans we are social beings, and want to share successes together. Additionally, it’s an incredible opportunity to diversify and leverage more skillsets, bringing a more well rounded, and throughout process and experience with your business.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Lauren Bachman.

Dr. Lauren Bachman is a Doctor of Nursing practice and Board Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner through the institute for Functional medicine. She is passionate about empowering individuals to create health for themselves, in ways they never knew was possible. Through a holistic framework that blends functional medicine, energy medicine, and evidence informed practices, Dr Bachman offers patients a well-rounded approach to treating and regressing disease, preventing disease, and optimizing health and wellness.

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 can’t help but go “way” back, sharing that I grew up on a family farm in the Midwest — my dad was a dairy farmer, and he always was intentional about his farming practice to be sound, humane and regenerative for both the land and the animals he cared for (every cow had a name, not a number — and truly were part of our family). From a young age, I was steeped in the experiences of nature (from birth to death, composting and regeneration to season change and learning how the contrast of dark and light — summer and winter all play a role in balance and regeneration or new life). I didn’t know it at the time, but these experiences were providing me with the foundation of the deep wisdom which lives within the teaching of nature’s process, which has undoubtedly come full circle, in guiding my practice of caring for people. Professionally my early career started as a Registered Nurse in medical oncology (caring for those who had cancer). I spent many years at one of the world’s most recognized hospitals seeing some of the rarest forms of disease. I loved the work, but over time began to develop discontentment in my work- recognizing that we were so myopically focused on disease that we really weren’t talking about how to help people be well, have quality of life, and optimize their health, and we certainly weren’t identifying ways that we could prevent the disease or influence relapse or spread, even though I had a deep knowing this was possible. From here, I began my journey in research on more holistic ways to address disease , which ultimately led me to discover functional medicine — and make the decision to go back to school to become a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) , specifically as an adult gerontology nurse practitioner. After graduating with my DNP from ASU, I immediately began training with the institute for functional medicine (IFM) and have since completed board certification, as a Institute for Functional medicine Certified practitioner. I have practiced as a functional medicine consultant, in both in person and online settings as well as a Clinical Director in Public Sector Insurance and Wellness Programs.

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?

As it pertains to my current entrepreneurial pursuits, I think one of the most interesting stories on my journey with Benehealth, is that soon after making the decision to go into business with my partners, I became pregnant. I had joked frequently that my business and baby have the same gestation — or that I am having twins, just one of my babies was the business. Although I continue to learn and experience from this story — since this coexistence is ongoing, (especially now that I have had my son, and opened the doors to our business) but there are two main takeaways of this for me and it can be summed up in the two cliche sentiments: “If there is a will there’s a way” and “it takes a village”. First, “if there is a will there’s a way” represents that no matter what you go after in life you are going be thrown curve balls or experience roadblocks, but these things don’t have to be crippling and mean that you shouldn’t move forward — it’s learning to pivot, finding the silver lining, and appreciate that maybe the detour you have to take is really the scenic route that has a lot to offer you. And “it takes a village” is recognition that creating good things (no matter if this a new business or new habit) almost never happens in isolation or by the work of one person alone. It is truly invaluable to have business partners, with a shared vision, who are not only dedicated to creating that vision, but supporting each other in doing so. And of course — support of family and friends cannot go unnoticed either. Take away: Surround yourself with those who are inspired, motivated, and community minded — you will be bound to grow while being taken care of.

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?

Time is the most valuable, and finite resource; but also your greatest teacher! Time management is by far one of my biggest challenges and I think this is very relatable in today’s busy, modern world!.

I think one of the challenges I faced initially is that there is a lot of fluidity, and shifting that occurs with a new business, week to week and month to month things look vastly different and for someone who likes structure and routine it forced me to be more nimble, and flexible with my time. I found that I would plan to have time to get project X done, but situation or meeting W came up and was more immediate. Having to adjust and find time for X created a backlog… another not so fun situation for a type A person, hoping to get that check box at the end of the day. This has definitely allowed me to realize that a lot of stress around time, we create ourselves. As long as the priority items are addressed, what is there really to be concerned about? You can come back to your working “project X” tomorrow and life will go on. Letting go of the rigidity I created for myself, and instead creating a more flexible “Master To do” — for the week or month, has been an effective tool for me. This allowed me focus, but didn’t push me to overwork or stress myself to get things done. Another element that I learned around time management that has been really important is carving out “non-negotiable” times to ensure I get self-care done — whether this is exercise, meditation, or pleasure reading, creating space at the start or end of my day was critical to ensure that I was balanced and my cup was full for not only creating my business but also showing up for my family!

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?

“Healthier people create healthier families, which lead to healthier communities”. Human Beings are wired for homeostasis or balance and health- When there are long term disturbances in the system, this is strained. We live in a time when people have become disconnected with nature, and therefore disconnected with their body’s and their health. We are on a mission to help regain the innate connection and knowing, to reclaim this connection, and allow people to discover their unique path to healing, health optimization and overall well being. Discovering this capacity to heal is one of the most powerful gifts a person can experience, and they naturally want to share it with everyone they care about and for! We hope to bring humanism back to healthcare.Redirect sick care, to wellness focused care, and prevention over intervention! And restoring human health is not isolated from many other pressing issues of our time either, as we can improve the health of humans, we will likely positively influence other problems of our time, such as the mental health crisis, regenerative practices and elimination of toxic elements in consumerism — since so many of our problems today are sewn from the same thread.

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.

Be mindful of your exposures: “Exposures” can be anything from the ingredients or contaminants in your food, cosmetics, and household cleaning products to air and water quality. Before we can make changes, we have to recognize the problem. Most people recognize that chemicals and other harmful compounds like toxic metals etc. are harmful for their health — and would typically avoid them if they knew they were there. Unfortunately today, the US food system alone has over 10,000 chemicals that are directly or indirectly added to processed and packaged food, which makes over 60% of the American diet. Using websites like the EWG that provide consumer guides to food, water, cosmetics, household cleaners and more is a great place to start to build awareness of what is the food you’re eating and products your using; and learn about healthier and safer alternatives.

Prioritize sleep (at night time): Sleep and the health of your circadian rhythm are critically important for overall health and balance. I like to think of quality of sleep and the health of your circadian rhythm as the foundation in which you are placing all your other health pillars (like healthy diet, exercise, etc). If this foundation is unstable, the other pillars won’t be as strong. Meaning you could be eating the healthiest diet, and exercising everyday, but not getting any results, because you are regularly getting poor sleep. The best way start improving your health is keep a consistent bedtime and waketime, get regular natural light exposure (outdoors preferably) during the day, and avoid light exposure, especially from electronics at night (ideally after sunset).

Eat whole real food: This means, ditch the packaged items with an ingredient list 20 items long, and instead learn to get comfortable with preparing the whole sourced item. Instead of veggie chips that are 100+ times removed from the whole product, make veggie fries, with fresh carrots, beets and sweet potato. Our biology has evolved with nature for hundreds of millions of years. What our system recognizes as food is that it is provided by nature, not the chemical, highly processed and refined “imitation” food that makes up 80% of the grocery store. SHop the perimeter of the grocery store, start with simple recipes, and you’ll find that those 10 lbs you’ve been battling, might just come off on their own or the aches and pains might lessen. Food choices are one of the most powerful tools in creating health and wellness.

Manage your stress: Stress is one of the most ubiquitous insults to our health today. We live in a world where we are constantly having to be somewhere or do something, not to mention worry about the many personal, local, national and global issues. IT can be really daunting..why it’s no surprise that anxiety is the most common mental health condition in the US affecting over 40 million American adults! Stress not only influences our mental health, but physical health too, with direct impact on disease risk like heart disease and other metabolic conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes. Getting a handle on stress is often one of the hardest lifestyle areas for people to address, because it is so multifactorial. My recommendations always start with the easiest things to control. You’re never going to eliminate stress from you life — and that’s not the goal — but it;s learning to eliminate the things you can and find strategies that work for you to be able to manage this rest.

Move your body: This is not anything new, by now we probably have all heard that “sitting is the new smoking” suggesting that being sedentary is as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes. We know that movement is critical for not only healthy weight, and optimizing the bodies metabolic systems, but beyond that influences everything from our gut health, inflammation and the immune system to balancing our mental health and outlook. If that isn’t enough — physical activity is essential in preserving and optimizing our physical fitness, reducing the risk of frailty, injury and debility as we age. So with that — Exercise or rather movement, is SO much more than achieving a certain physique or number on the scale. Also, we don’t have to be killing ourselves at the gym to receive the benefit. Regular movement is the key, such as walking more (at least 10,000 steps a day) and sitting less. You can even build in movement throughout your work day. Like 10 squats every hour, or walking on your lunch break. When it comes to exercise I always encourage people to do something they enjoy to make it easier to stick to even if this might not fit their view of “exercise”.

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

This is tough, because there are many things on my passion list. However, if I had to choose on things that could bring the quickest solution for improved wellness to the masses would be the rejection of processed and fast food and create the public demand for more transparency and regulation of what is put into and onto our food. Eating organic, and properly raised/produced whole real food is one of the most important priorities for not only human health but environmental health as well.

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

Be Flexible — business starts are fast paced and fluid. You have to be ready and dynamic for the inevitable “change of plans’ that will come with starting a business.

Time management: never assume you will have time to do it later; if you have time to do it now, take advantage! I learned that I put things off early on in our planning and development phase, assuming that I would have time for things later- and that just isn’t the case. Take advantage of the time you have, when you have. And on the same note of time management, make sure you have healthy boundaries and build in time for self care and time away — the creative and logistical demands of starting a business can’t be met, if you aren’t showing up 100% Taking care of you, is also an investment in your business.

Murphy’s law may be a real phenomena — so be ready: Preparing for the worst and expecting the best, isn’t a bad mentality to hold when you are working on getting a business started. There are a lot of moving parts, and there is inevitably going to be some breakdown along the way. Having an attitude that is ready for a “less than ideal” situation or outcome, will make it much easier to pivot and move forward, rather than be blind sided and dwell on a “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” mentality.

Team work, makes the dream work: If it makes sense, consider a partnership — working with skilled, equally driven people to achieve the same goal can make the experience much less painless and more rewarding. As humans we are social beings, and want to share successes together. Additionally, it’s an incredible opportunity to diversify and leverage more skillsets, bringing a more well rounded, and throughout process and experience with your business.

Expectation setting — Starting a business is no easy feat, and at the very least will demand quite a bit of your time and energy. This is not only important for your own recognition, but also for those you are close to, including your family and friends. Discussing these anticipated changes with your family and friends, allows you to prioritize time away from work with them, and also creates the opportunity to ask for help or assistance to maintain balance and peace (especially at home).

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

Environmental changes — this particular hits home because I have children that will be faced with consequences of our actions today. We have the opportunity to make things better for our children and the generations to come. Being part of this cause is not an option, but a moral obligation. I see my work with healthcare an important influence, as so much of what I do is education, and encouraging informed consumerism — which is one of the most powerful influences we have. One simple example, plastic is not only toxic to the environment, but to human health — we should be avoiding it, and replacing it with safer alternatives like reusable glass and stainless — If we keep buying plastic, they’ll keep making it.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Business handle www.instagram.com/benehealth_az

Personal professional page www.instagram.com/drlaurenbach

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Dr Lauren Bachman On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.