Month: June 2022

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t let anyone erase you. Your basic human rights can’t be taken away by anyone. Nobody has the right to tell you to move. When someone tells you that, you tell them to get out of your way, you are here, and you have every right to be where you are as well.

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 Lillee Jean.

Lillee Jean is a New York City director, writer, producer, model, actress and cyberbullying advocate, who is known for her creative web-series’, that include, “Lillee Jean TALKS! Live”, “Voyager” and “Mind Over Beaute”. She is currently working on her film, Project: Bullyish, in which she shares her unbelievable experience of being stalked and bullied online for the last five years. Lillee Jean hopes that the film will shed light on the dangers of the internet, as well as tell her own story about what happened to her.

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’?

Born and raised in New York, I am passionate about entertaining. Growing up, I enjoyed drawing, painting, and sculpting. In my teenage years, I was fascinated by makeup tutorials and loved the way the colors blended and the way the skin looked. That’s how it all started.

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

My new web series, called Voyager, is really exciting to me. We will explore all of my favorite places in New York City, not only the typical arts enrichment, such as our museums, but also the wonderful melting pot of cuisines that can be enjoyed throughout the city! I think people are going to have a great time traveling with me as I explore my favorite haunts. I am also wrapping up production on my film, “Project: Bullyish”, which documents the systematic cyber assault that has ruined my life for the past six years. My goal with this film is to spread awareness and advocate for stricter laws on the digital highway.

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

There have been many changes since the Covid Pandemic, and companies that haven’t changed with the times will be left behind. In addition to being trusted, quality employees desire more benefits, which allows them to spend more time with their families and pursue their interests when they are not working. Those companies that do not adapt to this change will lose talented employees. In my company, we switched over to almost total remote working, which requires a lot of trust between all of us. I found, having the freedom and flexibility for employees to set their own schedules has allowed our team members to become more responsive to their assignments, and more committed to their work. Those companies that don’t recognize that these changes need to be embraced will lose out on some valuable resources in the long run.

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?

Many people on the internet told me I would never succeed in entertainment. I have been subjected to an almost unbearable amount of digital abuse, but I have two things that have kept me steady, and that has been my faith and my tenacity. If someone tells me I can’t do something, it makes me want to try ten times harder to succeed. If someone throws a roadblock in my way, I will find a way around it, because, quite frankly, nobody has the right to tell me what to do. Living the best life possible is my responsibility. Additionally, by living the best version of myself, I can help the world, and spread the message I wish to share with the world. I think nowadays the best thing to do is to listen to yourself and take other people’s advice with a grain of salt. Making my own decisions and mistakes is my right unless I ask for someone’s opinion. I learn from my mistakes every day.

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

Quite simply, what they had to say never stopped me. In fact, their hurtful jeers and comments have only made my resolute decision to keep on doing what I am doing. Nobody is going to tell me I cannot do something I want to do.

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?

My parents have been my biggest inspiration and support. They taught me from the time I was a little girl to never stop chasing my dreams, and accomplishing what I want in life. This is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

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?

No matter how difficult it is, sometimes you have to seriously consider your options. Life lessons have made me more resilient. My career choice is entertainment, and I will continue to follow what I love. I will not tolerate people who exploit others online, hoping to make them feel bad for their own entertainment. I did feel defeated at first, but I also never forgot who I am, and what I want to accomplish in my lifetime. I knew I hadn’t done anything to warrant these attacks on me, that hurt me personally and professionally. Through my film, and advocacy, I have confronted the issue, and I am standing my ground. No longer do I try to figure out why these people do what they do, or what is wrong with them. I refuse to accept their negativity into my life, and I refuse to accept their altered reality. I choose to live the best life I can lead, and I choose to help others in a positive manner.

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)

1. By journaling my experiences, I have been able to overcome any ill feelings I may have had at the beginning. In addition to expressing myself, I use writing to expel any negative thoughts I might have. I feel better after writing. When people validate their feelings, they can benefit from putting them down on paper or screen. For me, the best thoughts are written, not typed;

2. You really have to ask yourself, “Why is it so important for someone else to critique your life?” when someone expresses only a negative opinion towards what you are doing? Are you being led astray by them? By criticizing you, they feel validated and better about themselves. Think about the source, and then turn it around. You will find that the person who is expressing their feelings toward you is actually telling you more about them than they realize.

3. Don’t give up. Whenever someone or a group of people tells you that you cannot do something, it is time to stop listening and turn the other way around. A person’s personal decisions in life are no one’s business, unless they ask for help, unless it is something morally wrong or harmful.

4. Listen to yourself first. Speak to yourself. Don’t let the world dictate what you should or shouldn’t do. You are the only one who counts. A healthy you is able to help the world, but an unhealthy you cannot;

5. Don’t let anyone erase you. Your basic human rights can’t be taken away by anyone. Nobody has the right to tell you to move. When someone tells you that, you tell them to get out of your way, you are here, and you have every right to be where you are as well.

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

I am a huge Disney Princess fan, and I always find something magical in their movies. In “Pocahontas”, Mother Willow tells John Smith, “Young man, sometimes the right path is not the easiest one.” A truer statement could not have been found. There are times when the easiest roads aren’t worth taking.

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.

A more honest attitude towards oneself would be appreciated. The practice of hiding behind a façade of who one is is unhealthy for anyone. We learned patience through the pandemic, and we learned to love ourselves better. In the future, I hope people will discover their true selves and not hide behind their social media personas.

Can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilleejean/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGQF-GZ2oWfgb1NN3QtJJlA (Lillee Jean)

Websites: https://www.lilleejean.com and https://www.lilleejeanbeauty.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/REALlilleejean.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealLilleeJean

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/LilleeJean

Digital Art: https://www.deviantart.com/lilleejean

Giphy: https://giphy.com/lilleejean

Tenor: https://tenor.com/official/lilleejean

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10479689/

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

---

Lillee Jean: 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.

Female Founders: Jessica Mulligan of Winged Wellness On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Find like-minded people to work with, not like skilled people. Working with a team that shares your values and thought system can be hugely beneficial. Equally important, especially in a startup situation is to make sure your skill sets do not overlap so you all can bring needed value to the company.

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

Winged’s singular mission is to help women feel good. They think that with products formulated specifically for a woman’s body, plus a supportive community of Winged women, we might just be able to do that.

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

I found myself working in the natural products industry right out of college and loved working in an industry that promoted a healthy way of living that more and more Americans were adopting. I spent the first twelve years of my career at NeoCell, the first ingestible collagen brand in the US. I started as an entry-level account executive and rose through the ranks eventually leading all of the commercial-facing parts of the business (sales, marketing, and innovations). It was a great adventure, and one I felt very blessed to be a part of. To be selling a product that could genuinely help people feel their best, I realized this was what I was determined to do for the rest of my life and my early career experience would lay the groundwork for my future business in the cannabis industry, Winged.

In 2017, seemingly overnight my entire life changed. In a short period of time (three months), the brand I had been leading for over a decade was sold, the owner of the brand (who was my mentor) passed away unexpectedly, and many employees were laid off. My long-time boyfriend and I split up and my dog, Frank the Tank, passed away after 16 years. I was rocked.

Everything that was my identity was rapidly stripped away and that period and all the change that it brought caused debilitating anxiety that lasted for a solid year. It manifested in all aspects of my life — my sleep, my relationships and my ability to perform at work. Through this difficult and uncomfortable time, I found healing with CBD and other adaptogenic herbs. I dove deep into the research and learned how that the body has an endocannabinoid system and by balancing it, one could have better stress responses. The relief I had found was so palpable, I was sleeping through the night for the first time in almost a year and my general feelings of constantly being overwhelmed became a thing of the past. I felt comfortable in my own skin again, which I hadn’t felt in a long time. I wanted to share that relief with other women, and it was from here that Winged was born.

Winged offers formulas that are specific for a woman’s body and our brand is rooted in mood. We believe that when a woman feels good, she is unstoppable.

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

I had a designer when we were first getting going and we were not seeing eye to eye on the design at all. My hairdresser, who had become a good friend, Tiffany, called me to see how things were going. I told her how excited I was about how everything with Winged was going, except for the packaging, and how I was disappointed the designer and I weren’t syncing. Tiffany knew my aesthetic probably better than anyone; when I remodeled my house 6 months prior she was my sounding board for all decisions made in the house — every color, tile, textile. Tiffany casually said to me maybe her and her new boyfriend could design something and I didn’t think twice about it. Three days later she called me sounding very excited and asked if I was home because she had to come over and show me. Tiff had come up with the designs, color ways and even the Winged animals for our packaging, and with her boyfriend’s technical skills they presented the Winged branding. Amazing, right? The lesson from this is sometimes the best surprises come where you never thought about looking. Don’t close yourself off to possibilities

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 can’t think of anything truly hilarious that has happened with Winged but I do have a funny earlier entrepreneurial story. During grad school I started a stainless-steel water bottle company called UTURN. I decided that in addition to bottles I wanted to design and get manufactured sustainable lunch boxes for kiddos. I decided to call them “Munch Box” which I thought was super cute and had each one engraved with that name. I searched the web to make sure that there weren’t any products similar in name, filed with USPTO, and obtained the trademark. I ordered 10k lunch boxes from India, which was not an insignificant amount of money for me to lay out. As the lunchboxes were about to clear customs, a friend sent me the urbandictionary.com definition. Let’s say it was not PG rated. I’ll let you google the meaning, but I still laugh about it to this day.

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 am forever grateful to Al Quadri, the man who founded NeoCell. When I was just 27 he decided I should be the VP of Sales for his company. I was terrified to accept this big role, but his belief in me made me rise to the occasion. A lot of “fake it ’til you make it” in those early days, but slowly grew into the position. I said so many times through the years that he gave me wings before I knew I could fly, and how beautiful that my brand is now named Winged. I will always be so grateful to the belief he had in me before I had it in myself. It’s my everyday goal to try to be that person for the women on my team.

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

I don’t necessarily think that women are held back from founding companies, but the issue is that they are held back from getting VC funding for those companies. 40% of the businesses owned in the US are woman owned, up from 20% in 2018. This is the good news. The bad news is that female founders secured only 2% of venture capital in 2021, the smallest share since 2016l The real issue is how to get investors to invest in women and push aside the patriarchal mindset.

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

The Government has a program called Boostin Female Founders and its awards grants for up to 400k to female owned businesses. I think continuing on this path while encouraging VC’s to employ more women in decision making roles can help women secure the funding they need to launch and grow.

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?

The data clearly shows- we are good at it. Women led startups outperform male led startups in revenue- more than twice as much per dollar invested. Women outform in profitability as well. Women are quick to adapt and are often nurturing leaders which in today’s great resignation is not an if but a must for talent. We often outperform men when it comes to building culture and social responsibility. And lastly, women are able to move mountains. Anyone who has seen a capable woman in action will agree with this.

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

I think resilience, the ability to self manage and motivate as well as have an imagination are all key traits in founders.

Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Find like-minded people to work with, not like skilled people. Working with a team that shares your values and thought system can be hugely beneficial. Equally important, especially in a startup situation is to make sure your skill sets do not overlap so you all can bring needed value to the company.
2. The business you start with is not the business you end up with. Businesses iterate as they learn what works and doesn’t. I still believe it’s a good exercise to do a business plan, however looking back on it a couple years later and chances are you will have deviated quite a bit. That’s a good thing- you are learning and adjusting as you go.
3. Know which of the “small stuff” is important to pay attention to and stop worrying and spending time on the rest. It’s really easy to get caught up in things that aren’t going to change the trajectory of your business- like business card design. Don’t obsess about the small stuff that isn’t important, but do obsess about every aspect of customer experience, no matter how small.
4. Remember to stop and celebrate the wins and just how much you have accomplished. Entrepreneurs typically have a hard time stopping to smell the roses, but something I have learned from the most successful people in my orbit is how important that is. Celebrate the wins along the way, take the time to be with people and experience things that fill you with joy. Work will be there when you return and you will be a better leader and business person if your life is balanced.
5. Be kind. Always. And when you aren’t, own it and be accountable. I think this one says it all.

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

I am always thinking about how Winged can be a platform for good in the world. Our work to help underprivileged young women has been at the forefront of what we do as an organization and we will continue to work to make lives better for the women through our partnership programs.

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

I hope with Winged we are creating a movement of women embracing one another, feeling comfortable in vulnerability and dropping the veil of perfection. I believe this release, coupled with a healthy lifestyle, will cause less anxiety, less depression and affect not just the women positively, but everyone in their orbit.

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

---

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

Female Founders: Elizabeth Voelker & Kristina Barnes of ReadyFestive On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Pay attention to the signs and to your gut. Good and bad. For us, we’ve had a few — what we call “God Winks” — along the way that have inspired us to keep going and/or pivot what we were doing. We’ve also had strong gut feelings about certain situations where we knew we needed to cut ties with someone, and so we did. You can waste a lot of time and energy trying to make something work when it’s not meant to.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Voelker & Kristina Barnes of ReadyFestive.

Elizabeth Voelker and Kristina Barnes are a team of (two!) women who created ReadyFestive out of their shared desire to be more festive, more joyful, and to celebrate more.

As with many new ideas and businesses, their idea began with a problem: with each new season or holiday, they found themselves in the same boat — stressing the prep vs. feeling the festive. They wanted to spend more time checking off their holiday bucket lists — instead of checking the aisles of multiple stores for festive essentials.

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?

Ha! Well, truthfully, there was nothing “planned” about this career path for us (being entrepreneurs) … we are both Moms with three kids each who had taken a step back from our corporate careers. We started ReadyFestive for one reason: because we needed it in our *own* lives!

Shopping for holiday/seasonal home decor involves a lot of time and effort, but the feeling that a “festive home” provides is priceless. We wondered… why can’t a box magically appear on our doorstep with decor for our favorite holidays/seasons, picked out for us and our style? There are countless services that curate and deliver products in a box to your doorstep for other categories… from pet food to diapers to clothing to food. We kept waiting for someone else to create ReadyFestive and disrupt this huge market ($30B in the U.S. alone). And then finally we thought: why not us? It has become our mission to help make holiday/seasonal decorating convenient, easy and fun!

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

This won’t be a surprise, but COVID definitely threw a wrench in our business plan. We launched ReadyFestive in October 2019 and by early 2020, we added “homeschool teacher” to our plate of responsibilities overnight and that was a unique challenge that we’re sure many other parents can relate to. But COVID was also surprisingly good for business. We saw a huge surge in sign-ups due to the lockdowns and the fact that people couldn’t go out and shop for festive home decor. What we’re seeing now is that our customers don’t want to go back to spending hours driving to multiple stores to search multiple aisles for cute, quality products. Instead, let ReadyFestive be your personal shopper. Save the time, save the hassle–just unbox the holiday and spend more time enjoying it. That was the silver lining of COVID: people were “forced” to give our service a try!

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 a great time to start a business because the world truly is “flat” meaning you can get on WhatsApp and talk to someone in China about making a product for you. We thought we hit the jackpot when we placed a large purchase order for a decor piece at a great margin… but let’s just say that a lot can get lost in translation. It showed up in completely the wrong size and color and we had to toss it and pivot. We thought we were being so savvy and “DIY” and we paid for it! It wasn’t funny at the time but the lesson was learned; we now have someone who helps us with product development in other countries.

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

We were introduced to our advisor, Robert, a few years ago, and he has helped guide us through some of the most critical junctures in our journey. We started our business in the garage and were still there when we met Robert. Being an operational expert, he saw our growth trajectory and advised us to (quickly) move out of the garage and into our current 3PL (third party logistics center), so that we could spend our time growing the business instead of packing the boxes. This was probably the single most important decision we’ve made in our business to date. In addition to his business advice, it is his unwavering positive energy and friendship that has been the most valuable to us along the way. He has helped pick us up when we’ve been down. We call him our fairy godfather. All founders need a “Robert” with them on their journey!

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

Let’s start with just people. What’s holding “everyday” people back from creating companies or becoming founders? There’s a general fear factor around starting a business of… *I’m not qualified* — that we need to have a certain background, education or work experience to found a company. On top of that, perhaps we don’t have the support system in place to navigate through the unknown and the trials and tribulations of starting a company. But successful companies are born every day, not because of what a founder’s “pedigree” is or isn’t, but because they’ve created something that helps make someone else’s life easier, better, or simply, just more joyful through their creativity and hard work. The stigma definitely needs to be broken of what a “typical” founder(s) background *should* look like.

And now onto women. This statistic is disappointing and not surprising. We’ve faced harsh feedback along the way that we will never be seen as anything other than “housewives with a hobby” from investors who don’t understand the need or the “why” of the customer. We’ve also been asked, as Moms with three kids each — how will we balance it all? We have been inspired by many other female leaders who respond with: “would you ask a man that same question?”

Women in particular need more support to feel empowered to create companies…. and that starts in the home. We’ve personally experienced the empowerment we feel from having supportive partners at (shoutout to our husbands!) It really does start there. And then it needs to make its way to the board room and the venture capital world. 20% is progress from where we were 20 years ago. But we have to collectively keep supporting women and investing in women to see this statistic grow.

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?

This is a great question, some of which we touched on in the last question — women need more support to feel empowered to create companies. But before we become women, we’re girls. This feeling of “I’m not enough” starts at a very young age for girls because society constantly tells us we are “less than” (like knowing we will make $.85 to a man’s $1.00 for the same work.) Both of us have young daughters, and we’ve been so inspired by the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team and their landmark negotiation/settlement for equal pay. One thing we’d love to see in our lifetime: equal pay for women. To feel like we are really all on a level playing field… we want our girls to see that, so that *they* grow up knowing that opportunities for success are not bound by gender. Inspiring our daughters to have a dream or set a goal and achieve it through hard work alone has been one of the most fulfilling parts of our journey.

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

One of the reasons we think women make great founders is because we are the ultimate multi-taskers. As a founder you have to wear *all* the hats — customer service rep, buyer, social media manager, bookkeeper — you hold at any given moment in time various roles within the business, from employee to CEO. You do not have the luxury of focusing on one thing, and as women, this already comes naturally to us.

We think women are also naturally a bit more conservative which ultimately just means — more accurate. We’re *calculated* risk takers. When we pitched for funding we were told to inflate our numbers to be more like men. But we resisted; it didn’t feel right. We’re confident in the numbers we’re projecting and putting out there. Our goal is to have 100% sell through rate for each holiday/season. Overprojecting won’t help us achieve that– it could put us out of business.

There’s a quote about how in business, we are hosting a party and the guests are our customers. It’s our job to make and improve their experience. Women are innately great “hosts,” we are caring, compassionate, empathetic, and for us personally, this has translated into being a truly customer-centric company — which ultimately creates a longer customer lifetime value.

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?

That’s a tough question. There are great ideas inside of everyone! But no, we do not think that everyone is cut out to be a founder.

Employees have stable income, sick days, vacation days, they check off their to do list each day and leave it at the office. Founders do not have such luxuries!

Being a founder takes grit, perseverance, creativity, the ability to problem solve, be resourceful, quite simply… get up and work really hard every day for no other reason other than you believe in the “why” your business exists, and you believe in yourself (and your partner) to make it happen. You really have to be OK with delayed gratification. There is, most likely, not going to be a financial reward for a period of time. There are no pats on the back. No promotions. You have to be a self-starter *AND* a self-celebrator.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. You have to just start. Don’t let fear or perfectionism get in the way of putting your product/service out there. It’s not going to be 100% right the day you launch. We were once told that starting a business is only 30,000 simple steps: so just start by taking the first step and put one foot in front of the other.
2. This is not a fairytale, and it’s going to be harder than you think. There will be no one to rescue you, wave magic dust on you, or press an easy button for you. There are no shortcuts. You are the you, or in our case as a partnership, we are the we. You have to live and work with that conviction every day.
3. Having a co-founder is like being in a marriage. Choosing the person you go into business with/co-found a company with is possibly the single most important decision you will make (just like who you choose to marry). Make sure your vision and values are aligned. Choose someone with strengths/weaknesses to compliment yours. You’ll have to put in the “work” to keep the “spark” alive. And you both have to be committed to self-growth to bring out the best in each other (and in the business.)
4. Pay attention to the signs and to your gut. Good and bad. For us, we’ve had a few — what we call “God Winks” — along the way that have inspired us to keep going and/or pivot what we were doing. We’ve also had strong gut feelings about certain situations where we knew we needed to cut ties with someone, and so we did. You can waste a lot of time and energy trying to make something work when it’s not meant to.
5. Change or die… is really the key to everything. And that’s a challenge when we are all creatures of habit. Change is hard and uncomfortable which is why most people resist it. But in business if you don’t change, pivot, automate, calibrate… you will fail.

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

The home is at the heart of our mission– making it (home) a better, more joyful place. We have been fortunate enough to give back to our community in a way that is tied to the home through several cause marketing campaigns. Our beneficiaries have included the victims of the fires in Northern California, as well as a local non-profit called Grateful Gatherings that helps provide temporary housing for displaced families.

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.

We sound like a broken record but the home is at the heart of our mission– making it (home) a better, more peaceful, joyful, happy place. If there is peace and joy in the home, there is peace and joy in the world. We hope to inspire people to spend more time *celebrating* life more with family/friends to then spread love and joy to others.

And also, we are not superhuman. Whoever and wherever you are reading this article… you too can start a company. Just take that first step. If we can do, it you can do it!

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.

Our icon is Sara Blakeley — we would just die to have breakfast with her! We are so inspired by her and her life/entrepreneurial journey. She is the ultimate *non-typical* or non-prototype founder. She proudly shares that she failed the LSATs before taking a job at Disney. Then, she had a personal problem that she set out ot solve, knowing she would be helping other women too. She was rejected by many male makers. She persisted, and she has created a billion dollar brand by being unabashedly herself. She has done it entirely her own way. She encourages us to cast our fears aside, be ourselves, and create and follow our *own* playbook. HEY, Sara! 🙂

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

---

Female Founders: Elizabeth Voelker & Kristina Barnes of ReadyFestive On The Five Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You don’t need to be hustling 24/7 — It’s not about forcing things to happen; it’s about letting them unfold naturally. Some of my highest impact days, whether that be sales or connecting with new meditators, have been when I’m on vacation, out surfing, or chilling on my days off.

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

Jewelia Orlick is a certified meditation teacher and integrative nutrition health coach. She has guided thousands of people through simple, healing, and relatable practices to bring more calm into their lives. An advocate for brain health with a natural ability to make others feel at ease, she is a highly sought-after instructor having contributed meditation expertise across a variety of media outlets.

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

I was 16 when I sat in my first meditation class. Drawn to it as a way to enhance focus in my competitive sport background, it was a practice that I instantly fell in love with. I knew from the first moment I tried it that it was something I wanted to share with others. I had this feeling that it was somehow going to play a big part in my life. At the time, I didn’t know how or why. I was simply met with a strong gut feeling.

Flash forward a few years later, 19 years old at the time, my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. From that point on everything shifted. An alarm went off in my mind and it became imperative to me then, the importance of taking care of your brain. It’s your biggest organ, it governs everything…and yet we don’t place attention on it the same way we do our physical bodies.

Meditation became my lifeline. It was a catalyst for wellness in my own life, whilst I navigated loss and change. It kept me going, helping me confront reality in a gentle way.

Since then, I’ve studied meditation under world renowned teachers and have been leading guided meditations to help others bring more calm into their lives. The rest is history!

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?

Before I became a certified meditation teacher, there was this one studio in California that I really wanted to study at. At the time, they had no teacher training program. It didn’t exist. Despite this, I kept my hopes up that they would eventually start one. Little did I know, the owner was doing the same thing. As fate would have it, I was the first person they accepted into the program when it eventually came to life! I feel like it was collectively willed into existence.

We all have this intrinsic ability to see things before they happen, using our imagination as a kind of manifestation. It makes you realize how strong your thoughts are. I always try to be careful about the things I say and think. You never know when the Universe is listening.

From a teaching perspective, any story of long lasting change from my clients really impacts me as well. I’ve had people come to me saying they were able to cure their insomnia and majorly improve their mental health after consistently doing my meditations. It’s cool to see the impact meditation has on a physiological and neurological level.

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?

Oh gosh! So many. Truth be told, I still feel like I’m just starting out. I don’t know if I’ll ever not feel that way. With every level, comes new tasks you’ve never done before. I’d say the biggest mistake I’ve made (and continue to make at times) is thinking that everything has to be perfect. There’s always, always something that could have been done better in any project. I think the key is to do it anyway, knowing that it will never be 100% perfect.

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’m in the game of getting people’s nervous systems back into a place of rest. Meditation, from my perspective, is all about creating space. Space between where you currently are and where you’d like to be. Space between stimulus and response. Space between your habitual thoughts and what the kinder version of yourself knows to be true. I’m guiding people towards this sense of steadiness that always lives within them. From that steady place, you are better able to make decisions that not only nurture you, but the people around you and the planet.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Meditate — The practice in itself is so simple. That is what makes it attainable. Here’s an easy way to incorporate meditation into your daily routine: set a timer on your phone for 1 minute, sit or lie down (your positioning doesn’t have to be fancy) and focus on your breath. Anytime your mind starts to drift to thoughts, refocus. Find your breath again. Do this over & over. Once you get the hang of meditating for 1 minute, start to build your way up to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. Guided meditations are also a great way to get you in the habit of meditating frequently! A little support goes a long way.
2. Cold Water Exposure — While this sounds like a physical experience, it is totally a mental game. It trains you to become calm when your first instinct is to freak out. Not only that, but it encourages you to relax in the face of mental challenges. You can implement daily cold water exposure by turning your shower head as cold as it goes for the first 30 seconds of your shower or by jumping in the lake/ocean nearest you. Be sure to follow advice from experts in the field such as Wim Hof or your own trusted physician.
3. Try Doing a ‘Judgment Detox’ — A term coined by Gabby Bernstein. Try to not speak badly about anyone for a day, then a week, then a month. We tend to gossip out of habit or boredom. It doesn’t matter what they did to you or your opinion about their latest mishap. Choose silence instead. Take a deep breath to interrupt the pattern of judgment. Keep your conversations focused on you and the person you’re talking to. Nothing else. This is the quickest way to release the drama in your life and get back to a baseline of positivity.
4. Mantra — Regular use of mantra and affirmation can shift your internal dialogue to hum a more confident and supportive tune. My personal favorites are mantras for trust. Simple ones like ‘Everything is going to be okay’ or ‘I let go of worry’. With regular repetition, you learn how to self soothe and bring reassurance in the times you need it most.
5. Nature — Not only does this help us recharge, but it’s a great way to disconnect from all the to-dos on your list. Swim in natural bodies of water, go for walks, or take your workout outdoors to breathe the fresh air. It will help you feel refreshed and energized!

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

Guided group meditations! I spoke a bit about energy earlier in this interview, but collective intention is powerful. This is especially true with meditation when you have a big group of people coming together to release stress. I’m currently working on this within my modern meditation membership — SPACE. A carefully curated collection of modern day meditations — designed to support you on the good days, and the bad. Because life brings both.

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

• You don’t need to be hustling 24/7 — It’s not about forcing things to happen; it’s about letting them unfold naturally. Some of my highest impact days, whether that be sales or connecting with new meditators, have been when I’m on vacation, out surfing, or chilling on my days off.
• Behind every ‘Overnight Success’ is years in the making — It takes more time than you think. Where there is love for the craft, there can be longevity.
• Imperfect action is better than no action at all — Something that I try to remind myself of often. It will likely always feel scary and big putting yourself out there. Taking action despite imperfection is key.
• No one is as far off as you think — You have every connection you need. While influential people may feel far away, they are never out of reach.
• No doesn’t mean never, it just means no for right now — Taught to me by my mentor, Selena Soo. No doesn’t mean never, so (even though it’s challenging) try to hold out hope when you’re met with a disappointing answer. It may not be the right timing now, but it may be that way so that something even more impactful can happen down the line.

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

Definitely mental health. There is a lot of uncertainty in our world. Uncertainty breeds anxiousness and, if not properly supported, can lead to health issues. In addition to this, there is a lot of pressure to constantly be moving & operating at 100% all the time. Gentleness, I believe, is the way through. What if we operated from a calm place rather than rushing through life all the time? If we accepted where we were, as opposed to always wanting to be somewhere else? Vision and planning are important. Of course they are, but life is happening now. Practice presence.

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

My newsletter on my website is where I send out free guided meditations, mantras, & other supportive resources. I also hang out on Instagram @jeweliaorlickmeditation

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Thank you so much for having me. This was great!

---

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Listen to your body. At first it whispers, then it yells, then it screams! Bodily feelings and sensations often alert us to problems such as stress, even if we don’t realize it. It’s important to stay connected to your body and pay attention to what it may be telling you in the form of tension, pain, or fatigue.

As a part of my series about the “5 Things Anyone Can Do To Optimize Their Mental Wellness”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jana Wu, LCSW, LADC.

Jana Wu, LCSW, LADC is a program manager and leads Mountainside Treatment Center’s outpatient center in Chappaqua, New York. She is a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor. Jana brings passion to her clinical work with holistic approaches, evidence-informed best practices, and a commitment to social justice. Over the past two decades, she has focused on veterans’ mental health, substance abuse treatment, end-of-life transitions, generational trauma, and resilience. She has foundations in somatic awareness, meditation, and breathwork, which informs her practice.

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 started my career in health care in New York City 2001, and I also completed my first yoga teacher training around the same time. This was an intense time — I was living in New York during 9/11, working at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and teaching yoga at a community center in Queens that served firefighters and police officers. The collective trauma was palpable and overwhelming at times. I knew I wanted to be of service to others but was not quite sure of my path. I took some years away from hospital work and worked as a personal assistant in Manhattan and found the best part of my job was just listening to my clients and being present to their lives in a deeply intimate way.

I decided to study social work at Smith College because they had a psychodynamic lens and an antiracism mission since the ’90s. I chose social work over psychology as I was driven to the social justice component of the field and the idea of studying how people relate and engage with the systems around them. I have always found people remarkably interesting to study and I love the process of change and bearing witness to change.

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

That is hard — I often say there is never a dull day working in substance use disorders treatment! People have the most colorful lives and stories that you can imagine, and the potential for change is endless.

What continually inspires me is seeing humans’ capacity for change and their ability to reinvent themselves and move towards their values. During my career, I have worked in residential programs, detox, VA hospitals serving veterans, and outpatient private care. I have had clients reach out to me after 12 years to tell me how they are doing — and many are still sober! It is amazing to me that through many career moves and location changes, people have found me. I have run into clients while walking down the street in Boulder, Colorado, in a coffee shop in Del Mar, California, and on the beach in south Florida. On the beach, a mother of a former client came up to me and hugged me and told me how she remembered how safe she felt leaving her son with me, because, she said, “You seemed happy and warm… It made me feel like this could be a good place for him.” These moments strike me the most: when I get to reconnect with clients I have worked so intimately with outside of treatment in the fullness of their lives.

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 don’t know if it’s funny, but one “mistake” I made early on was becoming perhaps too invested in my first clients. At that point, everything is so new, and there’s a tendency to treat these early clients like a precious Fabergé egg. But at a certain point you realize you have to pull back a bit not only so you can see the case more objectively, but also have the time and bandwidth to serve all of your clients and maintain your own emotional well-being.

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

I’m particularly grateful to a supervisor I had at the VA in San Antonio. She was a clinical social worker and had an incredible rapport with clients and staff and had been at the VA for over 40 years, serving veterans through several different conflicts and generations. She taught me that clinical supervision is sacred, and that social work is a craft you cultivate like an apprenticeship. She created a place and space for me to stay curious yet grounded in best clinical practices of social work.

It struck me as remarkable that she was a mixed-race woman of Asian descent from Indonesia that served a predominantly male population from the 1970s to the 2010s and was able to execute therapeutic interventions with confidence and skill. She taught me how to command a room as a therapist bringing all of myself in, including being a biracial woman too who had not served in the military but was able to provide clinical services to veterans. The embodied confidence I saw in her I have carried with me in my own career as a female working with mostly male clients and how to navigate differences with ease.

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

It feels cliché but take care of yourself and your colleagues. This work can be draining at times, and I have found I thrive when bolstered by a loving team that cares about the work that I do as much as I do. It can be emotionally demanding working with clients and families that are going through some of the hardest times of their lives. Allow yourself to be supported by your team. If you are in private practice, find your supports and seek out other clinicians that you can process with and get supervision from.

For many colleagues, working towards their goals in conjunction with others builds a sense of connection and accountability. When we do things together, we can celebrate our successes as collective achievements. We have a greater sense of ownership, and we can receive feedback as well as support from those who cheer us on when our intrinsic motivation is lower.

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

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Jon Acuff writes in Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done that “the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism…” and his research has found that “people who have fun are 43 percent more successful” in achieving goals. His research found that when people are engaged in their pursuits, enjoy what they are doing, and find meaning in the process, their efforts are more successful and sustainable.

Despite the heaviness of the work, there should be elements of levity and fun at times for staff. This could take the form of team-building activities such as going to an exercise class or a sports game together. It’s very important to create an environment where people can be open to feedback, honest, and vulnerable with each other. In working in a therapeutic milieu, you need to support your coworkers, and they should be there to support you as well. Every year I try to do a few team-building activities with my staff. Some have included cacti terrarium building, a group yoga class, and playing UNO as a team for an hour. It is important to note that many of us spend more time at work than at home so we want to make our work environment a place that people want to come and connect to.

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?

Limit caffeine. Caffeine is in so much of what we consume daily, including coffee, tea, chocolate, and energy drinks, that it can be difficult to appreciate how much it’s overused. Limiting caffeine has been found to reduce anxiety, improve deep rest and sleep, balance our hormones, and improve healthy digestion.

I love coffee, and often say it is my first love. Working in the substance abuse field, where coffee and recovery seem to go hand in hand, I at one point found myself drinking up to four to six cups of coffee or tea a day. This created a steady feeling of a rush but led to disturbed sleep, increased rumination, moodiness, and exhaustion. I initially scaled down to black and green tea and then let go of caffeine all together. After the initial discomfort I have found resumed energy and more of an ability to pause before reacting, a greater sense of ease, and most importantly actually resting when I am tired.

Choose travel in whatever capacity you can. Get out and see the diversity of the world, including in your own country and community. Even local “staycations” can refresh our perspective. No matter how busy I have felt at work or how much financial fear I feel, I have never once regretted traveling. I have been fortunate to live all over the country, from New York, California, and Texas to Washington and Colorado, and have been continually amazed by the diversity of our culture in the United States. During the height of the pandemic, I like many found little adventures daily in slowing down to walk around more purposefully in my own neighborhood.

Accept you may never have “balance.” Finding balance means constantly striving for equilibrium. We need to learn to continually adjust. We can’t stay static. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, we must be able to change our expectations and plans when disruptions arise.

Many people are concerned with trying to balance “having it all,” and I think we can have “most of it all”, though maybe not all at the same time. When it comes to juggling careers, family, education, parenting, passions, and other facets of our lives, inevitably some things will be prioritized or deprioritized at any one time. It’s OK to recognize that we can’t do everything all at once.

When you feel overwhelmed or bogged down with too much to do and not enough time, connect to what is most important to get done for that day.

Practice gratitude. I think that gratitude can be a choice, not just a feeling. I believe the old adage that sometimes I have to “act myself” into the right way of thinking, and one way of doing that is maintaining a gratitude practice, such as journaling centered on what I could be grateful for even if I do not feel grateful at that moment. You can also take time to meditate or list the things you’re thankful for. This helps us to show up as the person we want to be and reaffirms what matters to us and what we have already.

Another avenue is to connect with friends and family members and let them know how much they mean to you. This is something we might not think to do in everyday life, but it can help put into perspective how valuable these relationships are, while brightening someone else’s day.

Listen to your body. At first it whispers, then it yells, then it screams! Bodily feelings and sensations often alert us to problems such as stress, even if we don’t realize it. It’s important to stay connected to your body and pay attention to what it may be telling you in the form of tension, pain, or fatigue.

One way we can stay attuned to our body is to slow down and pause. Scan your body to figure out where you’re holding tension. Is your brow furrowed? Is your jaw clenched? Do you feel tightness in your shoulders? Once you’ve identified this body part, place your awareness there and see if you can let go and ease the tension in those areas.

This enhanced inner awareness, also known as “somatic awareness,” helps us stay attentive not only to our bodies but to emotions and feelings we may not even recognize we have.

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?

Take a break from social media! Remember that posts are usually highly edited and scripted. Get into your life outside of the screen.

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

So many. I love books about substance use disorders such as “Beautiful Boy” by David Sheff and “Drinking, A Love Story” by Caroline Knapp, as well as works not specifically centered on substance use, like “When Things Fall Apart” by Pema Chodron.

“Beautiful Body” expresses the impact of substance abuse on families and illustrates how far parents are willing to go for their children. “Drinking, A Love Story,” is the story of a brilliant writer who cannot get “unstuck” from alcohol, and I think it’s very honest and well-written. “When Things Fall Apart” beautifully describes the feeling that life does not go the way you planned it, and that you sometimes need to change direction and recalibrate.

I also appreciate the “The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous”. I find the Big Book’s descriptions of feeling and emotional states continue to be timely despite the books datedness at times.

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

I would start a movement to destigmatize substance use disorders. We all have known or loved people who have struggled in some way with substances. It is one of the most common human experiences we have but it is not openly talked about. People have been using substances to change the way they feel since the beginning of time and some certainly maladaptively, and I find that despite not knowing anyone that has not been touched by substance use disorders, we still do not discuss it without shrouding it in secrecy and often shame.

Removing the stigma also has a direct, real-world impact on people who are struggling with addiction. I do believe that everyone should be aware of Narcan (Naloxone), how to obtain it, and how to use this life-saving medication that can stop a fatal overdose from opiates. Discussing Narcan should be just as routine as any other topic in health care in the United States.

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

This is an often repeated saying in treatment that the Chinese character for crisis is comprised of two pictorial charters; one meaning danger, the other meaning opportunity. The message is that difficult times give you an opportunity to choose a new direction and, with that opportunity, to pivot in the direction of your values.

I see this lived out when a client finds the opportunity for change in a very difficult situation and is able to reorient and start the process of leading a new life towards the direction of a life that will give them purpose and meaning.

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

My LinkedIn and Mountainside profile pages.

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

---

Jana Wu Of Mountainside Treatment Center: 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.

Dr Eric Laarakker of Ańalemma Water: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Eat organic vegetables grown in the soil with a healthy microbiome. Personally I only like to eat vegetables which have been grown bio-dynamically as we call it here in Europe. Biodynamic farming is a special way of farming developed by Rudolph Steiner almost 100 years ago, whereby taking care of the soil is one of the most important parts of the farming process. A healthy gut contains over 1000 bacteria’s etc. who actually take care of a big part of your health on almost every level. You have to maintain your microbiome. This is very important. Also fermented food like kimchi is very healthy and feeding your gut in a positive way.

As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Eric Laarakker.

Dr Eric Laarakker, DVM is the founder of Den Hoek , a holistic clinic for people and animals in the Netherlands. He is an entrepreneur, pioneer, scientist, author, teacher, developer of new forms of medication, healing techniques and devices, and most of all an idealist. Eric is one of the developers and owners of Analemma water , Information medicine and Phytonics.

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?

Thank you so much for having me. At the age of 17 (41 years ago) me and my brother heard that for the first time that a fitness school opened in a place called Venlo, about 25 km from the village we were born in the south of the Netherlands and we immediately became members. In that time there was almost no coaching available so we had to invent ourselves, by making a lot of mistakes, how to train your body.

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

I remember very well a story about a very sick horse which opened my eyes that there is a lot more possible than we think. More than 25 years ago a very sick Frisian horse came to my clinic who had severe liver cirrhosis. It had just come from the University clinic where they wanted to euthanize him because he was uncurable sick. To be honest I completely agreed with the university clinic and didn’t want to treat this horse. The owner begged me to at least try something. Finally I agreed to give that horse a chance and gave him some treatments (sound, herbs and acupuncture etc.). In a week the horse became better and completely recovered within a couple of weeks. The University clinic could not believe it (and me either) and did some new blood tests. According to the blood tests the situation of the liver deterioration, the horse should have been dead with such a blood result. But in front of me there was a horse standing that seemed perfectly normal. We decided to look at the horse and not at the blood tests. This horse lived for another 10 years and did many marathons. Unfortunately the horse died in a accident. All these years the values of the blood samples were extremely bad but he seems to cope with it. It was a big lesson to me that first of all, we don’t know a lot and that we have to look more at the patients instead of only looking at blood tests, X-rays etc.

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?

There was a funny thing that happened to me when I was probably at the age of 18, when I started my study to become a veterinarian at the university in Gent, Belgium. Because I could not find a fitness center over there, I wasn’t able to train for over a half year. When I finally found one, I was surprised how easy it was to work with the same weights as I ended a half year before. So I started training in the same way as I ended. The next day my whole body but especially my pectoral muscles were so swollen and painful that I looked like a woman with breasts and it took me almost 3 month before I could put on my normal jacket. It was a big lessen for me to learn that after a longer break you have to build up slowly and not be fooled by what you think your body can handle after a long break.

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

During my study to become a vet, I wanted to learn everything about how the body functions, not only animals, but the human body as well. I decided not only to study regular medicine, but all the forms there are. So I became an acupuncturist, chiropractor, osteopath, homeopath, specialist in supplements, all kind of different energy and healing techniques etc. I swallowed almost everything what I could find to read and to learn about the body, both on humans and animals. I started a clinic with a staff of 21 people where veterinarians and Medical Doctors work together which is pretty unique on this planet. I personally do both, cure people and horses. Because horses have a shorter life cycle, I learned a lot in 30 years of my career as a doctor about the influence of sports in a whole lifecycle. It gave me a good insight in the do’s and especially the don’ts, if you want to keep your body healthy for the long run. Because I coached many sport horses from foal until death I got a pretty good insight in how to keep them going healthy and strong for a long term, instead of a short term. Lovely thing with animals is that they don’t have a placebo effect, so if an approach works, you know that it actually does. It’s not dependent on the mind’s opinion or influence. It was a remarkable testing ground that many doctors don’t get to experience.

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?

There are many people in my life who were great teachers for me and helped me to get where I am now. The biggest teacher actually is not a person but is Mother nature. I was fortunate to grow up in nature and spend most of my time in nature. It taught me to observe, to use my gut feeling, to stay more in tune and be aligned. There is nothing happening in nature without a reason. The biggest mistake we humans make these days, is that we are not in tune anymore with nature and think we are better than nature. We are part of nature and nature can heal us on many aspects.

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?

For me, those three blockages are:

1. Mostly we are not disciplined. Discipline is a very hard thing to achieve and it’s extraordinarily important. We need to make our health a priority. Without discipline you can’t create anything lasting in life. So being disciplined is one of the most important keys for a healthy life.

The second thing is that there is so much misinformation out there, or better yet mistaken interpretations of existent information. For example, look at the information about sugar and you will find very few yes’s on sugar and a lot of no’s. The truth is that craving for sugar is actually very normal because sugar is not abundantly available in nature but it is extraordinarily abundant in the grocery stores, restaurants and bakeries. We are fitted for nature and not the grocery store. If we understand this then we adapt and behave accordingly.

The third thing is that science can seemingly contradict itself. You can find very opposite studies on the same topic. Usually the lazy mind tends to accept the answer that is most convenient in the moment. We should be very diligent in our research and use our discrimination to deduct what is truth and what is not. I would suggest finding the experts you know are trustworthy and follow their advice. In that way you don’t have to spend hours on research.

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.)

1. Eat organic vegetables grown in the soil with a healthy microbiome. Personally I only like to eat vegetables which have been grown bio-dynamically as we call it here in Europe. Biodynamic farming is a special way of farming developed by Rudolph Steiner almost 100 years ago, whereby taking care of the soil is one of the most important parts of the farming process. A healthy gut contains over 1000 bacteria’s etc. who actually take care of a big part of your health on almost every level. You have to maintain your microbiome. This is very important. Also fermented food like kimchi is very healthy and feeding your gut in a positive way.

2. Get away as much as you can from your mobile phones and computers. Besides the negative influences of EMF radiation, there is the huge issue of information overload. I read somewhere that these days we have to process the same amount of information in one day as we had to process throughout an entire life in the middle-ages.

A couple of weeks ago I was running and I saw a couple of deer standing next to the road. It was an amazingly beautiful sight. I decided to stop and see if other runners, hikers and bikers would notice it and how would they react. Around thirty people passed by, all of them had their headphones on and nobody noticed these amazing, beautiful creatures in play. We need to plug in to Nature as often as possible. Our health and wellness depends on it.

3. Exercise in nature if possible. Nature grounds you and feeds you. If I run in the Forrest I’m capable of running about 25% further then when I run indoors or in urban areas. Nature, especially trees, can feed you with that energy you need to do that extra mile.

4. Breathing, the way you breath is very important. Try to exercise without breathing through your mouth. Your mouth is for eating and your nose is for breathing. There is a lot of discussion on what is the best way to breathe. I personally like the breathing exercises as thought in the book of “the oxygen advantage” by Patrick McKoewn and the breathing techniques from Wim Hof (the Iceman). I also find the cold techniques of Wim Hof very beneficial for your health.

5. Water is for me the most important part. Especially the quality and the structure of water.

Not a lot of people are aware that 99% of our molecules are water! Our body is 70% water in MASS, but 99% in molecules. That makes water the most important element of your body. There is almost no process in your body where water doesn’t play a key role. I was fortunate to be a part of the scientific team that studied water and discovered extraordinary worlds hidden in it. We found that there are two structures of water, coherent and chaotic. If water molecules are in line with each other and are working together we call it coherent water. Coherent water has powerful health and wellness benefits and it carries much more power than regular water. Unfortunately, most waters on this planet are chaotic. What means that the water molecules do not work in harmony and therefore have no real power. You can compare it with light. A normal 5-Watt light bulb is rather week and doesn’t t give a lot of light, but a 5-Watt laser which is coherent, focused light is much stronger and much more powerful. Our team at Water & Light managed to create Analemma water, a very stable, full spectrum coherent water which has tremendous effects on all living things. It regenerates the body from within, it has huge positive impact on the gut microbiome, it harmonizes the brainwaves, it makes the body and mind more aligned. In our research we found an increase in the mitochondrial activity and Biophotons in cells. We found that water is actually the bio-quantum computer, it’s the broadband absorber, receiver and transmitter of information. More and more proof has been found that our bodies are quantum biological systems. Drinking Analemma water is one of the easiest ways to radically enhance the health and wellness of your body and mind.

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?

There are a lot of reasons to do your daily exercise. Most people do their daily exercise for weight loss or to gain muscle, but there are much more important reasons. Our body is made for moving. The biggest part of our body is water, and water needs to move to do its job. By exercising your body, the water in your connective tissue, the matrix of your body, will move more freely and this creates numerous benefits for your health and wellness.

Research shows that keeping your muscles in shape, especially when you become older, works magic in preserving your brain function and mental health in general.

Furthermore when you combine exercise with the right breathing techniques and proper food and water you positively influence your microbiome. Microbiome is one of the most decisive parts of the body for physical and mental health. There is a very strong connection between your gut and your brain through one of the most important nerves, the Nervus Vagus.

My view on the body is that it is a body is a colony of microbes in a pool of water, run by the cosmos. Of course proteins, minerals, vitamins etc. play a role but we are too focused on these ingredients and forget the other 3 most important parts.

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

Exercising, like everything in life, has to be in balance. Too much exercise is not beneficial for your body and it has been proven to have a negative effect on your immune system.

Absolutely critical addition to exercising, in my eye, are breathing techniques combined with cold showers. Walk as much as you can and meditate. I’m even walking when I’m on the phone or when I’m in a meeting. Your body is made to move!

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

A book that comes to my mind is “The Universal One” by Walter Russel. Reading this book very much resonated with the way I perceived the world. Since I was a little kid I always thought in terms of energy, not form and I realized that what I see with my eyes is not always the truth.

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 believe we need to start educating people on the extraordinary importance of water. People perceive water as a simple, ordinary element, yet it is a building block of everything we see. Since 99% of our molecules are water, we are basically very clever H2O! That’s why the quality of the water we drink, the quality of the water in our environment, has a profound influence on every aspect of our lives and the state of our planet. The mission of Analemma water is to make all bodies of water on this planet coherent. In that way all people, all animals and all plants would thrive. This water revolution could change our entire planet in only a decade.

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

I Have a couple of them.

Not Matter but quantum information is the building block of everything.

The greater the challenge, the greater the wisdom. This is what light yields.

And the third one from Nikola Tesla: If you want the secret of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration (not in matter).

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 🙂

Bruce Lipton and I would have a very inspiring conversation I think. Unfortunately my biggest heroes don’t live anymore like Walter Russel, Nikola Tesla and Victor Schauberger.

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

https://www.facebook.com/analemmawater

https://www.instagram.com/analemmawater_/

https://analemma-water.com/

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

---

Dr Eric Laarakker of Ańalemma Water: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Page Schult of Topanga.io On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be resourceful. I learned this in n my first job, where I supported large consulting and private equity firms with due diligence. The pace of work was fast, and the subject matters were niche. There was not a playbook or the luxury of waiting for someone to tell you the answer — you had to use resources at your disposal and figure it out yourself.

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

Page Schult is co-founder and CEO of Topanga.io. The common thread throughout her career has been a passion for understanding how people interact with the changing world around them. Page started her career in consulting and market research role before shifting gears digital media strategy and eComm operations in the CPG space. Today, she is a member of the founding team of a VC-backed, ClimateTech start-up that’s creating the future of consumption.

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

I’ve always been drawn to understanding what makes people — and the world around us — tick. I love people-watching in the airport and on city streets. This passion has been a common thread throughout my career.

At the start, I was leading media buying and audience strategy on digital channels like Facebook, Youtube, and Snapchat. I worked with 21st Century Fox and the New York Times doing brand name projects. While I loved the consumer insights piece and working to understand what motivated someone to click on an ad or watch a video, my heart wasn’t in the day-to-day execution or subject matter.

I am always most at ease in the natural environment — hiking, backpacking, strolling through a park. I started thinking — how can I combine a love of the outdoors with an endless curiosity to understand human behavior?

Through this, I started down the path of focusing on sustainability and climate. My first stint in climate was working for a compostable tableware branding, running digital marketing strategy and eCommerce operations. This experience taught me how to have a challenger brand mentality and what it means to run a sustainable business, both environmentally and economically speaking.

Environmental sustainability is like a loose thread on a t-shirt; once you start pulling on it, you realize how interconnected everything is. From the wildfires that rage here in SoCal to the single-use plastic piece that plague favorite hiking trails and surf breaks, it became clear that daily human behavior and the state of the natural world are intimately interconnected.

While there are many large-scale industries focused on human and climate — solar energy and electric vehicles — I realized that no one was focused on the day-to-day systems that create massive amounts of waste in our world. Ultimately I realized I wanted to create a system that allowed consumers to participate in their daily rituals but in a way that is less destructive to our natural environments.

That’s when Topanga was born, alongside my two awesome co-founder, Adam Bailey and Max Olshansky.

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

At Topanga, we’re building the future of consumption. Our goal is to challenge the trash can and create a platform that serves as the digital infrastructure to create a new economic model. We are trying to move businesses and consumers from linear to circular economies. Ones that add and create new value through reusing assets — like coffee mugs and to-go containers — vs. throwing them away.

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’m sure there’s been so many — we’ve learned and laughed at ourselves a lot throughout this journey. For example, before we were a software company, we were a milkman-style closed-loop market. We procured products from local farmers, packaged them for consumers in reusable glass containers, and dropped them off at your doorstep.

One of our products was a cacio e pepe, an Italian pasta sauce made from butter and parmesan. It’s rich, delicious, and… impossibly hard to scoop and package when frozen. But we didn’t know that! So we purchased 30lbs and thought it would be our best selling product.

The result? Customers loved it, but it was impossible to package. It not only literally broke our kitchenwares trying to scoop it frozen but also broke our operations!

The takeaway lesson? It’s essential to have systems thinking approach to solving problems. Think through every detail — just because something makes sense on paper, is it really going to translate to the real world?

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

To me, the best leaders are those who are able to lead by example and give their team members space and confidence to execute themselves while always being a resource should questions arise. At my previous job, Jessica, our Director of Operations, exemplified this perfectly.

While I was not directly on her team, she was always available to help me problem solve how to build an excel model or think through warehouse SOPs. Rather than tell her direct reports how to do something, she made sure the tools and resources were accessible for them to solve the problem independently.

When the team won, she made sure everyone felt they were part of the success. When there were challenges, she was right there in the trenches helping to problem solve.

I believe a strong leader never has to be the loudest person in the room but rather always knows how to cast the spotlight on those around them. This is an inspiration I’ll take with me throughout the rest of my career!

In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?

Yeah, it is a complicated word.

Being disruptive is good when you’re challenging people to think differently about an established mindset or behavior. For example, Topanga is disrupting single-use consumption. Our goal is to get people to think twice each time they trash a coffee cup or food container they used for a mere matter of minutes. We want to disrupt this behavior and encourage questioning — why are we okay with continually sending things to landfills when we know we could do better?

That said, anything that aims to disrupt requires a systems thinking approach. For example, if I challenge or change Thing A, how does that impact Thing B, C, D, etc.? Its the role of the disruptor to take responsibility for how their challenger mindset might have ripple effects.

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

1. Be resourceful. I learned this in n my first job, where I supported large consulting and private equity firms with due diligence. The pace of work was fast, and the subject matters were niche. There was not a playbook or the luxury of waiting for someone to tell you the answer — you had to use resources at your disposal and figure it out yourself.
2. Ask for help but have a solution in mind. The first part of this is pretty standard advice — if you cannot figure something out, and you’ve taken a stab it (see above on being resourceful), then absolutely speak up and ask for help. However, what I’ve learned as a junior employee and senior-level manager is that asking for help will be much more effective when you come to the strategy with a solution or idea in mind. This shows team members that you’re a strategic thinker and helps you learn muscle memory of problem-solving so that next time you face a similar problem, you will be better equipped to solve it.
3. Make sure where you’re going is where you want to be. This applies to business strategy and daily life. A senior leader in my first job advised me to take a moment each year on my birthday and answer the following question: is where you’re going where you want to be? This helps ensure that the work that you’re doing on a day-to-day basis is a step toward a long-term goal. And if you’re not on track, then you can make a plan to redirect yourself.

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

Oh yeah, we’re just getting started! Topanga is interesting in that we’re introducing digital tools that change how people behave in the physical world. While some of our initial clients are in the food delivery and grocery delivery space, there is so much opportunity to challenge all consumer categories.

Each time something is thrown away, we want people to think, “what if this piece of trash didn’t exist?” “What if we designed a system that retained value and didn’t create waste?”

Our goal is to raise awareness and intentionality in consumption. Next up is starting to build a community of curious people interested in joining this mission. Beyond that, we’re rolling out some partnerships with bigger brands in the coming months and couldn’t be more excited.

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

While I’ve had some wonderful male mentors in my career, I’ve also been in many rooms where men listen to men. I’ve seen this behavior firsthand as a female founder and CEO alongside two (amazing and respectful) male co-founders. Unfortunately, this behavior feels exacerbated in the venture capital ecosystem, which is frustrating because if those with the capital to support the businesses of tomorrow are not listening to new voices, how can we progress towards fair and equitable access to funding?

I believe there is a genuine intention to give underrepresented groups a voice, but cultural assumptions, actions, and behaviors still need to catch up.

If anyone reading this wants to join me in brainstorming how to ensure actions match words and intentions, please reach out to me!

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

Two books have fundamentally changed my perspective.

One is Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donatella Meadows and Diana Wright. While this is technically a textbook, don’t be scared! It’s an essential and worthwhile framework on how to make sense of the interconnectedness of everything from supply chains to natural ecosystems. It will teach you tools for how to strategically approach problem-solving.

The second is Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. To me, this is another book that helped adjust my perspective on business and life. It inspired me to embrace intentionality, be kind, and work hard for myself, those around me, and the future of our world.

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

Per the above, I think people are at their best when acting intentionally and leading with curiosity. More specifically, I would love to be part of a collective movement surrounding changing our daily consumption habits, encouraging all of us to ask, how is what I do today going to impact the world around me tomorrow?

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

My all-time favorite quote is from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest. — “…You have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”

I’m happiest when I’m challenged, doing stuff I love, and remembering not to take everything too seriously. We have one life to lead, and it truly is a journey. If we fail to embrace the experience of navigating to the destination, then we will be hardpressed to appreciate it once we arrive.

How can our readers follow you online?

Follow myself and Topanga.io on linkedin or sign-up for Topanga’s quarterly digest, Trash Talk.

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

---

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

Female Founders: Gina Bremer of LiftedViz On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You can delegate but you can’t escape. I read quite a few books on starting your own business before I took the leap. A common theme was building your team by understanding your strengths and your weaknesses and partnering with people that compliment you. I did the self-discovery exercises and they reinforced things that I already knew about myself: I’m not great at sales and taxes/paperwork stress me out. So I took their advice and partnered with people who are really great at those things. In my fantasy world, this meant that I wasn’t going to have to be involved. It was delegated. But as a leader of an organization, delegated does not mean it’s outside of your purview. At some level and cadence, you will be involved in all areas of the organization.

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

Gina Bremer, CEO and founder of LiftedViz, a data visualization and consulting firm that helps organizations create intuitive business reporting as an alternative to overwhelming spreadsheets. Gina has produced data visualizations for Fortune 500 and non-profits working in Tableau, Microsoft Power BI and Google Data Studio.

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?

Yes, of course. Growing up, I didn’t know a career like this existed. Math came easy to me as a child and I loved it. I loved it to the extent that I would ask my parents to quiz me on my multiplication tables and beg my older brothers to teach me what they were learning in their math classes. The challenge as I entered college and prepared to enter the workforce was the lack of creativity, design, and social aspects of the field. Having a creative-analytical brain, I felt like all the paths in front of me pushed me towards one side or the other. In a fortunate turn of events I chose analytics, completed my mathematics degree, and in my first role as an entry-level data analyst I was introduced to the budding world of modern data visualization.

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

We couldn’t find anybody to paint or put together furniture that wasn’t 6 months out, so our executive team spent a month outfitting the new office! I am now a master at removing drywall screws and spackling (in addition to data viz)! Also, our intern hiring weekend data viz workshop was amazing! We weren’t sure how it would go putting our vetted intern candidates through our entire LV5D process to define, design, data prep, develop and deliver a data visualization for a real volunteer customer. But it turned out great for us and for the intern candidates we hired, and even for the ones we didn’t. We got a great feel for the skills and personalities of the candidates and they got a feel for us and for the work that they would be doing.

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 even have this one on video somewhere. I started this business because of my passion and expertise in the field, not my business-savvy. So there were times when an overwhelming number of things to learn and tasks to accomplish made me forget about the basics. Like being able to actually unlock the doors to your new office. We were so excited for our first day heading to our new space after a few long months touring office spaces and negotiating lease terms. Me and one of my partners, Stephanie, showed up with coffee and breakfast and champagne and glasses and bags and 30 duplicate keys and phone camera in hand, ready for the grand moment. Nope not that key. Wait let me set this down.Try this one? Can you hold this? It’s not turning. Okay now it just keeps turning. Pull? Pull harder. Umm…

It took many attempts and some guidance but we did eventually unlock the door! This was a great reminder that every single part of this process takes time. We can be in such a rush that we try to skip and streamline every step, but in the end we’re in this for the journey. I will cherish and smile at this video forever.

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 am fortunate to be in the situation where I’m struggling to pick just one person for this question. When it comes to career success, I am especially grateful to my first boss in analytics, Katie Bardaro. Katie hired me right out of college and was a role model both personally and professionally. As a young female entering the tech industry, Katie showed me that it’s possible to be a trusted female tech leader who makes it to executive by 30 while being an active mother and partner. All of this while being vulnerable and human in the face of male-dominated leadership. I continue to be inspired by her career and I am proud to be following in her footsteps.

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

Founding a company is a big risk. It’s taking the leap. It means you have to truly believe in yourself.

• I believe I am good enough.
• I believe I know enough.
• I believe I can found a business, have a family, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• I believe that others will believe in me too.

For anyone these can be challenging statements to own. As women, there are fewer examples for us to look to for inspiration and confidence. To say she believed in herself and I can too.

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?

Encourage the entrepreneurial-spirited women in your life to take the leap. Tell them you believe.

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?

In my opinion, there are two main reasons. The first being that the more diversity that we have in business leadership today, the more voices we have shaping the business culture of tomorrow. Then maybe the statement “I believe I can found a business, have a family, and maintain a healthy lifestyle” gets a little easier to own. The second is for the next generation of women. If we can continue to increase the presence of female founders in the workforce, we are providing more inspiration and opportunity for young females to continue the trend, potentially reducing unconscious biases of females in leadership.

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

I think with this generation it is a myth that all male customers and employees won’t take you seriously because you’re a woman. You need to pick and choose well who you associate with, but the good guys are out there and they’ll have your back.

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

No, I don’t think everyone would enjoy the experience of founding a company. I think key traits that increase the likelihood of success are:

1. You are decisive and can be a full-time decision maker
2. You are organized
3. You thrive wearing multiple hats
4. You are comfortable with uncertainty and change

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Don’t try so hard to balance — try to blend. This piece of advice was from Erin Baker, Owner and Founder of Erin Baker’s, a thriving female-owned Bellingham-based business. Earlier this year, I attended a women in business breakfast in which Erin was on the panel. She said these words and you could hear the ah-ha moment ripple through the audience. I don’t have it word-for-word, but my takeaway was that rather than drawing hard work-life balance lines that are impossible to maintain when launching a business, you can better set yourself up for success by blending your work into your life in a way that fits and flexes with your world. By adopting this approach, I still have my plans and schedule in place, but there is significantly less self-judgment on both sides of the spectrum: the late nights and the rest days.
2. Prepare for decision fatigue. This is not just to mentally prepare yourself. It’s also to give fair warning to those in your life that it may be coming. When starting the business, I was prepared and ready to answer big questions like: What is our vision? How are we going to make money? What are our company values? I was also prepared to answer some mid-size questions like: What technologies, software, and hardware are we going to use? What is our hiring process going to be? And I thought the small questions would be a piece of cake comparatively. I was wrong. I dedicated time and energy to making the larger decisions and was able to approach them with structure and confidence. All the small questions, on the other hand, come flying at you all day long every day. So, when I get home from the office and my husband asks me what I want for dinner, my answer is often “literally anything if I don’t have to pick!”
3. Expect to change your mind. With all those decisions to make, big and small, my first reaction may not have all the information. As I learn more about different situations and experience the impact of my decisions, I will pivot from my original plan as needed. A perfect example of this was my original vision for my first cohort of interns. I wanted each intern on individual projects and dashboards to ensure that everyone got equal opportunity. I was fearful that if I were to assign partner projects that teams would divide up work based on what they were the best at and wouldn’t practice the skills they were lacking. I have since done a complete 180. From observing the team in their first three months, I found that team projects resulted in more growth as teammates were learning from the strengths of their peers.
4. Value comes in different forms. Our company is centered around enabling people to better understand and leverage data. We are all about the numbers. We have built our own dashboards to track our finances, employee resources, sales pipeline, and more. But when it comes to business, not everything is a simple equation. I do not believe that money and value should be used interchangeably.. I was recently rewarded greatly by recognizing that the return on investment for our business comes from more than just dollars in the bank. We chose to invest in our people by taking our entire team to the Tableau Conference out-of-state. This was a big ticket for us at our size and current state — and I am so glad we did it! Our team came back from this with more knowledge, ideas for business products and projects, strengthened relationships, and more trust. I don’t need a number figure to know this was a big value-add for LiftedViz.
5. You can delegate but you can’t escape. I read quite a few books on starting your own business before I took the leap. A common theme was building your team by understanding your strengths and your weaknesses and partnering with people that compliment you. I did the self-discovery exercises and they reinforced things that I already knew about myself: I’m not great at sales and taxes/paperwork stress me out. So I took their advice and partnered with people who are really great at those things. In my fantasy world, this meant that I wasn’t going to have to be involved. It was delegated. But as a leader of an organization, delegated does not mean it’s outside of your purview. At some level and cadence, you will be involved in all areas of the organization.

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

I am trying to! I am fighting for the things that are important to me like providing entry-level job opportunities into the tech world that don’t require a college degree or privileged background, building cost-effective data viz solutions for local businesses, and providing a work environment that supports mental health and a well-rounded life.

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

I would start the #trueofflinetime movement. I have been in too many tech environments in which I felt that I needed to be “on call” at all times. I would feel uncomfortable if I hadn’t checked my email in an hour-long meeting, when I had my chat notifications off, or when I stepped away to take my dog for a walk around the block during the workday. It took me starting my own business to feel comfortable in my #offlinetime. We set clear expectations, proactively plan and tackle blockers, and have made it a core part of our culture to protect against last-minute “fires’’. We have about 20 hours of collaboration time scheduled each week in which my team knows they can reach me and I know I can reach them. Outside of that, we get to connect and disconnect when it is right for us. Fight for the #trueofflinetime.

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 feel unbelievably honored to have a private breakfast with Michelle Obama. Why? So many reasons. Plus some of her inspirational-female-power-sparkles could rub off on me.

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

---

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