Day: June 21, 2022

Women In Wellness: Briana Severine of Sanare Psychosocial Rehabilitation On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

… Making meaningful CONTRIBUTION is important part of maintaining our mental wellbeing. What social causes are important to you? What organizations are in line with your values? Research and develop a way to regularly contribute to them whether that is with finances, time, skills, or other resources.

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

Briana Severine, MS, LPC, LAC is a psychotherapist and founder of Sanare Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Denver, Colorado. Briana has dedicated over 20 years of her career to the mental health field, and her dream to build an organization that would support those with chronic and persistent mental illness. Sanare’s vision is to empower people to live happy, healthy, connected lives.

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 have my Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Psychology from the California State University Long Beach and Master of Science in Developmental Psychopathology from the University of Reading, England. The University of Reading is ranked in the top one percent of universities worldwide and allowed me the opportunity to do some research in the area of trauma. I have a post-graduate certificate in Psychosocial Rehabilitation from Boston University as well as some advanced training in modalities such as CBT and Brainspotting. I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Licensed Addiction Counselor in the state of Colorado and a Certified Psychosocial Rehabilitation Practitioner through the US Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

I began my career with a passion for chronic and persistent mental health and worked at three different inpatient psychiatric facilities in Southern California. I worked as both a psychiatric tech as well as a Case Manager in these hospital units. I had the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team with psychiatrists, medical doctors, nurses, social workers, and other professionals and learned the importance of working as a team and integrating multiple perspectives as well as getting a great understanding of chronic and persistent mental illness.

Following graduate school, I then found my role at the Life Adjustment Team in Marina del Rey, California where my passion for psychosocial rehabilitation was started. LAT was one of the first companies in the country, who was doing PSR in a private setting. I learned and have integrated into my own practice the Life Adjustment Teams model of 7 Domains, 7 Principals, and 7 Needs.

I moved to Colorado and continued my work with folks in this capacity in private practice for several years. I was then recruited to work for Elements Behavioral Health, a nationally known and respected leader in residential treatment. At the time, they operated programs such as Promises Malibu and The Ranch. As a National Director of Clinical Outreach this allowed me to support families and clients who struggled with mental health or SUD to find residential treatment to support their journey to recovery. This also allowed me to forge strong relationships with local and national programs and providers. I also served as a founding volunteer to create 5280 High School, a Denver Public School that has a Recovery Program for those youth struggling with substance use and mental health.

Following this, I moved over to Director of Marketing and Admissions at Women’s Recovery, a premier trauma-integrated Intensive Outpatient Program. Here, I was able to continue those relationships with providers across the country as well as continue to help clients and families develop the most appropriate treatment course. I also served with the leadership team to help develop the clinical programming and help grow the company to expand the reach of helping women.

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?

While working as a psychosocial rehabilitation practitioner early in my career, I had the honor of working with a woman who was facing having her home repossessed by the state due to it not meeting health standards. This woman had diligently been going to individual therapy multiple times per week for close to a decade. During this time, she was hoarding to the point that her house was unlivable. After a very successful career early in her life, she had not resumed working. She rarely left her house other than to go to therapy and had no friends or other meaningful relationships. Despite having immense financial resources, she was often eating out of tin cans and purchased new clothes to wear to her appointments because her washing machine hadn’t worked in years.

Armed with the tools that I had learned in PSR, myself and her other mental health team member went to work rebuilding her life. Over time we were able to save her home, get her re-engaged in meaningful part-time work, and she began to dance again, which fulfilled her passion and allowed her to connect with others.

-Through this experience and many other similar experiences, I was inspired by the change that people can make with the right amount of support.

-For people that struggle with more significant mental health disorders, the typical “prescriptions” of care are often not enough. All the counseling in the world doesn’t change lives if people don’t know how to apply them or follow through on them in the real world.

-Healing and transformation happen in the context of safe, supportive, therapeutic relationships. Ultimately, to reduce shame and propel growth people need to be seen, heard, and valued for who they are.

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

I was working at a psychiatric hospital and a woman was admitted following multiple suicide attempts and experiencing auditory hallucinations (hearing voices). This woman previously lived a very successful and connected life working as a dentist. She had been married and raised children without any prior history of mental health issues. Most of the members of the treatment team automatically assumed and diagnosed her with schizophrenia, due to her family having a history. A spectacular general medicine doctor came onto our unit and started asking questions, “Has she had an MRI?”, “Where are her labs?”, “Has anyone examined her and done a full medical workup?”. Other members of her treatment team seemed skeptical and had their minds made up to recommend her to a long-term psychiatric facility. This doctor kept advocating, pushing for medical testing, and found that this woman had several tumors in her brain.

The lesson that I learned from this early career experience was the value of staying curious. No matter how many times we have seen a “situation”, making assumptions without thorough investigation can lead to decisions that impact other people’s lives. Sometimes the questions that cause other people to roll their eyes are the very ones that need to be asked.

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 founded Sanare Colorado, a mental health agency that specializes in psychosocial rehabilitation. We work with adults that have more moderate to severe mental illness in their homes and in the community to support them to learn to live happy, connected, purposeful lives. The individualized mental health care we provide helps them to create strategies for success, learn independent living skills, find effective coping for their symptoms, follow through on tasks & responsibilities, as well as support them to more successfully fill their social, familial, and vocational roles.

What I know to be true is the person who is living with the mental illness is not the only one impacted by their disease. They have mothers, fathers, siblings, partners, children, and others around them who also experience fear, pain, and loss to see them struggle. If during my career I can positively impact a couple thousand clients, my hope is that it continues a ripple effect into their larger families and communities and potentially impact tens of thousands of people.

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

I learned from my mentor Pete Linnett that we all have seven basic needs to be happy and fulfilled.

-It is important to have things to look forward to, increasing VARIETY in your life. Have one small thing each week planned to look forward to. This could be coffee with a friend, getting your nails done, or going to your favorite dog park. Once a quarter, plan a larger event that will spark joy. This can be a concert, tickets to an art fair, or your favorite sporting event. Once a year plan a vacation, road trip, or staycation to mentally unwind.

-Equally important to having a variety of things to look forward to, we need CONSISTENCY in those things that help maintain our physical and mental health. What areas of your life do you avoid, that have a negative impact on you? Opening your mail, paying your bills, getting to the gym regularly? Make an accountability plan to follow through on just one of those areas for the next 30 days and see how your stress level can decrease.

– CONNECTEDNESS is a vital part of us being social animals. Who is the one person in your life that you haven’t spent one-on-one time within a few months? Reach out to them and get some time on the books!

-GROWTH is an important part of maintaining our wellbeing. What is one thing that interests you that you have been too afraid to try? Join that hot yoga class, take a lesson in pottery, or go to a local meetup group.

-Making meaningful CONTRIBUTION is important part of maintaining our mental wellbeing. What social causes are important to you? What organizations are in line with your values? Research and develop a way to regularly contribute to them whether that is with finances, time, skills, or other resources.

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

Breaking the stigma of mental health. Having a therapist, psychiatrist, or other type of mental health provider should be as normal as having a dental cleaning each year!

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

-It won’t always be easy, but it will be worth it. Taking on a career in a field like mental health means that you will be in touch with the true suffering in life. But this career also offers the opportunity to see transformation, healing, and rebirth as well.

-Never stop learning. There is no right or wrong answer in most of mental health and we are always developing new treatment methods to help people. It is a field that requires continuous growth to stay relevant.

-Always ask “what else?” What are the things that you haven’t thought of? What else can be done? If we are asking “what else?” we can reduce the risk of missing important parts of an equation.

-Put your oxygen mask on first. You can’t take care of others if you aren’t well. Working on your own physical and mental health is not a luxury, but a necessity in the field.

-Trust the process. We don’t often understand why something unfolds the way it does, or why a person makes a choice that they do. Trust that their journey is as it should be and there might be a reason that we don’t yet see.

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

Getting mental healthcare to as many people as possible can reduce social problems such as homelessness and incarceration. Stigma around mental health is at the root of many other problems we consider “social”.

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

@brianaseverine

www.sanare-colorado.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Briana Severine of Sanare Psychosocial Rehabilitation On The Five Lifestyle… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Author Peggy Lanum: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These Anxious Times

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Think beyond yourself. When we are feeling unsettled and anxious, it is easy to turn all of our focus inward. While many words having to do with “self” are essential to well-being, we can also become self-absorbed and preoccupied with our own lives at the expense of a healthy interest in others. We can increase our well-being by making connections with a world outside our own uncertain futures. Serving others, volunteering in our community, and reaching out to others is a beautiful way to decrease negative emotions and increase life satisfaction.

As a part of my series about the things we can do to develop serenity and support each other during anxious times, I had the pleasure of interviewing Peggy Lanum.

Peggy Lanum has a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology and is a Certified Human Resource Professional and an ICF Certified Coach. She consults with healthcare, retail, and nonprofits and coaches’ business executives. Her work is dedicated to the betterment of organizations and individuals.

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

I have always been curious about what makes people thrive. We are at our best when we are engaged and purposeful in all areas of our lives, and that includes finding meaning in our work. I was interested in why so few people seem to really enjoy their jobs, living instead for the weekends, vacations, and eventually retirement. Since we spend one third of our adult life in the workplace, wouldn’t it be great to find ways to help people become happier and more engaged at work? This question led me to a getting a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology, and from there opening up a consulting and executive coaching practice.

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

Not surprisingly, the pandemic was a paradigm shift. Suddenly the lines between work and home became very blurred. We became more aware of how the different layers of well-being — emotional, physical, occupational, social, and financial were connected. We recognized how a deficit in one area of our lives could profoundly affect another area as well. We realized in a new way how important social connection is to well-being. We also saw how an increase in well-being in one area of our lives — even a simple thing like sleep — can have a huge impact on our creativity and productivity. The pandemic was like living in a giant petri dish of human experience. Individually and collectively, we became more aware of what humans need to move beyond just languishing to thriving.

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

There are three components to burnout: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a feeling of inefficacy –feeling that at the end of the day, the work you do doesn’t make a difference. I recommend looking at each component individually. What is making you feel exhausted and what are you doing to restore yourself? What can you do to increase your own self care? If you are feeling cynical, realize that the superpower we can all access is gratitude. Our brains can’t process negative and positive emotions at the same time, so by practicing gratitude we can reduce our feelings of cynicism. And if we have feelings of inefficacy we need to ask ourselves: is that thought really true? Or have we just created a negative thought pattern that has become a habit? What steps can we take to see value in our work? Having an open and curious mindset can lead to solid insights.

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

Don’t forget the power of positive leadership! Leaders with positive energy have a remarkable ability to cultivate an amazing work culture. Positive leaders inspire and infuse others with their genuine gratitude, honesty, and integrity. They don’t turn a blind eye to reality, but their own resilience can become a catalyst for problem solving. Research shows that businesses with humble leaders who create a psychologically safe environment and shine the light on others tend to have long-term success.

Dr. Jennifer Aaker’s research on humor in the workplace shows how appropriate humor can support positive leadership, create bonds within teams, increase resilience, and increase productivity. In my own experience, I have seen business leaders use humor — with creativity and kindness — as a great tool to create a fantastic work culture.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

We’ve always known that our diet affects our physical health, but there is recent science that shows the many ways in which food contributes to our emotional and mental health. We already know that probiotics can chill out anxious mice, but recent studies show that food choices can have a significant impact on the human brain as well. Dr. Uma Naidoo is a certified psychiatrist, chef and nutrition specialist, and her book, “This is Your Brain on Food” (Little, Brown Spark, 2020) is fascinating. Around 25% of American workers report having some form of mental illness and a recent WHO-led study estimates that US $1 trillion in productivity is lost each year due to mental health issues in the workplace. If food can support cognitive and mental health, is there a way to leverage that science to better support ourselves and our employees? How could society benefit if we all experienced greater well-being just by making changes to what we eat? It’s an exciting question to consider.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. Many people have become anxious just from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. The fears related to the coronavirus pandemic have only heightened a sense of uncertainty, fear, and loneliness. From your experience or research what are five steps that each of us can take to develop serenity during such uncertain times? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Label what you can’t control. Create two buckets. Label one bucket “Things I Can Control” and label the other bucket “Things I Can’t Control.” Take the “Things I Can’t Control Bucket” and figure out what is the healthiest way to manage those items. Do you need to practice acceptance, work on recognizing opportunities to grow, limit your exposure, or some other healthy practice?

For me personally, during the last few months I have decided to only read or watch the news standing up. I recognize I need to be informed, but I also want to make sure I am not too physically comfortable. Listening or reading the news standing up helps keep me from falling down the rabbit hole of bad news and landing in a place of discouragement or sadness. I have found that 10–15 minutes a day is about all I need to be informed while still safeguarding my mental health.

Bonus hot tip from neuroscience: At all costs avoid listening, reading, or watching bad news while you eat. We know that excessive stress isn’t good for your mental health, and stress can also interfere with digestion. And over the long term, elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol can lead to weight gain. So many reasons to set aside technology and eat mindfully in a peaceful environment!

2. Label what you can control. The fun part is looking at all the items in your “Things I Can Control” bucket and recognizing how much you can control! Once we start taking a closer look, we realize we have a lot more control than we think. Developing what Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset puts you in the driver’s seat of your own life.

Realize you can always make positive changes. Recognize that the opposite of success is not failure. Failure can be a valuable steppingstone to success — if we learn from our mistakes. One of the reasons I love coaching is that it is so rewarding to see people start to recognize what they can actually change — their thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes. Developing a growth mindset is a powerful and beautiful gift to give ourselves, especially in times of uncertainty.

3. Spend time in Nature. Research shows that two hours a week in nature is ideal, and what a fun and easy fix! It can be either all at once or spread over the course of a week. There is so much research that shows that being out in nature restores us emotionally, makes us mentally sharper, reduces burnout, and makes us more cooperative. And exposure to early morning sunlight is an extra bonus — it increases serotonin levels which can put us in a better mood for the rest of the day. I have one client who found that taking his coffee outside to the backyard for a few minutes in the early morning, instead of jumping immediately into his work email, made a significant positive change in his daily routine. Little habits can reap big rewards!

4. Re-prioritize friendships. Friends make a huge difference to our well-being. When we talk about self-care, what probably does not come to mind is wonderful dinner enjoyed with close friends. Friends make us happier and healthier. We are wired for connection, so recognize that we are at our best when we have rich, meaningful social connections. Often I work with executives who don’t think they have time for friendships, but they find that investing in good, solid friendships has great benefits in terms of their own happiness. You may even recognize that after an evening of being with close, positive friends you feel more optimistic and resilient.

5. Think beyond yourself. When we are feeling unsettled and anxious, it is easy to turn all of our focus inward. While many words having to do with “self” are essential to well-being, we can also become self-absorbed and preoccupied with our own lives at the expense of a healthy interest in others. We can increase our well-being by making connections with a world outside our own uncertain futures. Serving others, volunteering in our community, and reaching out to others is a beautiful way to decrease negative emotions and increase life satisfaction.

From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling anxious? Can you explain?

1. Recognize the warning signs of anxiety. Is anxiety interfering with their sleeping, eating, concentration, relationships, or daily life? Does the feeling of emotional exhaustion last throughout the entire week, including the weekend? If the answer to either is yes, encourage them to get professional help. As a coach, I am not a mental health practitioner and cannot give them the level of care they need, so I am quick to refer. However, if a friend or colleague is having intermittent, low-level anxiety, there are several things you can do to offer support.

2. Learn to listen deeply without judgment. I love the coaching perspective. As coaches, we don’t try to fix other’s problems or situations. We sit and hold space while we partner with them as they discover their own answers to their challenges. Reflect back to them what you think they are saying and see if you are understanding them clearly. Don’t offer platitudes or instant quick fixes. Resist giving advice. Even if circumstances don’t change, often we feel better when we are genuinely understood. Empathy is powerful.

3. Ask good questions: What advice would they give a friend in a similar situation? What have they done in the past that worked well for them in managing their anxiety? What is one small step they can do to feel better now?

4. Ask: “How can I best support you moving forward?” Sometimes when people reflect on this question, they realize that all they needed was an empathetic ear. But especially in the workplace they may need specific help in a certain area. The answer to this question creates a path for leaders to make connections and support well-being.

5. The fields of neuroscience, biology and psychology are rich with resources on how to help us live a life of well-being, even in times of uncertainty. My book, “Navigating Uncertainty: An A-Z Guide to Well-Being” lists over 100 science-backed resources that can help!

What are the best resources you would suggest to a person who is feeling anxious?

The best resource is oxygen: free, readily available, and easy to use!

In all seriousness, learning how to breathe deeply and leverage that breath to flip our anxious selves from a sympathetic to parasympathetic state is amazingly powerful! All we need to do is learn how to breathe deeply and exhale slowly.

An exercise I use with my clients is to breathe deeply for four counts, exhale for six counts. After doing this three times in a row, think about something for which you are deeply grateful. Put your hand on your heart, open your hands, or close your eyes and feel where that gratitude lands on your body. Take a few more deep breaths as you recognize that beautiful gift. Deep breathing combined with gratitude is a powerful remedy to decrease anxiety.

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

I was traveling recently and saw a quote: “Forge Your Own Future.” I love that idea! Our best future is not going to just magically land on our calendar in a few months or years. We create our own future with hard work and intention. We forge our best futures when we stay true to our values in the present.

One of my values is service. One way I do this is by volunteering with the English literacy program at my local library. Despite service being an important value for me, some weeks when I look at my packed schedule, I wonder if I really have the time or energy to make this two-hour commitment. But I also know that we live our best lives when our values line up with our actions! I always come away from volunteering energized and more productive because I intentionally forged my actions with my values. Somehow those two hours are always re-gained.

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. 🙂

Human beings are not acting at their best right now! Ongoing uncertainty depletes our patience. Whether it is a delayed flight at the airport, a long line at the post office, or an inefficient queue at the supermarket, we have seen some cringe-worthy behavior by fully grown adults.

Our society needs to bring back civility as a social norm. I would like to start a “Be Kind In the Line” campaign to remind all of us to be patient and practice civility while we wait in line. Psychologists tell us that positive behaviors can start an upward spiral of other positive behaviors. And maybe we can begin by choosing to be more generous with a few seconds of our time and a smile while we wait in line!

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

For information on my consulting and coaching practice my website is betterworkingtogether.org. You can reach me at [email protected].

For information on my new book, “Navigating Uncertainty: An A-Z Guide for Well-Being” please visit navigatinguncertainitybook.com.

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

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Author Peggy Lanum: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Evie Jeang of Ideal Legal Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to connect with others, but also remember that not everyone is your friend. There will be people who want things from you, especially if you are a founder. But at the same time, there are a lot of women out there that are willing to support other women. You’ll never know if you don’t connect and open yourself up to possibility. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, we’ve all been there, we’ve all done that. I think it’s another way for people to connect to you, to make yourself more relatable.

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

Evie Jeang is a licensed attorney in California and New York and the Founder of Ideal Legal Group, practicing in the areas of international family and surrogacy law. Jeang is also a surrogacy expert and the President and CEO of Surrogacy Concierge, an agency that helps connect clients with surrogates. Ms. Jeang understands first-hand the impact that a demanding career or health issues can have on one’s ability to expand their family.

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

I grew up in a broken home. My parents got divorced when I was four, so I was basically raised by my grandparents. My dad married multiple times, so did my mom. I always thought family was very important but, wondered how could I create the family that I always desired as a little girl.

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

It was the opportunity to see miracles happen all the time. That love does trump everything else. I’m a big believer in love, despite the industry I’m in. I see people fighting against each other all the time.

But when there’s a sick child, then both parents will work together to set their differences aside. To me that is unconditional. In addition, I get to see the joy on my surrogacy client’s face when they welcome their baby into the world. This is the rewarding feeling that comes over me from family law and surrogacy. It’s helping people create families. Whether it’s helping my client through a hard time in their life, leading them to a different path to create a different journey, or the next chapter in their life. They all share the same foundation of love.

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 even remember off the top of my head anymore. But I guess for me personally, it was just spending most of my time focusing on my career and myself in the beginning. I was adamant about becoming a respectable family law attorney. Surrogacy was not widely popular then and it was still considered taboo. Funny thing is that I’m now a family law and surrogacy attorney. I didn’t even want to pursue surrogacy or paid attention to it in the beginning.

My biggest take away is always to keep an open mind and don’t rely so heavily on the word “never”.

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?

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. I would say one of my best friends, Elaine Chu, convinced me to freeze my eggs when I was still very young and fresh out of law school. I was actively pursuing my legal career and was not thinking of starting a family with my ex-husband at the time.

As I mentioned, I came from a broken home, from that I was afraid of commitment and scared of having a child. I did not want my child to go through what I went through with my parents. I did not my child to see his/her parents fighting all the time.

I felt this way for a long time. Elaine asked me “Evie, why don’t you freeze your eggs because you never know if one day you will want to have children.” I listened and sort of just did it on a whim. At the time, I didn’t think I would go through with using them later in life. I have a beautiful and healthy seven-year-old son now.

If it wasn’t for Elaine, I would have never experienced this unconditional love that one has for their child. I would have never had the opportunity to really enjoy the family union that I craved so much as a little girl. Elaine passed away a few years ago from breast cancer, but I constantly tell my son how important and how much she meant to me.

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

It takes a lot to start a company. I did not have it easy myself when I opened my law firm and surrogacy agency. Fundraising is still a male dominated world/industry. This is also the same in multiple other industries. It’s hard for women to get her foot in the door most of the time. It’s very tough to be out there in the world as a woman.

The gender stereotype is that as a woman, you must raise a family, cook, be a housewife, and at the same time be a mother. It’s a lot of work life balance. But given all the gender roles we must play, it makes it hard to go out to network, fundraise for company, pitch it and market it. Some women take the back seat in their careers, so they can raise their children and be at home. But many of us have decided to re-enter the workforce and we are conflicted between our home and work life. Which one comes first? Our career or our family? Women choose to make sacrifices.

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?

That’s a complicated question. I think companies and society is noticing that they need more women in the workspace. The percentage of women leading Fortune 500 companies is steadying increasing. The world is listening more now. I would tell my female readers and listeners to find companies that align themselves with your values but also appreciate you. Corporate world can be cut-throat and cold.

I’m part of an organization called YPO, Young Professional Organization, and they are very inclusive. They usually have a 45-year age cap to join the organization, but they extend that age gap to 50 for women. The reasoning is because they understand that women need the few additional years from either coming back into the work force because they took a career break. I think companies should be like YPO and tailor their policies towards women.

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

I think women should be founders because let’s just be honest we are so good at multitasking. We are more intuitive. Research demonstrates that decisions made base don intuition alone is usually always a good choice. Especially in company where you must wear multiple hats, you have to be so used to multitasking.

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

For me I always thought being a founder was very lonely. But over the years I’ve come to discover that is not true. Everyone wants to be your friend!

Talk to people, ask for help, make connections with others. There’s going to be so many people that are willing to help you and give you advice. Just make sure to do your due diligence and research everything.

Don’t be afraid to connect with others, but also remember that not everyone is your friend. There will be people who want things from you, especially if you are a founder. But at the same time, there are a lot of women out there that are willing to support other women. You’ll never know if you don’t connect and open yourself up to possibility. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, we’ve all been there, we’ve all done that. I think it’s another way for people to connect to you, to make yourself more relatable.

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’m not sure what makes someone cut out to be a founder, I think everyone has it in them. What holds one back from another is their confidence and belief. Do you have a limit to that belief and the belief behind your company? There is no personal training for something like that. It comes from within oneself. Do not tell yourself things like “I can’t do it”, “I’m too busy”, “I don’t have the knowledge”. If you are able to remove that limit, then I think anyone can be a founder.

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.)

One thing I wish someone told me when I started is to not have 20 balls in the area, but focus on 1 or 2. Having multiple interests while starting a new company can blur your vision and lead to multiple distractions. For me personally, it’s the fear of missing out. Fearing of missing an opportunity, especially if I have a great idea and there are so many people who approach me or that I meet. Stay focused and hyper vigilant on your goal.

Don’t jump on everything. A lot of times that excitement or fear of missing out can lead you down the wrong path. What I’ve learned from starting my companies, is that not everyone is your friend in the beginning. It’s about weeding through the bushes to get to your prize. I wish someone would have told me just to stay focused and put all your energy into the one or two things that you really want to work on.

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

I would say surrogacy has been the most rewarding field so far. I’ve used my expertise and knowledge to help infertile individuals and couples to bring babies into this world. Who doesn’t love babies?!

I want to help my clients make their dreams come true.

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’m a strong advocator for being positive and looking on the bright side. There is a lot of negatively in the world right now. If I wanted to start a movement, then it would be something that aligns with this passion in my life because this is how I live my day to day. Trust me, a lot if things can go wrong as a family law attorney!

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

Elon Musk! He is someone I would definitely want to have a sit down dinner with and just pick his brain.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Saving the best for last on purpose! We do everything 50/50 and it’s important to us to divide and conquer, especially with the kids. We go 50/50 in all of our business decisions we make, so why would parenting be any different? This isn’t 50/50 in responsibility, but in willingness. Do I actually change as many diapers as Morgan in a diaper-to-diaper scale? No, but I’m willing to.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Devan and Morgan Kline.

Devan and Morgan Kline are the co-founders of Burn Boot Camp, one of the nation’s fastest growing group fitness brands with over 300 open gyms in 39 states and an aggressive pipeline of 55 gyms to open by the end of 2022. Founded in 2012 by husband-wife duo Devan and Morgan, who now have three children of their own, Burn Boot Camp was created as a tool to inspire mental, emotional, and physical transformation via a passionate, supportive fitness community with the overall aim of building confidence.

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

Morgan: When we first started Burn Boot Camp, I was working full time at the Kellogg Company while working with Devan in the morning and at night with Burn Boot Camp. I was finding fulfillment in seeing people smile, making people feel happier when they walked out than when they walked in and realized I wanted to start impacting people more — full time, all the time, because it was impacting me more, too. At this point I went through my own transformation by quitting my job and committing myself to fitness full time.

Devan: My first major success was becoming a professional baseball player, although this was also my first monumental failure. After working years to get to where I was, I was released from the team. I felt defeated. I had a moment of weakness and convinced myself I had failed. As I was sitting there with my head in my hands, feeling defeated, my girlfriend, now wife and business partner, Morgan, called me and told me to keep moving. Ever since that day, her words have stuck with me and have become the tagline for more life, and the drive to take my passion for building community and fitness to found Burn Boot Camp.

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

Morgan and Devan: We were having our 3rd baby, closing all of our gyms, live streaming in our house with employees who were living with us for lockdown. When we shut down our gyms — we weren’t going to leave members hanging and believed they needed us then more than ever. Morgan, 8 months pregnant, was working out with me in 80-degree livestream studio that we set up at my house. Our entire family turned into trainers, even our daughter Cameron, was streaming kids’ camps for our children of Burn Nation.

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

Morgan and Devan: Devan created a referral rewards program that incentivized our current members to bring friends into the gym to try us out. If their friend joined, they got 50% off their next month’s membership. Devan would write them a handwritten check and pass them out in camp. One time he was promoting the program and posted a stack of checks on social media, not realizing that he was giving away our bank information (routing/checking/etc.) to the world! He quickly had Morgan and several members calling him to tell him to take it down!! Lesson learned for him to not show all of our private information online.

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

Morgan and Devan: Burn Boot Camp is all about community. When you step into one of our gyms, you become a part of #BurnNation. With our supportive, inspiring, and motivating community, you’ll have all you need to achieve greatness, and we’re proud that this sense of community has been authentically translated across our franchise partner network.

In the parking lot days, we had 150 women at an outdoor Saturday camp in the 95-degree heat. We had a very hard leg workout — and we approached the finisher with 150 sweaty and tired people. We lined up and began sprints and we were working so hard that a few members’ legs were so tired that they gave out and they fell down. Scraping elbows and knees — one by one, over 10 fell down. What happened next solidified who we are as a brand. Members who finished the sprints were sprinting back to help those who fell. They were literally carrying them across the finish line. It was that moment in time where Morgan and I knew we had something special.

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

Devan: We’re thrilled by Burn Boot Camp’s rapid growth — we currently have over 300 gyms open in 39 states and should have as many as over 50 additional gyms open by the end of the year. We also recently had our 500th franchise signing, a super exciting milestone for our team. Looking ahead, we plan to further foster connection and offer more benefits to our community with new digital offerings, continuing to offer our members support throughout every element of their lives.

Morgan: Echoing Devan, we’re looking forward to continuing to empower our community and our members by bringing back some of our annual challenges and initiatives such as the Be Their Muscle campaign in July, which has raised over a million dollars for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

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

Morgan: There will always be problems and setbacks; in life and in business and in fitness. My younger self may have thought that these problems would go away, but in reality, problems will always be there and there will always be challenges. The problems just get better and better and sometimes harder, but they never go away. Tackle your day, knowing there will be problems, and shift your mindset to find solutions to create for yourself and people around you.

Devan: Having a positive and progressive attitude, communicating a vision effectively, recognizing small victories, and being empathetic are essential to being a strong leader and ensuring your employees feel empowered to do their best work possible. We’ve made it our priority to replicate and instill these traits from the top-down as we work with our Franchise Partners nationwide to ensure they are adopting the same approach with their on-the-ground teams and trainers.

How do you define “Leadership”?

Morgan: Leadership to me is being the best version of yourself so you can be the strongest leader for your company/team. Life is all about balance, and I know I need to put my family first in order to feel confident showing up for my career every day. Leadership is also about teamwork and delegating to people that love our mission and what they’re doing. As a leader, I naturally want to hold onto every little thing, but the biggest mistake is that people want to do things by themselves, for themselves, alone.

Devan: Leadership to me means maximizing your time to the best of your abilities, using every free minute to better yourself, to better your team and organization. In addition, I am all about connection, and aim to fully connect whenever I have the opportunity to visit our franchise partners and on a day-to-day basis at our home office.

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?

Morgan: Our business, Burn Boot Camp, wouldn’t never have been possible without my husband, Devan Kline. In addition, I’ve always been inspired by my mom and sister. I lost my dad when I was 5 years old, and my mom became a single mom overnight. I watched my mom’s work ethic as she worked so hard for our family and always showed up with a smile on her face. She became my motivation, and the strength and courage she had inspires me.

Devan: Anytime I am asked the question, “who inspired you along the way?”, Morgan is the only person I can give that title to. Mostly, because my weaknesses are her strengths. Partly, because she calls me on my bullshit when no one else will. I think the definition of marriage is to conspire together to compete and make each other stronger. She always believed in my dream to go to the MLB and play under the bright lights. But my dreams were absolutely crushed when I finally got released in 2011 from the San Francisco Giants Baseball Organization. Something I worked for my entire life was gone in one moment and the worst part was I didn’t even see it coming. But Morgan was there and gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. She said, “Look where you’ve come from, look at what you have accomplished, and use this to propel yourself. You just have to keep moving babe.”

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

Morgan: I found my life’s calling in founding Burn Boot Camp with Devan as it allows me to fulfill my passion for positively impacting other people’s lives. As a mom with a full-time career, I learned first-hand the pressures that many women have to ‘do it all’ and how overwhelming that pressure can be. My goal at Burn Boot Camp is to support our members and debunk the weight-loss narrative that permeates the fitness industry, encouraging women that they are beautiful just the way they are. You can still have goals to lose weight or goals to be healthier in other areas of your life, but we want to instill confidence first.

Devan: Our community is unmatched, and it has been so rewarding to see how we’ve been able to scale our hometown community out of parking lots when we first started, to a nationwide network of franchise partners. It has been also great to lean into community driven initiatives across our network with programs like the Be Their Muscle campaign that benefits the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), which brings our community together even more to support an incredible initiative.

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

Morgan and Devan:

Number 1: We believe power couples are great communicators. Communication with each other is super crucial!

Number 2: Don’t disagree with each other in front of other people. Maintain cohesiveness! People need leaders through tough times, and you can’t be the turbulent ones, especially if you are owning a business.

Number 3: Don’t have expectations of one another that are going to hinder your happiness. That way, your expectation isn’t carrying your happiness. You should have expectations for yourself, to be accountable for things, but don’t tie it to your happiness. It’s key as we’re talking about a power couple. We are individuals first, that come together to create the power couple.

Number 4: You have to be intentional about carving out time to be husband and wife. Make sure you make your relationship a priority. Date nights, or the time we get to travel with each other and have one on one time outside of our normal setting, that’s where some of our great ideas come from. That’s where we can dream and make wishes about ourselves and our families.

Number 5: Saving the best for last on purpose! We do everything 50/50 and it’s important to us to divide and conquer, especially with the kids. We go 50/50 in all of our business decisions we make, so why would parenting be any different? This isn’t 50/50 in responsibility, but in willingness. Do I actually change as many diapers as Morgan in a diaper-to-diaper scale? No, but I’m willing to!

You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Morgan and Devan: I would love to see a shift in how the fitness industry defines success as it looks so different for everyone — it could be defined by weight loss, finding time for themselves as they balance work and family life, having more confidence, or so many other things! People don’t need to look a certain way to be healthy and fit, and we encourage this mentality by having no mirrors in any of our gyms. There is so much pressure on people, particularly mothers, who are trying to do it all, and our aim is to have Burn Boot Camp be a safe place where people put themselves first and leave feeling better than when they walk in the door.

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

Morgan and Devan:

“Success is never owned, it is rented, and the rent is due every day.” — Rory Vaden. This quote reminds me that no matter what, I need to put in the work every day. It inspires me not to have a “I made it” mentality. Success is not something that is handed out or given to anyone, it must be earned. The great thing is when you know you’ve put in all the hard work, it makes the success much sweeter!

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

Morgan: Sarah Blakely (Spanx Founder) is someone I look up to in business. She gives back and she’s doing the right thing, which I find super inspiring.

Devan: If I could sit down with anyone and pick their brain about anything it would either be Mark Cuban or Elon Musk. I would love to own the San Francisco Giants one day and Mark would be a great person to talk to. I think the mission to be a multiplanetary species is exciting as well and I’d want to ask tons of questions around that to Elon.

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

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Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Devan and Morgan Kline Of Burn Boot Camp was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Elizabeth Ashford Of Beyond The Beez On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I know these seem overly simple, but there is a reason we hear these pieces of advice so often. For the first piece of advice, don’t compare, it’s clear how easy that is to do but stay focused on your goal, take steps towards them every day, and trust the timing of your life.

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

Elizabeth is the founder of BTBz, a stigma-free resource guide, e-commerce platform, and social community supporting young people’s sexual wellness journeys. She hopes that by working to champion affirming and inclusive sex education, she can help form a world where questions, consent, and curiosity are not the unexpected — but the norm.

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?

My sexual education journey started in college. I graduated from Harvard College in 2019 with a degree in psychology. While an undergraduate, I was involved in SHEATH (Sexual Health and Education Throughout Harvard College). We put on what we coined sex week and sex weekend which were a series of events hosted by sex-educators to teach a variety of topics that most education systems don’t provide. Post-graduation, I wanted to put my love for psychology, research, accessible education and sexual wellness into one space…… and BTBz was born!

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

When it comes to BTBz, there is nothing more rewarding. For me, the happiness lies in the small moments when someone opens up about an internal sexual struggle. As a quick overview, sex and shame are deeply intertwined due to cultural norms, parental shaming, toxic masculinity, slut shaming and so much more. Furthermore, that same shame often gets its power from being unspeakable.

That is why it is so rewarding to create a space, even if I am identified as that ‘space’, where people can come to share the feelings/experiences/thoughts that they have been harboring in for months, years, or decades.

When people share their struggles, it gives BTBz a chance to let them know they are, in fact, normal. I can often visibly see a weight lifted off someone’s shoulders when they hear this. The power in this release can be truly life-changing.

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 think what’s interesting about being a founder is wearing so many hats. Mistakes can often be made because you are teaching yourself new skill sets every single day. These mistakes can range from a grammar typo to sending an email to the wrong partner (never a fun one!) But you’re learning more than ever before.

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?

When I think of a mentor, I think of someone who pushes you and questions you — but is always in your corner. My parents come to mind as my biggest mentors. They are always here to support me on my hardest days but keep pushing me to my best. If you are someone who doesn’t have your family’s support, I recommend connecting to like minded communities!

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

Being disruptive doesn’t always feel good and it is important to both accept that truth and depersonalize it. That way, the days when you feel like people are putting you down or judging you, you can remind yourself that this is the journey of being disruptive. In that same vein, I remind myself that you will never change the world by thinking just like it. The social norms we have formed around ourselves are just ideas built by other people. It is ok to push against those ideas.

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

Here are my top three words of advice that I’ve gotten along the way.

1. Don’t Compare
2. If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room
3. Treat others the way you would want to be treated

I know these seem overly simple, but there is a reason we hear these pieces of advice so often. For the first piece of advice, don’t compare, it’s clear how easy that is to do but stay focused on your goal, take steps towards them every day, and trust the timing of your life.

When it comes to #2, if you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room, this allows you to welcome corrections, suggestions, and feedback.

I’ve noticed that when I enter a room with this mindset, it often gives my collaborators permission to give feedback without worrying that their thoughts will be matched with a distasteful response. Bring the experts in, listen to them, and work together.

For #3, treating others the way you would want to be treated, can have a huge impact on the work environment. I worked at a company that had a very bad work culture. As my days there continued, I saw that most complaints whether it was from the intern level, or higher up amongst the directory board, were the same. Bad treatment trickles down through the company and becomes the norm. You want to uplift people and make them happy to be around you and your work. That way no one is cutting corners and there is positive and collaborative energy in its place.

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

BTBz is currently undergoing a re-launching. The most exciting part of our relaunch is our content studio. We want our community to be the face (of faceless) aspect of this brand. Our series is called Bodies in Motion, where the content is featuring our community, with no face, just bodies. You can see examples of this all over our Instagram.

Here is what I love about this: too often we let this spotlight shine on the influencers and models … but let’s ask ourselves — why can’t we be the star of our own show? Why can’t we be the center of a campaign — especially one that focuses on human relations and body empowerment. At BTBz, we are ready to put that element back in the hands of our audience and redefine what inclusivity looks like.

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

There are many challenges for female disruptors. I am reminded of this in the workplace, in my personal life, with relationships, and more. The double standard is everywhere.

What’s important about the male vs female dynamics is that it isn’t just men upholding ideas that make us feel small. Sometimes our female counterparts or even ourselves are just as guilty of this.

My biggest tip to fight gender oppression is to “flip the scenario”. Let me explain: When you are questioning if gender is a part of the issue you are facing, — flip the narrative — if a man was the one in the context, would it be the same? If its clear misogyn is involved — stand your ground. Make sure you are holding yourself to the same standard you want others to hold you to and not allowing people to belittle or undermine you based on gender.

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

One book that changed my life is called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. The book starts off with a thought-provoking question: “If you were given a choice between getting $3 million in cash today or a single penny that doubles in value every day for 31 days, which one would you choose?” Many of us would go to grab the big chunk of change, but the answer is the penny.

Hardy makes you realize that the slow, consistent pace has such value, and it helps me remember that even the slow days are still a step in the right direction. Take the time to build the foundation for your brand or your goals and exercise little habits that will set you up for success.

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

My focus at this current moment would be to galvanize enough support to change the current direction our reproductive rights are headed in. I won’t go too far into this discussion, but I will say that our human rights are on the line. If you are on the side of pro-life, I ask that you at least make sure that you are 100% educated on the matter, because that is often where many go wrong.

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

My favorite quote, specifically for disruptors, is by Florence Given in her book Women Don’t Owe You Pretty:

“You cannot win, and the world will judge you either way. Being your authentic self-forces people to reveal whether they deserve a place in your life or not”

I love this quote because this mindset can really help any disruptor keep their head up high despite critique of judgment. Not everyone will understand your path, but continue on with what feels true to you. (P.s if you want more amazing quotes, I can’t recommend her book enough)

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find Beyond The Beez by going to our Website (our relaunch is coming at the end of august) and our Instagram!

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

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Female Disruptors: Elizabeth Ashford Of Beyond The Beez On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Cheryl Dowling Of The IVF Warrior On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t compare your journey to others. — There’s a saying “comparison is the thief of joy”, I believe this holds true for so many different situations in life. Whether it’s comparing relationships, careers, finances, real estate, travel, or more. Comparing usually leaves you feeling really crappy and full of negative self-talk. It’s important to remember that everyone’s path is different and what you see from the outside, isn’t often the full story. Be kind to yourself and focus on you, it’s more productive.

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

Cheryl Dowling is a Certified Counselor, women’s health advocate, and founder of The IVF Warrior, a leading fertility health and wellness platform connecting people from all over the world who are struggling with fertility issues and navigating different paths to parenthood. On The IVF Warrior she provides support, resources, and empowerment across multiple social platforms to those struggling with infertility.

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?

Absolutely! My background is in both mental health and business. Many years ago, I landed a position as a women’s mental health counselor. Focusing my career on women’s health and wellness wasn’t what I originally envisioned, but I can’t imagine having any other focus. It’s truly shaped who I am today. I’ve supported women struggling with mental health issues in many settings, and have had countless clients navigating infertility and loss too. This showed me how complex these issues are, and how misunderstood and isolating they can be.

Around this time, I started my own fertility journey. What came afterwards was an infertility diagnosis, multiple rounds of IVF, and recurrent pregnancy loss to build my family. I felt first-hand how emotional and isolating infertility, IVF, and loss were. This is when my current platform, The IVF Warrior was founded. I recognized while navigating my path to parenthood that support and resources for those experiencing fertility issues was very limited. I started sharing my story, as well as providing information for those trying to conceive or dealing with different health struggles while trying to grow their family. I’ve been able to combine my professional background in both counseling and business with my personal struggles. It’s not something many do, but I was able to take pain and struggles to create something meaningful and helpful to so many. It’s something I’m very passionate about.

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

1 in 4 experience loss. 1 in 6 experience infertility. Statistics you never think you’ll be part of, but once you become part of them, you realize how common it is, yet no one talks about it. I knew that something had to be done to change this. No one should ever have to face the toughest battle of their life in silence.

The work I do is disruptive for many reasons including the fact that I talk about the things that are typically battled silently. I encourage others to share their story if their comfortable. I remind people that they don’t have to suffer in silence to make other people comfortable, and that no matter what you’re facing, you’re not alone. Infertility, mental health, and pregnancy loss are still so stigmatized and taboo. Many still believe that someone’s personal struggles should remain “personal”, and that talking about them is attention seeking or inappropriate. It’s been my mission to break down these walls so those struggling have a safe-space to access resources and much-needed support.

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?

Not double-checking work! Posting social content with spelling errors is a hard lesson. I learned quickly to even triple check before posting content online, especially content that can’t be edited! People love to correct errors and call people out on mistakes — you see it daily on social media posts for various platforms. To this day, memes stating “I do my best editing after I press send”, still get me. It happens to the best of us, but I definitely had a few situations of having to take down graphics and/or other content to fix it. So, lesson learned, always check your work!

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?

There have been so many amazing people I’ve met throughout the years who’ve supported, guided, or coached me. People who have inspired me, believed in me, and encouraged me along the way. Two that come to mind are:

Erin Bulcao. She’s a close friend who I actually met on social media, and hit it off with instantly! She’s such a major source of support to me, always cheering me on, and inspiring me. She’s been there through the ups and downs, and always offers wisdom.

Dr. Roohi Jeelani. She’s an incredible fertility doctor and inspiration who has shown me that women can do anything they put their mind to. That following your dreams and passions despite what society or others deem acceptable, is important. She’s constantly taking on projects to do good in the world.

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?

It can definitely go both ways, and I think the intentions around “disrupting” is what make the difference.

Relating to what I do, disrupting an industry can be positive if a call for change is overdue and needed. Talking about issues openly, raising awareness, and changing the conversation about things like infertility, mental health, and pregnancy loss, can encourage companies to expand insurance health policies in workplaces to offer more family-building options. It can push companies to have more flexible book-off policies to accommodate someone going through infertility treatments. Talking about these important issues can not only help people feel less alone, but encourage companies to introduce things like mental health days, pregnancy loss leave, and flexible hours. These are good disruptions. They’re leading to more inclusivity and positive changes in the workplace and beyond.

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

Don’t compare your journey to others.

There’s a saying “comparison is the thief of joy”, I believe this holds true for so many different situations in life. Whether it’s comparing relationships, careers, finances, real estate, travel, or more. Comparing usually leaves you feeling really crappy and full of negative self-talk. It’s important to remember that everyone’s path is different and what you see from the outside, isn’t often the full story. Be kind to yourself and focus on you, it’s more productive.

You can never get back time.

This can mean a lot of things from don’t let other people waste your time twice, to learn to prioritize what’s important. For me, it’s also a good reminder that we live in a time where we often feel rushed to get to the next thing. The next job, the next goal, the next dream. It can really take away from what life is offering right now. Life is a series of events — both good and bad, but nothing lasts forever. Hold on during the bad, and embrace the good as it comes. There’s a lot of things in life you can gain back, but time is never one of them. Don’t take today for granted.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

This is an important one when you’re starting something new or already feeling like every obstacle is getting in your way, and you’ve become discouraged. What’s often seen online or from the outside, is the final result — success. Not the countless obstacles, failures, and journey it took someone to get there. It’s important to set out realistic expectations before getting started, so that you aren’t too hard on yourself, or setting yourself up for disappointment and failure.

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

So much! The IVF Warrior is just getting started. There are around 48 million couples and 186 million individuals worldwide living with infertility. The hard conversations must continue. More support, tools, and awareness need to be shared. The IVF Warrior will continue to expand resources and support to reach more and do more for those struggling.

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

I feel like women disruptors get labelled a lot of things compared to men. Whether it’s emotional, dramatic, attention-seeking, extreme, wrong, or opinionated. People tend to have more opinions on women’s behaviors vs. men. It’s a sad reality that I see all the time. I also feel like a lot of the issues that women disruptors try to change are deemed insignificant, so women have to push harder to be seen and heard. Hopefully this changes.

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

I love The Papaya Podcast by Sarah from The Birds Papaya. It’s extremely raw, real, and relatable. I’m really drawn to platforms that normalize things. Sarah does such an amazing job talking about the hard stuff in life and bringing awareness to issues and topics that matter, but in a fun way. It’s so important to know you’re not alone, that perfectionism isn’t healthy or realistic, and to have these honest conversations with others and yourself.

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. 🙂

Normalizing mental health including conversations around mental health, the different conditions people face, and treatments including therapy or medication. It should never be “attention seeking” or “shameful” to talk about mental health or any health condition. Mental health is as important as physical health, it’s time it was treated this way. It’s time we end the stigmas and labels. So many people suffer every single day in silence. This needs to change.

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

Never stop chasing rainbows. It’s a quote I fell in love with on my journey, and has stuck with me. It reminds me that no storm lasts forever, and that even if there’s a storm you’re currently living and navigating, beauty can come from it. This helped me throughout my infertility journey and while building a business too.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on:

Instagram: @the.ivf.warrior

Facebook: @theivfwarriorcanada

LinkedIn: The IVF Warrior

I’d love to connect with more of you there!

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

A healthy body is the result of genetics, healthy habits, and health checkups. The same can be said for our mental health. A healthy mind is the result of genetics, healthy habits, and mental health check ins.

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

Dr. Pamela Prince Pyle is a Board-Certified Internal Medicine Physician, Chair of the Board of Africa New Life Ministries in Rwanda, Museum of the Bible Women of Legacy Ambassador, author, and international speaker. She speaks and writes on the topics of global health equity, women’s discipleship, and ingredients which make for a good death. Her website www.drpamela.com is meant to be a resource for navigating the healthcare world once you have been labeled “patient” and discovering that A Good Death is Not an Event, but a Lifestyle.

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 had an interest in medicine when I was younger but did not believe I could afford the extended education. However, a financial aid counselor helped me with scholarships and loans and I graduated second in my medical school class. I chose internal medicine because of the complexity of diseases that affect people in different ways, and I wanted to help solve that complexity for the patient. I especially like working in hospitals and have for most of my career since 1989.

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

I have had many interesting patients for different reasons but one story that I published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine was related to a snake charmer. Yes, a snake charmer. This man had a van full of snakes and would set up in parking lots to do an illegal side show of his prowess with snakes.

Unfortunately, a King Cobra wasn’t in the mood and took a strike at him. Their venom causes muscle paralysis and people die from respiratory failure. In his case we immediately put him on a ventilator, and I had to search for anti-venom (most zoos will carry) but the closest one to us in South Carolina was the Bronx Zoo and they had to life-flight it down. It is about $3000 per bottle, and you give 30 or more bottles depending on weight.

Within an hour of receiving the anti-venom the snake charmer woke up, pulled out all his tubes and left Against Medical Advice (AMA) because he didn’t want to be responsible for the bill and not be arrested for his side show. This case was the first successfully treated King Cobra bite in the US at the time.

Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting?

I don’t have a humorous story, but a terrifying story was the first day of starting residency. One day you are called Pamela and the next you are called Doctor. I did not get smarter in that one day, but now I was expected to be smarter. I was given a long white coat and pocket protector to go with this new title and make decisions regarding patient’s health, life, and death.

What lesson or take-away did you learn from that? Rarely, does life drop you into this dichotomy of roles which are changed in a twenty-four-hour period. Fortunately, it wasn’t as dramatic as we thought.

While I was a newbie Doctor as well as my graduating classmates, we weren’t stranded. Nurses, who had significantly more experience with patient care and with fearful interns gently guided us to become the person our name tags declared that we were.

My lesson became, “If I don’t know the answer, look it up or ask someone else.” Medicine is one area that you don’t want to fake it until you make it.

None of us can 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 always grateful for my husband who is a great encourager, but I am grateful for the financial aid counselor I mentioned above as the one who made it possible for me to afford school.

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

The work environment for clinicians had become more difficult. Greater regulatory requirements and less income producing streams are available. Doctors are then forced to see more patients just to keep the doors open. This diminishes one of the joys of medicine, time with patients. The pandemic has affected the mental health of clinicians with higher rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Self-care must be scheduled into each week. Therapy should be considered for those suffering with mental health symptoms.

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

Relational time together moves a group of people who work together to be a true team.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the 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?

A healthy body is the result of genetics, healthy habits, and health checkups. The same can be said for our mental health. A healthy mind is the result of genetics, healthy habits, and mental health check ins.

1. We can’t change our genetics; however, we can become aware of them. Studies between monozygotic (identical) vs. dizygotic (fraternal) twins have revealed a higher incidence of some mental disorders in the identical versus the fraternal twins. Bipolar disorders and schizophrenia are two examples of mental health issues that are more common in the identical twin versus the fraternal twins. However, the identical twins did not have one hundred percent equal expressions of either issue. This indicates environmental factors also affect the outcome for any individual. Understanding our family mental health tree is not meant to define our future, however, it is an opportunity to observe and manage our own environments that favor mental wellness.

2. Healthy Habit #1 — Diet

Nutritional Psychiatry is an advancing discipline in the care of mental health. Studies reveal that processed foods and refined sugars impair brain function including production of serotonin (our emotional feel-good hormone). Traditional diets such as the Mediterranean Diet versus a typical “Western” diet results in a 25% to 35% reduction in risk of depression.

The SMILES trial was one of the earliest interventional studies looking at the impact of a healthy diet in adults with major depressive disorder. The patients that were in the dietary intervention arm had meals which emphasized fruits, vegetable, whole grains, oily fish, extra virgin olive oil, legumes, and raw nuts. There was a significant improvement in depression symptoms with the intervention group after twelve weeks with all other variables confounded.

The greatest first step in our dietary journey to mental wellness is to eradicate processed foods.

3. Healthy Habit #2 — Exercise

We intuitively know that exercise is beneficial to our physical health. However, the benefits to our mental health are just as significant. Research has revealed that exercise is nearly as effective as anti-depressants in the treatment for Major Depressive Disorder.

The spectrum of symptoms associated with anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Schizophrenia have improved with introduction of exercise into the healthcare regiment.

Exercise benefits extend to prevention of mental health disorders and contribute to mental wellness. One study reviewed different types of exercise and noted the greatest effects were seen in team sports followed closely by cycling and aerobic exercise. In this study they found that exercising forty-five minutes for three to five times per week made the biggest difference. However, even walking had a positive effect on mental health.

In my thirties I began to have a real passion for running marathons. A friend who had a desire to join me but had not been a runner or even exerciser at the time. We began by walking one mailbox to the next followed by running one mailbox interval. It was a great experience for us both and we ran the Marine Corps Marathon together. Starting a fitness program can begin with that simple step of the mailbox interval, whether literal or figurative.

4. Healthy Habit #4 — Sleep

Sleep is a powerful reset for our mind. It should be a time for healing but, often, we can become mental health insomniacs. All the emotions that we don’t process during the day become monsters at night. Anxiety, negative self-talk, depressive symptoms,etc. settle in as night falls. Each stage of sleep, especially REM sleep, is necessary for emotional processing of daytime emotions.

There is a bi-directional component to sleep and mental health. Most mental health disorders contribute to insomnia and insomnia worsens mental health disorders.

“What is the answer?”

Developing a sleep hygiene plan is crucial to the process. I recommend these resources as a starting point, however, many other options exist including The Insomnia Workbook.

5. Healthy Habit #5 — Mindfulness

I want to share a personal story previously printed about the benefits of mindfulness in my life.

It was an ordinary office. The couches and chairs well worn by the patients who came before me. The therapist said, “Take a seat, anywhere you would like.”

My physician mindset thought, “I imagine my choice of chair or couch are already giving insight to this well-respected counselor.” When I mention this, he laughs. “Well, sitting position, body language, greeting, they all give me a sense of the comfort of the patient in the room. I want them to be comfortable.”

This was not my first visit to a therapist for the coat of depression I had worn. Most of the time it was light, however, on this day, it was quite heavy. This was a new therapist; however, I expected a similar approach to working through my issue at hand. I was wrong.

During that first visit, he began by showing me Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of control subjects without reported depression in comparison to subjects who had depression. I sat up straight in the recliner (yes, I chose the comfy chair close to him). I could not believe the images displayed and the distinct differences of a healthy brain versus one that was trapped in depression. I was intrigued.

He then began to explain that the great majority of those who suffer from depression can be successfully treated through retraining or “re-wiring” how the brain processes negative emotions. He said, “It is not the negative emotion itself which causes depression. It is the struggle against it which can spiral an individual into negative self-talk ultimately resulting in a sense of chronic depression.”

I sat back and processed what he said. It was true, I could be having a great day and a fleeting sense of melancholy would occur. I have experienced significant depression in the past which felt as if I had been consumed in a “black hole”. I would then spend time focusing on avoidance of that “black hole”. If you have ever had depression or anxiety, I am sure that you can relate.

He then switched screens on his computer and said, “This is the good news. These are images after development of a mindfulness practice.”

I sat up again and was amazed at the differences which occurred on these fMRIs. I thought, “But, will this work for me?”

He must have read my mind because he stood up and walked over to the bookshelf. Turning back to me, he said, “I would like for you to read this book. It is called The Mindful Way Through Depression. Also, there is a companion workbook to the book and part of an eight-week program which I believe will significantly help you. We can meet as you want while you complete it.”

I believe if he had not started with the images, I might not have been so willing to try this process of becoming mindful. I am thankful he did. I went from skeptic to advocate during this time. It was a summer of change for me and a new way of thinking that benefits me to this day. I continue to share my story with those who suffer with fear, grief, anxiety, and depression. If I share my bruised authentic life, then perhaps, I may be able to help in another’s bruised authentic life.

I can share that I have had to take an active role in my mental health. A history of suicide, bipolar disorder, and depression have been a part of my family tree. Implementing these healthy habits in my life has significantly benefited my mental wellness. The work is worth the outcome.

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

I believe the most important role a parent has is to keep their child safe. One of the easiest ways to do so for teens and pre-teens is to say no to social media. Multiple studies have revealed the negative impact of social media on the mental health of our youth. Guiding our children to make this decision for themselves is even better than dictating their adherence to rules.

I believe we forget how smart children are and presenting the facts around social media and mental health is the first step in making the case for a social media exodus or at least holiday.

All the habits I described above are equally applicable to children and adolescents. Parents of adolescents can role model the benefits of healthy habits in the home. It is also crucial for parents to do a “check in” on a regular basis. Parents can become a trusted confidant with relational mindfulness and time. Returning to the concept of family dinners is a simple step towards maintaining open conversations.

We cannot ignore the ongoing impact of our children living through a pandemic. They live in a world that does not feel safe and promotes social isolation. Identifying ways to overcome that will be necessary for a long time.

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

The most impactful book in my life and the best-selling book of all time is the Bible. I did not grow up with religion or spirituality but began seeking answers for the existence of God in my early thirties. I eventually came to the end of me and found faith in the process. My faith has been the greatest gift and gives me hope when the world can feel hopeless.

I am currently reading Atomic Habits and oh how I wish I had come across this book earlier in life. I highly recommend it if you desire a life of effective purpose.

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

I believe that I have been called to do just that with the phrase, “A Good Death is Not an Event, but a Lifestyle. A patient who was actively dying told me, “It’s okay, I am going to have a good death”.

The phrase stayed with me, and I began writing about the question, “Is it possible to have a good death?”

I discovered in that journey that yes, it is possible and I have a book coming out with all the ingredients. However, you can also go to my website, www.drpamela.com, and begin the journey. Because we do not know our death date, living as if it were tomorrow will create The Good Death Lifestyle. Asking ourselves these questions is the beginning to a changed life:

• Am I truly living my moments?
• Am I fully breathing my purpose?
• Am I confident of my destination?

Yes, I believe we can begin a movement and I thank you for this question and platform to share my dream.

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

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou.

Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

It is a quote that I carry in my heart as a reminder to treat people with kindness and that simple act will be the aroma I leave when I am gone.

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

Thegooddeathdoctor or Dr Pamela on IG, Pamela Prince Pyle on FB and you can contact me through my website, www.drpamela.com.

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

Thank you so much and to you!

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Dr Pamela Pyle: 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.

Female Founders: Carlye Morgan Of Chalonne On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be very clear in your mission and vision. I knew the company and culture that I wanted to create but I didn’t actually put it to paper until a couple of years into the process. Having a clear vision and mission statement can act as a touchstone for everything you do. When in doubt, ask yourself if it meets one of those objectives, and if it’s not consistent with those values, don’t do it.

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

Chalonne, founder and designer Carlye Morgan is a seasoned marketing and advertising executive with two decades of experience working on ubiquitous brands like L’Oreal, Frito Lay and Sony. As a mom and Los Angeles native, Carlye’s unique blend of elegant style and practical function are evident in each band she designs. Carlye founded Chalonne with the ethos of empowering women and giving back built into its DNA.

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?

For my entire life, I’ve always had an artistic mind and a passion for design. I loved expressing myself through drawing and painting and studied art history at the University of Pennsylvania. While I loved the arts, I ultimately decided to pursue advertising — where I could marry my creative side to the reliability of a business career. Although this granted me a breadth of invaluable marketing and strategic business experiences, I always had an inkling I would return to my artistic roots. The moment presented itself when I was taking a respite from corporate life and identified a business opportunity and white space to design luxury Apple Watch bands.

Each design is a metaphor of my personal experiences through travel. Evoking pristine beaches, the scent of dried grass, Venetian architecture or the relentless desert sun, all our designs are imbued with a sense of time and place. Designs are dreamed up in Los Angeles, CA and manufactured by artisan craftsman in a small town in Pelousey, France. Specific moments in my travels, throughout my life, have such a visceral quality to them that my designs simply become an expression of those experiences.

Today, I’m very proud that Chalonne is delivering the finest Apple Watch bands on the market. Our bands offer a luxurious way to express individuality and style every day. Every single band is meticulously crafted with the finest, ethically sourced materials available including diamonds, freshwater pearls, lustrous 14k gold and rich leathers.

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

I often travel from Los Angeles to New York for business meetings, etc. and I usually like to use the time to work. But on one occasion, I sat next to someone who struck up a conversation with me before I could get out my laptop. I learned that they were an artist so I immediately perked up given my life-long interest in art. They shared their sketchbook with me and I was awestruck. We discovered that we had many of the same interests and we spoke the rest of the flight about art, fashion, LA, food, Italy and so much more. I had wanted to partner with an artist on a design so I just threw it out there and they were receptive. We continued the conversation when we returned to LA and that evolved into a larger business relationship and Ricky Amadour has become a trusted member of my team acting as Creative Director. It was a chance encounter that became an incredibly meaningful business relationship.

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 not sure that I have a funny mistake, but the funniest story happened when I was visiting my manufacturer, Jean Rousseau, in France. My husband came along on the trip so we could tack on a much-needed vacation, so we took a road trip across the France, from Paris to Pelousey. My husband dropped me off at the manufacturing facility where I spent the day meeting the amazing artisans, learning about the tannery, seeing their new materials and discussing my business plan with the CEO. At the end of the day, at the appointed pick-up time, I went outside to meet him. The CEO offered to wait with me in the freezing cold…but no husband. I didn’t want to waste his time and asked him to please go back inside, because I was sure my husband would be there any moment. After a very long delay, my husband finally appeared. Apparently, he crashed the rental car in a parking lot just an hour before he was supposed to pick me up. Given his perfect driving record, I was shocked, but luckily no one was hurt and we had a good laugh at how it happened…until we received the bill a few months later! Lesson leaned…take an Uber next time!

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

The biggest challenge to starting my own business was having the courage to take the leap and leave the corporate world. My husband was integral in supporting the decision to pursue my passion and start my own business. He encouraged me to step down from corporate life, focus on being a mom while setting aside time for myself to reset and find the balance that was badly lacking from my life. And it turned out to be exactly what I needed. I was able to hit the reset button, and without the daily pressure, I had the space to be creative. It was during that time that I developed the initial concept that evolved into Chalonne.

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?

Women need other female roles models they can look up to and respect and I believe that starts at home. Parents can be the most powerful role model a young person is exposed to. I think that’s the reason why so many of my friends decided to pursue the exact same profession as their parents. The more, strong, women entrepreneurs and leaders we have as roles models, the more young women can imagine themselves in that role or job and may be more likely to consider it as a career path. There also seems to be a disparity when it comes to funding. New businesses are incredibly expensive and with a financial sector is still dominated by men, they are more likely to fund founder who look like themselves. In addition, men may not intuitively understand the potential of a fantastic new product that is designed for female consumers, which may be why female founded businesses are much less likely to secure angel or VC funding than their male counterparts.

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 media has a definite role to play. External role models can be just as powerful as homegrown ones but they need to be seen and heard. Look at the entrepreneurs that are talked about every day? It’s mostly men making headlines. The media could absolutely make more of a conscious effort to balance the share of voice by seeking out stories about successful women entrepreneurs who are making a meaningful difference.

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?

If you have a great idea, something that is unique or that disrupts, go for it. Creating something from nothing is one of the most rewarding things one can do in business. It’s a constant challenge, forcing you out of your comfort zone on a daily basis. Women can be very creative thinkers and so good at multi-tasking which is essential for founders. And as I mentioned earlier, we need more female role models to inspire the next generation.

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

I’m honestly not sure what the “myths” are, but founding a business seemed like a very daunting task at first. You need to be scrappy, creative and very organized. You need to believe in your idea and give it enough runway to allow it to grow. It can be slow-going at first but it’s all about perseverance. You need to lean into what is working and pivot when something is obviously not — Be ok with ‘taking a hit’. You’ll make many mistakes but those mistakes have value and will help you do it right the next time. You also need to have a healthy relationship with rejection, which just comes with the territory, so you can’t let it knock you down. I heard the word “no” more times than I can count, but you need to just keep on persisting until you get a “yes”. Because they will come. You just need to keep working and be patient.

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?

Founders require grit. If you have an idea that you believe it, you need to have the resiliency to stick with it. You have to be in it for the long haul and have a 5–10 year outlook, so I try to avoid situations with arbitrary deadlines. Founders understand that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and you need to make a huge investment of time and money in order to create something from nothing. ‘If you build it they will come’ only works in the movies. You have to invest in marketing to achieve brand awareness which takes time and consistency.

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. Be very clear in your mission and vision. I knew the company and culture that I wanted to create but I didn’t actually put it to paper until a couple of years into the process. Having a clear vision and mission statement can act as a touchstone for everything you do. When in doubt, ask yourself if it meets one of those objectives, and if it’s not consistent with those values, don’t do it.
2. Know Thyself. Take an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses so you can use both to your advantage. Not everyone is good at everything, but as a Founder you have to do everything. So it’s a good idea to come up with an alternative plan for the tasks that are outside your comfort zone and lean into the tasks that are in your wheelhouse. You need to learn how to let go, so why not start by letting go of the tasks that someone else can do better.
3. Work/Life balance will still be a challenge. I somehow thought that when I had my own company that having a work/life balance would be “easier” to achieve and I’d have more time to spend with my daughter. It’s true that I have more flexibility with my time, but there’s even more pressure to perform and succeed especially when it’s your company. You’ll still have to figure out how to do it all.
4. Be decisive. Don’t dwell on decisions, it will save you a ton of time. Certainly, you must be thoughtful, but trust your gut — your first thought is usually the right one. In the event that it doesn’t go your way, have the flexibility to acknowledge a mistake and pivot. Again, don’t dwell, just switch gears and move on.
5. Trust your Intuition. ‘Women’s intuition’ is a thing for a reason — because there’s truth to it. There have been so many times when I had a ‘gut’ feeling and didn’t trust it. In hindsight I have found that my intuition tends to be correct. It taught me to trust my instincts and lean into them.

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

Having worked in the corporate world for many years, I spent a lot of time thinking about Chalonne’s culture and I decided to make female empowerment an integral part of Chalonne’s DNA. My ideal is for Chalonne to help empower women and support them in ways that truly make a difference in their lives. From personal experiences, I knew that I wanted to start with Breast Cancer research. A friend of mine connected me with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, who agreed to a partnership very early on, even before I had product, so I was thrilled that they said ‘yes’. Chalonne donates 4% of all retail sales on Chalonne.com to BCRF. Every donation is one step closer to finding the cure to the disease that affects hundreds of thousands of women in the United States each year and we are proud to help that cause. The ultimate goal is for Chalonne to be successful enough to extend our mission of empowering women, by supporting other organizations who champion physical health, economic and educational opportunities and inner strength of women everywhere.

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

I would love to create a mentoring program for young women where they not only get the guidance they need to become young entrepreneurs, but where they can teach others the skills that they have learned from the process. I think the hardest thing when trying to create a movement is sustaining the momentum and inspiring people to “pay it forward”. We need to create sticky bonds that encourage mentees to be generous with their new-found knowledge and later become mentors themselves. Only after being a mentor does it become clear how valuable that experience is for both parties involved. I truly believe that we have so much to learn from others, regardless of age, experience, or any other perceived differences. I firmly believe that women need to support each other and lift each other up. If we expect to inspire the next generations, we need to start doing it now.

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

I would love to meet Oprah Winfrey. I have so much respect for her as a woman. She pursued her passions, capitalized on her talent, listened to her intuition to become a highly respected and successful entrepreneur. And as a bonus, she wears her Apple Watch all the time and I just know that she would love my product if she tried it.

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

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

Female Founders: Melissa Hanley Of Blitz On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Say yes to the weird and the wonderful! I think about how some of the best experiences have been because I was dragged to an event or meeting and it ended up opening the door to some of the best, most fun, most exciting work we’ve ever done. I often think about the events I didn’t go to and opportunities I didn’t take, and I wonder what saying “yes” could have brought.

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

Co-Founder, Principal, and CEO of full-service architecture and interior design firm Blitz. Since Melissa co-founded Blitz in 2019 at the age of 26, the firm has expanded rapidly with locations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and St. Louis and an impressive roster of clients such as Dropbox, Spotify, Microsoft, Google, Reddit, Lucid Motors, and Verizon, to name just a few.

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

I grew up in a rural part of Northern California on a Christmas Tree farm. My father is a contractor and fine woodworker, and my earliest memories are of us drawing and painting together. My parents recognized this interest in art and enrolled me in after school art lessons from the age of six. Growing up in such a creative environment gave me the sense of exploration and freedom to test ideas without restraint — often to the detriment of the walls and furniture. Somehow, over the next decade, I became convinced that I should sideline creative pursuits as hobbies only and should pursue law as my profession. I’m so envious of the people who say they knew they wanted to be an architect from the time they were four years old. For me, it wasn’t until my 20th birthday. My design epiphany came during my second year of college. I was working at a law firm to pay for my tuition and preparing for law school when I made a visit to the San Francisco MoMA on my birthday — something I do nearly every year. In a moment of reflection and contemplation while sitting in front of a Rothko, I realized how inauthentic my life was. In that instant, I was called back to design. I knew that fine art wasn’t going to stimulate the part of my brain that loved the problem solving and research aspects of law. I took an architectural history class on a whim, and it opened my mind to a whole new world which I had never considered.

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

I think one of the most interesting stories is wrapped up in Blitz’s founding. In mid-2009 at the height of the economic downturn, my co-founder (and now husband) and I were both laid off from the same firm at the same time (different conference rooms) along with ¾ of the staff. The next day, while nursing a serious tequila hangover, Blitz was born. At the time, there was a 40% unemployment rate in the A/E industry in San Francisco. We knew that if we wanted to stay in the profession, we were going to have to make our own way. Within four months, through one of Seth’s connections back in the UK, we landed Skype’s North American headquarters in Palo Alto. The size of the project quickly grew from a 10,000-square-foot space to a 90,000-square-foot building. Up until then we had been primarily designing schools and hospitals and didn’t know the first thing about creative workplace design. However, we learned quickly. We delivered the project from our dining room. I remember, in preparation for our 100 schematic design presentation, the Skype team asked us to travel to London to formally present to the executive group. They wanted the deck sent in advance so it could be printed locally. We were working around the clock to deliver a project that really should have been serviced by a team of four to five people and worked through the night before our flight. We managed to press send on the deck right as the taxi arrived to take us to the airport. After getting some much-needed sleep on the plane, we went straight into the meeting only to discover that — of course — printing parameters are different in the UK. Key sections of the presentation got cut off and it was scaled incorrectly. Whoops. Luckily, we relied on the digital version of the presentation, and it all went swimmingly. It was an exhilarating and terrifying experience figuring out how to work together, build a business, and deliver what was one of the largest projects going in the Bay Area at the time. That project was the springboard for the firm in many ways. While we didn’t set out to create a workplace interiors firm, we found that the speed and sense of creative experimentation of the project typology aligned with the way we liked to work.

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?

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 so many people who made it possible for me to do what I do. From a supportive foundation at home to incredible teachers at university to the grumpy, old men architects who took me under their collective wing and taught me how to be a professional through the school of hard knocks and hard work. I would not have the confidence, nor the tenacity required to tackle what it takes to run a growing business without these influences.

The person to whom I am most grateful is my partner. I know this is a little fundamental, but maybe that’s why it’s the first thing to come to mind. Having a life partner that shares your ambition and completely supports your goals in executing those ambitions is priceless. The fact that he is also my business partner and, if we’re being honest, the person who carried the heaviest load in forming me into an architect, makes it all the sweeter. It’s important to remember I was only 26 when we founded the company. Looking back, it seems ridiculous that any of this worked given how young and inexperienced I was. The learning curve was steep, but it was shortened by a great teacher. People usually respond to us with incredulity when we mention that we’re in business together, and quickly remark that they “could never work with their spouse.”

There are far more positive aspects of working together than negatives. We value that our work spills over into our personal lives. The fact is that Blitz is our brainchild, and we have dedicated our lives to the studio and its success. If we had to overcome challenges on the home front with an unsupportive — or just ambivalent — spouse, we would never have been able to sprint as far and as hard as we have. The shared vision, language, and shorthand is everything. I heard once that one’s choice of partner (in life) is one of the most important business decisions a founder will make. A little hyperbolic yes, but fundamentally true. I get all the support I need at home and at work that I could ever want to keep chasing the dream. As a female architect, I find this incredibly powerful. I’m also very proud of the number of women at Blitz. We are a predominantly female organization and are committed to gender pay equity and regularly reassess pay scales across the disciplines and individuals.

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?

Obviously, I’m not an expert in sociology but I believe that this begins very early in life. Girls are taught to not take up space and, therefore, don’t take their seat at the founder’s table. On an HBR podcast I heard about a study of teenagers gathered at a friend’s house. When the friend’s parent came into the TV room with an offer of afternoon snacks, the boys in the room immediately jumped on the offer while the girls looked around anxiously at one another and demurred. The conclusion was that girls are societally trained to not be a bother, to not be pushy, to not inconvenience anyone. There are several things you must be comfortable with as a founder, namely that you have to be pushy, you have to elbow your way in, and you are going to inconvenience someone (if only your competitors). If we started the messaging at an early age that girls should own their space, I really think this would fundamentally change the framework within which women operate.

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 first task must be awareness. This concept of not owning space is so culturally ingrained we need to name it and make parents aware of it. I’m pretty sure most parents don’t want to raise their daughters to be shrinking violets, but they are, likely, completely unaware that their behavior reinforces these societal norms. I don’t know how you begin to tackle such a systemic issue.

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?

It would be easy to lean on ‘empathy’ as an expected response here and I think that’s just way too simplistic. I think it’s more nuanced than an emotional response to business. It is about perspective. And it is more than just women, it’s all minorities and under-represented groups. A variety of perspectives at the table means that no one is redundant, and through the diversity of viewpoints we will get to a better, more holistic solution faster. If everyone in an organization has the same background and the same life experience, then there is redundancy in decision making. Women should become founders because the business world needs to evolve to a more diverse landscape. It’s good for women but it’s also good for the world.

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

Myth: You get to make your own schedule. Reality: You work when, where, and how you need to make the business work and that rarely falls into a 9–5 schedule.

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. Beyond the time commitment required to start a company (think 60+ hours / week) there must be a comfort level with the constant unknown landscape. You don’t know if this venture is going to work. You don’t know if the patent will get approved. You don’t know if your staff will meet your expectations. You don’t know if the next round of funding will come through. Every aspect of your work life will be in dynamic flux for years. Things didn’t stabilize for us for at least three years. Most people aren’t great with so many variables being up in the air. Being an innately curious person is also a major key to success. As a founder I have had to learn about accounting, payroll, IT infrastructure, employment contracts, lease negotiations, janitorial agreements, etc. etc. etc. If I had “stayed in my lane” as an architect, the business never would have survived. When you’re starting out you need to be and “do all things” until you can hire the expertise. Even if you get to that point, you need a working knowledge of “all the things” to be able to interface and communicate with the experts.

In this same vein, I also don’t think every founder is cut out to be the CEO of the company they’ve built. Several of my clients have stepped into advisory or inventor roles within their companies and allowed someone else to step in as CEO. As a technician myself, I see the appeal. I was not trained in management or business strategy. What I know now I have learned from trial and error. If our company were on track for explosive growth, as is the case with many of our clients, we might seriously consider bringing in that expertise to avoid the pitfalls associated with trial and error.

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. Take an accounting class. Learn how to read a balance sheet, a P+L and understand the weirdness that is accrual accounting. You cannot run a business of any scale on the principle of “more money coming in than going out.”
2. Prioritize sleep. I learned this one early on (not that I always practice what I preach). Our first big purchase when Skype paid their first bill was new bedding. Investing in sleep pays dividends in creativity, patience, and empathy. The worst decisions I’ve made and the times I’ve been less than civil are all tied to times when I was exhausted, rung out and stressed because I was trading sleep for work.
3. Take more pictures (or better yet, keep a journal). One of our clients in the early days gave us this nugget of advice and I’m so glad that they did. We’ve taken pictures of everything we’ve seen and done, but I really wish we’d gone a step farther and kept a journal. There are so many details about the experience of starting a company and the adventures we’ve embarked upon because of far-flung projects, and it’s all become a blur.
4. You will never not be worried about your business. The things you worry about will change over time, but you will never be free of worries. For example, I no longer worry about the survival of the company. I worry about the happiness of our staff or the press coverage of a key project. If you are looking for a job you can close your mind to when you clock out at the end of the day, being a founder is not for you.
5. Say yes to the weird and the wonderful! I think about how some of the best experiences have been because I was dragged to an event or meeting and it ended up opening the door to some of the best, most fun, most exciting work we’ve ever done. I often think about the events I didn’t go to and opportunities I didn’t take, and I wonder what saying “yes” could have brought.

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.

Stop wasteful design. If something can be reused, reinvested, repurposed — do it. It is so typical in interior design to rip out everything existing and start anew with alarming regularity (every 24–36 months) which is outrageously wasteful.

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.

A glass of wine with Michelle Obama all. day. long! She is fierce, accessible and authentic.

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

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Female Founders: Melissa Hanley Of Blitz 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.

Joe Kryszak of Stirling CBD: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

The health benefits I have seen have been amazing. I personally had cancer last year, and cannabis products were one of the only things that made me feel better.

As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Joe Kryszak.

Joe Kryszak is the founder and owner of Stirlingcdboil.com & Stirlingprofessional.com. Joe completed his undergraduate at San Diego State University and received his MBA in 2002 from Pepperdine University. Joe has run billion-dollar businesses at HP, Lenovo, and Amazon. In 2014, Joe launched Stirling with the goal of providing a healthy, natural alternative to over-the-counter and prescription medication.

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

Growing up in California, I have always had a passion for Cannabis — it was a part of my social upbringing. During the 1990’s while I was attending SDSU, the cannabis industry was not a consideration — of course it was not legal anywhere. Luckily I had some amazing opportunities to develop myself and in traditional corporate America. After some amazing successful years of corporate experience at Fortune 500 companies like Black & Decker, HP, and Amazon, I determined it was time to follow my passion and help lead the wave of holistic health solutions for people. The CBD / Cannabis industry was the logical place to put my energy and passion.

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

Unfortunately, the Cbd/Cannabis industry is full of what Californians call “posers.” In my 8 years in this industry, I have met more unprofessional & unscrupulous people than I have met in my 30 years in the corporate world. The good news is that my experience working with all types of people with different backgrounds and skillsets makes me an excellent evaluator of talent. The biggest lesson I can tell people who want to enter this business is? Trust but verify, and then verify again. A bad partnership in this industry means you are doomed.

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?

A potential partner indicated that they had extracted one of the “Holy Grails” of Cannibionodis. However, he was unwilling to prove this by getting his product tested — he was adamant that all 3rd party testing was a scam and the testing companies could not verify his solution. We passed on the partnership, and he quickly got bought out. Just 3 months later, that partnership blew up, and the potential partner returned to us with a radically reduced fee. We passed on him again…Trust but verify — and then verify again!

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

We are working with leaders in the retail, extraction, B2C, and telehealth communities to develop a complete solution for people who are interested but nervous about CBD. This will open up a whole new avenue to this amazing solution.

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

I continually lean on people who are smarter than me in specific areas. As we are in over 200 Chiropractic offices, I have contact with people who love, own, and practice healthy solutions. I appreciate all the partnerships I have made and will continue to lean on them for product advice.

This industry is young dynamic and creative. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

The biggest way to fail in this industry — spend too much $$ with marketing companies. Marketing companies continually overpromise and underdeliver. Learn the basics of marketing and do a deep interview of any marketing company before you sign up with them.

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

Excite:

1. The health benefits I have seen have been amazing. I personally had cancer last year, and cannabis products were one of the only things that made me feel better.
2. The continued adoption of cannabis by all demographics, races, and ages. It is great to see so many diverse communities adopt cannabinoid products.
3. The discovery and development of new cannabinoids. For instance, we just launched a Water-Soluble CBGA/CBDA powder that is getting a lot of attention in the press.

Concerns:

1. CBD companies continue to make health claims that their product can cure/prevent diseases. This is a sure-fire way to attract the attention of the FDA and have them come down on all CBD companies.
2. There will be a continuous shake out of the industry. 1000s of CBD companies will start this year, and 1000s will close

Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

• This is not a get-rich-quick scheme — and you will have bigger competitors who can outspend you. Find your niche and attack it.
• You will spend far more time making your company successful than you expect
• Trust is earned in this industry.
• Marketing companies are better at marketing themselves than you
• This business is like a good golf shot — “Keep your head down and follow through.”

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

https://www.facebook.com/InfoStirlingOils/

https://www.instagram.com/stirlingcbdoil/

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

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Joe Kryszak of Stirling CBD: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.