Day: May 4, 2022

Female Founders: Rania Nasis of Super Awesome Care On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Failure is part of the journey to success. Entrepreneurs tend to be high performers in school or other aspects of life, so failure for them can be quite a blow. And failure can happen for all sorts of reasons, some of which you can control (operations, finding product-market fit, sales, marketing) and others you can’t (regulatory challenges, financial market fluctuations, timing). The important thing is to be constantly learning along the way.

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

Rania Nasis, MD, MBA is the founder & CEO of Super Awesome Care, a tech-enabled healthcare platform for kids with food allergies and their families. A physician entrepreneur and digital health expert, her mission is to bring the best food allergy care to all families, when and where they need it.

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?

Entrepreneurship is not a typical path for a physician. But I found myself frustrated in medical school about the state of clinical practice. I could foresee the changes that were coming: physicians losing autonomy and essentially becoming the highest paid clerks in the building. Rather than empowering physicians, technology was being used to handcuff them.

I always had a love of business — both my parents were entrepreneurs — and decided I wanted to explore other ways I could use my medical degree to improve healthcare. So, I went to business school immediately upon graduating medical school, and, during my first year, I had the opportunity to take part in UC Irvine’s annual business plan competition. Our startup idea was to target childhood obesity with a wearable that was connected to a social network — though we were way too early. A wearables startup before wearables were even a category! But I was hooked — the notion of starting something from zero to build a solution to a healthcare problem was captivating. I got bit by the startup bug and focused the rest of my career on early-stage healthcare companies.

For my current startup, I was digging into various food reactions that I was experiencing and was appalled by the amount of misinformation out there. As I dug in more, I realized how difficult it was for families trying to navigate their children’s food allergies.

There is a lot of misinformation, misdiagnoses or delayed diagnoses. And after diagnosis, families are often left on their own, beyond maybe a generic pamphlet on how to spot and treat a reaction. It is often up to them to navigate how to go about feeding their child at the next meal and every meal after that. A food allergy diagnosis impacts so many aspects of a family’s life — every meal, birthday party, school event, restaurant outing, travel, camp, sports, etc. Also, a large percentage of kids with food allergies are bullied. There is little support for families. I believe there is a better way through digitally-enabled, family-centric collaborative care that provides — Super Awesome Care — when and where parents need it the most.

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

Since starting Super Awesome Care, I have been blown away by how many people have “come out” as having food allergies. People I’ve shared many meals with had never before mentioned that they contend with a significant allergy. It really highlighted the stigma that is associated with food allergies — many food allergy sufferers are too embarrassed to mention it in public for fear of ridicule or being a burden. Instead they take the burden entirely on themselves. It reinforces the importance of Super Awesome Care to de-stigmatize food allergies, give families the tools to advocate for their kids — and the education to empower kids to advocate for themselves.

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

I was interviewing a consultant for a role once, and he kept mentioning what I heard as his “psychic.” That she was great and we should bring her onto the project. For a science-based organization, this would be a red flag, but my colleagues, who were interviewing with me, were unflinching every time the word was mentioned. As the consultant repeated the word for about the fifth time, I had to jump in and ask him to clarify. It turns out he was saying “sidekick.” He had a thick Scottish accent and I was hearing an entirely different word!

The takeaways from that experience were that, one, I clearly need to spend some time in Scotland, and, two, that being a clear communicator means more than articulating thoughts concisely. It is also vital that we listen deeply. Had my colleagues not been in the room with me, or had I not asked him to clarify what he meant, I might have dismissed a viable candidate out of hand.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’ve had so much help and encouragement along the way, and it’s really made a difference.

As I mentioned, entrepreneurship was not really on my radar when looking at career choices. Early on, there were two people who were instrumental in giving me the confidence to go into the startup world, Goran Matijasevic and Luis Vasquez. Goran taught entrepreneurship within the engineering school at UC Irvine, and I was lucky enough to have him as a coach for my first startup in UC Irvine’s annual business plan competition. He helped give me the confidence to pitch our idea and we ended up coming in second place. Luis ran the LaunchPad accelerator at OCTANe, a convening organization for technology and medical technology businesses in Southern California, and believed in me early on. He helped us refine our pitch in preparation for investor meetings. Goran and Luis were incredibly generous with their time and provided so much helpful advice. And they have been in my corner ever since. I don’t think I would have latched onto startups as strongly as I did were it not for their encouragement early on.

Another person that has been a tremendous mentor to me is Jeffrey Hausfeld, MD, MBA, the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Society of Physicians Entrepreneurs and a serial entrepreneur himself. Jeff is an exemplar of how to combine medical expertise with business savvy and entrepreneurial spirit. He’s been an inspiration throughout my career.

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?

It’s both a systems problem and a supply problem. Thankfully, I see both improving rapidly.

On the system side, venture capital has historically been dominated by white males from Ivy League schools. Just as many employees of successful startups went on to found startups of their own, so too, were VCs generated from the same small group of people. You hire who you know, so the pool of candidates was pretty homogeneous. One major downside of that is that a large part of VC investing is emotional — they are picking companies based on a belief that it could, five to seven years down the line, become something big. One tends to invest in things they can understand or can relate to.

That of course means the most likely companies funded were often addressing problems white guys from Stanford and Harvard could understand. That’s why for the longest time women’s health was considered a “niche” industry. Women are half of the population, have more healthcare needs and make the majority of healthcare decisions in American households, including pediatric care, care of our spouses and elderly parents’ care. But companies addressing our issues were not being funded. It can be discouraging to start a company if you think your chances of being funded are slim to none.

Luckily the landscape is changing, in part because more successful entrepreneurs have moved into venture capital and brought more diverse teams with them. As more companies received funding, there were more successful exits with females in founding or senior roles, further validating additional investment in women-led companies. Now, there are several self-made women billionaires, and VC firms are starting to pay more attention to the value diverse teams bring. In the last few years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of emerging VC managers who are female, thanks in some part to programs like the Kaufmann Fellows.

Next, there was always a supply problem. The 20% number doesn’t tell the whole story. There are far fewer women entrepreneurs seeking funding than men. One of the things I often notice is that women are risk averse, or perceive startups to be riskier than they actually are to one’s career. Men figured out that startup failure was progress long ago, with many of today’s successful entrepreneurs having multiple failed startups in their past — and in a counterintuitive turn, their investors continued to fund their subsequent companies even after they lost money in those earlier startups. So even if it doesn’t work out (which it doesn’t 95% of the time), if you give it your all, you’ll still come out ahead. There is a tendency for women to think failure is the end, when it is often just a stop along the way to success. The fear of failure often holds many women back.

While there are now plenty of cheerleaders for women entrepreneurs, what we need are more coaches. Women need other leaders (men and women) to give honest critical feedback and guide women on the path to entrepreneurial success.

Women may have started from behind, but I’m optimistic that we’re going to catch up faster than expected. Just in the course of my career in the startup world, we’ve seen a jump from single-digit funding to 20%, and we’re just getting started. Women already outnumber men in college (60% versus 40%) and just recently it was reported that young women are out-earning men in multiple U.S. cities. I have faith that Gen Z will get us much closer to parity.

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

I would love to see more exposure to entrepreneurship starting at an earlier age. I read a statistic that 80% of female entrepreneurs were Girl Scouts at some point — I suspect this is because the Girl Scouts exposes young girls to entrepreneurship early and sets them up for success with a great product (who doesn’t love Girl Scout cookies?). Girls and young women could benefit from more exposure like that, perhaps startup fairs or competitions for grade schoolers and high school students. The exercise of coming up with an idea, creating a story or pitch around it and sharing it with others is very impactful. And doing it at a young age in safe environments would ensure positive experiences focused on encouragement (versus some very negative experiences being rejected by VCs). Continuing this in college is key. The more exposure girls and young women have to entrepreneurship, the more achievable it starts to feel.

Also, as a society, let’s cool it with the gleeful, highly publicized takedowns of female entrepreneurs. The media “celebrate” female empowerment but are ruthless and personal when things go wrong. The implication is that any trouble in a female-led startup is 100% her fault. When a guy is at the helm, all sorts of excuses are made, with only part of the blame going to the male lead. Men get coaching to improve and often get many chances, women are shown the door. While women are capable of fraud too, Theranos being a glaring example, in many cases failure at a woman-led company is really a failure of coaching and support during a very stressful journey.

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 need more founders, period. Startups contribute the most needed changes to our world. The more smart people we have starting companies, the better off the whole world would be. Looking at the past two years of the pandemic, most of the tools we used to get by were created by startups — Macbooks, Zoom, meal and grocery delivery, everything from Amazon, and the mRNA vaccines were started by a small number of entrepreneurs. Imagine if we had ten times the number of founders working on the world’s problems!

Because women have a different perspective, different needs and different experiences than men, it is important that we build companies that speak to our considerations. We’re not homogenous, but a lot of companies are started to solve the founder’s problem, and in our case those problems are often shared by millions of others. Especially in industries like healthcare, child care and elder care, we need more women building because we have unique insights and challenges in those areas.

Sara Blakely started Spanx to solve a problem she understood better than any man. Whitney Wolfe Herd, helped make Tinder a success but realized women wanted something different and then built Bumble. Both became self-made billionaires in the process.

On the other hand, there are problems that are not unique to women but women might have a special skill or perspective to solve them. Is there a problem that nags you? Start a company to solve it. Ask yourself, what do you really have to lose?

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

That you have to have it all figured out. You just have to be the type of person who can figure things out. Almost everything is solvable, but you don’t need to have solved everything to start. Not to mention, if you think you have it all figured out on Day One, you will 100% be wrong, because it never goes according to plan. So many companies start off in a completely different direction than where they end up. You just have to keep an open mind, pushing doggedly to find that product-market fit and adapt as needed.

Another myth is that someone has to look like you to be an inspiration or a mentor. The majority of the challenges an entrepreneur will face are consistent across the board, regardless of whether that person is a man or a woman. I mentioned earlier that we have a lot of cheerleaders, but we need more coaches. That means expanding the field and not limiting it to only women coaches and mentors.

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 find most successful founders are decisive, resilient and not risk-averse. It’s a journey with many twists and turns, and you have to be able to make quick decisions — and then change them if you’re wrong. Founders also tend to be highly disagreeable in the sense that they will speak up and voice their opinions when they see something wrong. They won’t keep quiet just to keep the peace. They are not afraid of conflict, and they don’t shy from it. And of course, they must be willing to take risks.

If someone is very risk-averse or conflict avoidant, the startup life may be more of a challenge. However, there are no absolute rules in entrepreneurship: one can still be successful even if they have these traits. Finding a strong co-founder who complements your traits can be one path forward.

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. Become an expert at prioritizing and delegating. As a founder, everything lands on your desk. It is easy to get bogged down checking off tasks, while getting hardly anything meaningful done. Time is your most limited resource, so constantly ask yourself if you need to be doing the thing you’re working on. Can you delegate it to someone else on your team or hire an executive assistant? Your job is to move the needle on your company’s progress, so view what you’re working on through that lens. In a month from now or a year from now, will this matter? The other advice I would give here is that if something is incredibly mentally draining for you (like writing, organizing receipts, spreadsheets), find someone to outsource it to. Even if the tasks only take a short amount of time, it can feel like it takes a lot longer and drains our energy.
2. Make time to learn about things unrelated to your startup. Read about what others are doing. It is all too easy to focus on the particular problem you’re solving for, but I find inspiration comes from multiple different sources. There is no shortage of great content: books, podcasts, Substacks, Medium and curated lists. Marginal revolution is one of my favorites — Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok are fantastic at curating interesting topics and provide exposure to a wide array of topics. And Out-of-Pocket is one of my favorite healthcare blogs.
3. Actively cultivate your network. Entrepreneurship is very much about your network. It is how you find opportunities, co-founders, key hires, mentors, advisors, investors, etc. It takes work to maintain, but it pays off dividends.
4. Hiring (and firing) is one of your most important tasks. The old adage “hire slowly and fire quickly” constantly proves itself to be true. When you have the right team in place and everything is firing on all cylinders it can be a great feeling. But just one person out of place, and everything can fall apart. You want to hire the best people you can find and you want to make sure you hire amazing people for them to work with. Someone can be incredibly bright and talented and check all the right boxes and still not be suited to your particular startup. It can be time-consuming and tedious, but you are better off holding out for a great candidate versus the OK one who happens to be in front of you. Don’t make great people work with someone who isn’t cutting it — it’s the fastest way to destroy morale and burn your people out. And leverage your network. The best referrals usually come from people you know.
5. Failure is part of the journey to success. Entrepreneurs tend to be high performers in school or other aspects of life, so failure for them can be quite a blow. And failure can happen for all sorts of reasons, some of which you can control (operations, finding product-market fit, sales, marketing) and others you can’t (regulatory challenges, financial market fluctuations, timing). The important thing is to be constantly learning along the way.

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

As I mentioned before, we have plenty of cheerleaders, but not enough coaches. I am doing my small part to fix that problem by mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs and by advising founders. The work is personally gratifying, but it is also incredible to watch a person’s journey from, essentially philosopher — someone who has an idea for a solution, to inventor and all the way through to business leader.

I sit on the board of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, a non-profit global biomedical and healthcare innovation network, which helps physicians do what I have done. As I said, the more founders we have, the better. I hope that by encouraging others to take the leap and solve the problems that they’re passionate about will lead to real, lasting and meaningful changes.

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.

The impact of social isolation on people’s health is stunning. Pre-pandemic, and more so during the pandemic, it has become glaringly important that we learn to rebuild community and reprioritize social connections, for happiness and for health. There are startups in this space doing great work in bringing people together, both in person and online, but this is an area deserving of more attention and resources from both a societal and healthcare perspective.

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.

Elon Musk. The strongest evidence that we’re in a simulation is the existence of Elon Musk ;). It’s hard to believe one person can go so deep in so many different industries, and still have time to share silly memes. While there are other serial entrepreneurs, they tend to stick with one industry. He’s disrupted entirely unrelated ones, like finance (PayPal), automotive (Tesla) and space (SpaceX). People say he’s the real life Iron Man, but he makes Iron Man look like a slacker. He’s willing to go to bat for what he believes, and doesn’t blink at taking on daunting challenges. It doesn’t always work out — failure is still progress — but he is relentless and excels at attracting brilliant people to build with him.

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be patient and forgiving with yourself and others and understand that failure is a part of greater success down the road. We are all pioneers in this time. Failure is part of the journey.

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

Trina Johnson is the CEO and Founder of Blue Forest Farms founded in sunkissed Colorado and also a pioneer in the modern-day hemp industry. The farm currently has six field-tested, commercial varieties available for seed, which are also used for the farm’s CBD retail line, BFF Hemp — a bespoke collection of topicals, tinctures, gummies and softgels launched in 2020. Named as Vanguard Media’s Woman of the Year 2021, Trina and her co-founder Zach Dorsett establish their brick and mortar concept in the heart of the financial district, where stress is most felt among working professionals.

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

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado and life is fairly organic out that way. I have always loved cannabis and it became very exciting to experience the rise of engagement around hemp. It became especially fascinating to see Colorado — a state I came from — come on board. The minute I learned about CBD, I launched right into it. I began learning everything I could about hemp and CBD. Around the time my interest around CBD was peaking, I made a play with a building I had for sale and a partner who was interested in getting involved in the CBD market. We connected in a lot of ways and as the largest certified organic farmer in CO — he was poised to do all the farming. I have a background in digital marketing and felt that it would be possible to communicate my vision and mission to the public in my own way.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

The workload in paving the way for any new industry is staggering. As it relates to CBD, there are so many roadblocks and obstacles in place that prevent producers like us from moving aggressively forward. Administrative tasks as simple as opening a bank account become more convoluted by a federal system that wants to keep us locked out. That said, we have had to rely on community advocates like the credit unions who see hemp as a viable bet. I also found my partner in an unlikely place. I have always led an organic way of life and truly believe that mother nature knows best, yet I have never once worked as a farmer! No one works harder than the farmer, so it was fortuitous when I met David Asbury. David was in the farming business and served as a supplier to Whole Foods in the region. Our alliance made for a speedy ascension into the production of hemp. Even despite my background in software and management, I was riveted by the way in which our seed program quickly grew. We did 22 acres that year, 150 acres the next and 235 acres following that time.

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?

Somewhere around 2017, David and I embarked on a $6M dollar extraction project together but we could not have anticipated the damages or financial losses that we incurred as a result of Covid, which all but decimated the projections we had in place. In that short time, we observed the price of CBD drop from $150/lb to $75/lb and eventually to $35/lb. A drop over half of what we were anticipating would make any producer run in the opposite direction, but we plowed ahead regardless. This, coupled with the loss of European markets we believed we had access to, put us in a negative cash flow position. And then we discovered that we were harvesting incorrectly! It turns out, we had spent money in all the wrong places. Following this expensive blunder, we learned that people were going into the extraction process and making more money that way.

Being able to switch gears quickly to create a better, sellable product soon became the focus and a funny, albeit expensive mistake that we learned from while on the job. As if by kismet, the extraction process fostered a new partnership between David and Zach Dorsett who was primarily interested in the lab work involved in harnessing the power of the CBD plant.

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

More flack came from people outside of my circle than inside of it but we were steadfast in catering to our supporters, the majority of whom were farmers. There is a lot of propaganda in our industry around what hemp is. Mainly, we are combating the perception that hemp, or its byproduct CBD, gets you high. It is a sort of re-education that needs to take place in that people should know that the plant can be harvested in a variety of ways, inclusive of hemp hearts for protein, materials for packaging and clothing. I do see myself eventually pivoting into fashion design, funnily enough. Hemp helps humans derive great benefits, including pain relief, but it can also create materials with the fiber similar to plastic and linen. CBD carries a number of anti-inflammatory benefits as studies have repeatedly shown, so for me, it’s a bit funny if people don’t get that hemp has over 50,000 uses.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

The great Dave Asbury as I had previously mentioned and Zach Dorsett, a genius in creating the formulations and isolates at the lab that work to provide the line of retail products we carry at Blue Forest Farms have helped tremendously. Zach has been a great support, and has a lot of pull in Colorado. As we were struggling to understand the industry, his experience and passion served us with countless information on the extraction process and through Zach, I was able to see the industry and how it could be nurtured into manifesting another lucrative partnership.

One of the things we were able to release is the genetics program to create six new strains. Genetics play a huge part in working with seeds and the majority of plants are curated with THC but little effort is put into the market for the release of CBD genetics, so we poured into that. Since it is really critical that your plants are performing in a systematic way, it is important to look at seed genetics and we feel an imminent connection to the seed farmer.

The entire industry is really fighting to move from 0.3% THC to 1.0% of the compound in products and goods. Too much money has been left on the table, especially for the local farmers that grow operations and cater to companies like Whole Foods.

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

We first released our seed program in 2019, but started to do less acreage in 2020 so we had to pivot and create a buy back program for our seed partners. By 2021, COVID had completely decimated our cash projections. Given the attention on the benefits of CBD, we were lucky to hit a contract for all the financing we lost and our extraction planning saw a comeback for oils, tinctures and gummies. We have always wanted to support our farmers. Supporting the farmer in that way really was the goal and our way of giving thanks for all the hard work it takes.

I think another exciting piece is creating alliances with communities of color and providing the support and funding for the restitution for unjustly incarcerated people. Most people have no idea the early settlers around 1600 traded in hemp because they knew the crops were profitable. It is now better understood how George Bush’s ‘‘war on drugs” really hurt communities of color, so we are proud to support people like Gary Chambers of Louisiana for State Senate. The advocacy work to empower our communities continues to grow with our plan of action and effectuating change is very exciting.

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

With business always changing it is important to honor the mission, which is to facilitate and provide relief from toxic stress, anxiety and pain with CBD. It starts with one idea. Many women in the industry start with 100 plants and a small product line. When I get a call from a customer about seeds or flour, I then ask, do you have a product line? Do you want to start a new concept? We can help you to do that. We are really excited about the rise of the retail product and this is a direction that individuals can take to sustain their economies. Companies among the corporate elite would like to learn more about the benefits of CBD. Our corporate gifting line at Blue Forest Farms is an example of what makes us so excited to grow with our communities and hopefully change the way societies look and feel about CBD as a whole. We know society needs a re-education around the use of the hemp plant. It has been vilified for decades.

You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 non intuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say?

• 1- Be in touch with the fuel that drives this economy. Work with individual healing, regardless of what your business model is, don’t let yourself detach from the source of what working with this plant offers. Get connected with the true energy source in the industry — it isn’t the farmers or the processors — it is the individual life changing experiences the product can offer. Tapping into this provides a lot of energy regardless of any market dynamics or returns. When our clients share that they can better manage their anxiety, we know we are serving for our highest good.
• 2-Everything is a learning experience — much of our data and research from this past year is still forthcoming. As much as you can, continue to engage in the research offered by community advocates in terms of best practices, methodologies and best products. Continue to learn and to develop.
• 3-Keep inclusion and equity are at the very forefront of your work, while facilitating individual healing. Be cognizant of the ongoing damage and inequity that has plagued the cannabis culture in black and brown communities and be creative on how we can create equity and an economy that brings change and closes the wealth gap.
• 4-Be open and transparent about your work and strategies. There is a tendency to become insular by blocking others from coming into this arena. Sharing ideas, methods, and strategies and viewing other companies as collaborators rather than competition is a better strategy for wealth creation. Look out for opportunities to collaborate!
• 5-Be patient and forgiving with yourself and others and understand that failure is a part of greater success down the road. We are all pioneers in this time. Failure is part of the journey.

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

Everything is exciting! There is so much to be excited about. We are concentrated on the medicinal side, but we are also looking into hemp fiber. We can build our infrastructure in sustainable ways, in terms of our consumption, clothing, and paper. Hemp is the answer to all of that. Medicinal health and wellness, which creates change in a mind & beauty, spiritual way is a huge benefit for us all.

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

I see progress but it’s just not happening fast enough. It’s as if we’re waiting on the sidelines for the FDA to declare CBD legal so that it can be used in food and manufacturing and this is frustrating as we all well know that once this happens, the big players will completely flood the industry.

We need to pass smart legislation on THC content for genetics and the allowable amount needs to go up to 1.0% instead of below .03%. This creates more economy and equitability especially for the farmer and processor.

The propaganda around cannabis and hemp and CBD needs to be dispelled and revised so that we can observe a re-education. The fact that we do not have the same rights as alcohol or cigarettes or that people are still sitting in jail for cannabis, is insane.

What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?

New legislation should be incentivized to grow hemp instead of corn and switch out all of the fuel. Plant based food products that you can make, was such an avant garde idea when the concept first came to light. Look carefully at how building materials can be manufactured. The hemp plant yields mold and fire resistant materials. These are all inherent problems that we should be working through right now.

Cannabis is a plant of the Cannabaceae family and contains more than eighty biologically active chemical compounds. The most commonly known compounds are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the component that produces the “high” associated with marijuana use. Much interest has been seen around CBD and its potential related to health benefits.

Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?

Cannabis is completely different from cigarettes or alcohol. CBD treats in a medicinal way, that is non addictive (it can actually aid in addiction recovery in cases) and the benefits are vast. There are amazing benefits and side effects for the user and all of society as a whole. CBD and cannabis are becoming the premier solution for so many issues related to stress, anxiety, insomnia and depression and these uses should be elevated — not marginalized.

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

Create a life that you love. Create a life worth living. Once I realized I could do what I love, it changed everything for me. I am in the process of manifesting my own hemp clothing line for Brooklyn Fashion week as a byproduct of doing what I absolutely love and am excited to work creatively with the icons of our time! Wow is all I can say 🙂

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

I believe that the way forward is to reduce the number of obstacles that CBD entrepreneurs are facing. Right now, we are unable to place ads on Facebook, Google or Instagram so it has been enlightening to create alliances with cannabis patient advocates, Senate seat members, celebrities, politicians and advocates who would like to change the world through hemp so that we can get back to a more just economy, a more peaceful way of co-existing and save the planet for our children.

Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!

Wisdom From The Women Leading The Cannabis Industry, With Trina Johnson of Blue Forest Farms was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Debbie Page of Louis E Page On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“God adores you, honey.” ~ Pastor Michael Hintze

That was shocking news to me. Yes, I believed that God loved me, but adores me? I began to tell myself that day in and day out. I would have doubts. I would have fears. I would have self-loathing, but I kept telling myself that God adores me. Once I began to believe that I began to watch myself unfold like a flower. That made it possible for me to adore others on a deep level. Wow! How my relationships grew and deepened and started bringing incredible satisfaction.

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

Debbie Page, from nurse to entrepreneur, from mother to grandmother, from wife to widow, heads up Louis E. Page, Inc., a company started in 1893 in an industry that is still predominantly male-oriented. The company provides fencing solutions for businesses and consumers: parks, zoos, farms, ranches, oyster farms, rabbit cage builders, pest companies, and many more.

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?

This career path came about through an inheritance when my late husband, Duncan, passed. I joined the company in 2011 to help grow what was then a stagnant business. I had a thriving private practice as a lactation consultant and was loving expanding the company. I told my husband, “I can grow Louis Page like nobody else ever has.” He smiled and said, “Probably, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to work together.” My brother convinced him to hire me, and I joined Louis Page and started updating the outdated systems they were using. For four years we struggled to pay our salaries. Life changed mightily when Duncan passed, and I pivoted to become CEO.

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

It’s rare to find women working in this field. Perhaps this is left-over from the thinking that fencing and all that goes with it is typically done by men. That’s slowly changing as more women are starting farms and ranches. Our daily business is probably 97–98% interacting with men.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting?

We had a difficult customer, actually, a woman, who refused to put down a deposit on a custom order. All the men in the company, namely my husband and brother, had given up on her and were ready to forfeit the order. They handed it over to me. I got on the phone with her, and I became a broken record about the deposit until she blurted out, “Debbie, you are driving me crazy!” Without missing a beat, I blurted out, “You’re driving ME crazy!” I couldn’t believe I had done that. Well, we started laughing, and within a minute I had the deposit. Still to this day my brother says, “Debbie, you drive me crazy!” The lesson I learned from that is the importance of being real and not some starched, fake person through the phone.

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

Absolutely, we all need help to grow and push beyond our present limits and get out of our comfort zone. Hiring a business coach is essential and has helped me stay accountable as well as having another set of eyes looking at the business. I went further than that, and in October 2020, I hired a personal coach/mentor Gina Eubank. I was shocked to see the beliefs about myself that were holding me back. I felt too tired to do anything more than I was currently doing. Gina taught me to write down those things for which I am grateful, not just say them. She taught me about having a vision and recording my vision, and then listening to it each morning. I did this sporadically for a year, until one day, I committed to listening to my vision every morning before I get out of bed. In seven weeks, my life changed exponentially. I began to shift my thinking from woe is me to oh my gosh! I can do this. I now see my purpose in life on a much deeper level: who can I serve today? And my energy level has soared.

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’re so right that in today’s world disrupting the system seems to be seen as good, as progress, as necessary. There have certainly been situations historically where an industry or a way of thinking needed a major disruption: Rosa Parks is a beautiful example of this. I think today there are groups of people disrupting out of rage and not out of true principle. They join a group because of negative emotions and don’t really think through what they are standing for or the long-term effects their actions will have. Will it be for the good of the majority of people? Does it bring life or death? Does it give hope or bring fear? I believe we are held accountable for our actions. I want to go to bed each night knowing that I shared love with everyone I met, that I brought beauty into this already beautiful world, and that I am truly grateful for the good gifts that are given to me daily. “I choose to live each day as if it’s my last and build as if I have a thousand years to live. Live with gusto, love with grace.”

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. “From testimonials and personal experience, we have enough information to conclude that IT’S POSSIBLE TO DESIGN AND LIVE AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE.” ~ Jim Rohn

I first heard that quote in 2008. I wanted to believe it, but I didn’t really think it was possible for me. Besides that, what does “Live an extraordinary life” really mean? I would look at my life and feel like I was working hard and serving others, but I felt like I was on the hamster wheel. When my husband passed in 2015, I had a pretty major pity party: woe is me, nobody loves me. I was reenacting Eeyore. It took me two years to emerge from that poor, “pitiful me” attitude to a brand-new way of thinking. What if I really could live an extraordinary life? What if I start to seek out others who are living extraordinary lives? Once I started to hang around successful people, it was contagious. Now at 68, I am living an extraordinary life with deep satisfaction.

2. “God adores you, honey.” ~ Pastor Michael Hintze

That was shocking news to me. Yes, I believed that God loved me, but adores me? I began to tell myself that day in and day out. I would have doubts. I would have fears. I would have self-loathing, but I kept telling myself that God adores me. Once I began to believe that I began to watch myself unfold like a flower. That made it possible for me to adore others on a deep level. Wow! How my relationships grew and deepened and started bringing incredible satisfaction.

3. “Lean into my belief in you until you start believing in yourself.” ~ Gina Eubank

I remember the first major project I took on after starting to work with Gina–becoming the host and co-creator of the Inspired Mom Summit Spring 2021. The learning curve was tremendous. I did not have the courage or the confidence or the capability to take on a task this big. Well, at least that’s what I was telling myself. Gina encouraged me every week by reminding me of other wins I had had in my life, as well as the ones I was accumulating right now. She encouraged me to stack those micro-wins and to keep noticing them and being thankful for them. And she would ask me to trust her belief. “Can you trust my belief?” Yes, I would say, “I will trust your belief.” Gina’s belief got me to the next level and the next and the next.

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

I have my sights on buying a 4-star country inn. It will serve as a haven for people from around the world to relax, read, breathe in nature’s beauty, learn folk dancing, and savor incredible food. I look forward to hosting retreats there.

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

It’s oftentimes assumed that women don’t know how to do something; that it’s beyond their understanding or capability or even that they are not interested. I think our biggest obstacle lies between our own fears: we don’t think we have what it takes. Men seem to expect great things to happen to them. And many of us as women expect men to take care of us or “rule” over us. But is that true? Is that absolutely true? Only if we believe it. I am a huge believer in empowering women to grow beyond their own limits and to do so with grace and truth. There is no place for angry women in my life as they are their own worst enemies, even if they are doing something in the name of what they call good. Any time we let our emotions rule us, we have lost the battle. Success comes best from a wellspring of positive emotions: joy, peace, and goodness. Love yourself deeply, believe in yourself, and find your inner circle of people who believe in you, encourage you, and energize you to go to the next level.

Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Tony Robbins’ talk on Life is happening for you, not to you. Can you share a story with us?

When Duncan, my late husband, passed, I was distraught. I was angry. I was incredibly sad. How could this have happened? How can I go on? Fear set in, and night after night, I lay awake sobbing, “No, No, No!” My best friend, my lover, my boss, my biking buddy, my joy, my delight. Gone. One day I walked in to my bookkeeper’s office and she looked up with a smile, “Good morning. How are you?” I responded with, “I am so mad. I hate everything, and I want to burn the house down.” She smiled again, and said with understanding, “That’s okay, just don’t send it in a text message.” I burst out laughing, and we enjoyed a wonderful few minutes of joy.

Soon after that I began to listen to Tony Robbins. When I heard him say that life happens for us, not to us, I was shocked into reality. Is that true? Life happens for me? I began to embrace that thought and say it over and over again, until I absolutely understood and believed it. “Yes! Life is happening for me.” I began to realize that Duncan’s work was done–mine was not. My whisper began to be, “Let me see my life, this day, this moment as a gift for me to savor and an opportunity to love and give to others. Life started happening to me on a very different level.

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 am inspiring a movement! My vision is to empower one million women to go from feeling trapped and powerless to coming into their own as Empress–to create the life they desire by becoming the woman they love.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?

My own favorite life lesson quote is “I am so glad to be alive! Today is the best day of my life because I know more today than I knew yesterday, and I am better equipped today to live an extraordinary life.” ~ Debbie Page

Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

This truly changed my life both quickly and slowly: quickly because I believed it immediately, and slowly, because it has slowly continued to deepen my faith in it as I speak it into existence each day.

How can our readers follow you online?

Debbiehpage.com; louispage.com, https://www.facebook.com/debbie.page

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

Female Disruptors: Debbie Page of Louis E Page 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.

Women In Wellness: Dr Loreena Ryder Of Naturopathic Physicians Group On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Consuming Food and Water — Food is the most intimate relationship that we have in our lives. Since it is such a personal relationship, it is often very difficult to modify or change our food habits. If you are a pet owner or have had a pet, your vet most likely changed their pet’s food when they had allergies. However, humans are resistant to that change themselves, even if we are what we eat. Water is the base of all our chemical reactions, as it makes up 60% of our body. Without adequate water consumption, we just can’t think or function properly.

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

Dr. Loreena Ryder is a naturopathic physician at Naturopathic Physicians Group in Scottsdale, Arizona. Dr. Ryder’s work includes a focus on female health and pain management, in addition to serving as a primary care provider. She is passionate about improving the quality of life of her patients by providing support for their mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

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 am originally from rural Pennsylvania, where my six siblings and I grew up using traditional folk medicine. I did not have much experience in the medical world, as we rarely went to a medical doctor. My family and I lived a healthy folk lifestyle, where we grew our own garden, hunted our food, and went to a local butcher for foods we could not hunt. It wasn’t until I was an adult and had my own children, that I had my first glimpse into the traditional medical field. When my first child had developed allergies and asthma, doctors had recommended traditional medicine for treatment including an emergency inhaler and steroid breathing treatments. They did not address any factors that may have caused or were contributing to her asthma to begin with. After I changed her diet and home environment factors, she got better in just a few days. At this time, I was working as a massage therapist which opened my eyes to holistic medicine. I used that income to work my way through Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, to study business and professional studies. I then went into medical school at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and became a licensed naturopathic physician at Naturopathic Physicians Group.

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?

One of the most interesting things that happened during the start of my career was when I was a student physician that worked at several clinics and locations across Arizona. I had one patient come in for the exact same thing at two different clinics. She did not realize that I was the same student who saw her in the previous clinic. Her condition was rather severe and potentially life-threatening. She was resisting my recommendation to visit the hospital. That experience taught me that I must always keep my patient’s safety in mind. I realized, at that time, that my medical training has prepared me to recognize a risk and I should strongly encourage a patient to seek emergency medical attention when warranted. It built confidence in me that I am the medical expert. I should thoroughly explain the condition and risks that a patient is facing if neglecting to obtain emergency medical care. Especially if it is a matter of saving one’s life.

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?

There was one time when I was drawing a patient’s blood and my hand got caught with the needle, causing it to pull the needle out before I was ready with the cotton. Although it may have been a better situation for the patient to quickly pull it out, it was a very embarrassing mistake. Now I am more careful and cautious about where my hands are and where my equipment is. I learned to always take my time in every situation.

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?

Within my work, I hope that I can help influence at least one patient at a time to incorporate a healthy lifestyle. The goal is then for that patient to go home to their families and explain the health changes they have been making to their lifestyle and the healthier habits they have developed when they had allergies, skin, or food related issues. I hope that will then help my influence of healthy lifestyles grow and multiply, and possibly start change on a bigger level.

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. Consuming Food and Water — Food is the most intimate relationship that we have in our lives. Since it is such a personal relationship, it is often very difficult to modify or change our food habits. If you are a pet owner or have had a pet, your vet most likely changed their pet’s food when they had allergies. However, humans are resistant to that change themselves, even if we are what we eat. Water is the base of all our chemical reactions, as it makes up 60% of our body. Without adequate water consumption, we just can’t think or function properly.
2. Bowel Movements — Bowel movements are how our body removes toxins. If we can’t remove toxins, we will start to feel sluggish, gain weight, and lack energy. Frequency is also important, as you should release your bowels that same number of times you eat in a day. A healthy excreta will typically smell like grass or hay and should be smooth or snake like.
3. Movement or Exercise — This is crucial to living a healthy lifestyle, especially since many of us sit at a desk for work. Daily exercise provides several benefits including increasing your brain function by at least 20%, detoxifying your body, helping with bowel movement, and improving your sleep. Walking is good but you should be breaking a sweat. Taking a stroll is not necessarily active enough unless you are just starting out. Weight resistance training will help you build healthy bones and muscles, which will help improve your hormone regulation. The more muscle mass you have the better, as your overall hormones will be working stronger as well.
4. Stress Management — Stress is the kryptonite of our bodies, as it taxes every one of our bodies systems and functions. Stress can affect everyone differently. Some people can handle more stress than others. Even if you do everything right and are extremely healthy, you may still experience stress that would put you in an unhealthy category. Stress may be a result of what is going on in your life, such as a stressful job or relationship, which means it may be time for a change. Self-care should always be a main priority for yourself, as no one else will care about your self-care more than you will.
5. Sleep — This is one of the most important lifestyle tweaks. Getting a good night’s sleep every night is critical, as sleep help restores, rejuvenates, and detoxifies your body. However, you can’t bank your sleep minutes. There is no such thing as rollover sleep minutes. Taking a nap or sleeping in during the weekends can help but should not be considered a regular sleep routine for catching up. Sleep is great for maintaining strong GI health and weight management, but I don’t recommend sleeping on a full stomach. Your body needs a certain number of hours away from food to go through a cleansing process. You should eat a few hours before you go to bed. In terms of how much sleep you should get each night, it all depends on how you feel. A nice goal is seven to nine hours, depending on the individual. If you wake refreshed, then you have had adequate sleep.

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

The movement that I would start is educating people on over-eating and how much is considered too much. The number one cause of death in America is heart disease, as most Americans don’t realize they are overeating. Reducing your food intake can help control your blood sugar and weight. I recommend eating until you feel about 80% full during any major meal and then stop. Since it takes about 20 minutes for your body to realize that you are full, most will continue eating until they feel 110% full. Even before you start chewing, your body has already begun the digestion process. Your senses start preparing your body for a meal when you salivate from the aroma of the foods as you prepare it. When you grab food on the go, your body doesn’t have that sensory stimulation to begin preparing for digestion. To provide adequate digestion, you should chew your food so that your stomach doesn’t have to do all the work.

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

1. The amount of off-the-clock work that is involved with being a doctor. From writing charts or notes, to answering voicemails, and writing prescriptions, there is a lot of work to be done beyond seeing your patients.
2. You never stop learning. While I will never take another test again, I am constantly learning and continuing to develop my knowledge as a doctor from patients, other doctors, and even people on the street. You may learn something new from having a conversation with a stranger in a grocery store.
3. The level of dedication it takes to become a doctor. There is a lot of money, time, and effort that goes into it. I do not think that I could have had a proper understanding until I went through medical school and experienced it myself.
4. Understanding the balance between being a doctor and a caregiver. There must be a good balance between being responsible for someone’s health and knowing that you can’t fully take on everyone’s health problems. It can be emotionally daunting to try to take on the health of your patients from a personal standpoint.
5. I can’t help everyone in the way I want to. There are obstacles for people that I can’t fix and need to refer people to other specialists, such as life circumstances and limited resources like money or geographical locations.

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 important cause that at least 70% of my clinical patients have struggled with at one point in their life. Mental health is defined as anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and personality or bipolar disorders. The amount of stress a person feels whenever mental health is weighing on them could have a negative impact on their life. Relationships may be affected, and some might even need to take some time off work. Treatment for mental health illnesses has been recognized more now than it has been in the past and there are even more ways to treat it. It is good to do a thorough intake on every patient to see the whole picture of the patient’s issue. It may be a matter of hormones or brain neurotransmitters needing to be balanced. It could also be a result of current or past emotional stress that needs to be identified and released. Once these treatments have been completed, the quality of life of the patient will significantly improve.

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

Readers can visit us at our website at https://naturopathicgroup.com/ or on our Facebook page.

They can also contact us at 480–451–6161.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Dr Loreena Ryder of Naturopathic Physicians Group On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Ratchel Pinlac of Pinsy Shapewear On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

The brand will be your life and consume your brain for a long time. Establishing healthy boundaries between work and personal life is critical in the beginning or else you will spend all day and night working.

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

Pinsy’s mission is to create Shapewear that can be worn as Outerwear. Women CAN have it all: Style, Comfort, Support and Function. The brand’s goal is to empower women to love their bodies and ditch the idea that shapewear has to be hidden and embarrassing. Pinsy’s goal is to create beautiful, innovative and size-inclusive shapewear to enhance all bodies — without the sacrifice of comfort and versatility.

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 am a daughter of Filipino immigrants (middle child of 3 sisters) and grew up in an Asian household on the small island of Oahu, Hawaii. For as far back as I can remember, I’ve dieted for what feels like all my life (as early as 10 years old) and was constantly told I was fat. It is common in Asian culture that your relatives have no shame in commenting on one’s weight — their generation still believes that weight and physical appearance impacts your ability to find a husband, which in turn impacts your financial stability.

I recall wearing my mom’s uncomfortable high waisted underwear girdles in the 6th grade and the stigma of wearing girdles stuck with me. I absolutely hated shapewear — it was ugly, uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Fast forward to my twenties, I started a career in E-Commerce in 2011 — During my college years, I had an extremely strong gut feeling that E-Commerce, particularly Amazon, was going to explode. I spent 10 years building my career with Amazon Corporate and gained exposure to a wide range of brands and categories.

During a lunch break I ventured to a department store to find an outfit for a party I was going to that weekend and found myself looking in the shapewear section. The sudden flash backs of wearing shapewear as a pre-teen came rushing back. Everything was flesh colored and looked exactly what my mother wore back when I used to borrow her shapewear! There was zero style innovation within the shapewear category and the lightbulb moment hit when I could not find anything that was remotely visually appealing, stylish and youthful. I also hated that shopping for shapewear felt like a chore, shouldn’t it be FUN?

From there I set out a plan to build the next generation of Shapewear — to inspire body acceptance, breathe style into the shapewear market, and to leverage the skills I gained from my time at Amazon.

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

It was 2020 and I was about to launch our now best-selling lace shapewear bodysuits. I had no marketing plan other than to post it on Instagram to our 2k or so followers (half of which were my friends and family). I randomly hopped on TikTok “just to do it”, filmed a 4 second video with the bodysuit draped over a bench where I said, “You will never believe this is shapewear.” 30 minutes later, I realized the TikTok went viral with over a million views, and we gained thousands of followers (had about 10 or so followers at the beginning of the day), built up a waitlist of thousands of girls, and sold the product out on the day it launched. It’s crazy what can happen when you’re willing to just “try anything and everything!”

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 produced size XS in one of our shapewear styles which ended up being a children’s size! A girl that was actually an XS could barely get the body up one of her legs! We learned very quickly that we must always fit sizes (especially when going smaller than our small) on ALL sizes before moving into 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?

It sounds cliche but my parents instilled the right mindset in me. The mindset of “if they can do it, so can you, and there’s no excuse as to why them over you” stuck with me throughout elementary school and beyond. In school, it was not acceptable to receive worse grades than my peers — we have access to the same teachers, same textbooks, etc. The abundance and growth mindset are absolutely critical to success in business. Everything is able to be figured out! If you do not believe that to be true, it will be difficult to succeed as a Founder because all roadblocks and hurdles will feel like brick walls.

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

I think aside from the social expectations and pressures that are put on women that hold them back — such as having children by a certain age and having to dedicate time to raising a family. I feel women are holding themselves back because there is still a disproportionate number of female-founded companies compared to male-founded. People are motivated by examples and role models and while there are female-founder role models, there is still a disproportionate amount compared to men. I’m confident that over time, the more women are exposed to other women who have excelled at founding companies and creating legacies, the more women will recognize entrepreneurship as a “normal” and “achievable” career path to consider. I’m certain the next generations after us will have a much more even distribution of female and male entrepreneurs.

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

I think society needs to feature more women who came from meager upbringings and started successful businesses. People are motivated by role models and the more women hear about other women succeeding despite not being born into privilege, connections or the help of a male, the more women will feel confident in starting companies. Society being able to feature women in a way that allows them to break down exactly “how they did it” will inspire other women to realize their own potential.

On the government side of things, while there exists Female Business Loans and other funding type of assistance, there isn’t a prominent resource for “How to Start a Business.” Having a starting point for women will help overcome barriers to entry.

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 have an incredible knack for being detail oriented, organized, and able to react with both intellect and emotion. Many studies have shown that women are also excellent multi-taskers compared to men, which is extremely critical to business success. Also, to my earlier point, having more female-founded companies will eventually snowball adjusting the ratio between female and male-founded businesses.

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

MYTH: Being a Founder means coming up with a great idea: Being a founder does not always mean coming up with a great product or idea. If you build it, people will not come — especially online. More often than not, a great product or idea is simply just a product and won’t sell itself. You must have the drive to creatively market your product, relentlessly pursue success, learn about what works/doesn’t work, hire/fire, test, test again, fail, succeed, fail again, and keep pushing.

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?

Technically everyone is cut out to start something, but not everyone is cut out to scale and grow a company in a big way. Being able to scale and grow a company takes an extremely high amount of dedication, focus, energy, financial strain, and the wearing of many hats. Not many people are willing to put in the high amount of work for an outcome that is not certain — and that’s OK. As a founder, especially in the beginning, you not only have to wear many hats and do “almost everything” until you can afford to hire, but you also have to learn how to make the right hires and be thorough enough to know what you positions you need in the first place. Finding, managing, and retaining high impact employees, while continuing to innovate and stay relevant as a brand, on top of ensuring company profitability, are key focuses of a Founder.

Not everyone is cut out to handle the demands and pressure of being a founder. Some people thrive with a singular focus and straightforward working hours — those are the people that should seek jobs as an employee.

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. When hiring and selecting people to bring into your company, prioritize working-style and chemistry over skill. Of course, skill is important, but not at the expense of company fit and chemistry. I’ve made a few bad hires in the beginning because I hired solely on skill and what company they previously worked for and backburnered their personality and working style. Trust and chemistry amongst employees are key to the growth and success of the company. When possible, always meet them in person to assess whether you will get along with them in a working environment. I hired a bad Creative Director in the beginning who really made the creative experience of the brand very painful — we fought many times and it impacted the momentum and creativity of the brand. I also hired a Fashion Designer along the way where we didn’t see eye to eye — this cost the company tens of thousands of dollars because she made a change to the fit of the product that was not approved by me.
2. Be prepared to have at least 2–3 years of savings. The first few years will be financially grueling, especially in a product-based business that is quickly scaling up inventory production to meet customer demand. With Pinsy, even though we had thousands on the waitlist and sold out of product various times, all revenues had to go straight back into purchasing even larger bulks of inventory. Feeling broke for a few years was not fun, but it’s part of the journey.
3. The brand will be your life and consume your brain for a long time. Establishing healthy boundaries between work and personal life is critical in the beginning or else you will spend all day and night working
4. Prioritizing your health and wellness (taking time off, making time for yourself, etc) is just as important, if not more important, as focusing and working on your business. You cannot pour from an empty cup and keeping your cup full is key. I burned myself out in the beginning because there was always so much to get done — however there comes a point to where your efforts result in diminishing returns because you cannot be as effective and impactful at what you’re doing when your mind is drained.

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

I think Pinsy is making the world a better place because we enable women to embrace their bodies as they are. Shapewear has been this garment that was embarrassing or used to make women feel like they need a “solution” to fix their “less than ideal” bodies. We don’t push a standard image of beauty, and we take the shame out of wearing shapewear by producing shapewear made to be seen. From day one we’ve been committed to body positivity and acceptance. I think that has impacted women in such a great way.

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

I would love to inspire a body acceptance movement around the world where body image and standards are completely erased.

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.

Oprah Winfrey. Specifically, lunch at her Montecito home because it is #GOALS.

She is a large influence in my life because of her mindset. Accomplishments aside, Oprah has done a ton of inner work and has a mindset of growth and abundance. It would be life changing to pick her brain on her inner work journey as I am always constantly trying to improve in that area.

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

Thank you! Please follow Pinsy at @pinsyshapewear.

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

Women In Wellness: Annabell Catania Of SIMPURE On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Being an entrepreneur means you are working 24/7, it never stops if you are truly passionate about making your company successful. No one will ever work as hard as you for your company. Never accept less than exactly what you wanted for your brand or you’ll regret it. Trust your gut, if it’s warning you, it’s probably right. Make something you are PROUD of and share it with the world. Giving product away is the best marketing money you will ever spend.

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

Annabell was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at 26 and was in shock when she realized it was connected to her antiperspirant deodorant. After 5 surgeries and 6 rounds of chemo, Annabell was determined to Limit Her Toxic Load and make her own body products, starting with an effective Natural Deodorant. Over 10 years of perfecting SPORT MAX deodorant it is now loved by thousands around the world. She started SIMPURE (formally Auntie & Me) and now they have over 50 Clean, Cruelty-Free, Fair Trade and Sustainable products that are not only effective but SMELL Amazing too.

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?

Well, my story started when I was 26 years old, and I was stopped in my tracks by stage 3 breast cancer. Living what I believed was a “clean” lifestyle and exercising regularly, I would have never imagined that using my antiperspirant would lead to sickness and almost my death. I spent 3 years fighting to live and thinking that if I made it through this Cancer that I would start using my own creations, so I didn’t have to worry about I put on my body anymore. Right away I started formulating my natural deodorant, it’s been over 10 years now. I started at the local Farmer’s Markets in San Diego and was shocked by the amount of people that LOVED it too. Next, I created my Natural Bug Repellent (which works amazing, plus it smells good!) Now we have over 50 clean, cruelty free, fair trade and sustainable products!

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

When I first started my company and was only selling at a few farmer’s markets I didn’t have the capital just yet to commit to a large professional label purchase, so I printed my own labels and was using a recycled kraft paper type label that was NOT waterproof. I was in North Park, in San Diego for the Wednesday market and a HUGE storm came in and took my 10’ x 10’ canopy away with the wind and it started to downpour. I had over 80 products nicely displayed, and all of my labels were destroyed, my canopy was ruined and I was standing there in shock and realized I needed to improve my packaging or this just couldn’t work. I quickly researched that night another company that sells blank, waterproof labels by the sheet and until we could afford professionally printed labels, we didn’t have to worry about losing anymore labels while selling outside and the possibility of another rainstorm. Time is money and so going forward I weighed out all possibilities when I needed to make a decision that involved spending money to improve my packaging, brand, equipment, etc. Lesson learned.

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

I think getting excited about every event we were invited too without researching the person/company that was hosting it and their marketing efforts and spending lots of time and money to attend and it was a total flop. I quickly learned that not everyone is as passionate and dedicated to doing the BEST job they can and so I needed to really test out markets and events before committing. Especially when I hired staff to help at the events because they needed the sales as well.

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?

We here at SIMPURE care about the fair-trade ingredients we use, the eco-friendly packaging we source and the customer experience more than anything. After producing over 30, 000 deodorants in a tiny lab we have made a dent in the Natural Deodorant market, sharing a chemical-free alternative that actually works. We also have a full, clean skincare line and Aromatherapy Sprays to replace fragrances you use on your body and in your home. We wanted to show people that they can throw away their toxic deodorant and feel confident that they will stay smelling fresh and be able to have a bathroom spray that won’t inflame allergies or cause Endocrine disruption in the body, which can affect your hormones. We source genuine Zechstein Magnesium flakes from the Netherland Seabeds for our Joint Care Spray that Naturally relieves inflammation and pain instead of cheap synthetic Magnesium that most companies use. SIMPURE is exactly as it sounds, Simple and Pure.

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.) Switch your deodorant! No need to use chemicals to stay fresh and 1 jar of Sport Max deodorant will last you up to 3 months. 2.) Ditch the fragrances; perfumes, body washes, body creams, and some skincare products containing synthetic fragrance, that is not only bad for you, but not necessary. Make the switch to essential oil-fragranced products. Our Aromatherapy sprays double as a body spray, room and linen spray! *Tranquility being our TOP Seller as well as the Vitality for the Shower! We also have Body washes/Creams/Rollers and of course a full skincare line that smell AMAZING without the chemicals. 3.) Unplug those air fresheners- switch to using Aromatherapy sprays and Diffusers that you use essential oils instead. 4.) Detox the body with Bath Salts, it will relax you and reduce inflammation. Next, try our Underarm Cleansing Kit to help pull toxins from your sweat glands that have been building up for years. 5.) Switch your skincare to clean products, your skin is your BIGGEST ORGAN, stop abusing it with chemicals and then wonder why your skin is sensitive, or your allergies keep acting up. Apply clean products, derived from natural ingredients, and see in the difference! Do this for your kids too. Start gifting people products you can believe in and help the businesses that care about you and your family. SIMPURE is definitely one of those companies. Just read our reviews 😊 ShopSImpure.com

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

Banning antiperspirants around the world. Switzerland banned them in 2016, why hasn’t the world noticed, why haven’t we stood up and said we care more about our health than pleasing large corporations that create these products. Natural deodorant works and there are different varieties for everyone. Try our SPORT MAX deodorant and see why thousands of people love it. It’s gender neutral and loved from teenagers to grandparents.

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

Being an entrepreneur means you are working 24/7, it never stops if you are truly passionate about making your company successful. No one will ever work as hard as you for your company. Never accept less than exactly what you wanted for your brand or you’ll regret it. Trust your gut, if it’s warning you, it’s probably right. Make something you are PROUD of and share it with the world. Giving product away is the best marketing money you will ever spend.

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

That’s hard as they are all important to me, but Sustainability is something I can control and choose for my life as well as my company and make the choices that are best for the environment over price. Sometimes being conscience of these things costs more, but it will be rewarded later. For example, we decided to switch our packaging to recycled glass and plastic and source sustainably grown and manufactured real Bamboo wood caps for our rebrand and since we have invested in this eco-friendly packaging we are reducing our carbon footprint and aligning with more platforms with the same ethics.

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

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and our website! @simpureskincare

www.shopsimpure.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Annabell Catania Of SIMPURE On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… 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

Learn how to read people. In the nonprofit sector, most people want to help…but there are some bad apples who come around with agendas and ulterior motives. Learn how to read people, and trust your gut if a person doesn’t feel right or has displayed behaviors that are questionable.

As part of my series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Tania Haigh.

Tania Haigh is a leader in the nonprofit sector taking on one of the toughest epidemics in the U.S. — child sexual abuse. She co-founded Parents Against Child Sex Abuse (PAXA®) in 2017 and launched the KIDS TOO Movement in 2021. Considering her nonprofit leadership as well as her proven track record in business and entrepreneurship supporting some of the largest global brands, Tania’s work and advocacy initiatives have been featured in a wide range of media outlets.

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

My career path has been rooted in business with a focus on marketing for more than 20 years. However, I have always been involved with nonprofit organizations as a hands-on volunteer or committee member, or through my corporate roles executing cause-related marketing plans. When I became an entrepreneur after 15 years in corporate America, I found more freedom to make even larger civic contributions. One big chapter was bringing the TEDx platform to my community in Oak Park, Illinois, as founder of TEDxOakParkWomen. It was through that work that I was launched into fully entering the nonprofit sector to lead Parents Against Child Sex Abuse and the KIDS TOO Movement.

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

As you can imagine, taking on one of the most taboo topics in our culture is not for the faint of heart. But this work is all about having heart and compassion to prioritize the health and wellbeing of children. One of my most interesting experiences was executing a grassroots campaign for the HBO film The Tale in 2019. We hosted film screenings in the Chicagoland area and had the opportunity to do press with the filmmaker, Jennifer Fox. (She is portrayed by actress Laura Dern in the film.) The movie is the story of Fox’s childhood, and we learned about her journey of living through her experiences and her survivor pain, deciding to write about it, and then eventually making it into a film that debuted at Sundance Film Festival.

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?

While PAXA has been in existence for five years now, the more recent launch of the KIDS TOO Movement has plenty of stories that go with it! Some may think working for a nonprofit organization is slow, but for the cause we’ve taken on, it moves at a very fast pace. KIDS TOO launched in November 2021 in response to the dangers that social media platforms have created for our kids. We decided to pull off a grassroots stunt by going to the Today Show Plaza with our #KIDSTOO signs. And it worked! We got to be on national TV and got our photo with Hoda. My funny mistake: I got no sleep on my short trip to New York City, and I learned that I can’t do that at this stage in my life!

Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?

We’ve been told that we won’t ever truly know how many people we’ve reached through our work. What we do know is that parents around the country are in crisis when it comes to protecting their children from predators, and we know that our contributions through PAXA and the KIDS TOO Movement are reaching parents around the country with our message — and they are contacting us for help. Bottom line: For the last five years through these two organizations, we have been empowering parents with tools and resources to protect their children from sexual abuse and other dangers.

Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?

We had the opportunity to work alongside a child sexual abuse survivor on a law in Illinois — Faith’s Law — that passed in 2021. That was such a beautiful opportunity to support and empower a young woman whose work aligned with ours as an organization.

Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?

Yes, it takes all of us as a society to protect our most vulnerable. Our organization wants to empower parents to elevate their voices in child protection. We can do this by:

• #1 Being Aware: More parents and caretakers need to be aware of the problem so they can be on the lookout for predators that surround our children every day.
• #2 Getting Educated: There are scores of nonprofit organizations doing the heavy lifting of working to protect kids every day. We encourage parents to take advantage of the tools and resources that are available so they can be “in the know” about predatory red flags as well as how to keep their kids safe on social media platforms.
• #3 Taking Action: Whether it’s in schools or extracurricular activities, there continue to be gaps in safety for our kids. We want parents to have the courage to speak up and say something when adults put the institutions they represent before the wellbeing of kids. We want parents to write to lawmakers asking for effective laws to protect children.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

Leadership can be exemplified in a range of ways depending on the attributes of the person. For me, leadership means setting the vision, knowing how to execute, building teams, and nurturing relationships. It also means that, in being a leader, one is clear that measurement is real — as is taking radical responsibility for outcomes.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

I love these questions because I come from a place of always wanting to pay it forward. Here are some of my favorites:

• It’s going to be a marathon, not a race. My husband told me this when we co-founded PAXA in 2017. He was right — and we needed to earn every opportunity to become the credible nonprofit organization that we are today.
• Nonprofits are messy. Having come from a business background and entrepreneurship, I was confident that I could learn quickly how to develop a nonprofit with staying power. Then I learned that every nonprofit organization (whether it’s new or it’s been around a long time) has its own set of challenges. I got this down by listening to Joan Garry’s podcast, Nonprofits Are Messy.
• Clean financials are everything. This one is easy to want to avoid, but getting into the numbers is crucial for the long-term success of an organization. While we have resources that support us in this area, I don’t mind if I have to get into the weeds in QuickBooks.
• Learn how to read people. In the nonprofit sector, most people want to help…but there are some bad apples who come around with agendas and ulterior motives. Learn how to read people, and trust your gut if a person doesn’t feel right or has displayed behaviors that are questionable.
• Get rest. As the daughter of immigrant parents, I have “work hard” in my DNA. I am known for my work ethic. But these days, my motto is “work smarter not harder.” I also suggest that folks in the nonprofit sector learn to have work/life balance to avoid burning out while trying to make an impact in an area they’re passionate about.

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? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

At this very moment I am, indeed, living a movement: the KIDS TOO Movement. Even after launching brands, businesses, and nonprofits, I never really saw myself as a movement leader — but now I do see it all connecting for me and the audience that I’m seeking to reach. For others, I encourage a movement that has more people asking “How can I help?”

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

My goodness, I love life lessons quotes! This one is tough to choose, but I will go with the one I have on my personal website. It’s from Michael Jordan: “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” This quote is very relevant to me because for my entire life, when I’ve set out to do something, I have done it. It’s always taken a lot of work, but I’ve done it!

Is there a person in the world (or in the US) with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

Well, I’m going for it…Oprah! She’s done so much to educate her audience about child sexual abuse, especially during The Oprah Winfrey Show years — AND I also choose her because one of my biggest regrets in life is passing up a free ticket to attend her show in my hometown and hers, Chicago, during the last season. For inspiration, I still catch some of the OG show that streams her network, OWN.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

We’d love a like or follow! Readers can find me on Twitter or Instagram. For the KIDS TOO Movement, check out Instagram; and for PAXA, check out YouTube.

This was very meaningful. Thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!

Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Tania Haigh of ‘Kids Too’ Is Helping To Change Our World 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

“You are how you treat the people who can’t do anything for you.” What that means to me is to be kind to everyone, not just the boss. People are always watching how you treat others. I want to see how you treat the crew, the intern and the parking attendant. I was an intern. Still to this day, I remember those who treated me kindly and those who barked orders for me to get them an Egg McMuffin (no joke!). Be kind and treat everyone with respect.

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

Erin Coscarelli is one of the most sought-after female broadcasters on television today. She currently pulls double duty hosting for the Las Vegas Raiders as well as Tennis Channel. She recently served as a correspondent for “The Ultimate Surfer” on ABC working alongside surf legend Kelly Slater, hosted “The Fantasy Zone” for DirecTV as well as a morning show on NFL Network, and has over the course of her career covered the Super Bowl, Professional Bull Riding, and everything in between, including Summer X Games, the World Series of Poker, Major League Baseball and Motocross working for networks like NBC Sports, ESPN and Fox Sports.

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 a tomboy with two older brothers and I played every sport I could cram into a season — volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball, track and field. My poor parents drove me all over town. I think the joy of playing such a wide variety of sports gave me insight into the mindset of an athlete. I loved playing sports but what drew me into a career in sports broadcasting was the depth of telling the story beyond just the athlete’s jersey. I always gravitated to the human element over the stats and accolades. Who was this athlete underneath the helmet? Sure, we want to root for the team we have the allegiance to, but I think the fan also yearns to understand the players on a deeper level. What drives them? How do they get through the slumps and struggles of being an athlete? The game is so mental…it transcends sports and hits deep into our own personal lives. I think the fan at home wants to understand that better. I know I do.

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

Questioning the norm. Looking at how we’ve “always done things.” Asking questions like, “Is this really the best way to do it for EVERYONE?” And if not, can we work together to confront it, speak up for ourselves and seek change for the betterment of the collective? I think any time we can peel back a layer in any industry and introduce more awareness to someone’s personal experience with truth and vulnerability, we begin to invite more transparency, openness and understanding. For me, being a woman in the sports broadcasting industry is exhilarating, stress-inducing, and passion-filled — and I wouldn’t change a thing about the home runs and strikeouts I’ve had along the way. If my story makes a female in my industry feel less alone…then I’ve succeeded. That’s my work. Being more vulnerable about my own struggles, because at the end of the day we all deserve to feel like we’re not alone.

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 first started out, I was needing to get “reps.” An amazing opportunity came to me to cover Pro Bull Riding for NBC Sports. Growing up as an LA native, I was a fish out of water for this, but boy, what a cool sport — and even cooler athletes to get to report on as I was learning the ropes of broadcasting. There was this one show in particular that taught me a valuable lesson during a live hit. As I got up close and personal to a bull that was about to be released from the chute, my producer began counting down “5… 4… 3… 2…” and as he counted to 1, the bull bucked with a flying smattering of poop landing right on my sweater. Needless to say, I learned the show must go on, even with bull crap all over you. I still laugh about it to this day. Shit happens. What can you do? Just keep going.

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?

Growing up, I wish I had more female mentors. I had a lot of really impactful male mentors help guide me. One in particular very early in my career was Mike Colangelo from ESPN. Max Casanova is another name that sticks out because both gentlemen really believed in me. They gave me chances even when I, myself, felt I didn’t deserve them. I think a great mentor and producer is encouraging, supportive, and understands the difference between a lack of experience and a lack of potential. I’m thankful I was given the chance to keep taking those reps and gaining that experience.

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?

I think it’s so helpful to reanalyze “what is” with the hopes of making things better by taking a deeper look at how things are. For instance, in the sports industry you are seeing so many more women on TV. The audience wants representation on their screen. It’s boring when it’s a panel of all men…we want diversity, we want inclusivity, we want someone who looks like us to allow for a deeper, more meaningful conversation that we can connect with. Disrupting the norm is great if there is real authenticity and passion behind it. To disrupt just to disrupt feels targeted with no real interest in “moving the ball forward,” if you will. To want to make things better, to genuinely want to see growth in a space that feels outdated or antiquated, I think that’s when it’s positive. When you can say, “Yes, maybe there is an opportunity for improvement.”

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

“You are how you treat the people who can’t do anything for you.” What that means to me is to be kind to everyone, not just the boss. People are always watching how you treat others. I want to see how you treat the crew, the intern and the parking attendant. I was an intern. Still to this day, I remember those who treated me kindly and those who barked orders for me to get them an Egg McMuffin (no joke!). Be kind and treat everyone with respect.

Another is to “prioritize you.” This industry is always about making everyone else around you comfortable. I didn’t speak up in the early days of my career. I said “yes” way too often out of fear. I understand you need to start your career with jobs that probably pay less, work crummy hours, and work weekends, holidays and overnight shifts. I think that’s an opportunity to put in the extra elbow grease so that you can learn more about the ins and outs of the biz. That way you get to decide if this is a job you even want to sacrifice those weekends for.

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

I’m nowhere near being done. My plan is to continue to inspire other women (and men) and convince them that they’re not alone as we’ve all been navigating a very challenging time in our lives. Everyone has a story to tell and I’m ready to listen.

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

Women are often initially judged by our appearance, well before anything comes out of our mouth. If I mispronounce an athlete’s name or get a stat incorrect, popular thought will think I don’t know what I’m talking about, whereas my male counterpart is “forgiven” more easily. I think we are judged differently when we ask for a pay increase or just simply speak up about a boundary. In the past I was terrified of speaking up for myself or even just confronting conflict and I am beginning to see that it was just me trying to conform to societal norms. Even if we disagree, being open to civil and honest conversation is not only necessary, but our younger generation is also watching and learning from us. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your niece or nephew, or for your kids. I know I’m in a safe and mature working environment when I’m invited to speak up. When my voice and opinions are prioritized. I’m grateful to the men who mandate that in a work environment.

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

Historically, women have been afraid to disrupt. We’re afraid to be considered “difficult” or high maintenance. I think that is starting to become old news now. We are progressing forward as we prioritize the comfort of everyone in the workplace. It takes more women like myself, Joy Taylor, Alex Curry — just to name a few — that aren’t afraid to speak up and ask for awareness around the workplace. I’m constantly inspired by the women in my industry. A win for her is a win for us.

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.

My goal for this year was to find inner peace. I think the way to do that is by being more comfortable in your own skin. Authenticity cannot be overlooked. The thing that scares you the most (for me it was the fear of being disliked) should be the very thing you need to work on. Listen, I love my job, I love connecting with people. I love telling and hearing inspiring stories…but the biggest quest will always be: Why are you doing all of this? Who are you working so hard for? Are you doing it because you love it or to prove something to others? Once I surrendered the need to be liked (and btw, I’m still a work-in-progress), I started to become WAY more confident with who I wanted to work with, whose energy I wanted around me. I can’t tell you how much more enjoyable work and life started to become. You begin attracting a new attitude of people in your life. This idea of exclusion, mean-girl B.S., that’s such a tired and boring narrative.

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

My dad used to say, “It could always be worse.” I appreciate that quote still to this day. When we can be in control of our own perspective, we control the energy and time we give to things. If we’re constantly the “victim,” we can’t take ownership or be accountable to make things better. Our reaction to things is the only control we have in this life. The mind can contrive funny stories we want to believe about ourselves. We can choose to view crappy situations as opportunities to grow and amazing things as moments to celebrate. At least this is what I’m trying to work on. Like I said, I’m a work in progress and I’m okay with that these days.

How can our readers follow you online?

Follow me on social media at @erincoscarelli.

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

Female Disruptors: TV Anchor Erin Coscarelli On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Sabrina Noorani of
ClearForMe On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

No one has it all figured out. I recently talked to a mentor of mine who just hit Unicorn status. I figured they would feel like they’re on top of the world but even being at different places, we connected on the fact that we don’t have it all figured out but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a given for everyone, so let go of the idea that you need to know it all.

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

A former NYSE trader, Sabrina founded ClearForMe, a Ingredient Cloud-Based SaaS solution, after developing a debilitating skin allergy. Feeling frustrated that she couldn’t understand the ingredient labels, she knew there must be others out there that feel the same. With this powerful tool, she hopes to encourage clear beauty education and change how products with ingredient labels are presented to consumers today.

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 was born and raised in Tanzania, moved to Miami with my family when I was 8 years old and then left the nest when I was 17 to build my life in NYC. After business school at NYU, I became an options floor trader on the NYSE and later moved to build a new team at Citadel, a hedge fund. During my time there, my skin around my lips started to tighten, puff up, and peel so much, I began to get staph infections every other week. From this acute skin problem I launched a quest to understand what ingredients were causing these reactions. I quickly learned how overwhelming it is to navigate products’ ingredient lists. It was far too complex and confusing for me as a data analyst, much less for the average consumer. ClearForMe is my answer to clearing up ingredient confusion for the beauty industry and thirst for confident, personalized product choices.

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

There are so many but this one, I’m choosing to share because it’s also the most meaningful. I was sensing that I might just win my first deal but I hadn’t built the product yet. I called my advisor in a bit of a panic. He told me to reach out to an intern he had worked with who was super smart and back at business school, his name was Ali. Ali was not only smart, but incredibly kind. He could sense that I was in over my head and he said, I will help you get this contract over the finish line. For 6 weeks, we went from being complete strangers to working side by side every day. After my final pitch, I learned I closed the deal and before even saying anything, Ali told me he would work with me to get it to launch. This is all while he was in his last year at business school, studying for finals, and going on job interviews. After we launched, ahead of our delivery date, we both took a breath and recognized what was happening between us is working and the rest is history.

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

I have this saying I learned — when you make mistakes, your brain grows. So, needless to say, I’m cool with Team Mistakes. It happens, and as long as you are growing and not repeating them, then you’re learning. When I was first starting I was actively talking to two potential partners at the same time. I built a personalized business case for each and I accidentally swapped them when I emailed them to the two potential partners. I was embarrassed and felt like it was the end of the world but I owned up to it immediately, admitted to my mistake, and corrected it with the right document. Both partners shrugged it off, and moved on. The lesson here is to take immediate accountability when things go wrong. It’s always appreciated and respected even if it means you lose the business.

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?

The night before a big RFPmy team and I were working on was due, I happened to be in LA for a workshop I was attending and was staying with my best friend. A request for proposal is basically a pitch that I was submitting to win business. There were hundreds of questions to answer and it was my first time doing it. That night, another mutual friend happened to be in town for a meeting and was also staying with us. I kind of hijacked the whole night and instead of everyone catching up, everyone at the home rolled up their sleeves and got into the trenches with me to help. It was an all-night thing, and friends who could have easily gone to bed stayed up with me to support as I needed. It ended up being one of the most memorable sales processes I’ve ever been a part of and winning that business felt so sweet because so much love and support went into that. That contract kicked ClearForMe into high gear and we haven’t looked back since. I will always appreciate my ride or die friends and how they stood up with me even though they each had a million other important things to take care of.

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

The bias investors hold. A study by DocSend last year showed VC funds spend 18% more time on all male founder teams than female founder teams, which resulted in men raising 70% more than females in 2020. This was up from 50% in 2019. The playing field is rigged before one can even start. You can’t win a game if you can’t get on the field.

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?

As individuals it’s important we identify the bias and keep it top of mind. Hoping something is not there, won’t make it go away. Admitting means we can address the problem.

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?

An old axiom comes to mind, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” But teach a woman to fish, and everyone eats for a lifetime. Women are bad a**, plain and simple.

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

That success happens overnight, that it will be only hard until you get your first customer or first check. It’s all a journey, and once you solve one problem, another one pops up, but that’s the beauty of it. That’s when you expand, grow, and have real opportunities for scale. Embrace the bumpiness.

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

Not everyone wants to be a founder and that’s ok. The specific trait that increases likelihood is willingness to fail. The better you fail, learn and iterate than build for perfection, which doesn’t exist.

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.)

No one has it all figured out. I recently talked to a mentor of mine who just hit Unicorn status. I figured they would feel like they’re on top of the world but even being at different places, we connected on the fact that we don’t have it all figured out but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a given for everyone, so let go of the idea that you need to know it all.

Share your problems (don’t hide them). Without fail, everytime I share what my roadblocks and current problems are, even if it’s to a stranger, something shifts and answers come. Maybe not in a linear way, but the answers I didn’t even think I was looking for fall into my lap when I share.

Build habits to nurture your confidence. I end my day listing 3 positive things I did that day, why they are positive, their impact and next steps. It helps me close my day with a positive focus which builds my confidence.

Be curious. Instead of saying no, ‘I don’t like that’ or writing someone off, lead with curiosity, learn, and ask questions. It’s easy to say no, but then you miss out on sparking creativity and nurturing collaboration.

Lift others up. Invest in your teams’ development and success. It’s the most gratifying part of being a leader. Filling up their buckets, fills yours up the same plus more.

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

I leverage my success in many different ways. One of the ways that meant the most to me last year was for the BIPOC community, one that I belong to. The BIPOC community makes up 80% of the population yet, resources don’t nearly match that representation. We launched a campaign last year, offering BIPOC founders 80% off of our services so they, too, can offer unique experiences rooted in education to their customers. Personally, I also believe in paying it forward. When I meet other founders, mentees, and students, I’m an open book and share resources, knowledge, and my network contacts, when it’s helpful.

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

If I could inspire a movement it would be to create an environment where all kids learn that they are each heroes on their own journey. If we can model to each child that they are capable, emotional, and creative beings who benefit from mistakes, failure, and disappointment, the sky’s the limit. I want kids to feel safe expressing and feeling their emotions so they can experience the world self aware and self accepting. Imagine a generation taught this during their development years as opposed to in their 30s or 40s?

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.

Serena Williams. She was labeled by others as not the chosen one or the most skilled, and shattered that by a millionfold. The barriers she breaks not only in tennis but as an outspoken representative of women, moms, entrepreneurs — I want to learn more about her story and the levers she uses to show up strong, authentic, and empathetic.

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

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