Day: May 22, 2022

Female Founders: Elena Brennan Of BUS STOP Boutique On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It’s nearly impossible to switch off. I practically work 7-days a week, and it’s nearly impossible to take a full day off. The only time I do is when I go away; but even then, I still check my emails daily for any urgent matters. I am fortunate though, that thanks to my brilliant team, I do fly off to Europe and faraway places as much as I can, we all need to refresh.

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

London-born, Elena Brennan, is a shoe designer and Founder of BUS STOP Boutique, an award-winning shoe boutique established in 2007. The flagship is in Philadelphia USA. She started designing her own brand BUS STOP X in 2015, and her limited-edition shoe collections are sold exclusively on her website and in her boutique.

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?

After 27 years in the corporate world, working for international advertising agencies such as, J. Walter Thompson, I decided to follow my passion to become an independent business entrepreneur. At 48 years old, divorced and a single mother, I changed career paths to open BUS STOP Boutique.

My passion for shoes started at an early age, my mum said I always wanted a new pair of shoes! My parents owned two boutiques in London, and having worked there part-time, and going to the showrooms on buying trips, it became second nature. It’s ironic, they wanted me to work in our family business, but I wanted to do something on my own, hence choosing advertising. I guess you could say retail was always in my blood!

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

In 2016, I was hand-picked by the Italian Trade Agency, a Governmental agency supporting business development of companies abroad, to join a small prestigious select group to visit Italy twice in the same year.

My group represented USA, and many other countries were represented such as Japan, Hong Kong, and Poland. It was like the United Nations of the shoe industry. It was a very educational, international, and cultural experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world, no pun intended.

As well as workshops, I attended MICAM in Milan for the first time; the world’s largest footwear trade fair that attracts exhibitors and buyers from all over the world. On my second trip to Italy that year, I toured the Italian leather tanneries and shoe manufacturers in the Veneto region. One of the shoe factories I visited made shoes for luxurious designers such as Prada and Versace, so it was wonderful to see previous collections from some of my favorite designers. Of course, any new designs were under wraps.

I learned so much about the shoe industry, and I formed long-lasting relationships with like-minded peers spanning across Italy, UK and Japan; with whom I still have friendships with to this day.

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

I wouldn’t particularly say it is funny, but some may see the humor in it. When I first opened, I was adamant that all receipts should be hand-written as I felt it was a very personal touch for the customer experience. Who in their right mind does that these days? I made the mistake of waiting to implement a fully integrated Point of Sale system. What was I thinking? Thank goodness, I came to my senses and I learned that to grow your business you need a POS, and sooner rather than later!

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 wouldn’t be where I am today without my mentor who happens to be my dear father, who unfortunately passed away in 2018. I am eternally grateful for all of his guidance and emotional support along the way. Even when he was very ill, he always wanted to know how my business was going (I didn’t want to burden him during his illness). Early on, my father shared a very simple tip: train your employees to think “exactly” like you.” Even though the personalities of my team are very different, all of us do think alike and this in turn means my business runs more smoothly and exudes excellent customer service. I’m elated when customers tell me how happy they are with our customer service whether it be in-store or online. My dad was right.

At the time when I was contemplating expanding into a much larger space, I was visiting my parents in Europe. Of course, my father always gave me the best advice, but I did not want to burden him as he was feeling poorly that day. I was secretly sharing the floor plan with my mother and he overheard our conversation (even though I thought I was being discreet) and instantly wanted to share his opinion. He approved and told me over and over again how proud he was of me. I miss him terribly.

Primary focus of the interview. According to this EY report, only about 20% 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 strongly believe that what is currently holding women back from founding companies is that we as female founders need to control the economy by supporting other female-owned businesses, employ a female workforce, and elect more women into positions of power such as state legislators, judges and senators. My team is strictly female, and I work with as many female entrepreneurs as possible — photographers, stylists, manufacturers etc. It’s imperative as a female entrepreneur to have our voices heard.

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?

Here are a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society or by the government to help empower more women as founders:

• Voting and electing women into power
• Providing appropriate funding
• Equal pay for women

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

Female founders bring a unique perspective. For example, shoes designed by women for women are 9 times out of 10 more comfortable. I test-fit every shoe that I design to make sure the fit and comfort will suit my customers’ needs. Unfortunately, some shoes designed by men are not designed with any input from women, so they are not incorporating women’s needs into the aspect of design. This can be applied to any industry that is designing and producing products for women without their input.

Many opportunities such as grants, programs, awards and networking are geared for women only. Many such initiatives and organizations exist to help support female founders to prepare them to become founders, nurture their businesses and receive the accolades they deserve.

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

Some of the “myths” that I would like to dispel about being a founder are as follows:

• You’re Born A Founder Rather Than Acquiring the Skills: It’s a discipline that you can learn, it’s not necessarily a skill-set that you are born with. Traits can be taught and even if you do not have the initial inclination towards being a founder, you can run a successful business and flourish with dedication, practice and hard work.
• You Don’t Need A Larger-Than-Life Ego: Results speak volumes rather than a BIG personality. A lot of founders can actually be quite shy, but they still have successful companies. Shy entrepreneurs have a big advantage over their extroverted counterparts, they almost never over-talk or over-share. Some of the most famous and successful founders are introverts. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are two that come to top of mind. Please don’t let these myths, or any myth get in the way of owning your own business. There is no magic or perfect way! Follow your dream and you will rise to the top.

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

Not everyone is founder material. There are many traits that will increase your chances to be a successful founder. I believe these are amongst the most important, in no particular order: Honesty, integrity, passion, strong-willed but flexible at the same time, determination, strong leadership and communication skills, resilience, persistence, confidence, being a good listener, compassion and empathy.

If you do not feel comfortable in a leadership role, you may be better suited working for someone else. By this I mean that when you are a successful founder, you need to be a leader in all aspects of your company. It’s not easy to run your own business when obstacles crop up along the way, it takes a lot of leadership skills, grit and determination!

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.)

5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started and WHY? Share story or example of each:

1. It’s nearly impossible to switch off. I practically work 7-days a week, and it’s nearly impossible to take a full day off. The only time I do is when I go away; but even then, I still check my emails daily for any urgent matters. I am fortunate though, that thanks to my brilliant team, I do fly off to Europe and faraway places as much as I can, we all need to refresh.
2. It’s OK to say NO! When I first opened my business, I would say YES a lot more but it’s simply not the case any more. I feel comfortable saying NO and I’m still able to garner respect at the same time. I’ve always received quite a few requests to loan shoes for fashion shows to be worn on the runway. I learnt the hard way when shoes were returned damaged, and to be honest I did not see a benefit in featuring the shoes on the runway. I now only loan shoes for select fashion shows but mostly photo shoots with people that I trust. By facing uncomfortable situations head-on, I’m able to move forward and run my business more smoothly.
3. Making Big Decisions Solo Is The Hardest Thing! In the early days when I ran my business solo, I was making all the tough decisions on my own. There’s nothing worse than oscillating between the pros and cons to come to the right decision. There’s an element of fear associated but in the long run, I believe that as long as you learn from your mistakes then it’s OK. We’re only human after all. A story I would like to share with you is that I have a mantra which has really helped me with the toughest decisions. My mantra is simply “Sleep On It” and it’s amazing how I look at an issue with a fresh pair of eyes the next day, and 90% of the time, I feel good about my decisions!
4. You’re Starting a Business During a Recession? Little did I know that when I opened my boutique in April 2007 that we were leading into a recession. It wasn’t officially announced until December but five months after opening I could feel the economic decline and see that customers were cutting back on their shoe purchases. Initially, I sold very high-end International designer shoes, and as a new business, I had to research and look for fashionable shoes that were still high quality but at a lower price point. This was a hard decision to make but this is what saved my business!
5. Age Appropriate? I started my business at the age of 48 as a divorced single mother, which was the best time for me to venture out on my own. It’s quite symbolic that just by sheer chance, I signed the lease on my son’s 18th birthday. My business was my new baby. I always tell women, especially women in their 50’s that it’s never too late to follow your dream. You never want to tell yourself that it’s too late to start a business or change careers!

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

I’ve used my success by giving back. I’m very involved in my local community and business district, as well as volunteering my time on several boards and I have a mentoring program for students.

I’ve listed some of my contributions below:

Recent Chair of the SSHD Business Improvement District:

My tenure ended in December 2021. The goal of the South Street Headhouse District (SSHD) in Philadelphia is to provide a safer, cleaner, well-managed business district for the benefit of the entire community. Through constant improvement, the aim to build an engaging and enticing place to work, visit, shop, invest, and live.

Taskforce Member of The Philadelphia Fashion and Garment Industry Task Force: A resource to help the community of new emerging fashion designers and boutique owners in Philadelphia obtain grants and up-to-date information about seminars and resources to help support their business.

Advisory Board member of The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator: The Philadelphia Fashion Incubator’s mission is to nurture emerging fashion entrepreneurs from Philadelphia design schools and the local fashion community.

By connecting them to the global fashion network and encouraging them to expand and retain their businesses in Philadelphia, the Incubator contributes to the region’s economic development.

I am also involved in a mentoring student program. Each year I hire 1–2 high school and university students as interns to teach them the necessary tools they’ll need to establish their careers in the design or fashion industry.

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 that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, I would start a Shoe Academy. Apprentices can learn (free of charge) the dying artisanal art of hand-making shoes to be taught by Italian shoemakers. There are very few shoemakers and factories in the United States, which is so very sad. A component of the Shoe Academy would be a recycling program. Gently worn shoes will be donated and passed along to those who are less fortunate. There is so much waste in the fashion industry, so it’s the least I can do to recycle the shoes, and to avoid so many shoes ending up in landfills.

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

I would love to have afternoon tea with Michelle Obama. She truly is an inspiration, and such a role model for women. She’s a passionate advocate for women and girls not only in the U.S. but worldwide in areas of poverty awareness, education, and nutrition. Her accomplishment of being the first African American women to serve as First Lady is historic. I also love her support for American fashion designers, she’s not afraid to step-out-of-the-box in her true iconic style to represent lesser-known fashion designers.

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

Female Founders: Elena Brennan Of BUS STOP Boutique 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

Limit social media. Social Media can be very harmful to a developing brain and vulnerable mind. There is a lot of faulty information on social media and the risks around cyber bullying are only getting worse. The fast pace of social media has been demonstrated to shorten attention spans, interfere with concentration and focus and has also been shown to be highly addictive. It’s very distracting and we are seeing a decline to learning and mental health as a result of this, what seems to me to be a, bane on society.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Brandon Santan.

Dr. Santan is a licensed and triple board-certified professional mental health and relationship counselor focusing on holistic mental wellness and specializing in addiction recovery, anxiety issues, stress & burnout, spiritual wellness, HSP, financial wellness and romantic relationships. He has over 16 years of experience in the industry and has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Dr. Santan now owns a flourishing private practice in Chattanooga, TN called Thrivepoint and enjoys helping people heal and thrive. You can visit Dr. Santan online at: https://drbrandonsantan.com

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

My name is Brandon Santan. I started in the medical industry as a Certified Athletic Trainer (ACT) after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and sports medicine. I always struggled with anxiety and after college I got some help with that and I had such a good experience I decided to pivot my career to mental health. I earned a Master’s and a PhD in counseling and have been working in the field since about 2005 when I started my practicum and internship. I’m currently a licensed and triple board-certified mental health counselor. I own a private practice in Chattanooga TN. I enjoy helping people with all kinds of mental health issues and specialize in addiction recovery, anxiety issues, stress & burnout, HSP, spiritual wellness, financial wellness, holistic wellness and romantic relationships. I’m also a Certified Health Coach.

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

The hospital, where I worked for almost 8 years after my graduate program, evaluated certain patients for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as part of their treatment plan. ECT is a series of treatments that take place over the course of 2–4 weeks. If a patient was a good candidate for ECT, the doctors would order the treatment and we would send the patient to the surgery center for the first treatment or two. After each treatment, the patient would return to our facility so that we could monitor their progress and watch for any side effects. If they seemed to be responding well, we would discharge them and the patient would then follow up with more ECT on their own to complete the series of ECT treatments based on their treatment plan.

I remember one particular week when the staff were getting our assignments in the morning, I ended up with an extra patient by mistake. If there were an odd number of patients, we would rotate taking on an extra case. This particular week wasn’t supposed to be my turn, but I was assigned the case by mistake, so I decided to just roll with it because we were short staffed and I wanted to be a team player. It turned out that this patient was referred for ECT treatments and I was able to accompany them to one of their ECT appointments. I followed the patient throughout the procedure including in the therapy room during the treatment and in post anesthesia care.

In school we learned about ECT and the history of this treatment modality, but it’s really difficult to conceptualize. This mistake and experience gave me tremendous insight into these types of therapeutic modalities and into the many different aspects of the treatment process. I was able to better understand the very complex yet well-orchestrated dance in which the patient is receiving treatment. The providers at the ECT treatment facility spent time explaining to me how the procedure works and what is happening inside the brain. That experience has been invaluable for my knowledge and understanding of patient care and treatment.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

When I was first working at one of the local hospitals to get some experience, before my starting my master’s program, we used a paging system that used physical pagers. This system worked great, but when I first started working there, I had never used a pager before. I didn’t realize it, one day, but the sound was on instead of the vibration. I was walking down the hall towards the nurse’s station and my pager started beeping, but I didn’t know what it was. There was a slight echo in the hallway, so the beeping sounded like it was coming from patient’s rooms and following me as I walked down the hall. I couldn’t figure out where the beeping noise was coming from. As I approached the nurse’s station to alert them that there was a beeping noise that was following me down the hall, everyone was looking at me like I had three eyes. About the time I reached the Nurse’s Station I heard someone say: “Turn off your pager!!!” I finally realized what that beeping noise was that was following me down the hallway, but it was too late. Everyone was annoyed at me for letting my pager beep longer than expected. Needless to say, I was quite embarrassed. I’m glad I’m able to think back on that now with a smile.

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 grew up in a very close community. I wouldn’t say it was any one person, but a community of people including my family who supported me and helped me along the way. I had a few really good counselors and mentors who encouraged me to use my experiences to help others. Most recently I would say my wife has been the most engaged in my support and encouragement to pursue my ambitions.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

Prioritize self-care and boundaries. As with all helping professions, therapists need to be extremely careful to not get overwhelmed by all the people who need their help. It’s critical for us to have strict boundaries around office hours, returning calls and messages, setting appointments and our own self-care strategies. Strive for balance and don’t let anyone dissuade you from your priorities.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

I would say, again, that balance is key. We are seeing excellent benefits for work performance and stress reduction in organizations that promote and support flexible work/life balance for its employees. We all know that life can throw us a curve ball sometimes and even when there is no curve ball, we can just get busy with life tasks. Knowing that an organization will be flexible and provide support for us to tend to life issues, increases employee morale and, as such, benefits the entire culture of the organization.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.

I love the idea of “mental wellness”. I agree 100% that mental health falls on a huge spectrum and I’m eternally grateful to Authority Magazine for working to bring this to public awareness. We need more awareness, and our society is long overdue for a reduced social stigma around mental health challenges. I’m so thankful for this opportunity to participate in this interview and I hope that what I share will be beneficial to many.

I’d like to start by providing a proper definition of “Mental Wellness”. The term “Mental Wellness” provides, what we would consider, a wellness narrative around mental health. Rather than thinking of it in a binary healthy or not healthy, we can consider mental wellness in much the same way that we would consider physical wellness. This is the narrative that says: “I’m not as well as I would like to be so I will be improving my mental wellbeing.” Of course, the brain can become diseased so some mental illness is physical illness but when it comes to the brain, brain health will often define mental health and vice versa.

There are so many things that can improve and/or optimize our mental wellness, but since we are talking about “wellness” here, which I equate with a holistic framework or model of health, I will stick to that theme for my list.

With that in mind, here are 5 steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness.

1. Assess your micronutrient levels. See a nutritionist or ask your doctor to check key nutrients that are important to mental wellness such as Vitamin D, Folate and Vitamin B12. During my graduate program I had a professor who turned his nose up at the idea of using supplements saying that, in the US we get all our nutrients from our diet and supplementing only serves to make you have expensive urine. In hindsight, that was a very irresponsible message to send young clinicians. What I would come to realize later is that roughly half of the population have genetic mutations or morphisms on key vitamin and nutrient receptors for mental wellbeing such as the Vitamin D, Folate and B12 receptors. These genetic mutations cause deficiencies and make it difficult for the body to keep those nutrients at optimal levels. These genetic anomalies also often prevent people from metabolizing synthetic vitamins which are put into our foods during the refining and enrichment processes. Add to that being indoors longer and more often which preventing us from getting the amount of sun exposure we need for healthy Vitamin D levels. When I was working at the hospital, the psychiatrists gave everyone Vitamin D and Vitamin B12 supplements indiscriminately. These are nutrients that are vital to mental wellness. If your doctor says that your vitamin levels are within the normal range, ask about, what’s called, subclinical deficiencies for you individually. This would be a deficiency based on your genetic data rather than the textbook clinical range. Some people’s test results fall within the clinical range, but would be considered abnormal for the individual who has a certain genetic profile. If your doctor recommends supplementation, look for high quality supplements that are natural (L-Methylfolate, for example, is a good option for folate supplementation NOT Folic Acid which is the synthetic form of folate), bioavailable and liposomal. As an example, consider that, in the US, the FDA recommends 500 IU of Vitamin D daily. According to research, we get roughly 10,000 IU from the sun on a sunny summer afternoon spent outside. The FDA is severely under recommending Vitamin D and it seems to be having quite an impact on mental wellness. ALWAYS check with your medical doctor before using any supplements, but this could be huge for many people in improving and/or optimizing their mental wellness.
2. Exercise. As many already know, exercise is crucial to physical health especially as we age. The brain is a physical organ and as such, benefits also from physical exercise. Increased blood flow, better physical efficiency and higher oxygen levels all have tremendous benefits for our brain health as well as our mental wellness. Researchers have discovered that, for some people, exercise is just as beneficial as an anti-depressant in healing depression. It may even be more beneficial in certain instances since exercise increases overall health. Again, check with your medical doctor to make sure exercise is appropriate for you and what type of exercise you should do, but please consider being more active in some way. It’s tremendously helpful for our mental wellbeing.
3. Find a provider that will image your brain. I echo the sentiment of Dr. Daniel Amen. Dr. Amen is a prominent psychiatrist based in the US in the state of CA and a pioneer in brain imaging. He shares his concerns about the prescribing providers in our industry for being the only healthcare providers who treat a part of the body they don’t regularly image. Think about it for a minute. If you have an irregular heart beat and see a cardiologist, that doctor will to an ECG and an ultrasound. If you have joint pain the orthopedist will do an x-ray and a CAT scan and maybe even an MRI if it’s soft tissue related. But when have you ever heard of a psychiatrist doing a brain scan before prescribing a treatment protocol for a mental health disorder? It hardly ever happens. Dr. Amen has established clinics throughout the US now and one of the first things his clinicians do is perform a SPECT scan of the brain. This helps the providers see which parts of the brain have diminished blood flow and activity so that they can implement the proper treatment protocols including more precise prescription medications and the correct supplements.
4. Consider additional and alternative treatments. The number of alternative treatments are growing. Each year we get closer to perfecting many different treatment protocols that serve to supplement medications and therapy. These alternative treatments include: biofeedback, EMDR, hypnosis, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation (CES), Virtual Reality (VR), psychophysiological coherence training and vagus nerve stimulation are all examples of supplemental and alternative treatments for mental wellness. These alternative and supplemental treatments are among the top contenders for mental wellness promotion. A psychiatrist, where I practice in the Chattanooga, TN area, who’s name is Tim Jennings, MD, treats patients with a combination of medications and TMS. I’ve spoken with him several times about this treatment protocol and it seems to have a higher than average success rate. TMS is even FDA approved to treat depression. So don’t discount alternative type treatments. You may end up finding something that works well for you.
5. Consider medication. I know this suggestion may seem antithetical to a theme of holistic mental wellness, but I’ve lost count of the number of patients I’ve worked with who are hesitant to take medications but do so later and wish they had started medications sooner. Taking medications doesn’t mean you will have to take them for the rest of your life. I like to explain to patients that medications are like a life preserver when you are stranded in water. It helps you keep your head above water during rough times and once you ‘learn to swim’ in therapy (i.e., develop strong, healthy coping skills) or get out of the water (i.e., enter into a remission or heal), you can take off the life preserver. With your prescribing provider’s help, you will be able to wean off medications and continue to grow and change in therapy and life. Finally, in considering medications, it’s best to find a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner to discuss medications for mental health. Many PCPs will have limited knowledge of the broad scope of medications or they have a few they like to prescribe for everyone based on what works for the majority of their patients. Psychiatrists are MDs or nurse practitioners with specialized training in the prescription and management of psychiatric medications. They have a broad knowledge of the various kinds and formulations of these types of medications and can often find one that works for you much more quickly. In addition, talk to your psychiatrist about genetic testing. There is a genetic profiling test called GenoMind and the results will include a list of medications that are likely to work well with your genetic profile. This makes targeting the right medication(s) much easier and more efficient. There has been a lot of success with this method of medication evaluation.

How about teens and pre teens. Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?

I have to admit that I don’t work with teens and pre-teens. As a clinician I only work with adults so I’m far from an expert on what teens and pre-teens need to optimize their mental wellness, but here are a few ideas based on discussions with colleagues, recent research and personal studies on treatment protocols for this age group.

1. Limit social media. Social Media can be very harmful to a developing brain and vulnerable mind. There is a lot of faulty information on social media and the risks around cyber bullying are only getting worse. The fast pace of social media has been demonstrated to shorten attention spans, interfere with concentration and focus and has also been shown to be highly addictive. It’s very distracting and we are seeing a decline to learning and mental health as a result of this, what seems to me to be a, bane on society.
2. Turn off screens. Digital information reigns supreme currently. Kids are in front of computers and screens even for in person learning as they do activities online and watch videos for learning. Our brains aren’t currently capable of such exclusive digital consumption. We’ve seen a decline in standardized testing scores and my theory is that it’s due, in part by, movements towards digital learning. Turning off screens and engage in real-world activities, including reading physical books, can be tremendously beneficial to the mental wellness of this age group.
3. Be active. I don’t think it is a surprise to anyone that a sedentary lifestyle is responsible for many health issues. Physical activity is extremely important for this age group and their developing minds. Music, athletics and other extra-curricular activities give balance and help the developing mind thrive.
4. Develop healthy relationships. Teens and pre-teens are extremely vulnerable to peer pressure, bullying and the influence of what others think of them. Developing healthy relationships that are affirming, validating, kind, supportive and considerate, is vital to the mental wellbeing of this age group. I encourage teens and pre-teens to find a mentor and develop a strong support network with family, friends and community leaders that are trustworthy and have their best interests at heart.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

Yes! Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel Amen, MD. Dr. Amen is a fantastic provider who has a holistic approach to mental health. He’s based in CA, but has developed brain scanning techniques to actually image the brain and learn about physical issues related to mental health disorders. He has several clinics around the country. He’s somewhat of a disruptor so he’s not very popular in my industry, but I pay close attention to disruptors because I believe that’s how change happens. In this book, Dr. Amen talks about the Cognitive, Behavior Therapy (CBT) techniques that are backed by a plethora of research. He also discusses actual physical brain health and the importance of supplementation and natural remedies for mental wellness. I remember distinctly listening to the audiobook version of this book and I couldn’t stop listening. It was like he was speaking right to my heart. I’m now currently in his program for providers who want to learn more specialized and specific techniques for mental wellness. This man is brilliant and if my colleagues, who are skeptical, would just take a moment to understand his research, I have little doubt that they would be amazed.

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

I don’t know that I would consider myself inspiring this movement as it’s already underway, but I would love to be more involved in the holistic and natural wellness side of mental health treatment. Research shows a strong link between diet, exercise and other healthy lifestyle behaviors to mental wellbeing. Natural and alternative treatments do help improve outcomes to traditional mental health treatments already so why aren’t we doing more of them? There are many ways to inspire more of a movement here such as: change in schools around lunch menus and exercise activities for school aged children, educate young medical doctors and therapists on the relevant research related to natural and alternative treatments, encourage researchers to focus more on natural and holistic remedies, speaking out against and creating change around marketing information such as outlawing direct to consumer pharmaceutical marketing, creating change around access to natural and holistic treatment options including requiring them to be covered by insurance providers are all ways that society can effect change on this front.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“Success is the sum of small efforts — repeated day-in and day-out.” — Robert Collier

Many people get overwhelmed at the thought of making change. Even suggestions in this article can seem overwhelming to many. Breaking down your goals into very small, bite sized pieces will help you maintain consistent growth and change. You don’t have to make giant leaps all the time, if at all. You can make small efforts that will add up to big results. Think of it as a marathon not a sprint. I try my best to instill this in every patient I meet. I also try to apply it to my own life also.

As an example from my life, we, unfortunately, had an issue in the crawlspace of our house and we needed to do some renovations as a result. I took on a lot of the work myself to try and keep costs down. It was a huge and stressful and overwhelming undertaking. I got through it, though, with the principle from this quote. I just did a little bit at a time and reminded myself that those small efforts each day will add up and they did. I repeated this quote in my head every day to help me stay motivated.

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

Readers should visit my website at https://drbrandonsantan.com where I will keep visitors up to date with my social media and practice changes. I can also be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drbrandonsantan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.brandon.santan/ and YouTube: https://drbrandonsantan.com/youtube-bitesizementalhealth

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Dr Brandon Santan: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness 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

Take control of your real estate! We definitely live in an era of over consumption, people see something and want it. But do they need it? Do they have the space for it? Assign a space (a basket, a drawer, a cabinet, etc.) for your items and stick to it! Respect your space by not stuffing it with “stuff”.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Kuperus.

Katie Kuperus, of Katie Rose Inspired, is a 15-year math teacher who has always had a passion for design and organization. After starting as a small side hobby in December of 2019, Katie Rose Inspired has grown and developed into a blossoming full time career! You can follow Katie’s home design and organizational projects through Instagram or Facebook (@KatieRose_Inspired).

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

Thank you for allowing me to share my story with your readers! Unlike many local designers, I did not ever imagine this field for myself growing up. I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a teacher. In middle school, I knew I loved math and would love to do it someday. I started teaching at a local Bergen County Jr/Sr High School in 2007 at the age of 22, and have been teaching middle school math and personal finance there ever since.

As an adult, I have grown more and more in love with interior design and watched every home decorating show you can name (in fact, my family knick-named me KGTV because all I watched was HGTV!). When my husband and I bought our first home, it was a fixer upper for sure! I got to plan and design the renovations and design of each room. We got so many compliments on how I decorated our home over the years, and my friends would ask me to come help them decorate their homes. Fast forward to 2019 when my brother-in-law asked me to redecorate their master bedroom as a surprise for my sister. I excitedly agreed and started my first online project of Katie Rose Inspired. I thought… let’s see where this leads! Since then, I have gotten to redesign living rooms, master bedrooms, bathrooms, basement play areas, kitchens, etc. I’ve also helped families organize their homes, pantries, closets, and kitchens so that they take back their precious real estate and take control over their “stuff”.

This June I will be resigning from my position as a teacher and will be pursuing my career in this field!

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

I think the coolest part of this journey has been the growth of a career via social media! My Instagram account allowed friends and family to watch room transformations, organizational projects, and tips and tricks online. The account has grown organically over the last year and a half, and it has allowed me to showcase my skills to people I would never normally be able to connect with. How cool is it that we live in a time in history where we can now create and grow a business via social media? That, by far, has been the coolest story in this whole process!

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?

It’s not so much funny as it is just a silly mistake, but in one of my first jobs, I didn’t read the full description of a long curtain rod for a front living room window, and didn’t realize it was way too short for the window. My husband and I got creative and DIY-ed our own extra long curtain rod by combining rods and brackets and somehow it worked, but lesson learned!

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

I have a few different fun design projects going on right now, but I get most excited to do the organizational projects in people’s homes! I have a project coming up that will allow me to use my spacial sense to help a mom organize her pantry and stock shelving in a basement so that her and her family will have a smart system to stay organized for years to come! Think: the Home Edit of New Jersey 🙂

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

Something that has always helped me guide decisions is the phrase “do what brings you joy”. Teaching brought me so much joy & fufillment in my life for 15 years, and now more and more this new venture in my life gets me super excited. Seeing people’s faces when they see an organized kitchen, or a fresh new living room brings me so much joy that I know this is where I belong!

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?

Beyond any doubt, my husband is the person in my life who is my biggest cheerleader and support system. He has encouraged me every step of the way and has been the “Chip” to my “Joanna” story. There’s no way I’d be able to take a giant leap of faith in my life without his belief in me & my abilities.

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

1. Take control of your real estate! We definitely live in an era of over consumption, people see something and want it. But do they need it? Do they have the space for it? Assign a space (a basket, a drawer, a cabinet, etc.) for your items and stick to it! Respect your space by not stuffing it with “stuff”
2. Brighten up your home! Paint makes SUCH a huge difference in redecorating your spaces. It’s incredible how a light and bright paint color can transform a space so much.
3. Choose furniture and accents that you actually like, not just what “works”. Don’t buy stuff you don’t like!! Fill your home with pieces that bring you joy!
4. Beautiful furniture doesn’t have to be expensive– the edge I have with my clients is that I find high end looks for a budget. I love shopping Target, Overstock, Wayfair, and HomeGoods for beautiful decor on budgets!
5. Update your lighting. Whether it’s recessed lighting or a modern chandelier, updating your lighting can make a huge impact on how you feel in your home.

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

I would encourage people to live more simply. I don’t consider myself a minimalist, but tend to encourage people to think in this manner more. Our homes should be a place of peace and rest for our families. If our homes are filled with stuff we don’t need or furniture we don’t love, then are we coming home to a restful space, or is it creating more anxiety? And if the answer is anxiety, then allow me help create a space of rest and peace for you and your family.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

My biggest content source is my Instagram account @KatieRose_Inspired or friends can “Like” my Facebook page called Katie Rose Inspired.

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Another lifestyle tweak that I do almost every day is schedule as many of my Zoom meetings on the phone as possible. What this means is that instead of doing a Zoom video call, we do it over the phone which I know is kind of old school. What’s great about that is both of us can walk outside and be in the environment or, even better, take a walk.

As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Silcox, M.A., New York Times Bestselling Author of Happy, Healthy, Sexy, Ayurvedic Specialist, and the Founder of Shakti School.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?

I’d like to say that I got into wellness because of my own personal pain. I think many of us in the fitness and wellness industry get into the field because we have our own issues and want to feel better. Once we see that there are actions we can take to feel better, it’s just natural to become passionate about it and want to share that insight with others.

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

Although it may sound cheesy, the most interesting thing that has happened to me since I started my career has been watching the beautiful transformation that happens to people when they tap into their own deep reservoir of inner knowingness.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

I’ve made many mistakes in my career path and I still do! I honestly can’t think of anything super funny, but most of my mistakes have occurred from being naive to the complexities of other peoples’ experiences. Today, I try to approach every person with the humility of truly not knowing what they’ve gone through, or who they really are beyond the superficial things we see upon first glance.

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

I think of my unique contribution to the world of wellness as twofold: First, I see myself as a translator of the ancient wisdom of health and wellbeing for modern women. I am kind of like a Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City but for preventative health and spirituality. I love taking old school texts and making them digestible and relevant to regular people like me.

Secondly, I feel that a big part of my unique offering is bringing forward a renewed appreciation for the way in which the feminine aspect in all of us, men and women, is longing to be experienced through health and wellness. In every realm, whether it be fitness, mindfulness, nutrition, or biohacking, we need the lost feminine… And the feminine has nothing to do with being sweet or wearing dresses and makeup. The feminine is about understanding the greater matrix or field in which we are all existing. It is the opposite of isolation. It is intuitive, feels deeply, and is interconnected. And we need this faculty to coexist beside our logic, reason, and individuality (which are also important!).

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 along the way, but I’m a big fan of having teachers and mentors in life. I think one of my favorite stories is working with a mentor who really encouraged me to actually get real about feeling my feelings rather than pushing my anger into sadness or shutting down my stress and worry. She really encouraged me to stay with my anger and let it be there without judgment. What I was able to see through that is how much that force was actually just a deeply vibrant energy. I was then able to channel that into great creative pursuits. It gave me the confidence to be able to encourage other people to do the same.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

Your question reminds me of a great teaching from Shankaracharya. He says (more or less) that sometimes “I know what I should do and I don’t do it. And other times I know what I shouldn’t do, and I do do it.”

I think it speaks to a deeper truth about our mind. We think that we know what’s going on in our conscious thought processes, but so much of our emotions, behaviors and perspectives on reality are coming from the subconscious.

We may know it’s important to eat vegetables, less sugar, and to exercise but there are all of these other unseen forces pulling us in different directions.

The single most important blockage for all of us lies in the aspects of our mind that are under the surface. The famed psychologist Jung stated that 99% of this shadow realm, or the unconscious, is pure gold if we know how to work with it.

In fact, one of my favorite definitions of the word yoga is not about stretching, it’s about making the unconscious realm more conscious. We can do that through things like mindfulness, meditation, energy work, or working with a trusted therapist or teacher.

Another blockage is just the momentum of our past bad habits. If we can move towards new habits, it takes about 40 days for those to really wire into our neurology. It gets easier if we can just get through the first two or three days of bad habits.

The last thing I would suggest is to really investigate what our bad habits are and how they are serving us. So, how is it benefiting you to overeat sugar? It may seem counterintuitive, but what we will typically find is that we are overeating sugar because we have a lack of sweetness somewhere else in our daily life. We are overeating fat because we don’t feel stable, grounded, and supported. We may even be over drinking wheatgrass because we aren’t comfortable being on the planet and we want to indulge in the tastes that are reducing to our tissues. Yes, the bitter taste reduces us!

This is one of the reasons that I created our yearlong Ayurveda school because we really do need time to dive deeply into how our habits are actually coming from an untouched “gold” source.

Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional, and physical health.)

I think the first one is the one I just wrote about. Look at the way that your bad habits are serving you. Ask how it’s beneficial to you and then perhaps give yourself something that would take the place of that. For example, if you’re eating a gallon of ice cream at night, maybe replace that with a date almond shake or a nice massage from your beloved.

Another great non-intuitive lifestyle tweak is to stop doing anything. Yes, that’s right. One of the best things I can do during my day is just lay my body down on the floor, or outside on the ground, and try to meditate from a place of just not doing and not trying. Miraculously in this place of laying down on the ground, relaxing, and not doing, a new state will emerge. From that state I have found endless inspiration, creativity, visions, and insight that I could never get if I was just plowing through a to do list or a healthy habit to do list.

One of my favorite mental health hacks is called orientation. It’s so easy for me to get caught up in the whirlwind of my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I just have to stop and go outside and really move into a different part of my mind. This is the part that is sensorial. I feel the wind on my skin as a meditation. I look around and notice the colors of the trees as a visual meditation. I can see how far my body is from the tree beside me. This helps the animal brain orient itself to the environment. When our animal brain feels deeply oriented to the environment through observing it, it begins to sense that it’s safe and this can dramatically reduce anxiety. You can also do this in the tactile realm. Whether indoors or out, you can let your hand rub something really soft and pleasurable. Let the sense of the tactile be the object of the meditation. You can also listen to sounds. Notice the chirping of the birds or the airplane flying overhead. Using the five senses to orient the body may seem counterintuitive, but it can instantly bring us into a more balanced nervous system state.

Another non-intuitive tweak for many of us is to just make sure to eat something home cooked that is warm, wet, and grounding every day. For so many of us, we see images on Instagram where healthy food is most often raw. Yes, Salads and smoothies are really good for you. A lot of the women I know, and some men, who actually take a moment to eat a nourishing, grounding bone broth stew with carrots, sweet potatoes, and maybe a little bit of meat can help settle her into her body. This in turn will down regulate the nervous system and help us to de-stress.

Another lifestyle tweak that I do almost every day is schedule as many of my Zoom meetings on the phone as possible. What this means is that instead of doing a Zoom video call, we do it over the phone which I know is kind of old school. What’s great about that is both of us can walk outside and be in the environment or, even better, take a walk.

One of the best things you can do for your health is to just not sit around in front of a computer all day. In fact, something as little as 90 minutes of sitting can dramatically alter your body’s ability to pump the lymphatic fluid and blood through your body. Take as many opportunities as possible throughout the day to get up and stretch. Take some miniature walks or stand and type. This has been a big game changer for me. I typically take anywhere from 10–13,000 steps a day. You may want to use something like an Oura ring, or other fitness tracker initially but over time it will become intuitive not to sit down as much. Of course, I know there are times throughout the day where we have to be seated in front of our computer.

Emotionally, I think the most important non intuitive hack is that we really need to learn how to digest and alchemize our emotions. Most of us are really good at either repressing and numbing out our emotions, denying them of their power and what they need, which is the flow. Or we just blow them out on everyone else. Neither of these two methodologies helps us actually digest our emotional experience. In order to digest an emotion fully and prevent ourselves from keeping a ton of emotional residue inside of our body, we have to actually sit with it. Be with it. Bring loving kindness to it but not identify ourselves or merge into it. It’s a tricky process. But it really helps us liberate ourselves from our old belief systems and emotional habits.

As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?

Numerous studies show that exercise not only boosts our mood but increases our body’s ability to produce feel good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. For men, it has also been shown to increase testosterone. Exercise can also increase endorphins and oxytocin, the feel good chemicals that make us want to bond and feel close to others period. It also just brings more confidence when you feel strong and supple!

For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?

The three exercises that I recommend that are absolutely critical are walking, weightlifting, and yoga. And if I may be so bold — I would add in dance as well, especially for women. Walking is critical because it’s something that we have being doing as homosapiens for thousands of years. Our body is really good at it and needs to be doing it regularly for the correct functioning of all of our organ systems.

Weightlifting is super important as well, especially as we age and especially for women who have any history of bone density loss. Yoga is great to keep things supple and to downregulate the nervous system. I add dance to that because I think it’s important to move in a snake-like fashion along the horizontal plane and things like hula, salsa and belly dancing can get you there. But you don’t need to be technical about it — just put on some music that you love and start to shake your hips. This is super helpful for the whole pelvic bowl for women. But men can do it as well!

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

There have been so many books that I have fallen in love in my life, but I often laugh that my desert island book is a very obscure book by a somewhat unknown teacher named Michael Brown. The book is called “The Presence Process” and walks you through a simple way you can learn how to meditate that is incredibly effective at helping process old emotions and belief systems and lead you to the realm of the spiritual.

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

I don’t know if I’m a person of enormous influence, but I do feel that we have already started a movement. Our movement is one whereby women can feel safe to step into their power as both creative and flawed beings. It is one whereby they can tap into the enormous reservoir of their intuition and life-giving energy. Hopefully we will be adding men into the fold of our offerings in the future, as I think it’s vital that we re-stitch our sacred relationships.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

I don’t really have a favorite quote, but I do have a favorite poem that comes to me when I am truly down:

The Guest House

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī

Translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

I love this because this really speaks to the story of my life. This whole life is a practice of being able to grow the field of your awareness and love so big that it can encompass every single aspect of you. Not just the good, sexy, healthy and the fit. But the broken, flawed and confused and angry and sad — to be able to hold all of this without becoming ever more identified with any of it. That’s a tall order!

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

What a great question! If I could have breakfast with anyone at this moment — Well, I’m really digging the work of Johann Hari. He just wrote a book called Stolen Focus. I think he has put his finger on one of the most important issues of our time and the very real collective and individual suffering that comes from it. And I would love to know how he personally has continued to navigate the treacherous waters between being a social-technological presence and a living breathing human being in the sensorium of actual life period.

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

The best way our readers can follow you online is www.theshaktischool.com and our Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/katiesilcox_shaktischool/?hl=en

I would also love to invite anyone interested in our online program to check out:

https://theshaktischool.com/ayurveda-school/

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Author Katie Silcox: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Donna Cryer of Global Liver Institute On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Slow down. I work fast. It is both a natural trait and an artifact of my less stable patient days when I was unsure of my energy or health sustaining over hours or days. Slowing down — in my speech, in my work, in my assessment of others, in my decision making — improves the quality and the appreciation I have of everything.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Donna R. Cryer, JD.

Donna is the Founder and CEO of Global Liver Institute, the premier liver health advocacy organization operating worldwide. Mrs. Cryer is an attorney who serves on the boards of organizations across health systems, medical societies, and governmental public-private partnerships. Mrs. Cryer is a 27-year (and counting) liver transplant recipient who resides in Washington, DC, with her husband and beloved Yorkies.

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

My best friend in elementary school was the school nurse, Nurse Dietl. I always had mysterious stomach pains. By 8th grade I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). A decade later that led to the removal of my colon to avoid imminent colon cancer and a liver transplant due to a rare autoimmune disease that affects a small percentage of people with IBD. Along the way I stayed number one in my class, graduating from Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center. It wasn’t until the 20th anniversary of my liver transplant that I decided to start Global Liver Institute. I recognized that other patients coming behind me did not have the same access to innovative therapies and care that saved my life, and I couldn’t let that stand.

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?

Every day is interesting when the scope of the challenge is so large — representing the interests of the one and a half billion people living with liver disease, wherever they reside. The moment that changed me forever was during our second Advanced Advocacy Academy (A3). One of the advocates told me and the group that participation in the first year had “expanded her vision of what she could become”. That took my breath away, that I could have created something that had such an effect on someone’s life and on the lives of everyone she would move forward to help.

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

The biggest mistake(s) that I have ever made are hiring too fast. In one instance someone who was a high performer at a mature company could not transition to a startup environment that required more multi-tasking and, frankly, more humility. He resented being asked to do something because he was “EVP”. I responded that I was the CEO and was standing in Kinkos while talking to him, so we should just refocus on getting the job done. I have hired because I wanted someone to quickly take on a huge set of tasks, so I could move to the next. I have hired while assuming that everyone has the same work ethic, or just ethics, that I do. I learned to measure twice, cut once, as the saying goes, to slow down, to ask more questions, and to involve more people with different perspectives in the process.

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?

Two million people die every year from liver disease. Upwards of 70% of those deaths are preventable. Global Liver Institute recently launched its Liver Health is Public Health Campaign to reach not only the 1.5 billion people who are already living with one of the more than 100 types of liver disease, but to reach their family and friends, and those who can make real change in the food, water, environment, and health systems to prevent, treat, and cure liver diseases. Everyone has a liver, so everyone is at possible risk for a liver disease.

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.

The exciting thing is that ways to improve your liver health also improve your heart, brain, skin, and overall health and wellbeing, since the liver is so central to energy, detoxification, hormone production and 500 different functions. My top five tips for liver health are:

1. Reduce sugar consumption. We have no sodas in the house and the cookie dough is in the bottom drawer of the fridge. If I really want a cookie, I have to preheat the oven, put 2 cookies on the sheet, and wait until they bake.
2. Squeeze in movement. To ensure that even on the busiest days I get some exercise, I have a pair of weights in my office. They come in colors to match any décor! Sometimes the camera is off during back-to-back zoom calls, and I do a 10 min set of arm exercises. Maintaining lean muscle mass is so important.
3. Water, water, everywhere. To help make sure that I drink water throughout the day to help the liver do its work as the body’s filter, I have filtered water pitchers on every level of the house and an array of water bottles for travel — my new favorite is flat instead of round so it fits more easily in my purse.
4. Eat the right fats. I rarely eat red meat and have at least two meals a week that feature salmon, tuna, or trout, fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids. The types of fat found in these fish (unsaturated) and in other aspects of a Mediterranean diet help lower the rate of fat accumulating in the liver and reduce inflammation.
5. Start drinking coffee. I have to admit this is a goal for me, as there is such a robust body of research supporting coffee as a liver protective beverage. I drink tea, which is also healthy –particularly green tea, which has substances (polyphenols, EGCG) that help prevent liver cancer.

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

I HAVE started a movement that will hopefully bring a significant amount of wellness to everyone — Liver Health is Public Health! Liver Health is Public Health is a global campaign launched in anticipation of National Public Health Week in 2022. It shines a spotlight on the facts that every person has a liver, that liver diseases can and do affect every type of person at any age, and that to reverse the rising rates of liver cancer and other conditions that are causing millions of deaths and lost vitality, we must use all the public health tools — data, education, advocacy — and engage a much broader segment of society in taking action.

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

1. Make a lot of money first. The early years of Global Liver Institute would have been so much easier if I had been able to self-invest. With such a deep and detailed understanding of both the initial set of problems and solutions in liver health advocacy, we have only been limited by the ability to hire people and establish infrastructure. It would have been worth spending a few years of practicing law at a firm or at a corporation before starting the nonprofit.
2. Learn to ask. Even if I had done number one, starting and scaling a nonprofit organization to meet a need as big and diverse as representing all patients with all liver conditions in all countries would still require an endless list of asks — for volunteers, for donors, for partnerships, and for changes in policy, business practices, or how medicine has always been done. I had to get over any preference for or delusions of self-sufficiency.
3. Learn to ask again. With a strong aversion to seeking help, it is worthwhile saying this twice. Insisting that others step up and take some of the weight is imperative for my own sustainability and that of the organization.
4. Do less, better. To clarify, to do fewer things and polish them to their highest level of quality. Which pairs well with number five.
5. Slow down. I work fast. It is both a natural trait and an artifact of my less stable patient days when I was unsure of my energy or health sustaining over hours or days. Slowing down — in my speech, in my work, in my assessment of others, in my decision making — improves the quality and the appreciation I have of everything.

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

I would say mental health because without the right mindset, none of the others are possible. Sad, mad, overwhelmed people do not choose long term solutions, but short-term fixes.

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

Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnacryer/

Twitter @dcpatient @globalliver

Instagram @dcpatient @globalliverinstitute

Peloton LB name DCpatient

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Donna Cryer of Global Liver Institute On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… 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

One is to believe in yourself. You’ve always had the power. It all depends on you. If you believe in yourself, I promise you, you will do it, you will get it, you will achieve your goal.

As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elisa Reyes.

Elisa Reyes first came to the United States from Honduras at 17 years old, and, despite a limited grasp of English, she was eager to continue her schooling and practice medicine, inspired by a lifesaving heart surgery she had as a child. Today, Elisa is working in reception at a breast clinic, plans to get a master’s degree, and she also serves as a Youth Leader at the Brave House, a nonprofit based in Brooklyn that provides services to young immigrant women and gender-expansive youth.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?

I am 25 years old and was born and raised in Honduras — when I was 17 years old, I immigrated here to the United States, looking for opportunity and looking for my family. That’s where everything started. I started a case with immigration soon after and then I started taking ESL classes in order to learn the language and get more familiar with it, since I didn’t know it previously. Months later, I decided to go to college and get my degree. Almost a year ago, I received my bachelor’s in psychology with a minor in human service. I’m really happy about that.

Now, I work in the reception desk at a breast center, which is a clinic that is part of the hospital. People who go there work with surgeons who specialize in breast cancer. I also serve as a Youth Leader at the Brave House, a local nonprofit that supports young immigrants with services like community events, legal advocacy, and English classes.

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

Yeah! I’m trying to go back to school and get my master’s degree. I haven’t decided in what yet, but I’m really thinking about being a social worker or marriage and family therapist. I’m on the path.

Helping others is a privilege for me. Helping others nourishes the soul with experiences, and the heart with happiness and satisfaction. Giving help to someone who needs it takes us moments that help us see life a little differently, helps us improve as a person and motivates us to grow. Helping others leads us to be a change not only in the life of the person we are helping, but also in the life of oneself and in the lives of the people around us as spectators. Since we can influence many lives and motivate others to lend a hand to those who need it with little or a lot. Being able to influence people’s lives in a positive way and with the sole purpose of providing them with support to get ahead is one of the reasons that motivates me to continue studying.

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?

The Brave House for me is as the name says, a home. A home where a group of young women find support for our needs, where our opinions are valid, accepted and valuable. The Brave House is a place where you can see the brilliance, strength and potential that you as a woman have. Where they help you to be the woman you want to be. Where they motivate you and help you along your way to find your dreams and goals. The Brave House is more than an organization, Brave House is a family.

Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?

Oh, there were so many times. One that I remember was when I decided to go to school to get my bachelor’s degree. Many people were saying a psychology degree was going to be really hard because English wasn’t my first language — it’s very competitive. There were so many naysayers, but I did it.

In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂

I did it, even though they told me it was impossible. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, and even though I haven’t gotten to where I want to go, I know that I have achieved a lot up until today. I keep trying, even though I hear so many “no”s, I keep trying. I think that word — ”no” — has pushed me to where I am right now.

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

First of all, I thank God, my mom, Fany Reyes, and my whole family for all the help and support they have given me to this day, and for the support they will continue to give me. I also thank Rotarian Gift of Life, because without their help I would not have had a second chance at life. And finally, a big thank-you to Careen Shannon, my lawyer. Without her help, I don’t think I would have made the decision to go to school, because when you are an immigrant in this country, you don’t have that many options, but when I first opened my case with immigration, she helped me a lot. She helped me to get my car at the time, she helped me with all my papers, and she provided me with a lot of important information. I always tell her that she’s more than my lawyer, she’s my friend. She was always there.

It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?

I had a really profound experience when I was seven or eight years old — I got a heart operation. Since then, I’ve felt like I was given a second opportunity at life. I always remembered this as I grew up. I made it my goal no matter what to make the most of it. It really built my resiliency.

I think it’s part of the reason I want to practice medicine. After I got that operation, I wanted to be a surgeon, but then as I got older and older, that dream changed a little bit. Now I want to be a therapist, because now that I’m older, I can see how my mom must have felt at that moment. She knew her daughter was in a bad situation and she didn’t know if I would survive or what would happen to me. It’s really good to have someone support you in those situations, not only with money, but just by staying with you.

Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)

One is to believe in yourself. You’ve always had the power. It all depends on you. If you believe in yourself, I promise you, you will do it, you will get it, you will achieve your goal.

The second is that you should always ask. Don’t be afraid. I used to be afraid because I didn’t speak English and was worried they wouldn’t understand me. There were so many times I was too scared to ask until I realized that asking is the best way to find an answer. I can do so many things I couldn’t do before I started asking. It’s always going to be a yes or a no, so just ask.

The third is that it takes little steps. At the beginning, the goal can seem so far away, but by taking little steps, you’ll get it. Start from the beginning, go little by little.

The fourth is to be disciplined. For me, discipline is one of the key tools that help us achieve our goals. Always give more than what is required. For example, if you go to an interview and it is not in a formal setting, still dress up as though you’re working with lawyers. Dreams come true if you work for them with dedication and focus.

The fifth is to overcome your fears. Fears are insecurities that hold us back from achieving our goals. Learn to overcome your fears little by little until you reach the other side, where your goals are waiting for you.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

There are two quotes I always carry with me. One is, in Spanish, “No tengas miedo de los sueños. Ten miedo de no completarlos.” In English, that’s “Don’t be scared of your dreams — be scared you won’t achieve them.”

Another is from ‘A Cinderella Story’, which I watched as a kid in Spanish, but there was a line that essentially said you shouldn’t be scared to make a mistake — ”Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game”. In Spanish, that’s “No por miedo a errar vas dejar de jugar”.

To me, these two phrases don’t mean you shouldn’t be scared of something or that you have to stop yourself from being scared. It’s more like you should be afraid not to get to where you want to be or where you want to go.

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.

Never stop dreaming, because dreams do come true. Help everyone you can because beautiful things always come back to you. Always trust in the capacity you have, that there is always hope to go far.

Can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow The Brave House on Instagram or Twitter @TheBraveHouse or visit our website thebravehouse.com!

Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!

Elisa Reyes: They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Sian Young & Dr Lowellyne James of Sustainable Action & SDG Assessment App

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Love. We love each other and even though sometimes we hit some major stress walls when things are so fast and we are creating such a magnified global change. What helps us is always bring it back to the love, stop, hug, let the stress go and know we are in it for the long run!

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sian Young & Dr Lowellyne James.

Sian Young is an International Speaker, TEDx Speaker and Co-Founded ©Center for Sustainable Action, co-creator the SDG — Assessment App and creator of ©SHaW Model for sustainable health & wellbeing both research driven tools for sustainable success in Life & Business.

Dr Lowellyne James is an academic, author and consultant with a vision to transform business culture towards building sustainably managed enterprises that create products and services without negative environmental impact e.g. greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), instilled with a social purpose and achieve profitability.

They believe in a world where businesses are sustainable and profitable where cooperation helps us excel in competition. Sian calls this the “interconnection” between planet and profit.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?

Sian Young: I took a long road to this career path but let me start in 2005 when I held hands with over 200,000 people in Edinburgh fighting for SDG number one and poverty. I marched in the streets and I tried so many different ways to create equality and environmental impact. Then I realized that marching and protesting wasn’t working and so my life took me on a long journey which you can find further details in my book Teenage Kicks available on Amazon. Long story short I became an entrepreneur and discovered the power of business to do great things and that’s what brought me to the career I have now as a sustainable life and business consultant.

Dr James: I’ve always had a love of science, in particular, organic chemistry and worked in a lab for an American company called Kraft Foods during that time the ISO 9001 standard had recently been published. My employer wanted to implement quality management systems as opposed to only batch testing, so I was assigned to lead the project.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?

(Dr James) What’s unique about us is that we actually have two wedding dates!

I was on vacation in Milan when I had to attend the registry in London for my wedding. My flight was cancelled I only just managed to get a last min flight that brought me from Milan straight to London, and then I had to take a taxi from the airport to the registry office. I showed up with my summer shorts on and my now wife Sian had to bring my suit and I changed in the men’s restroom and made it just in time, that was the official legal ceremony.

Secondly, we had a reception for friends and family where the our minister attended and we received the traditional Christian blessing and were married in our home in a sustainable wedding. So that is something that’s quite unique to our relationship that we have two Wedding Dates.

(Sian Young) For me the most interesting thing, since our marriage we have saved £21,000 in three years by having a sustainable wedding and living a sustainable life this has allowed us to invest in the R&D of our SGD assessment app.

Who knew you could save that much money living sustainably?

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?

(SY + DrJ) If you’re asking about the funniest mistake that we’ve made as a married couple it was when we had our first outing with a new baby girl and we gathered up our baby girl and left the house ready to enjoy a beautiful day out. We sat in the car we realised we forgotten nappies and a change of clothes, all the kit that a baby needs really and we had to go back home and get it! It was so funny we both looked at each other and said rookies!

What we learnt from that it’s just to have compassion with each other and understanding and to take a nappy bag when we go with the baby.

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

(SY + DrJ) I think one of the reasons that we stand out as a company Is how the idea evolved in 1991 I dreamt of a centre where humans would learn to love themselves and the environment. I woke up and drew a picture of my vision. Unbeknown to me in another part of the world in 2012 Dr James had a dream of a center for Sustainable business and wrote a business plan for it.

We met in 2016 and within The first six months of our relationship we had written a business plan for what is now the cooperative ©Centre for sustainable action.

©Centre for Sustainable action is unique in the sense that it’s a cooperative as well as a business. Well, a company registered in the UK can have that dual structure, which is considered a consortia business model which gives us a different perspective as opposed to other businesses. Even though we we had a profit making entity, there is a direct social purpose in that we are were focused on small to medium sized businesses and helping these businesses become more sustainable and not only sustainable but also economically viable. So that’s what is really unique about our structure, not withstanding that we are using technology to achieve our objectives.

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

(SY + DrJ)Well, we are working on the on an app. The app is currently a web based and Android app and is called ©SDG Assesment app. What the assessment does is that it provides a fun, low cost platform by which organisations could report sustainability and ESG performance particularly small businesses. So it’s designed for small businesses, with the intention to support the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goals. The app is available for desktop/laptops and Android devices, but soon we’ll have it on Apple devices providing a simplified format by which small to medium sized businesses could report sustainability performance on an annual basis. User performance will be reviewed and improvement appropriate advice provided by our team of consultant.

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

(Dr James) The focus should always be in the human side of the equation because human beings are the most important assets in any organisation. In order to retain and maintain that asset capability, it requires training, instruction supervision.

The greatest source of innovation, you could possibly get from your business is by investments in people.

(Sian Young) I would like to add to this to take care of your health, well-being and your family and put that as the new way of doing business because for you to lead you need to lead by doing. Teaching your team (employees) that it is ok for them to take care of their health in your business this will lead to greater retention and productivity.

How do you define “Leadership”?

(DrJames) Leader is any individual at any level of the organisation that is focused on continuous improvement. continuous improvement we define as recurrent activity to enhance performance. So leadership, basically, should be pointing individuals towards activities that enhance both personal and business performance.

(Sian Young) Again I must say that by leading with sustainable health and well-being at the core of leadership you will guide your community to take better care of themselves, each other and our planet so as a leader you have the power to create great change in this world. Remember to stay in a centered, humble and open place and by taking care of your wellness you can do this.

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?

(Dr James) Of course, you know, having good parents is is critical to anyone’s personal development, but addition to good parents, there’s good mentors. My PhD professor George Stonehouse also was instrumental in me developing sustainability research, completing my PhD and going on to author two books on this subject. So it’s good to have both good parents and as well as very strong focused mentors.

(Sian Young) When I came to answer this question I searched through my life and so many great people who have helped me get to where I am today. I want to share one person out of the many with you today it is HRH Princess Royal because if I was not given a scholarship to my first course as a wind surfing instructor and rescue diver life may never have sent me on the journey towards entrepreneurship. My first business was set up with the tools that I learnt fro m this course and scholarship.

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

(SY + DrJ) We pivoted ourselves during the pandemic, to create the ©Centre for Sustainable Action as we realised that the ©Centre for Sustainable Action could create massive change for people and the environment.

(Dr James) I have also had the great pleasure fo seeing many of my students achieve their career goals.

(Sian Young) I have supported thousands of women to greate sustainable health & wellbing in their lives and have felt amazing when I see the joy and confidence that is freely expressed in their lives after working together. I have also raised £10,000 with my first business and support a school build project in Tanzania with an amazing man called Pastor Frank.

(SY + DrJ)We are not stopping there, we are here to make this world a better place where equality and environmental stewardship are the new normal. No more need for International days of equality for anyone!

What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.

(Collaberative voice of SY + DrJ)

1: Love. We love each other and even though sometimes we hit some major stress walls when things are so fast and we are creating such a magnified global change. What helps us is always bring it back to the love, stop, hug, let the stress go and know we are in it for the long run!

2: Spiritual connection: We pray for each other, we both take the Sabbath off to give thanks for our blessings and we both have belief in a higher power?

3: Compassion and forgiveness: We are all learning One thing that I use in my relationship when things are stressful and Dr James may be doing something that I do not find entertaining or comfortable at all. I take a deep breath and in my head I say; I love you, I love you, I love you, where there is love there cannot be any anger and so then everything calms down in my mind and I bring in compassion because I see this man before me is just like me. The fact that we are always learning and we are always unlearning old patterns we have collected before we had even met, I then bring forgiveness into the moment and just as I said in tip number one bring it back to Love

4: Get Coaching and support: No man or woman is an island without the correct support team behind you as a leader or anyone who is aiming to be a leader you will not stay the course you need to constantly be developing. For instance I have a functional health coach a Chinese herbalist, a human Givens coach and business coaches and mentors on my team I also have a strong well-being and self care practise.That is how I am able to stay centred focused and achieve all my goals it also support the relationship because when something comes up in either me or Dr James that is an old pattern trying to fight for airtime because I’m well resourced as a human being I’m able to stay centred allowing me to support my partner to move through it and learn from it and as we said we have our faith as well.

5: Brake out a dance and take it back to love: You will notice here that I’ve taken it back to love again and a reason I do that it’s because we are all human beings living this experience and we must be compassionate towards each other and give each other space not to be perfect let’s say to be human. Dr James and I when we had a newborn baby and two businesses and a full time job to deal with came up with a little dance we would do every time we wanted to argue or all the stress was getting too much we would just break out into this little dance and we even made a little giff of it. That’s how we diffuse the situation, nothing is worth our relationship nothing is worth hurting each other or saying words that you may regret so in order to prevent that from happening we break out in dance and bring it back to Love.

You are people 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. 🙂

We have inspired that movement, the ©Centre for sustainable action is that movement “We believe in a world where businesses are sustainable and profitable where cooperation helps us excel in competition”

As every business owner is a human and has a family that they support and our environment needs a new way of doing business: FACTs

At ©Centre for sustainable action we know by changing the face of business into one that is equitable for our planet and us as humans we can change our world. By supporting and empowering the 98% of businesses that are small to medium, entrepreneurial run or micro businesses we indeed have created a movement that will bring about global change. Because we have built it using a co-operative (co-owned) business model the ownership of this change is powered by individuals cooperating because ©Cooperation makes business sustainable.

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

(Dr James) ‘You reap what you sow’ or Karma because it is that tied to principle that you want to do good things and good deeds. So that comes back to you.

(Sian Young) “When the student is ready the teacher will come” I live by this quote because it has shown up in my life every time I need to learn a something to equip me with the tools for the next step the perfect teacher arrives in my life you just have to have your eyes open ready to receive.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US 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 🙂

Akon!

(Sian Young) I know Akon does a lot of work around the world and many years ago when this journey started I knew I was going to open the centre and I used to listen to his music and Invision him opening the centre and having a celebration with us for the success of it.

I am openly inviting Akon to join us on 12th December 2022 at our Christmas fundraising Ball to celebrate with us, what we’ve achieved in nine months is phenomenal. I want to dance to Belly Dancer with him 😉

How can our readers follow your work online?

Sian Young: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sianyoung/

Dr James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowellynejames/

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

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Sian Young & Dr Lowellyne James of Sustainable Action &… 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

Educate yourself on the plant. People get really excited about entering a new market, but anyone who hopes to succeed in this industry needs to have a solid understanding of the cannabis plant itself and why we’re here in the first place. Once you’re a player in the industry, you become an advocate of a healing plant so the more you know about the plant itself, the better advocate you become.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kay Villamin of HUSH Chicago.

Small-business veteran Katherine “Kay” Villamin drives creative direction at HUSH Chicago, applying nearly two decades of marketing prowess with a commitment to help the regulated cannabis industry retain its culture while growing into a nationally recognized economic engine.

Her passion lies in serving minority business owners, startups and social equity operators in the cannabis industry. As an advocate and supporter of cannabis for more than 18 years, Kay entered the regulated cannabis market by providing photography services for a multistate operator. Seeing the gap between the regulated industry and legacy operators led her to co-create HUSH with Vanessa Valdovinos.

Before HUSH, Kay spent 15 years providing professional photography and creative marketing services. She launched her own wedding, event and portrait photography business in 2011 — quickly gaining recognition across multiple industries and diverse clients for event production, event marketing, media, business management, staff management, workflow automation and digital marketing.

Kay is a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association and serves on the State Regulations Committee. She also is a member of the Cannabis Equity Illinois Coalition, Albany Park Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

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

Cannabis has been a part of my life for over two decades now. I always say that it’s been my longest relationship and it has been with me throughout my entrepreneurial journey. I have spent most of my professional career in photography, and as a creative, this has been an integral part of my work. I eventually entered the regulated cannabis industry after many years of being behind the camera. I began photographing dispensaries, products, cultivation centers, and events for some of the top brands in the cannabis industry. The experience solidified my decision to build an agency that serves cannabis brands, with a focus on minority-owned brands and social equity operators.

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?

We started our company without showing our faces or letting the public know who was behind Hush. From our background in events, marketing, and hospitality, we were used to making magic happen behind the scenes. Interestingly, with the release of our branding and marketing tactics all the way up to our launch party, people assumed we were men. Regardless how feminine our imagery and language were to promote our brand, I think it is very interesting that it was assumed men were responsible for our work. I learned that there is a lack of gender parity and female representation in the cannabis community, and that because it is a male-dominated industry, a lot of credit automatically goes to men. We must change that.

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

I think the funniest and most repeated response was “You’re going to sell weed?!!! To this day, some of my friends and relatives still don’t know what I do in the industry, and when introduced to someone new, they tell them I know where the good weed is. And they’re not wrong.

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

I am very grateful for my friend, business partner, and co-founder, Vanessa Valdovinos. In our early 20s, we met on a plane to Italy in 2006. After just a few minutes of meeting, she told me that it was her first flight and that I needed to hold her hand. A little hesitant, I held her hand after ordering some wine from the flight attendant. Then we discovered that we were heading to the same summer program in Florence and, coincidentally, were going to live in the same apartment building over the summer.

We quickly bonded as solo travelers. Within one month, we traveled to 10 different Italian cities and experienced a life-changing adventure together. We explored art, shared music, made friends with strangers, took risks, and created memories that taught us valuable lessons. We didn’t know that those days spent together would lay the foundation of our friendship and partnership. Vanessa has supported me in every endeavor I’ve undertaken since then. In my early years as an entrepreneur, she has been an unwavering supporter, whether it was a party, a project, or a new business idea. She didn’t hesitate to join me in creating Hush. Vanessa has been by my side through all the ups and downs, laughs and tears, wins and losses, and I would not be where I am today without her. We are still holding hands 16 years later, and we are just getting started!

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

Having established Hush in Chicago, we are expanding to other cities. This fall, we will launch during the MJ Biz Con week in Las Vegas. We provide immersive experiences that celebrate the plant in a safe and sophisticated environment in addition to providing a platform for cannabis brands to engage with the community. The level of production and the way we execute our events with purpose and intention provide a much-needed experience for the cannabis industry. We provide education on the plant and its consumption, bridge the gap between the industry and the community, and change how we celebrate cannabis.

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?

This new and fast-growing industry presents a great opportunity for more women to enter and shape it. Women have a great opportunity to change the way businesses operate and collectively, we can work to shift company culture in a way that benefits everyone. Now is the time to recognize our power as consumers, as decision makers, and to truly believe that leadership is in our nature. There are many paths left to be carved in this industry, and we can pave them.

I believe that companies need to shift away from current practices or beliefs that perpetuate gender disparity in leadership roles, such as the perception that women cannot handle money or have business relationships with men. Several studies have found that women in leadership positions are more competitive than their peers, thus outperforming them. In addition, women purchase over 85% of all consumer goods and have the world’s highest purchasing power, so we know the market from both perspectives. Companies need to understand that placing women, and especially women of color, in leadership positions provides diverse perspectives and is a great advantage for the company’s continued success and growth.

Racism, discrimination, and a lack of BIPOC leaders in the industry are among the many root causes of the gender disparity in C-suites and leadership roles. Our society needs to dissect and dismantle the current system that perpetuates oppression and discrimination. To address the issue of women and change the negative perceptions, we need more exposure, representation, and true stories on all media platforms. We need to work together and take action to create inclusive and equal opportunities.

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

1. Educate yourself on the plant. People get really excited about entering a new market, but anyone who hopes to succeed in this industry needs to have a solid understanding of the cannabis plant itself and why we’re here in the first place. Once you’re a player in the industry, you become an advocate of a healing plant so the more you know about the plant itself, the better advocate you become.
2. Learn about the history of the plant and the war on drugs. The industry and market were created by mostly Black and Brown people and cannabis became weaponized as a tool to marginalize and criminalize the same people. This plant, which was first used as medicine, became a scheduled drug. This will help you understand the current state of the industry.
3. Determine your role and how you can contribute in shaping a new market. Find out how you can positively impact the industry with the information you’ve gathered after educating yourself on the plant and industry. Whether you’re working for someone else or starting your own business, having this clarity will give you the direction you need to navigate the waters.
4. Ask yourself why you want to be in the cannabis industry. Some are intrinsically drawn to the industry. Others may not care, but I think it’s extremely important to think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. Why is cannabis important to you? Is it the chance to create generational wealth? Is it just about the money?
5. Create a network of like-minded individuals. In any industry, connections are critical. After you’ve spent some time doing the above, you’ll be able to decide with whom you’d like to build. You will be more successful in this industry if you align yourself with people who share your values, principles, and purpose.

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

More and more states are legalizing marijuana, and I am most excited for the amount of information we’ll be able to receive and share about the plant itself. It will be interesting to see how the plant can be used in new and interesting ways in the future.

Additionally, I look forward to learning more about new ways to consume and being informed about safe and proper dosage. As a believer in using cannabis for wellness, not intoxication, the invention and innovation of new ways to consume the plant will help patients and consumers integrate the plant into their regular health and wellness routines.

Last but not least, it is exciting to be at the forefront of a rapidly growing industry and that we have the power to shape and mold a healthy, diverse, and equitable landscape.

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?

Hush continues to work hard to bridge the large gap between the industry and the culture/community, which is something that concerns me. There needs to be better integration of the culture and the community members who have created it with the regulation and corporatization of cannabis. We have organized fun, safe, educational events in person to close this gap and open up a dialogue between the community and regulators, brands and consumers, and service providers and patients.

Returning to the gender disparity issue, this is an ongoing concern since inequity isn’t just related to gender, but there is a lack of diversity and BIPOC representation within the industry. It is essential to create pathways for easier access to the industry, capital, and positions of power for people of color.

The use of cannabis tax revenue is another major concern. The money should be used to reform impacted neighborhoods, to expunge and rehab incarcerated individuals, to provide resources to communities without access to basic needs, and to reinvest in small businesses to boost economic development.

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?

I think federal legalization will provide a lot of benefits for the industry and the country as a whole. It will provide economic benefits with billions of dollars in tax revenue, create job opportunities, and be able to increase growth in other industries such as tourism, real estate, construction, and food. Cannabis legalization will also encourage more research on the plant, so we can learn more about its medical benefits as well as provide education about safe consumption. Moreover, I believe legalizing cannabis will normalize consumption and make the general public feel safer. Banks would be more secure, and business owners would have greater access to capital. To ensure the benefits of marijuana, we need to hold our lawmakers accountable and ensure certain priorities are met — such as releasing those who have been incarcerated because of cannabis and using tax revenues to rehabilitate them.

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?

I think we’re already seeing cannabis be treated similarly, if not regulated heavier than cigarettes, in states that have legalized sales of the plant. I believe sales taxes are necessary (even if they are excessively high in some states, like Illinois), but I also think there needs to be a better basis for taxation and a better plan for how the tax revenue will be spent. I’d like to see cannabis marketed as a medicine cabinet necessity rather than as a toxic product like cigarettes. I don’t think they belong on the same shelf.

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

“How you do anything is how you do everything.” This quote is my number one principle. Implementing this mindset changed my life. It may seem simple, but if you really apply these words, it will have a positive impact on your actions and improve your life.

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. 🙂

Hush started a movement that I will continue to be a part of for the rest of my life. We have developed a culture that embodies and demands higher standards from individuals in how we live our lives, how we conduct our businesses, and how we conduct business with each other. Any industry can benefit from this, as it will create a better ecosystem of self-aware individuals who can then create purposeful, inclusive, and value-driven brands. We’ve had a wild ride since we started, and being in the cannabis industry is the cherry on top!

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Wisdom From The Women Leading The Cannabis Industry, With Kay Villamin of HUSH Chicago 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

Setting boundaries — In a busy world with many demands upon our time, we can fall into the trap of not taking care our boundaries. For example, answering work queries outside of working hour and not having any down time. Feeling unable to say no to people even though exhaustion is already taking its toll on your physical and mental health. Not speaking your truth and expressing yourself fully so becoming anxious, stressed, or resentful. This can lead to a feeling of disempowerment and lack of choice in how you live your life, feeling at the mercy of others. Starting your day with some breathing and journaling can help you to decide consciously how you want your day to be. How do you want to feel? How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to prioritize? How are you going to take care of your own needs as well as attending to your daily activities? Consciously designing your life every day can help you to decide what feels right for you and how you want to navigate your life.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Fletcher

Sarah is an NLP and Multiple Brain Coach and Trainer. She is on a mission to help leaders, educators, coaches, and people who help people to unlock the Psychology of Neuroscience and Positive Psychology to optimize themselves, so they can be a role model for others and lead with compassion, creativity and courage.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I have always been interested in human potential and what makes us tick. My father had severe Depression and struggled throughout his life to overcome his suffering. After my own struggles with teenage turbulence and post-natal transition in my twenty’s I wanted to learn more and help others who were struggling. My teaching qualification took me into young people’s services and Further Education where I worked mainly with vulnerable young people helping them with their confidence, self-esteem, self-belief, relationships and creating a mindset for a positive future. I also loved helping my colleagues to optimize themselves in the classroom. This led me to setting up my coaching and training business in 2017 to help more people learn the tools and techniques of NLP and mBraining, so they can lead with authenticity, compassion and courage and model this for others.

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

When I was teaching one of my students was sadly and devastatingly murdered. For the first time in her life, she was succeeding in Education because we not only taught curriculum, but we also nurtured and cared deeply about our students. I was programme leader for many students who had often ‘failed’ at school so my teacher role was much more than just teaching. Her murder hit me hard, and I felt that I had let her down. I was the last to see her when she left that day and wished her luck in her new job that she was going to. This was where her life ended. One of the reasons I am so passionate about sharing the tools of Neuro Linguistic programing with people in helping professions and leadership roles, is that I know that without these tools I would have probably been off work with stress and found it much more difficult to support myself and my students. Because I was able to care for myself, manage my mind and allow myself to grieve, I was able to continue supporting others even on my own difficult days.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?

When I first started teaching young people, I assumed that they would love what I had to teach and that they would appreciate the hours I had spent preparing the lessons for them by engaging in the lesson and doing as they were told! It makes me laugh thinking about this as one of the first lessons I taught was a disaster! Things were being thrown across the classroom, people were arguing, hardly any of the activities that I had prepared were delivered and I was totally stunned! What a learning curve that was about what being a teacher meant. From that day on I made it my mission to get the ‘naughty’ ones on board first, as they were my biggest leverage for engaging the class and creating a harmonious and successful learning environment for all. I realised that who I was as a teacher created the conditions for learning to happen. What I believed about myself, and my students impacted my teaching ability and their belief in themselves. It was a journey of discovery that I loved for many years and I am truly grateful to every one of my students who taught me so much about life.

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?

Sue Washington trained me in Psychotherapy back in 2002 and was my supervisor for 15 years. She helped me through many difficult times and always believed in my capabilities. When I trained as a Psychotherapist, I was struggling with post-natal transition and my mental health. She taught me to appreciate and accept myself and this was the beginnings of my own personal development journey. I will always be truly grateful to her for her support, wisdom, and love.

What advice would you suggest to your colleagues in your industry to thrive and avoid burnout?

To have supervision/coaching to maintain their own wellbeing. As a leader, coach, educator or helping professional it is so important to take care of themselves so that they don’t burn out. A person who thrives from the inside out and shows compassion for self first, will have more to give to others and more people will benefit. Role modelling excellence is about showing others that we all matter.

What advice would you give to other leaders about how to create a fantastic work culture?

Creating a fantastic work culture begins by leading from the heart. In Tommy Spalding’s book the Heart led Leader he says that we should all aspire to live and lead our lives as a true expression and reflection of who we are. Leadership is building success from the heart. Work cultures that place the people at the heart of the organization and deeply care about their passions and strengths become successful work cultures where everyone is valued and can thrive.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Mental health is often looked at in binary terms; those who are healthy and those who have mental illness. The truth, however, is that mental wellness is a huge spectrum. Even those who are “mentally healthy” can still improve their mental wellness. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to improve or optimize our mental wellness. Can you please share a story or example for each.

1. The Power of reframing- Reframing is changing the way you perceive an event and changing the meaning. When you change the meaning your responses and behaviour will also change. For example, someone may perceive a mistake in their work as a failure. The meaning they put to being a failure could be that they always mess up, they don’t deserve to be in that job, others are better than them and they are never going to succeed. A reframe on this could be that ‘there is no failure only feedback’. Making a mistake can be an opportunity to learn and grow. It can also be an opportunity to understand yourself better and enhance your strengths and skills. We often feel stuck in life because of the way we are interpreting a situation rather than the facts of the situation. Maybe a disagreement has occurred with someone, and you have felt rejected and ignored by them because they didn’t respond to a text or phone call. You then go down a rabbit hole of making up a fantasy story about why they are not responding causing you to feel even more rejected and hurt. There could be a very simple explanation such as the person was busy at the time when they received the text. Maybe their phone was low on battery, and they knew that they would get cut off if they answered it so chose to wait until later. I love the quote by Victor Frankl ‘between stimulus and response there is a space. In the space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.’ Giving yourself time in the ‘space’ to observe your thoughts and feelings and decide how you want to perceive and respond to the situation, is a wonderful gift of emotional freedom for yourself and others.
2. Gratitude — In Positive Psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. It helps us to experience more positive emotions, enhance the good experiences, find possibilities and opportunities in challenges and it improves health, wellbeing and relationships. The research from the heart math institute informs us that reconnecting with our heart feelings throughout the day such as gratitude, kindness, compassion and patience helps us to stay in flow with inner peace and calm, enabling us to handle life’s challenges more effectively. Throughout the day give yourself permission to consciously pause and check in with your mind and body. Notice how you are feeling, notice your thoughts and notice any tension in your body. Place your hand on your heart and imagine the kind of caring feeling or attitude that you would like to have, as you breathe deeply imagine that you are breathing this feeling into your whole being. Continue doing this for a few minutes and then anchor that feeling in. Notice how you feel after this practice.
3. Connection with others — The story of lessons from geese is a beautiful analogy of the benefits of connecting and working together. When geese fly in a formation together they flap their wings which creates an uplift for the birds that follow. Flying in a V formation gives the flock a 70% greater flying range than if they flew alone. When the front goose gets tired it rotates back into the formation and another goose takes over that position. The geese flying in the formation honk to encourage the ones at the front to keep up their speed. When we connect with others and work together in harmony, we can co create an energetic field that is coherent and we can lift others into this coherence. The electromagnetic field of the heart can be detected several feet away and can affect the nervous systems of other people. What this means is that a group of coherent individuals can increase social connection and can achieve their objectives more harmoniously. Individuals thrive within the group whilst maintaining positive social relationships. Trust, empathy, and meaningful relationships are proven to lower anxiety and depression.
4. Setting boundaries — In a busy world with many demands upon our time, we can fall into the trap of not taking care our boundaries. For example, answering work queries outside of working hour and not having any down time. Feeling unable to say no to people even though exhaustion is already taking its toll on your physical and mental health. Not speaking your truth and expressing yourself fully so becoming anxious, stressed, or resentful. This can lead to a feeling of disempowerment and lack of choice in how you live your life, feeling at the mercy of others. Starting your day with some breathing and journaling can help you to decide consciously how you want your day to be. How do you want to feel? How do you want to spend your time? What do you want to prioritise? How are you going to take care of your own needs as well as attending to your daily activities? Consciously designing your life every day can help you to decide what feels right for you and how you want to navigate your life.
5. Curiosity rather than judgement — Practising curiosity rather than judgement of yourself or others, in my opinion is liberating. For many of us the default pattern that we go to is to judge ourselves harshly when we have made a mistake. Learning to be curious gives us permission to create self awareness and get to know ourselves better. We all do the best that we can at the time with what we have. Forgiving yourself for what you didn’t know can help you to access a state of curiosity rather than judgement. Through curiosity you can ask explore the reasons behind your behaviour and make adjustments and changes for the future. You can begin to realise that you are not your behaviour. All behaviour is attempting to satisfy a need within us even when the behaviour appears to be sabotaging your happiness. Many of us have unwanted habits that we want to change. Self-awareness curiosity and self-acceptance are fundamental in making any changes in your life.

How about teens and pre teens. Are there any specific new ideas you would suggest for teens and pre teens to optimize their mental wellness?

As someone who spent 15 years working in Education with teenagers I am very aware of the challenges and complexities that they face today. The teens I worked with loved the balanced breathing that I taught them as this enabled them to take a moment to unplug from their fast world and just be. Whilst they were in balanced breathing, I would encourage them to take a moment to appreciate themselves and each other and to observe how this felt. For many it was uncomfortable at first but as they practiced it, they enjoyed the feelings that they experienced and felt empowered knowing that they could control their internal world no matter what was going on around them.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story?

A book that has made an impact on me is Loving Your life by Grant Soosalu. I love this book as it brings me back to the simplicity of life and reminds me how easy it is to find joy, love, connection, and peace every day. Following Grants mantra of keeping it successfully simple I refer to this in my teachings to help people come back to their truest nature of calm and peace and live their life authentically. As someone who lived life once in high stress and nervous system dysregulation, this book taught me to love, honour and appreciate myself. L.I.F.E is for living in full enchanting and creating the magical and wonderous journey yourself.

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

My vision is to share the magic of Neuro Linguistic programming and mBraining with as many heart centred leaders, educators, coaches and people who have people at the heart of what they do. A great movement that I feel would bring the most amount of good to the world would be to make every primary and secondary school a heart centred mBraining school, where everyone is taught heart coherence and we collectively raise the vibration of the planet for the good of humanity. That would be amazing!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it — Maya Angelou

I have had several big transition times in my life where I have struggled. One in particular was becoming a Mum. Post-natal transition was a very difficult time for me because I was very unforgiving of myself and didn’t realize that I would birth a bag of guilt as well as a baby! I didn’t feel good enough as a Mum for several years and this kept me stuck in a cycle of fear, insecurity, guilt and shame. Thankfully I had amazing support, a good therapist and learned to forgive myself.

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

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/SarahFletcherCoachingandTraining

Website — https://sarahfletchercoaching.com/

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/sarahfletchercoaching/?hl=en

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

Sarah Fletcher: 5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Gabrielle Mazar Of Destination Fitcations on The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Make most of your meals at home. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Eating out, fast food, or pre-packaged meals are full of excess calories and junk. Cooking at home and keeping your meals simple will help you to know what and how much you are eating. Finding recipes and trying new things can also be lots of fun.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabrielle (Gabi) Mazar.

Fitness Trainer, Travel Guide, Host of FitMinute Podcast & the Founder of Destination Fitcations, Gabrielle (Gabi) Mazar is a rare breed of a trainer who truly cares about each and every one of her clients. Gabi’s passion is helping people live their best possible lives. Watching her clients flourish in life beyond their physical health is an especially personal and professional fulfilling satisfaction Gabi gets to enjoy regularly.

With over 15 years in the fitness industry, Gabi’s journey is one of entrepreneurship, dedication and triumph — from her early years interning back in 2007, to becoming an active trainer, and opening up a gym in 2012 — Health Body Works in Tempe, AZ — Gabi was able to build up a loyal client base tripling her business. With business booming, she purchased another gym, Pilates Tempe in 2019 and, started yet another company which combined her love for both fitness and travel in the same year. The new venture, Destination Fitcations.

Destination Fitcations is a company that offers vacations to some of the most beautiful and exquisite locations around the world. They do this by designing remarkable trips which combine health, wellness, fitness and travel, all the while providing tourists an opportunity for a relaxing getaway that is worry-free & guilt-free.

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?

As a child, I was always in a ton of sports, dance, and extracurriculars. My parents always encouraged us to be active. My father coached basketball, so I was always around sports, in the gym, it was just a part of life. I didn’t know that I would make it a career. I was actually a business major and was really interested in journalism in college. All through college, I worked 2–3 jobs, I bought a house and would work to pay my next semester’s tuition. Overwhelmed and not sure what I wanted to do, I took a semester off to focus on me and what direction I wanted to take my life. I found myself working out more, reading magazines and books on nutrition and exercise, and I just fell in love. I went back and changed my major to Interdisciplinary Studies with concentration in Small Business and Exercise and Wellness. Since then, I have become NASM, FST, TRX, and PMA certified, worked with a mentor and worked in multiple gyms, built 3 businesses and purchased Pilates Tempe.

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

The most interesting story is my own health journey. The idea that it won’t happen to you. When I was a young trainer, I of course had the idea that you eat right, exercise and life is good. I think all young trainers do. We are full of life, energy, excitement to help people, but what we aren’t full of is knowledge that life isn’t always that easy. Before I turned 30, I got really sick, gained a bunch of weight quickly, had extreme fatigue, couldn’t stay awake sleeping sometimes 16–17 hours a day, had extreme blood sugar drops, I was very ill. In and out of the doctor, I was finally diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. It has taken me years to get my disease under control and it is a constant struggle, but my journey completely changed the way I see others and how I train and run my business. I understand more the struggle that people go through. There is a certain finesse to meeting people where they are at and understanding where they want to be. My biggest lesson is we are all human, we are all different, and each of us has a story or reason as to why we are where we are. My job is to help you achieve your goals to the best of my ability by meeting you where you are at, not where I think you should be.

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

My biggest mistake was not having faith in myself. If you truly believe in what you are doing people will follow. I was too afraid to take the leap and trust myself. My first business, I started with partners; it was definitely a learning experience. I left that partnership burned, out of money, and afraid that I couldn’t do it on my own. It took me 3 years to go all in on myself, 5 years to grow enough confidence in myself again to believe that I could make things happen and 7 years to grow enough business to need to expand. My point is, I wish I had believed in myself and never doubted my abilities. What I learned is, don’t be afraid to take risks. We grow in what makes us uncomfortable. That goes for our health too. Our bad habits are comfortable. Push out of your comfort zone and there you will find results.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

I hope that my work is helping people realize that there are other people out there that share similar stories. Although I believe we are all different, we all have experiences that others can learn from. Having trained hundreds of clients, I feel that many people feel like they are alone in their journey. My goal in creating my podcast was to tell people’s stories that other people can relate to. We all have some sort of trauma, every person, whether it is a childhood memory of abuse, alcoholism, abandonment, or are we dealing with fear, anxiety, depression. I hope that I can teach people to live a little healthier, love themselves and forgive themselves, treat others compassionately, and be the best they can be all around.

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.

My TOP FIVE lifestyle tweaks are:

1. Start walking. Walking is the most underrated form of exercise. Yes, I want you to lift weights and all that jazz, but walking can reduce your risk of death by over 30%.

2. Meditation. You don’t have to be the Dalai Lama. It’s proven that just 5 minutes a day of quiet makes a huge impact on your health.

3. Quit the soda or sugary drinks and opt for H2O. Soda has been linked to increased risk of Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. Quitting has positive effects on the heart, teeth, bladder, bones, kidneys, and more.

4. Find a positive hobby. I began gardening. Not only does it provide me food but gives me a productive/ active thing to do. It is a huge stress reliever as well.

5. Make most of your meals at home. Cooking at home doesn’t have to be complicated. Eating out, fast food, or pre-packaged meals are full of excess calories and junk. Cooking at home and keeping your meals simple will help you to know what and how much you are eating. Finding recipes and trying new things can also be lots of fun.

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

I believe that living an all-around healthy lifestyle is what leads us to total wellbeing. If I could start a movement, it would be completely holistic and focus on all areas of health starting with mental well-being, to food, to exercise. We cannot improve ourselves in one area and neglect another and expect to be our best. We cannot do one form of exercise and expect to be a peak performer. My movement would be to encourage people to start where they are and take one step at a time to become the best they can be!

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

Women In Wellness: Gabrielle Mazar Of Destination Fitcations on The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.