Day: August 10, 2022

Female Founders: Emma Clayton On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I think we all have the ability to become a successful entrepreneur. What it takes is a great amount of resilience, self-awareness, and tenacity. If you have the idea and the passion, then you have what it takes. I see many people, men, and women, have an idea and expect it to become a success overnight. Having a business is a learning process and when things don’t go well it is important to see them as a lesson, not a failure. If you are someone that can keep going then you have what it takes. I find women are incredible at this. They say “if you want a job doing give it to a busy woman” — well I also think that is true of business owners. Women are better with empathy and relationships, and these are key elements to business survival.

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

Emma Clayton is a driven single mum who took the strategic decision to get into debt so that she could continue to work and progress in her career. With a mortgage to pay there was no option to take a step back and the company wouldn’t allow flexible working. Starting her marketing consultancy business £32,000 in debt, within two and a half years, she had become a leading player in her industry and had grown an established Marketing and Communications agency generating a million pounds in turnover. Emma now helps female entrepreneurs scale and grow their ventures through teams, showing how it’s possible to juggle motherhood with a business and how not to lose their minds, health, or relationships in the process.

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 started my own business five years ago with no idea what it took to build one. In the UK where I live, there was no obvious place I could turn for support, skill development and basic knowledge of how to grow a business from scratch. Whilst I did create a seven figure business within three years it was from making and learning from a lot of mistakes as well as successes. I sold that business and now focus my team on supporting other female founders to create a roadmap for success without making the same mistakes that I made.

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

I think one of the proudest moments for me was when we fired our first client. We realised early in the journey that we shouldn’t say yes to every client and that some wanted to pay us a lot less than the value we delivered, and it was okay to end those relationships. My team were experiencing difficulties with the senior leadership team, and we took action to terminate the relationship. Culture is so important in an organsiation and is driven by all the decisions you do (and don’t) make.

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 don’t think it’s so much funny as embarrassing but the first mistake I made was how low I priced my services. My idea was to make the same money as I made in my job, which is such a common thought process that we have when we leave employment and begin a business. But I forgot that I needed to pay taxes, contribute to my own pension and that my pricing was set by me and not my last organisation. I now work with women leaving corporate life to set strong pricing from the start.

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

I am always in the debt of my Operations Director who joined me in the first year of my business. We worked well together and quickly realised how different we were and how we could use that to great effect in the business. We divided up the roles according to our strengths and respected this. It enabled us to cover all the elements in the business with each of us completing tasks we loved. She was very process driven, which I dislike immensely and I was the creative strategist. We were a formidable team. I recommend everyone find someone that is their total opposite to take away the tasks you dislike. It was at that point we started to see huge productivity and growth.

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

I think that this is a complex challenge, but I do see that more women are starting companies than ever before. But you are correct that barely any of these are funded by money other than their own savings. We are seeing a huge growth in female owned businesses since the digital explosion. Women who were unhappy in their employed roles, who weren’t advancing in their careers and who wanted greater flexibility, have chosen to leave and set up a business. However, this has led to many women working around families as they can’t afford childcare. I also think that women charge a lot less than men — some studies have shown that women charge 43% less than men which keeps that business unable to invest in growth. More needs to be done to support women to create businesses that can thrive, and funding would certainly help this. In the UK, only 2% of venture capital is invested in female owned businesses.

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?

We can make noise and we can campaign, but I think the only thing that would promote a change in this is to financially penalise those investment companies that don’t invest in female founded businesses, or incentivise them to do so. We know that in the UK £250 billion is lost from the economy each year because women’s businesses are not growing to their potential. The government needs to consider that with investment these companies will grow and with growth comes more taxes paid. Even a start-up grant would even itself out over time.

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 believe that we need more female founders because we need equality within business. I would like younger women to know that there are more lucrative options to their career than going to university, getting a job, having a family and then leaving the workforce because it isn’t set up to accommodate working mothers. Having a business not only provides flexibility but it is the way forward to creating financial freedom as well.

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

A lot of women have the limiting belief that they can’t build a business when they have a family. As a single mum myself, I am testament that you can.

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

I think we all have the ability to become a successful entrepreneur. What it takes is a great amount of resilience, self-awareness, and tenacity. If you have the idea and the passion, then you have what it takes. I see many people, men, and women, have an idea and expect it to become a success overnight. Having a business is a learning process and when things don’t go well it is important to see them as a lesson, not a failure. If you are someone that can keep going then you have what it takes. I find women are incredible at this. They say “if you want a job doing give it to a busy woman” — well I also think that is true of business owners. Women are better with empathy and relationships, and these are key elements to business survival.

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.)

Have a plan
Know your strengths and recruit for your weaknesses
Price powerfully from the very beginning
Surround yourself with people 2–3 steps ahead of you so that you can see what is possible
Invest your profit into growth (marketing, development, people) from the start — it will pay off!

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

I have created a campaign called WE MEAN BUSINESS that provides affordable and accessible education and skills for new female founders. We are lobbying the UK government for policy changes and support for all new businesses to enable them to have a chance of success. I am passionate about helping those female founders who need that helping hand without incurring huge costs.

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.

That’s exactly what I did when I created the WE MEAN BUSINESS movement. I am now advising two government panels and can see that they are listening. However, change doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like.

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 Sara Blakely! She is my idol in business and her tenacity and determination to get Spanx into her first stores are so inspiring — and she is normal and fun like everyone else. Business can be fun!

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

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

Female Founders: Anna Ivey of Inline On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman…

Female Founders: Anna Ivey of Inline On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

Building a product is different from building a business. I’ve been obsessed with our product from the beginning — these are college applications we’re talking about, so I wasn’t going to roll out something half-baked and then patch patch patch — but I’m also aware that despite the Field of Dreams, building it does not mean they will come. Sales and brand awareness are a whole different expertise and skill set.

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

Anna Ivey is the founder of Inline, a digital tool that helps students with every question and essay on their Common App college applications. She is also the author of the book “How to Prepare a Standout College Application.” She lives in Los Angeles.

I’ve been in the higher ed world in some capacity for a long time now. I used to do admissions at the University of Chicago, I’ve worked in development at Stanford, and I’ve been running an independent admissions consulting firm staffed by former admissions officers for over a decade. I know how the proverbial sausage gets made, and I’m well aware that the path to higher education in the United States leaves a lot of people behind. And those who do manage to apply to a bachelor’s program often find that the admissions process feels like a giant black box. And that’s happening at a point in history when a college degree matters more than ever to succeed in the global economy for many kinds of jobs. So I’m on a mission to level the playing field on that path to higher education, and make sure that the best advice is available to everyone who is applying to college. And I also hope that by removing some of that friction and some of that mystery in the application process, more people feel encouraged to apply who otherwise wouldn’t.

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

I’m always learning about the hidden assumptions I sometimes make, especially when talking to counselors and applicants. Some of them are already very savvy about the application process, others are really starting from scratch. And I’ve learned never to assume too much in either direction. Years ago I was presenting at a conference, and afterwards someone came up to me — a young man who would be a returning learner, doing continuing education after some earlier credits in community college — and he told me that in my presentation he didn’t understand the difference between undergrad and grad school. That was an epiphany for me. I had assumed too much knowledge about higher ed lingo. And that learning curve never ends, by the way. Now I’m more likely to stop and ask people if I’m using terms they’re not familiar with. That’s the easiest and safest way to make sure they’re able to follow what you’re saying, and you don’t want them to feel embarrassed to ask, especially when frankly it’s my problem, not theirs. And I appreciate it when it goes in the other direction as well. In the same vein I had an admissions officer — from a fancypants college, one you’ve all heard of — ask me why she didn’t receive undergraduate applications from military officers. I’m glad she asked, because I realized she didn’t really understand some basic distinctions in military service, and that led to a much larger conversation about how to recruit more military applicants and how to interpret their backgrounds and service records.

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

I was doing a school visit and accidentally went to the wrong school. There were some signs that should have clued me in sooner than I realized my mistake. People were very nice about it though. You’d think by now I’d always know to go to this city’s airport and not that other one, or not to confuse two colleges that have the same name, or mix up two high schools. It happens. You’re not a robot. You fix your mistakes and move on. And you’ll never go to O’Hare again when you’re supposed to be at Midway.

My co-founder Alison Chisolm was instrumental in helping me build Inline. We go back many years. We worked together at the University of Chicago, we worked together in admissions consulting, we wrote a book on college applications together, and most recently we built Inline together. Our paths diverged over the years in between various jobs and projects, but it was wonderful to have a trusted partner to reconnect with all that time.

I suspect the problem is less with founding than with funding. The statistics are even grimmer than the one you cited. Last year, only 2% of VC funding went to female-founded businesses. That should be a scandal.

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

I’ve participated in two terrific start-up accelerators for underrepresented founders — one affiliated with USC and the other with Columbia — and they have been incredibly helpful. And let me also point out that they relied on a lot of free labor from the accelerator founders and the mentors they bring in as volunteers, all of whom take no cash or equity to keep the thing running. It is truly a labor of love on their part because they are trying to help fix some real inequities in the startup landscape.

That being said, you can have all the incubators and accelerators in the world to support female founders, and teach them all the things they could be doing better, faster, or whatever, but that’s also implicitly assuming that female founders are the source of the problem. I would ask investors to take a hard look at their funding patterns and ask themselves whether they could be doing better. Yes, female founders can always do things to make themselves better start-up founders and leaders, but I don’t think the entire problem should be laid at their feet. They are not the ones with the power or the checkbooks. The VC community tends to invest in people who look like them and talk like them and went to their small number of schools. And there’s that famous study in Harvard Business Review showing that VCs systematically talk about potential and opportunity when talking to male founders, but focus disproportionately on downside risk when talking to female founders. Can they be persuaded to shift their mindset? To invest more broadly? To diversify their investments (in multiple senses of the verb)? I hope so.

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 don’t think start-up life is for everyone, male or female or anything in between. But women have great ideas, and in some cases have very valuable vantage points, and we’d all be better off if they decided to solve some of those problems through business and private enterprise. I think women especially have a lot to offer when it comes to “product-founder” fit for their ideas. Some people end up in business school to pursue those goals, others learn by jumping in and doing. There is room for everyone.

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

A big one is that startup founders are young guys in hoodies. They do tend to look that way when you see who gets funded, but when you broaden the aperture to see who is actually founding and running businesses (with or without outside funding), that’s a whole lot of people who aren’t young guys in hoodies.

There’s also a myth around “hustle,” that you have to be psychotically dedicated to your business to the exclusion of everything else in life, but anyone who has a few years under their belt will confirm that that way of living is sustainable only in the short run. If you want to be doing something for the long haul, you have to keep learning and living and exploring outside your tiny niche.

A (considerably younger and junior) VC once told me on a phone call that if I’m not sleeping under my desk every night to run Inline, nobody will take me seriously. He also thought it was crazy that I had a day job. Well, my “day job” has been directly related to the expertise that supports Inline — we even use it with all our coaches and consulting clients — and allows us to be up to our elbows in the problems that Inline is solving. I also asked him how he proposed I bootstrap my venture in the absence of funding? He said to ask my parents to support me. Think about that. Aside from the class assumptions — a lot of founders or potential founders can’t just ask their parents for money, they don’t have a trust fund or a money tree in the backyard — I had to point out to him that I was in my forties and had been making my own living for some time. It’s funny, some funders want you to show that you have skin in the game — that’s a phrase I hear a lot — and when you actually have skin in the game, others will hold that against you. I’ve learned not to give any one piece of advice too much weight. You have to consider your sources.

There are some people who are temperamentally better suited to work in a larger and more structured environment with chains of command and very clearly defined roles, and the upside to that (even for people who don’t like a strict org chart) is that you have a paycheck show up on a regular basis and probably someone above you to go to when you have a problem or a something you need help with. In contrast, as a founder you have to do everything, at least at the start, and you’re probably bootstrapping and investing your own funds, and that’s not an option for everyone. It’s also not something that everyone would find tolerable, let alone enjoyable. Some people aren’t comfortable with uncertainty or risk, and to them I would say: stick with your more conventional day job. There’s no shame in that. (There are risks with a conventional job too, of course, including unemployment risk!) To a founder, certainly in the early stages, you have to be crazy optimistic and resilient. You have to be committed to trading off a lot of other things you enjoy or want to spend money on, because most of the universe in one way or another is pointing towards not doing it.

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.)

Building a product is different from building a business. I’ve been obsessed with our product from the beginning — these are college applications we’re talking about, so I wasn’t going to roll out something half-baked and then patch patch patch — but I’m also aware that despite the Field of Dreams, building it does not mean they will come. Sales and brand awareness are a whole different expertise and skill set.
Be thoughtful about how much time you spend on pitch competitions. They can morph into a full-time job, and for many the payoff just isn’t there.
You’ll go to enough start-up related conferences and events with male founders and you will observe a completely different baseline of confidence and entitlement, and some days I have to ask myself, “What would a white dude do?” It’s a different way of going through the world.
VCs are a lot like admissions officers. They have big slush piles. You have to figure out what they want and how to stand out. They make a lot of assumptions about what you do and don’t know about their industry. You have to cast a wide net because to some degree it’s a numbers game. And they will often want you to do conflicting things in your applications/pitches. Then there’s the perceived black-box element around their decision making. Truly, I could write a book on the parallels.
There are a lot of people who want to help you along the way. Sometimes you just have to remember to ask.

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

One of the most rewarding things I’ve done, besides Inline, is to co-found a non-profit called Service to School, which mentors transitioning military veterans through the college application process and helps them get into good colleges. My co-founders and I were inspired to launch S2S because we were dismayed by the number of veterans being defrauded by for-profit diploma mills masquerading as universities. Since our founding over ten years ago, we’ve helped thousands of veterans pursue higher education. I’m not involved in day to day operations anymore — we’ve had a very capable, non-founder management team in place since we grew beyond start-up mode — but I still sit on the board. I’m really proud of what the S2S team has built and the good work they continue to do.

I’m far from the only person banging this drum, but the biggest obstacle standing in the path of higher education in the United States is a political one. We are one of the few countries in the developed world where higher education is not treated as a public good or publicly financed. When you see what hoops people have to jump through in the financial aid process, and the loans they have to take out, and the opportunities they don’t pursue because of cost, and the attrition rate that is often linked to cost, and you see how other countries have removed those obstacles, it really boggles the mind that we continue to finance higher education the way we do here in the United States. It reminds me in some ways of how we finance healthcare in the US versus the rest of the world. There really are better ways — honestly, they’re all around us — and we are mired politically in these broken systems. I have to believe we can do better.

I’m so inspired by Lynda Weinman, the founder of the online learning platform Lynda.com, which she built for years and eventually sold to LinkedIn. Talk about being in it for the long haul, and not looking like a young guy in a hoodie (love those cat eye glasses!) She’s had a vision and stick-with-it-ness that I admire, and she built something great. I think of her often! She’s originally from L.A., I believe, so whenever she comes back through town, please tell her that cocktails are on me!

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

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

Women In Wellness: Emma Bromley of The Bromley Method On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help…

Women In Wellness: Emma Bromley of The Bromley Method On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Eat clean. Oftentimes the mommy tummy caused by pelvic floor dysfunction is exacerbated by food related bloating. The most common bloating foods are dairy and gluten, but a food sensitivity blood test will also give you a better idea of which foods might be bloating you personally.

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

Emma Bromley is a Pilates Instructor, Postpartum Corrective Exercise Specialist, author of The Pelvic Floor, and founder of The Bromley Method, a highly effective Pilates-inspired method of pelvic floor conditioning and core healing that goes far beyond traditional kegels and ab exercises. She has taught hundreds of postpartum women both online and in person how to heal from common postpartum dysfunctions like diastasis, leaking, back and pelvic pain, intercourse pain and so much more, so that they can discover their true postpartum potential, and feel strong and confident again. Having experienced and healed from many of the aforementioned herself, she is passionate about educating women that these things do not have to be a part of our new normal as mothers, and that with the right healing exercises we absolutely can jump on a trampoline again without discomfort!

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’ve been teaching and practicing Pilates for 15 years, but my truest journey didn’t get started until after the birth of my daughter nearly 7 years ago when pregnancy and childbirth wreaked havoc on my body, to the point where I came close to giving up teaching Pilates altogether.

Pre pregnancy I was in great shape, but post-birth I felt like my insides were falling out every time I picked up my child. My core squished out in all the wrong places when I tried any kind of sit-up/crunch movement. I still looked 4 months pregnant even at 2 years postpartum. Pretty much every workout made me feel worse. It felt like everything was unstable in my core and kind of squishing out in the wrong places. It felt awful and I didn’t feel strong. A year after birth I was still unable to feel my own abs, I still had a 4 finger diastasis (abdominal separation about as severe as it gets) and had been told by my doctor that the only way to fix it was with surgery! That did not sit well with me. Really?! There had to be a better way…

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?

I had a very severe 4 finger diastasis (ab separation) at 2 years postpartum that I was told could not be fixed without surgery. But I did fix it. Completely. And I’ve helped countless other women do the same. We need to start trusting our own bodily instincts more, instead of believing society’s pre-written narrative for our postpartum bodies.

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 spent the first two years post birth doing all the things that damage core function when done too soon. Even as an instructor, I didn’t fully understand the mechanism. At two years postpartum sex was still painful, I still looked 4 months pregnant, I still had a severe diastasis, and it was all affecting my self confidence.

I had this bulging “mommy tummy” and I thought if I could just eat less and do more Pilates 100s and Series of 5 that it would fix it. But it simply isn’t the case. The Pilates ab exercises just weren’t cutting it like they used to and no one had been able to give me the answers i was looking for.

I’m a fixer. I like to fix things. I like to fix people. That’s what I’d been doing my entire teaching career. But this had me stumped, and I can be stubborn when I put my mind to it. So in a last ditch effort to both heal my body, prove my doctor wrong, and hold on to my Pilates career, I turned to the teachings of some trusted physical therapists and finally found the missing piece of the puzzle — the core functions differently after birth and must be repaired before resuming regular ab exercises! I took myself on an incredible journey of learning absolutely everything I could from some of the best doctors and physical therapists in the Women’s Health field, whilst trialing and erroring new techniques on myself. Eventually I found the magic sauce — a series of low pressure ab exercises that actually HEAL the postpartum core, bring your abs back together again, restores strength to your pelvic floor, flattens your mummy tummy, stops you from peeing your pants when you sneeze, and just all round can make you feel amazing! This was too good not to share with more people than just my private clients, so I set out to create my very first online program to share this knowledge and it’s been a huge success. I have women all over the world taking part in the Postpartum Protocol which is so exciting! From Indonesia to Sweden, Jamaica to Australia, India, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, and of course all over the US.

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?

Women are being massively let down by both the healthcare industry and the fitness industry. Being told “you’re in pain? That’s normal”,

“Can’t jump on a trampoline? Normal”,

“Pee when you laugh? Normal”,

“Mummy-tummy?, painful sex? All normal”.

What’s frustrating about these comments is that whilst all of these things are extremely common in women who’ve given birth, these do NOT have to be our new normal. We’re being led to believe these things, but it doesn’t have to be true. With the right knowledge and a few simple healing exercises, we absolutely CAN reclaim our cores post birth!

Unfortunately the information available to the general public about how differently the core functions after birth is very often conflicting and confusing. The severe lack of information regarding just how important the pelvic floor is to core strength, and for keeping things like leaking, poor posture, pelvic pain, diastasis etc at bay is extremely disappointing. I’ve even been told by other fitness instructors “don’t talk about the pelvic floor. People don’t care”. This needs to change. Because in order for the core to function correctly after birth, the pelvic floor must first be retrained. And I’m not talking about kegels here. The pelvic floor was not designed to function independently from the rest of the core. The core is a complex pressure system, but the healing exercises are actually quite simple when done correctly.

I firmly believe that this information should be being taught in fitness classes in middle school. I hear so many women after having had 3 children saying “I wish I’d known this sooner!” We all do. This method of pelvic floor training has been completely life changing for me.

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

1. Stop doing Kegels and/or crunches and learn how to train your pelvic floor and TA (wraparound abs) properly. Your pelvic floor, your TA and your diaphragm should all be working synchronistically, instead of trying to isolate your pelvic floor for a Kegel.

2. Eat clean. Oftentimes the mommy tummy caused by pelvic floor dysfunction is exacerbated by food related bloating. The most common bloating foods are dairy and gluten, but a food sensitivity blood test will also give you a better idea of which foods might be bloating you personally.

3. Use heavier weights. I always recommend using as heavy as you can without compromising form. My own Pilates practice really improved when I started incorporating heavier free weights into my own workouts. For postpartum women, a combination of Pilates, Physical Therapy and Strength training really is the magic sauce.

4. Unfollow social media accounts that don’t serve you. If you’re watching other people on social media who cause you to feel jealous or like you aren’t good enough or skinny enough or strong enough or whatever it is, hit that unfollow button. It really is so freeing!

5. Move more, sit less. One barrier to lack of movement is often “I don’t have enough time”. To which I always say, don’t think about trying to fit in a one hour workout. Just start with the intention of doing what you can. Because if you get called away after 5 minutes, 5 minutes is better than 0 minutes. And very often, you’ll end up getting through more of the workout than you thought you would once you start. So just begin.

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

“The Proper Pelvic Floor Movement!” Very few women actually get the intended results from doing ‘Kegels’. If you did, I consider you one of the lucky few. Constantly “clenching” the pelvic floor without connecting to diaphragmatic movement can actually cause pelvic floor dysfunction in varying different forms. It can also cause the pelvic floor to become too tight which can be extremely painful and cause more issues. Pelvic Floor Dysfunction is an umbrella term for all sorts of pelvic related issues such as incontinence, diastasis, prolapse, dyspareunia etc. And aside from the physical effects of these, it can also negatively affect self confidence and quality of life. It should be a right of passage to be able to jump on a trampoline with our kids without peeing our pants.

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

1. Listen to your OWN body, not someone else’s. No two bodies are the same

2. Learn how to PROPERLY strengthen AND lengthen your pelvic floor. Just as with every other muscle in the body, it needs both strength AND flexibility in order to function efficiently

3. Don’t try to figure everything out yourself. Knowledge builds knowledge. Seek help. Seek second opinions. But ultimately trust your gut.

4. Just start. Whether it’s your workout, your pelvic floor training, your to-do list, your work project. Whatever it is that you are procrastinating about, likely won’t be as hard as you thought it would be once you start. So just begin. And figure out the rest later.

5. Rock your bikini on the beach no matter what postpartum phase you’re in. Everyone else is far too absorbed with themselves to be worrying about what you look like in yours. The only person holding you back from having a good time on the beach this summer is you. So go rock that bikini!

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

Mental health. Postpartum Depression is so much more common than we realize, can be debilitating, and is treatable. I know far too many women who suffered greatly in the early days of motherhood, not realizing what was happening to them, feeling like they were failing and being dismissed as “hormonal”. It’s not something we talk openly enough about and that needs to change so that mothers and partners can more easily recognize the signs early on and get the support and treatment they need.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Website: https://www.thebromleymethod.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/bromleymethod

12 week postpartum program: https://www.thebromleymethod.com/postpartum-protocol

Strong Mamma program: https://www.thebromleymethod.com/strong-mamma

Free training: https://www.thebromleymethod.com/pelvic-floor-training

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

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

Female Founders: Hikmete Morina of HMÉTÉ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Hikmete Morina of HMÉTÉ On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t take no personally. Especially in the beginning I naively hoped everyone would be excited and supportive. I realized that was not the case early on but it is important to not take it personally. It has nothing to do with you as a person.

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

Hikmete started out as an auditor and consultant in Switzerland. She was working in an office, sitting in the same outdated, HR-approved attire for eight hours every day. As a young professional, she realized the office wear currently on the market wasn’t designed to fit this lifestyle; it was designed to fit a dress code. Fortunately, she found a solution: she and her team spent the last two years creating a wardrobe that makes women in the workplace look and feel good.

It was mainly my own need to find something comfortable, stylish and work appropriate to wear. I was working in finance and I found it so difficult to find something that I could wear all day from work to after work. I felt like I was not asking for too much, it didn’t need to be extremely trendy or special. However the fit and fabric were important and I wanted it to be something that moves with me throughout my day. I had a little black dress, which was my go to piece of clothing if I had plans in the evening and I was surprised that it was so hard to find something similar. Once I started doing research on it I realized there really was a gap and not many brands were designing with a working woman in mind.

For women in the workplace, our day doesn’t start when we clock in; it starts the moment we wake up. We’re expected to dress in a professional but approachable manner.

We commute to work, where we spend eight hours a day in a space with no climate control, then head to after-work events, cocktails, or dinner with friends.

As a young professional, I realized the office wear currently on the market wasn’t designed to fit our lifestyle; it was designed to fit a dress code.

We don’t want to have to choose between comfort and style, and we shouldn’t have to. I couldn’t find a company to fit our needs, so I created one.

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

Where do I start? If I had to pick one, I think it would be the story of how I found my main production facility in Porto. I went there with a few addresses of facilities to visit that I had found on the internet. I hadn’t been in Porto before, nor did I really know anyone there. I was set to find a partner to manufacture our line there and I had already been disappointed a few times by people trying to tell me what to do, people asking for too high minimums etc. This time I met my partner and it clicked right away. We both knew what we meant and after a few days I left Porto with an agreement set up and a first sample of my classic black dress that was exactly how I had wanted it. I was and still am blown away by that encounter.

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?

In our first sample run I mistook inches for cm and therefore the sizes were all messed up. Way too long and way too wide in between sizes. Since then, I am very particular about having everything in centimeters.

That is absolutely true and I have had the help of several people and still have. The amazing part about it is, how happy and willing people are to help. I am so extremely grateful for everyone in my team and everyone who has taken time to review sketches with me, go through samples etc.

One story that I can highlight would probably be a photographer friend of mine who got the studio where he used to work at and spent a full day on a Saturday shooting our pictures for the website. He is one of the best product photographers and the rates to hire him or rent the studio were definitely not something we could afford. However, he spent a full day of his weekend shooting with us and everything turned out amazing. It was an amazing day and we had so much fun shooting. The team, the models, him — we all got along so well, and it was such great energy. Moments like these are so unique, so motivating and heartwarming.

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

I think there are so many aspects playing a role in this. I think there is a historical component. For one, we can’t look back in history and see a wide range of success stories or stories of women starting companies and talking about their experiences. As the number shows we are still the exception not the norm. There is always a higher pressure to succeed if you are part of the first ones to do something that hasn’t been done before. Additionally, it is very important to have mentors and supporters. Many of us lack a circle that motivates and supports us in creating something from scratch. Creating a business is not an overnight thing, it takes a lot of time and energy and every founder needs to be ready to put in that effort. As exciting and interesting starting a business and seeing it succeed is, there are just as many challenges and fallbacks. Without the right motivation and support, it can be easy to give up.

And finally maybe there is a bias in what companies people invest in and maybe it is harder for women to obtain funding but focusing on what doesn’t work will not change the current status. I choose to focus on what is possible and what I personally can do to make a difference.

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

As mentioned above I think being supportive of our friends who are starting businesses can make a huge difference. I think we as women need to start investing more. Most women have no problem spending thousands of dollars on a bag but unfortunately, I know very few that would be ready to spend the same amount investing in a startup, probably missing great opportunities.

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?

There are so many businesses offering products and services specifically for women and many of them are not designed to meet our needs. Many times, it is just because the people involved never had to think about those needs. I think we need to at least be part of the process to design and create services and products that are made for us.

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

That it is all fun and you can do what you want. It is definitely a lot of fun but while you don’t have a supervisor to report to, you will have customers expecting you to deliver what you promised, you will have employees looking up to you and you will have investors holding you accountable for agreed upon milestones. I personally love to think that way and motivate myself to be better every day.

The hardest part is being able to deal with the insecurity. I left a well-paid corporate job, with a clear career path and started my business not knowing what is going to happen next. As said earlier, there are so many fallbacks and challenges, if you don’t believe in yourself and your idea and are not willing to give it all, it is easy and there are always good reasons to quit. I don’t think one or the other is better, being a founder or having a regular job. There are great ways to succeed in whatever you do. I think the most important thing is that you enjoy the journey.

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.)

Trust your feeling. When something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. The feeling won’t change.

I have had this happen with decisions we made about production, designs, people we worked with and every time I had to come to the conclusion it wasn’t the right decision and I shouldn’t have agreed to it. I am not saying I know better than anyone else but this is a company I started from scratch so for me to fully believe in it, I need to be able to stand 100% behind it and that is hard to do if there are decisions made early on that you as the founder don’t feel good about.

2. Set deadlines but take the time you need. What leads me to this point. If something doesn’t feel right, change the deadline if you have one and take the time you need. Sure you learn with every mistake but if you already know there is a mistake you can avoid, avoid it.

3. Choose people you love working with. The first people working with you are crucial, they also will see a very vulnerable side of you. You need them to be your partners. You need to appreciate them and show that at any possible occasion. You will need their help but also their patience when you can’t move at the pace you promised, when you can’t deliver in time etc. On the other side it is the most amazing thing to see everyone you work with be as excited about the success achieved as you are.

4. Don’t take no personally. Especially in the beginning I naively hoped everyone would be excited and supportive. I realized that was not the case early on but it is important to not take it personally. It has nothing to do with you as a person.

5. Make sure you make enough money to pay your bills. I have heard so many times, there is never the right time to start a business and you should just do it. Sure, that may work for some people. I personally would tell everyone to have a safety net. Starting a business and growing it takes time and is stressful enough as it is. If possible, make sure you don’t have to worry how to pay your rent at the end of the month. It can be that you stay with the company you are with for a little longer or take on a side job or take out a loan, whatever it is, I think it is important to secure the funding you need for your day-to-day life.

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

Very early on I realized the importance of networking, especially when it came to female entrepreneurs. So, whenever I can I put people in touch with each other and I absolutely love doing that. I am always thinking of how I can connect people. If I am in a conversation with someone and I think of a person I know, who has a business or needs something I bring them up and offer to put everyone in touch.

I have made it my goal to make a difference in the fashion industry. We need to address the issues fast fashion has created and change the way we think about fashion. I am certain we will be happier with the way we feel about ourselves if we have brands designing clothing to meet our needs. As brands and companies we need to find our core beliefs and act upon them from design to the end product and beyond.

I am currently reading the book Shoe Dog. I have to admit I knew way too little about Phil Knight before starting to read it but I love the story and everything he went through creating this amazing company that is so omnipresent in our lives. I would love to have lunch with him and ask many questions about it.

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

Female Founders: Hikmete Morina of HMÉTÉ 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: Dannie Festa of World Builder Entertainment On The Five Things You Need To Thrive…

Female Founders: Dannie Festa of World Builder Entertainment On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder, as you really have to be a self-starter. You need to be able to manage your time really well. You sometimes will have to live on the edge, invest in yourself, and never let the “no’s” stop you. There can be a lot of rejection. You are always on call- your business is your baby. So it’s definitely not for everyone. What could motivate someone to become a founder is when that person finally realizes being an employee isn’t going to provide them with a platform for all of their creative energy and ideas. Having the opportunity to be my own boss and a founder has given me more flexibility to create my own hours which was always very important for me.

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

Prior to founding her management company Festa Entertainment, Dannie Festa honed her expertise by years of working with top-flight producers and directors. Being a manager/producer combines two things Dannie loves most about the entertainment industry: closely collaborating with writers and directors and producing projects that speak to her. A native Chilean, Dannie’s international background allows her to represent a wide variety of creative talent, companies, and brands. She manages the iconic brands Dam Things (Good Luck Troll Dolls) and the Merian C. Cooper/ DeVito Artworks King Kong Skull Island property as well publisher Markosia and various global animation studios. Dannie is also the Executive Producer of the animated features TROLLS, TROLLS WORLD TOUR and TROLLS 3 at DreamWorks Animation. Her production slate includes MERMAIDS at MGM, TIGER LILY with Montecito Pictures/ Netflix, MYTH EXPLORERS at Disney+, and OPERATION PANDORA with Sugar23/ Netflix.

While I am originally from Chile, I have also spent a lot of my childhood in Los Angeles which has allowed me to have roots in both places. After I graduated high school in Chile, I went on to study Marine Biology at UC Berkeley but quickly realized that my heart was in film and literature. So I made the decision to switch my major and pursue my studies in the arts.

My first industry job was in Chile after college working on the local telenovelas in production design, editing, and general production. It was an excellent way to get experience in all areas of production but I really wanted to go to film school. So I moved to Los Angeles where I got a job at a producer’s office as an assistant reading scripts. It was like a light switch had been turned on for me — I loved working on screenplays and the writers who created them. When I was accepted to film school, I had to make the decision whether to go or stay on my path. I had found my yellow brick road and I chose to follow it. It has led me to some amazing places, including becoming a female founder.

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

An interesting and challenging time in my career was centered around my work on the Trolls property. The experience of taking the brand from dolls to an entire line of licensed products and building an entertainment platform provided me with a wider perspective on every aspect of branding and development — from start to finish. Having worked on the brand for over 10 years, I developed a deep passion and love for the project — which is all you can hope for in any professional experience. I was recently at a party, and an old friend came up to me and said “Remember how you used to drive around with that suitcase of Troll Dolls in your car?” Back then it was just me and a dream (and a suitcase full of dolls). Watching Trolls grow into an iconic worldwide brand is one of my most rewarding experiences in the industry thus far. The movies bring a lot of joy to people, which also makes me happy.

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 fall on my face constantly but I try and remind myself that the only way you will learn things and grow as a person is if you take a risk and try new things. Otherwise, how will you learn anything? I try to embrace my mistakes and invite the learning opportunity that comes with each one of them. Not always easy I know.

I never had a mentor in my work life but that’s ok. I feel very lucky because I had the best role model as a kid- my mother. She had me at a young age and I saw how hard she had to work to make things happen for us. My mother was an immigrant who always had many jobs but used those jobs to fund her education and ultimately, her dream. I got to watch her grow up and build her incredible career. I am so proud of what she accomplished and am inspired by her passion every day. When I became a founder at 25, she never doubted me. And while she didn’t always understand my job, she understood that we’re all passionate about different things, and mine just happened to be in the arts.

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?

Perhaps women feel held back in the workplace thanks in part to traditional gender roles. There is this stigma that women can’t have a career and raise a family and, oftentimes, women have to choose one or the other. Even though there are some amazing female founders out there who work tirelessly to mentor and empower young women in the workforce, the level of representation is not where it should be. There is still a large percentage of talented young women who don’t have a female founder “role model” to look up to who can help push and inspire them to reach for their dreams.

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?

Provide more government funding and/or scholarships for women who can’t afford the cost of education
Establish programs in the workplace that help employees understand gender roles and how to begin the process of breaking them down
Mentoring opportunities and programs are very important, too — throughout the years I’ve mentored many people, myself, which I find very rewarding.

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

Women aren’t always taken as seriously as they should be and often face more challenges in the workplace including being underpaid. Latin America is still plagued with sexism. Growing up in Chile, there were very few women running companies, it’s not something you ever saw and it certainly wasn’t something anyone discussed. Equal representation in the workforce is extremely important. Being a female founder is hard but I do it in part to be a role model for my daughters, the more doors I can open for myself as a female founder, the more doors I can open for women in general. Female founders can inspire other women to realize their visions by supporting them to take chances. Showing support for one another can really help to build up the female workforce. It sets an example for women as to how they can have both a family and an independent career simultaneously without having to choose one over the other.

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

Not everyone is cut out to be a founder, as you really have to be a self-starter. You need to be able to manage your time really well. You sometimes will have to live on the edge, invest in yourself, and never let the “no’s” stop you. There can be a lot of rejection. You are always on call- your business is your baby. So it’s definitely not for everyone. What could motivate someone to become a founder is when that person finally realizes being an employee isn’t going to provide them with a platform for all of their creative energy and ideas. Having the opportunity to be my own boss and a founder has given me more flexibility to create my own hours which was always very important for me. When a close friend grew terminally ill, I valued my position as a founder even more, because it afforded me the time and space I needed to be there for my friend. I would do my work from a laptop in her hospital room and keep her company, not something you could do if you didn’t work for yourself. Attention is a form of love. Having the space and freedom to give someone your undivided attention is what life is all about.

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.)

You might find that at times your pets eat better than you do.
There may be someone random living on your couch. (Or that random couch dweller might be you)
You might have to supplement your income by taking random jobs
It may be lonely
People might not always be happy about your success, including close friends and family.

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

Looking through a creative lens, I try to make the world a better place by working closely with artists to get their creative body of work realized and out there. Through mentorship, I try to pay forward my success to help others become successful. Because I do have my own company, I get to choose projects that excite me and work with people who I genuinely align with. It’s also fulfilling to be able to provide a space for people to thrive creatively, and hopefully, the work I do empowers others to become founders themselves and find their own creative spaces to thrive. I also work a lot in Latin America to help artist-driven companies build their creative pipelines.

The nerd in me would love to meet David Lynch. His work has always inspired me creatively and meeting him would make my inner child jump for joy.

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

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

Female Founders: Tara Lazar of F10 Creative On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Tara Lazar of F10 Creative On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be kind. Never be cruel. Businesses are about people. If you create an environment of kindness, you can trust everyone has the right intention. That’s so valuable when you spend more time with those you work with than with your own family.

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

Tara Lazar is a chef, restaurateur, hotelier behind F10 Hospitality, the leading hospitality group she founded and leads in the Coachella Valley in California. She opened her first restaurant, the popular casual breakfast spot Cheeky’s to much acclaim in 2008, before growing her hospitality empire with the opening of additional Palm Springs concepts such as al fresco Italian restaurant Birba, Mr. Lyon’s Steakhouse, cocktail bar Seymour’s, and a tiki-inspired lounge Toucan’s to name a few. Last spring, Lazar expanded for the first time outside of Palm Springs, partnering with the highly anticipated new Mission Pacific Hotel and Seabird Resort properties in Oceanside to open High/Low, a seasonal produce-driven restaurant, and more recently for the HIGH-Pie, a dessert concept which debuted at Top Gun House. Tara was recently honored in Palm Springs Life’s class of 2022 Women Who Lead, an annual recognition that identifies and celebrates role models embodying the I” Am Woman” feminisit anthem.

I thought I should always follow a finance path and work on the stock exchange and then as an analyst, but hated it. I lost a bunch of money one day trading the market and decided that if I’m going to lose money anyway, I might as well lose money doing something I love- which has always been restaurants and hospitality.

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

The most traumatizing thing that happened to us was Covid. Letting go of my 200+ team, of which many of them I had worked with for 8+ years. Not knowing if, or when, we would open again. And then the heartbreak of so many people not rejoining the company or the industry.

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?

In my first months of being open (14 years ago), I used to walk off the cooking line to let annoying patrons know how annoying they were.

In one instance, I went head-to-head with this surly patron who was erroneously correcting my pronunciation on a certain dish. He was ordering a prosciutto salad and kept saying “projoot”, which is a dialect for prosciutto. I would repeat the order back to him saying it correctly “you would like the prosciutto salad” and he would say “No, I’d like the projoot salad”. We kept going back and forth until he said, “I’m from New Jersey and I’m not going to allow some girl from California tell me how to pronounce projoot.” I insulted back, reminding him if he’d been to Italy, he’d know the correct pronunciation. The entire restaurant got quiet and stared and the staff had to physically pull me away. Not my finest moment, but still funny.

Now, I don’t take any food orders.

I have quite a few business mentors but truly, I have to say my husband, Marco. The sacrifices we need to make as founders, especially regarding time at home and not being emotionally present because we are consumed with work, are massive. To have an understanding and patient partner is crucial. Marco knows how to amuse me when I need to be distracted and knows to be serious when I need to talk things through. I also think having a partner that is not competitive and proud of my successes is a blessing. He’s Rad.

Banks. I think lending institutions are extremely biased against lending to women. Not only are loan committees primarily men, if there is sign-off, the rates are typically less favorable than to that of our male counterparts. I remember applying for my first loan and they offered me a rate of 4% over prime. Empowering women is believing in them first and foremost, and once banks believe in us, then women can get the resources to take more risks and think bigger.

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?

Again, belief is power. If you continue to showcase the incredible work that women do, like your are doing with these interviews, who often have less resources AND less funding, the narrative changes to, “it’s unbelievable what women can accomplish,” or “a woman is better suited to be the lead for this.” I think the greater examples we see at an early age, the more we feel comfortable with women at the helm for both boys and girls. We don’t need the women to believe in women, we need the men to believe in 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?

Women are more caring for people. We care more about peoples’ feelings. That is such a valuable attribute not only when determining what our client is looking for but even more so when running our own companies. We are in a new era where it matters how people feel when they are at work. Are they being valued? Do they get satisfaction from their work? Are they being cared about? If you don’t care about your people, why should they care about you and what you are trying to create?

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

That you’re the boss. Of course, the final decision comes down to me, but I spend a good part of my day listening to my team wanting to do things differently than me. From chefs wanting to tweak things, spends I would rather not make, guests wanting a substitution on the menu, etc. I wish I could be more like Max in The Wild Things and say “this is the way it’s going to be!!”

This took me years to figure out. Not that everyone isn’t capable of being a founder, but more that everyone doesn’t WANT to be a founder. I used to wonder why people would want to come work at the company that I founded if they could just start their own. But I realized, there are many that would much rather be in a number two role instead of a leadership role. It’s important to note, one is not better than the other — each one is critical for success.

The joy that comes from being a strong support or pillar is very satisfying to many. If you love doing a good, thorough job and you enjoy being part of the team to make that happen, then maybe being a founder isn’t the correct role for you. If you enjoy masterminding, managing people and risk taking- then consider being 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.)

Be kind. Never be cruel. Businesses are about people. If you create an environment of kindness, you can trust everyone has the right intention. That’s so valuable when you spend more time with those you work with than with your own family.
Be over capitalized, not undercapitalized. Obviously easier said than done, but if you must compromise too much from having too little capital, you risk tarnishing your brand.
Trust your gut. ESPECIALLY WOMEN! It’s our superpower. We have better intuition, better gut instinct and we understand people. Your gut got you here, trust it to the end. Just don’t confuse it with ego.
Don’t waste your time on a sinking ship. I was told that’s the benefit of trading the stock market instead of betting horses. When a horse is losing, you can’t get out, but when a stock is tanking, you can still save something if you get out quickly. Same thing usually goes for business. When I’m in a conundrum about a business, a person, an idea, I do a litmus test and ask, “would I be relieved if this suddenly didn’t exist”? If the answer is yes, walk away as quickly as possible.
And similarly: Mental real estate is priceless (and limited). The more time you can spend on bettering your business and the less time you deal with drama and problem recovery, the more of a favor you are doing for your company. Your magic is in driving the company forward, not getting stuck in operations. If you can free up chaos by making it go away easily, do it as quickly as possible.

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

I’ve always been passionate about nutrition for our youth. Specifically, ameliorating childhood obesity as well as better nourishment for food scarce communities. As a person off the street, I wasn’t taken seriously. Now that I have multiple restaurants and I am an established business owner, it’s gratifying how that has opened doors to be heard. My phone calls are answered and people book meetings. I just launched a food truck concept that can feed kids quickly in a cool, experiential and nutritious way and I hope this is the future of addressing the aforementioned epidemics in our country.

Let’s get our kids eating better!!! Better eating habits leads to better concentration in school, better eating habits as adults and less support for the processed food industry.

Martha Stewart all day long. She’s such a legend. She’s smart, funny, creative, elegant, and went to jail and still had a full comeback. How many of those do you know?

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

Female Founders: Tara Lazar of F10 Creative 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.

Modern Fashion: Eric Gautier of Polyver Sweden On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful…

Modern Fashion: Eric Gautier of Polyver Sweden On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today

An Interview With Candice Georgiadice

Fashion is about emotion. It contributes to making people feel more alive even if nobody really needs fashion to live. We are not talking about healthcare here but it is more complicated than it seems. Fashion is deeply rooted in everybody’s way of life. It is part of the personality, intimately, the number one thing that you need to be successful in fashion is Love. It is true love for an experience, for the people sharing the same experience with your product.

Many in the fashion industry have been making huge pivots in their business models. Many have turned away from the fast fashion trend. Many have been focusing on fashion that also makes a social impact. Many have turned to sustainable and ethical sourcing. Many have turned to hi tech manufacturing. Many have turned to subscription models. What are the other trends that we will see in the fashion industry? What does it take to lead a successful fashion brand today?

In our series called, “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today” we are talking to successful leaders of fashion brands who can talk about the Future of Fashion and the 5 things it takes to lead a successful fashion brand in our “new normal.”

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Eric Gautier.

Born and raised in Paris, Eric dreamt about open spaces and adventure. He fell in love with the US during a trip when he was just a teenager. Traveling between Europe and the US, Eric is now in charge of Polyver Sweden — the perfect balance between the American way of life and European design.

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 childhood “backstory”?

I was born and raised in Versailles, the chic lower west side suburbs of Paris. A pretty conservative environment where Louis XIV seems to check every move you make. I had a pretty balanced childhood between culture, arts, good schools and an intensive practice of martial arts. It sounds like a “knight” education, right?

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

I originally wanted to be involved in the art business. I am a terrible artist but I always enjoyed the arts very much. I represented some sculptors and painters in the early 90s. Though my work with artists afforded me the opportunity to travel the world, I found the art business to be too focused on capital gain versus creative gain. Hence, I looked towards the fashion world which I found to be very healthy with high-creativity. Fashion is also part of people’s lives. It’s beyond looking good — it’s about representing one’s heart and soul.

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

I have always been impressed by artists — designers, architects, developers, etc. — people that create like we breathe. In my opinion, God exists through arts. There is no other explanation. In the early 2000s, I was driving a project related to sunglasses. We were pretty proud of a new design that we created that included a unique rubber hinge. On this project, I met with an artist who was commissioned to create some paint artwork that we could apply on the frames. He introduced himself as a vehicle of spirits. He said, “ I do not paint, spirits do, they use my body to express themselves”. Okay then, I said, let’s start! He performed four to five major artworks without stopping in less than an hour. And they were all fantastic. I have to say that I did not know what to believe at that moment. This man left and I have no clue who he was and never saw him again.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I am old school. Passion is key. You can make mistakes when you are driven by passion but great work comes from passion — not from focus groups or business plans. Vision is the second one. Forward thinking in other words. The last one is resilience because you need a lot of that to carry out a vision with passion.

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

Polyver started small. We only made boots for local people in the North of Sweden. When I joined the team, I toured Scandinavia and asked people: “what are the boots good for?” I got so many different answers such as: farming, ice fishing, playing outside, snowmobiling, etc. Then I started to compare with other brands, especially in the US. I always found a pair of boots better than us for each specific activity. So why buy Polyver? I then realized that Polyver boots are unique and people love the brand because they can do everything with it. For example, snowmobiling in Sweden, riders have specific boots but they carry their Polyver boots for when they arrive at their destination. It does not matter if you already have another pair of boots you still need Polyver Sweden boots, like your favorite sneakers.

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?

“imaginer c’est choisir” (To Imagine is To choose) from Jean Giono. That is so relevant.To imagine is the best way to be free. This is beyond being successful in business. It iis about acquiring and preserving one’s own freedom. There are so many great examples of great achievements like Coco Chanel wearing and designing pants for women. Coco was not the first one to do so but she was the first one to make it as a statement and lead this major change for all women.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Do you see any fascinating developments emerging over the next few years in the fashion industry that you are excited about? Can you tell us about that?

Sustainability vs fast fashion is definitely the main topic for the decades to come. Many surveys show that over 60% of the 16–25 age group are extremely worried about climate change. This generation is already changing the way we produce and market products. Reassurance takes over comfort. In order to feel comfortable with a product, consumers expect more than a good cut. At Polyver Sweden, we are fully engaged in that process. We design and manufacture models that are timeless and much more durable than our direct competitors. In Sweden, people wear our boots every winter day (we have a very long winter) and for many seasons in a row. Our design lasts. There is a good chance that our 2024 Classic series will be the exact same model as our 2023 Classic Series. All new models are limited in a number of variations, colors and are designed to last.

Can you share how your brand is helping to bring goodness to the world?

We say “Enjoy Outdoors” and we believe in that. In Sweden, we have long cold winters with not much daylight but the vast majority of Swedish people spend good time outside everyday, even kids at school. It is our duty to provide the best gear to support this great way of life. Otherwise they would freeze outside and will run back inside to watch a screening device. Being outside is healthy, good for the mind, good for social life and for the body.

Can you share with our readers about the ethical standards you use when you choose where to source materials?

We manufacture 100% in Sweden. We source locally and we recycle production waste into heating systems for the community.

Fast fashion has an advantage, that it is affordable for most people, but it also has the drawback that it does not last very long and is therefore not very sustainable. What are your thoughts about this? How does your company address this question?

Fast fashion does not last long because a new model pushes the previous one out. It is more about marketing than quality. There is fast fashion in luxury brands too. We actually do the opposite. The gratification comes from the use of our boots. The more you wear Polyver boots, the more you like our brand. The tricky part is to successfully launch new models because our clients keep buying the old models over and over. We have extremely loyal customers. We are blessed.

Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand”. Please share a story or example for each.

Fashion is about emotion. It contributes to making people feel more alive even if nobody really needs fashion to live. We are not talking about healthcare here but it is more complicated than it seems. Fashion is deeply rooted in everybody’s way of life. It is part of the personality, intimately, the number one thing that you need to be successful in fashion is Love. It is true love for an experience, for the people sharing the same experience with your product.

Passion. A fashion brand has to be true to itself to have loyal clients but it has to be driven by passion to have fans. Luxury car markers have loyal customers because they deliver a promised experience but Tesla or Porsche have passionate fans…that’s a huge difference.

Then comes Trust. As a leader, you need to trust your team with their talents, their commitment to the brand and their ability to imagine every single day. Defiance kills creativity. Trust is the guarantee that you understand and support whatever happens because even a failure driven by passion and imagination is part of the production process in fashion. Fans understand such failure also because they trust you back.

Talent. We understand it when we see it. You can work on it and usually very talented people work on it everyday but it also comes out of nowhere as a gift. Talent is the ability to make a difference when it counts. To see things earlier than others. To create a song, a painting, a story, a design and so on like it is so obvious for so many people receiving it. I try to attract and keep talented people

Every industry constantly evolves and seeks improvement. How do you think the fashion industry can improve itself? Can you give an example?

I am back to sustainability. Even beyond reducing fast fashion, we have to work much less inventory. Right now, most brands produce products based on purchase programs from buyers but not from consumers. We manufacture, stock, deliver to stores and hope (with some good marketing) that people will love what we produced. We obviously have a lot of room for improvement here. Some new brand business models are actually based on pre-orders only. They also produce locally. This is an improvement.. We are trying to be careful with stock but people are still used to buying winter boots the morning it starts to snow. It is not easy to apply the pre-ordering here but a slower pace to launch new models is already a good system for us to produce a fair level of inventory and limit waste.

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. 🙂

After watching: “Kiss the Ground” on Netflix, I was even more convinced to champion the saving of our planet. We just reached the 8 billion mark in the world population and we will be 10 billion people in 2050, before starting a decrease. The solution is more about healing than hitting softer. I would not start a new movement but instead support strong initiatives like turning seaweed into biofuel & fertilizer. This initiative creates an unlimited supply of energy and regenerates oceans. I would support the fight against big guys killing such initiatives. We all have to do that.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

https://polyversweden.com/

https://www.instagram.com/polyversweden/

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

Modern Fashion: Eric Gautier of Polyver Sweden On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Casey Czuj On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey…

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Start each day with a warm glass of water: This is a great way to hydrate the body and help keep the digestive system moving. Every morning before breakfast, I drink an 8oz glass of warm water to help flush out toxins and produce a bowel movement. Maintaining this habit keeps me feeling lighter and allows for better digestion and clearer looking skin.

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

Casey has been in the Natural Industry since 2008 specializing in Ayurveda, herbal remedies, vibrational exercise, yoga, and meditation. As a successful entrepreneur, Casey coached aspiring business owners in the natural and organic industry and educated students about benefits of herbal and vibrational therapies.

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

As a professional in the industry, I often relied on Natural Industry Jobs to keep up with what was happening in the job market and for hiring. Natural Industry Jobs (NIJ) is the leading online job center for the Natural and Organic Industry. Simply stated, ‘NIJ is a better way to connect great people with natural and organic companies.’

When the possibility of joining Natural Industry Jobs came about, I was so excited! I love everything about holistic health and was thrilled to help employers, and companies whose mission is to bring balance to mind and body and overall better health.

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?

For me, it is incredibly interesting to learn about different companies in our industry. I have always had an interest in learning about products and services. Now I am gaining perspective on the internal workings of these organizations and their cultures. I recently talked with a CEO about adding a VP of Sales and Marketing to help grow her food and beverage business. She said one of her biggest struggles was finding someone with the qualifications and cultural fit for her unique company. Other hiring platforms did not cater to her specific industry. I can offer her something different — the right audience!

I explained how we could market her listing and that we are not just a hiring platform. We are also an online job center for the natural and organic industry. After receiving several resumes from experienced applicants, she was able to hire her ideal candidate. This was fulfilling for me. What we do means something. We truly help people.

Since joining Natural Industry Jobs, I have had the pleasure of having several of these conversations. As the natural and organic industries continue to grow, more and more people are educating themselves and adapting to this lifestyle allowing for more qualified job seekers to be placed within these organizations.

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?

When I started with NIJ, I assumed companies would be racing to post a job. I am someone who, when tasked with an assignment, tries to complete it successfully as soon as possible. CEOs, HR Professionals, and other hiring managers have multiple priorities. Hiring can be a lot of work and finding the right people is half the battle. It is easy to put that off when you have a lot on your plate. I quickly learned never to assume anything without fully understanding the needs and wants of the customer.

Even though I see the benefits of hiring a new employee, i.e., business development, company growth, redistribution of tasks, I learned that I need to have patience, and to follow up with each company individually to let them know that we are here when they need us. When they are ready it is important that I fully utilize the time they give me to understand what they need.

I must remember to put myself in their shoes. When I owned a business, I was afraid to relinquish control. I thought that no one could do the job better than me. Building trust is key in any business, whether it’s trusting yourself as the owner to make the right decisions, trusting your employees to be successful in their positions, or trusting the relationships that you have built with your customers.

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.

Start each day with a warm glass of water: This is a great way to hydrate the body and help keep the digestive system moving. Every morning before breakfast, I drink an 8oz glass of warm water to help flush out toxins and produce a bowel movement. Maintaining this habit keeps me feeling lighter and allows for better digestion and clearer looking skin.

Eat Healthy: As an Ayurvedic Practitioner, I eat for my constitution choosing foods that are compatible with my digestive fire (agni). One of the main principles of Ayurveda is that like increases like and that opposites balance. On a hot humid day, I will choose foods that are light, drying and cooling such as cherries, berries and sprouts which will help stimulate digestion and utilize excess fluid. Understanding tastes, choosing compatible qualities to favor, and looking at the seasons can help strengthen your digestive fire allowing for better digestion and elimination.

Meditate: While I can sit in lotus pose with my fingers in Gyan mudra, I did not start here! I first learned to meditate by taking a walk around my block and disconnecting from all technologies. Just having those few moments to breathe in fresh air and listen to the sounds of nature helped quiet the mind. From there, I started adding affirmations, and then would sit in silence for just a few minutes after my walk and listen to my heartbeat. There are so many types of meditation and finding the mediation that works best for you to calm you emotionally and bring you to a stable state will be the most beneficial.

Breathe: I once had someone laugh at me and say, I breathe all the time, but do you breathe consciously or unconsciously? Conscious breathing activates your body’s relaxation response which can help you navigate difficult situations with intention. While there are numerous studies about the benefits of yogic breath and pranayama, the next time you are faced with a difficult situation, stop, and take a deep breath exhaling through the mouth and embrace the relaxation sensation flowing throughout your body.

Move your Body: I specifically listed this after meditation and breathing since moving your body can be meditative and requires you to focus on your breath. I love asana (yoga)!! I do it daily to help stretch, strengthen, and tone my body. My husband enjoys weightlifting and cardio. Both require us to focus on moving the body which strengthens our musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems and deep breathing increases dopamine. Finding a way to move your body that best suits you can help reduce stress, improve sleep, and keep you looking younger and feeling livelier.

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

I feel that we need more ‘why’ education on the benefits of natural remedies.

People always ask, “Why should I use this? Why is it effective? Why is it beneficial?”

As I previously stated, breathing is something we do every day unconsciously. If we all spent 5 minutes consciously breathing, we would have less stress. Less stress leads to better sleep habits, better sleep habits lead to mindful decision making, and mindful decision making helps us live a healthier and happier life.

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

How Far the Industry Would Grow: In 2008, the natural and organic industries brought in $24.6 billion in sales with products being offered mostly in health food stores. In 2021, sales grew to $187 billion with natural and organic products being offered in grocery stores, health food stores, and the online marketplace.

Businesses Evolving: Companies are now embracing the holistic trend offering products without chemicals, hormones, and artificial agents. This is not only beneficial for the consumer, but also for the environment.

Natural Living: More and more people are living naturally and making conscious decisions to use non-toxic, natural, and organic products that are safe for the environment and help protect the planet. They are also choosing natural foods and beverages that are made with minimal processing, and do not contain preservatives.

Abundance of Information: Numerous studies have shown that eating organic fruits and vegetables reduce health risks.

How good I’d look at 40! No diet pill or antiaging cream can replace healthy eating, meditation, and yoga (mic drop).

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

Have you ever read an ingredient label? How do you feel about words that you cannot pronounce? Do you even know what they are?

Certain processed foods are known to cause mental health problems. Studies have shown that the more organic fruits and vegetables incorporated into one’s diet can reduce the symptoms related to anxiety and depression. Leafy greens can also counter symptoms related to fatigue and have also shown to reduce symptoms related to inflammation. Fruits such as berries are rich in antioxidants which can help reduce symptoms related to mood disorders and when combined with yoga and meditation can help one de-stress and improve their mood.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-c-abba5921b/recent-activity/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/naturalindustryjobs/

https://www.instagram.com/naturalindustryjobs/

https://www.facebook.com/naturalindustryjobs/

https://twitter.com/naturaljobs

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

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

Women In Wellness: Corinna Bellizzi Of Örlö Nutrition On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help…

Women In Wellness: Corinna Bellizzi Of Örlö Nutrition On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Salad dressings are mostly omega-6. Even those that are labeled to have olive oil are often combined with soybean oil, which contains high levels of omega-6. Make your salad dressing at home to avoid this, or select salad dressings that are made with olive oil exclusively. Olive oil is high in oleic acid, an omega-9 that is both healthy, and which doesn’t upset your omega-6:omega-3 ratio.

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

Corinna Bellizzi, MBA is a natural products industry executive and omega-3 expert who pioneered the growth of Nordic Naturals from less than $1 million to over $100 million in annual sales. Given her concern for the future health of people and the planet, she shifted her focus from fish-sourced omegas to algae in 2016. An activist at heart, she launched her podcast, Care More Be Better, in 2021 to cover social and ecological issues that affect us all. Today she leads Örlö Nutrition, a new brand that features the world’s first carbon-negative omega-3s. She hosts a new podcast, Nutrition Without Compromise, to support that effort where she covers health topics without compromising your ethics, or the health of our home planet.

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

I was born and raised in southern Oregon to hippie parents and spent my first few years on what most would call a commune. We were closely connected to our food, growing much of the produce, fruit and eggs that we would consume. I even recall bringing a goat into the pantry to milk it so I would have milk for my cereal. After graduating college with a degree in Anthropology, it was no small wonder that I went back to my roots in the natural foods industry. I fell in love with nutrition, and with the power of omega-3s, focusing the majority of my career learning about their nutritional power. As someone who is passionate about education and about my personal impact on people and the planet, I launched my first podcast while in graduate school in 2021. As much as I love nutrition, I also fell in love with podcasting. As they say, if you love to write, blog. If you love to talk, podcast. Care More Be Better, my personal podcast focusing on social impact, sustainability, and regeneration now ranks in the top 2.5% of all podcasts globally. I launched Nutrition Without Compromise to marry my two loves while educating the world about sustainable nutrition and omega-3. It’s icing on the cake that I get to do this professionally.

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?

Most interesting:

On a business trip, a coworker asked for help getting their bag down from the overhead compartment. They said, “It’s heavy, It’s a bomb.” This was less than a year after September 11, 2001, so the statement had everyone near me on high alert. I immediately said, “She doesn’t know what she’s implying. She just means it’s heavy.” I learned three important things in this single moment, while in a mild state of panic..

1. Socio-emotional intelligence, the ability to read a room or situation, and the effect it’s having on the people around you, is really important. My co-worker did not understand the effect her words had on those around her because she lacked perspective and emotional intelligence. She discounted the looks they exchanged and lacked self-awareness.

2. Language and word-use is really important. If you’re joking it should be clear from a situation, and if you’re not, a simile or metaphor can get you into more trouble than it’s worth.

3. It’s important to stand up and say something when you can. If I had not done so in this particular situation, we could have landed in a very uncomfortable situation, and lost a lot of time, in a homeland security interrogation.

I may trend towards seriousness and directness in my communication, but it has never gotten me into more trouble than I could handle.

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

My main mistake, in hindsight, is painfully simple. I emulated the leaders I was surrounded by, and it really didn’t work out for me. The first was a charismatic woman and a fashion model in her prior career (neither of which I am). The second was a shrewd businessperson who was extremely sharp, and also lacked social grace. I had to learn to step into myself authentically and emulate those whose leadership I respected and admired, and who I could also authentically embody. You see, just because someone who leads is successful in rank, title, and compensation, doesn’t mean their way is the best path forward for you. Furthermore, you might emulate less desirable behavior if you aren’t careful. That charismatic leader might be a visionary, and they also might lack social intelligence. They might even tell their seatmates on a plane that their bag is a bomb.

I also saw this lesson play out when one of my subordinates decided to try and match my presentation style in making a pitch to the CEO of a prior employer. They thought that if they presented a well-researched pitch and made a case for the (perhaps controversial) market effort they wanted to undertake, they would get a yes. What they missed was the emotion. In working so hard to “do it like I did” they missed the heart of the pitch — the why. I think this is a universal truth in leadership. You must be authentic to be believed. If people don’t believe you, they won’t buy what you’re selling / marketing / saying.

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 have spent the better part of my career in the omega-3 nutrition space because I believe that correcting the global omega-3 deficiency is something that can change the health of all people, and even our society, for the better. However, if every person consumed an omega-3 supplement or ate fish 2–3 times per week, there wouldn’t be enough fish in the sea. So I have been aiming to solve that problem since I first understood that reality.

I find myself reflecting on this woman I met in a Whole Foods in southern California years ago. I was waiting to meet with the department head, and give a staff training on omega-3s, when a woman approached me asking if I could help her. She was only 26 years old, and her health was deteriorating. She had gone vegan and it wasn’t physically working very well for her. Her skin was a little too sallow and she had started losing her hair. It’s really hard for some people to go vegan. They won’t get enough of the right nutrients, enough protein, and even enough omega-3. Back then, there weren’t great vegan options for omega-3 — and thankfully that has changed now. If we had been able to produce vegan omega-3s with EPA and DHA in the polar lipid form back in 2004 when I met her — it could really have helped her. It’s moments like that that keep me engaged and working to both educate people on the benefits of omega-3 but also not relenting on quality, efficacy, affordability, and sustainability.

While we’ve only been on the market a short time, I’m already hearing from Örlö customers who are seeing positive changes they didn’t see with fish oils. One such person shared that they had dry eyes and that no omega-3 had ever helped, until ours. The reason it works better is simple. Because it’s in the polar lipid form, it gets into the tissue much more quickly — and this meant that they saw results on day 3 or 4! While a fish oil supplement might have worked with time, it wouldn’t deliver results as rapidly, and when that happens, people stop taking their supplements. You can’t get a benefit from a nutrient you won’t take.

Beyond my worklife in the omega-3 space, I am committed to creating a movement that will support regenerative, circular, and sustainable movements for years to come. I’ve worked to create a podcast around my personal passions of social impact and sustainability, and I’m working on the sidelines to create communities of professionals that have a similar vision of solving global challenges. I’m connecting with other “bioneers” and may even be part of a panel of algae-related entrepreneurs that I’m working to put together for the Bioneers conference in April 2023. So, what started with Omega-3s, a passion for nutrition, and a do-gooder attitude, is already growing into something more meaningful, life supporting, and soul supporting. If we can harness the potential of algae to feed animals and humans, sequester carbon, and solve ecological problems, we can create a health-sustaining future for all.

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.

We’ve all heard about the many benefits of omega-3s, but how do they help you live a longer, healthier, and happier life? Corinna Bellizzi shares 5 ways that these essential fats will make you happier, healthier, and longer-lived so you can do more of what you love with those you love.

Consume More Omega-3 EPA and DHA to Support A Happier Life:
Getting enough omega-3s EPA and DHA is positively associated with maintaining a healthy mood and healthy body. The standard American diet (SAD) is far too high in omega-6s from seed oils, and animal fats, and far too low in omega-3s. Combine this fact with the obvious stress of our daily lives and other environmental challenges, and it’s no wonder that our mood suffers. Reducing consumption of grains and high omega-6 seed oils, like corn oil, safflower oil or soybean oil, while increasing your consumption of omega-3s helps your body return to balance. Cellular signaling improves. Energy levels improve. And your mood also improves. The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is anywhere from 3:1 to 1:1, and evidence suggests that we evolved with a diet that is closer to 1:1. The SAD (standard American diet, mentioned earlier) is closer to 16:1 which poses obvious problems. I choose algae over fish because that’s how the fish get their EPA and DHA in the first place and doing so is more sustainable. [source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12442909/]

Consume More Omega-3 EPA and DHA For A Healthier Brain and Eyes:
Did you know that half of the fat in your brain and eyes is made of DHA? Ensuring that you get enough DHA each day helps to ensure you maintain a healthy brain and eyes. The positive impact of omega-3s in combination with lutein and zeaxanthin was well documented in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS 2). Consuming enough of these nutrients can provide long-term nutrition support for healthy vision.
[source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23644932/].

To get more omega-3 in your diet, consume fish that are low on the food chain (sardines and anchovies) or consider an algae-sourced omega-3 supplement. To get more lutein and zeaxanthin in your diet, consume more yellow, orange, and red fruits and vegetables. Let’s just say there’s a reason that carrots, high in carotenoids, are associated with healthy eyes and healthy vision.

DHA is also especially important for pregnant and nursing women to ensure they get enough DHA each and every day. Women who are trying to become pregnant, are pregnant, postpartum or nursing should get at least 300 mg of DHA each day. Taking an omega-3 in the polar lipid form ensures the absorption is as much as 3x that of your standard fish or algae oil. Örlö Nutrition’s Prenatal DHA boasts 335mg of DHA in the polar lipid form for maximum benefit. The polar lipid form ensures that the omega-3s make their way into your tissue easily, whether or not you consume the omegas on an empty stomach. This form of fat also won’t “repeat” or burp back on you, which is especially important for women during their first and last trimesters when their systems can be more sensitive.

Omega-3s EPA and DHA Help Your Body Regenerate (you know, healthy aging):

Research on EPA and DHA suggests that getting enough of these essential fatty acids can help your body regenerate. The production of resolvins and protectins from EPA and DHA can keep you healthier, longer. Resolvins help resolve inflammation for a return to homeostasis and protectins help protect your cells from DNA damage. This means they support your body’s natural regenerative process so you can regenerate healthy cells. Since these powerful omegas are used in every cell in your body, ensuring you replenish your stores each and every day is ideal.

Reduce Sensitivity to Exercise-Induced Pain

From reducing the pain response in those with rheumatoid arthritis, to generalized joint comfort, omega-3s EPA and DHA positively support general wellness. For those that want to remain active and do more of what they love with those they love, now and well into their golden years, omega-3s may even help you stay pain-free after strenuous exercise. Personally, I began taking omega-3s in my early 20s. I had learned that they could improve my athletic performance, and as a competition mountain-biker in the late 1990s, that was all that mattered to me. The science continues to prove the many positive effects of omega-3s as supportive measures for reducing recovery time from exercise, improving joint comfort, and ultimately, supporting a healthy, active lifestyle. [source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918552/]

Omega-3s are positively associated with living longer, and healthier

You may have heard of “blue cities”, or areas where people live longer than in other places, but getting to the root cause of what makes this longer life possible is a bit more challenging. Blue cities tend to have a few things in common. They tend to be near the coast, boast slower living, lower related stress levels, healthy whole-food diets, and you guessed it, more omega-3s. A recent study out of Spain, in conjunction with the Fatty Acid Research Institute in Sioux Falls, SD tracked 2,240 participants over 11 years and analyzed the omega-3 levels in their blood. They separated the participants into 4 groups. People with a higher level of omega-3 who did not smoke, those who had higher levels and also smoked, non-smokers who had low omega-3 and low omega-3 non-smokers. What they found was simple. Those with higher levels of omega-3 and who did not smoke lived longest, with a life expectancy of about 5 years longer. Furthermore, smokers who had high levels of omega-3 had roughly equal longevity to nonsmokers with low levels of omega-3. [source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/omega-3-levels-in-the-blood-may-boost-lifespan#Future-studies]

For those interested in having their blood levels of omega-3 checked to see how you’re doing, you can procure a basic Omega-3 Index test from OmegaQuant.com for roughly $50.00. They return results which share how your blood levels compare to western countries, and also to seafaring nations like Japan. This simple tool can help you divine whether you need to up your omega-3 consumption. If you have just started taking omega-3s it’s best to keep taking them daily for 3 months before taking the test, as there is a lag time in building up your omega-3 levels. If you’re taking an omega-3 in the polar lipid form, you may notice results more rapidly. For more information on fatty acid forms, I encourage you to read this blog that I wrote on the topic.

I think the message is clear. Making sure you consume enough omega-3s each day is critical to long-term health. If you’re not consuming fatty fish 2–3 times a week, you should really consider supplementing with a high quality omega-3. You can cut out the middle fish and go straight to the algae source, and choose a polar lipid form for better absorption. Taking this simple step will help you lead the life you want.

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

Food insecurity is a real problem, with one in seven people in the United States being food insecure right now. As a country of immense wealth, I personally find this statistic to be unacceptable, and it’s my belief that by shifting our patterns to support local and regenerative businesses, that we will move beyond the present reality and raise everyone up. I want to help create a movement towards localized, sustainable, and regenerative nutrition. If we can get more of our foods locally, while also focusing on sustainable solutions like algae-based omegas instead of fish oil, we will be doing the world more good. With Örlö Nutrition we seek to do our part. Every one month supply of algae omegas is equivalent to 110 fish not taken from our oceans, and 1.1kg of CO2 equivalent is also saved.

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

I spent almost a decade working in the omega-3 space before I understood a few key things. So, specific to working in the omega-3 space, I wish I had known that:

Fish get their EPA and DHA from the algae they eat. If I had known this simple fact, I would undoubtedly have pushed harder for the companies I worked with to produce vegan alternatives. I assumed that the algae only produced alpha linolenic acid, like terrestrial plants. While these are essential omega-3s, your body has to work pretty hard to turn them into EPA and DHA. There are so many supplements to choose from, and sourcing a great one can be tough. I would not suggest going to amazon first to do your research. Look for companies with a direct connection to the source, with guaranteed quality, and that are documented to be sustainable.
Terrestrial plant-sourced omega-3s from flax oil or walnuts aren’t the same as EPA and DHA. You have to consume roughly 16 times the ALA to get the EPA and DHA you need. Even then, you are relying on activated enzymes in your system to make the ALA into these important fats. It’s a long journey, and if you don’t already have great nutrition, the process can be stalled.
Partially hydrogenated fats and fully hydrogenated fats are trans fats. Trans fats are only 1 chemical constituent different from plastics. You should avoid eating them because they gum up your system. While these fats are edible, they are not food.
Virtually all oils in baked goods are omega-6s or hydrogenated fats. If you consume a lot of baked goods and fried foods, you are getting far too much omega-6 in your diet. You are likely also consuming trans fats.
Salad dressings are mostly omega-6. Even those that are labeled to have olive oil are often combined with soybean oil, which contains high levels of omega-6. Make your salad dressing at home to avoid this, or select salad dressings that are made with olive oil exclusively. Olive oil is high in oleic acid, an omega-9 that is both healthy, and which doesn’t upset your omega-6:omega-3 ratio.

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

The intersection of nutrition and sustainability is of critical importance, and it’s virtually impossible to tease these issues out from climate change. Ultimately, we need to build sustainable, regenerative, and circular systems that can support our global nutrition needs while also sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Algae is an incredible tool to do this, and with Örlö Nutrition we are bringing this reality forward. Regenerative farming methods offer another solution, and this method includes responsible animal husbandry. Indeed, grazing animals offer both fertilization to plants and they help rebuild our soil. Regeneratively raised cattle can actually be part of the solution. We can feed them biochar to reduce their methane emissions by up to 90%, or even feed them seaweed and achieve similar results. We can use their manure as healthy fertilizer for our crops, and rebuild our soil, which will then be capable of drawing down more carbon, sustaining longer droughts, and producing more consistent crops. There is so much more I could say on this topic, but the intersection of nutrition and climate is where I live and breathe these days. I cover this intersection deeply in my new podcast, Nutrition Without Compromise. The purpose of that show is to share great nutrition information without compromising your ethics or the health of planet earth. I also host my flagship podcast, Care More Be Better, focused on topics of social impact, sustainability, and regeneration. If you’re interested in exploring these topics more deeply, I hope you’ll check them out, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Orlo’s Algae-Based Nutrition: https://orlonutrition.com

Nutrition Without Compromise Podcast: https://orlonutrition.com/pages/podcast
Social media: @orlonutrition, @corinnabellizzi

Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/cbellizzi

Care More Be Better Podcast: https://caremorebebetter.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

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

Women In Wellness: Tylar Brannon of Optimal Bio On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support…

Women In Wellness: Tylar Brannon of Optimal Bio On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Focus on proper nutrition. Food is a drug, and whatever you are eating is either hurting or helping you. Processed foods cause anxiety, depression and of course, physical illness.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tylar Brannon, CEO of Optimal Bio.

Tylar Brannon grew up in Cary, North Carolina and attended NC State University for her undergraduate degree. It was during this time that she realized she enjoyed helping businesses grow and decided to further her education at the University of South Carolina School of Law, receiving JD/MBA dual degrees to set her up to do just that. After grad school, she moved to DC for a few years and was eventually called home to help the then budding business of Optimal Bio. She worked to create processes, organize the business, and ultimately make life easier for the staff, vendors, and most importantly the patients. It didn’t take her long to realize that running this business was her passion. Since becoming CEO in 2018, she has expanded the company to five locations (Cary, NC; Wilmington, NC; Charlotte, NC; Charlottesville, VA and Charleston, SC), doubled patient count, and continues to work closely with future and existing patients to help them achieve healthier and more balanced 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?

Growing up, I always thought I wanted to be a doctor, so it’s pretty full circle that now I am part of a medical company. While I’m an attorney by degree, going into law school, I knew I wanted to end up on the business side. I received my MBA while in law school and after graduation, I worked in Washington, D.C., before moving to Raleigh, NC where I joined Optimal Bio. When I first joined Optimal Bio, I thought I would be there temporarily to help them while I was applying for jobs. However, after putting new processes in place and taking over the finances, I was advised to “stay and create my own company.” Now I’m so proud we have grown to six offices, with plans to continue to expand.

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?

What day isn’t interesting when running a company? A few months ago, we had an HR issue. I immediately took action, but more importantly- stayed calm. I reached out to one of my good friends from law school for advice on how to thoroughly handle the situation with due diligence. This gave me confidence in myself as a leader and how I handle situations, and reminded me to be grateful for my friendships. I kept calm, steady and focused during a stressful time, while continuing to do my job.

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

The biggest mistake I made when I first started was not listening to myself. Since I was young and had never led a company, I did not yet have the confidence to trust myself and defend my thoughts and decisions. A key lesson I learned was to trust my gut in letting people go sooner and hiring people sooner. Building a team you can create something with, not be restricted by, is critical.

“Learn from others who have walked the path before you, but be smart enough to know when to cut your own trail.” — Narciso Rodriquez

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?

Health and wellness are foundational to a happy, successful and enjoyable life. As Arthur Schopenhauer said, “We do not become conscious of the three greatest blessings in life, such as health, youth and freedom, as long as we possess them, but only after we have lost them.” At Optimal Bio, we practice preventative healthcare. We give you the tools and resources to prevent sickness and disease, and for your body to function the way it was created to. We specialize in Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). As we age, our hormones decrease, and because of environmental factors, our hormones are now decreasing at a much quicker rate. Testosterone and estrogen are hormones with over 500 functions in our bodies, and almost every cell in our body has a hormone receptor (brain, skin, heart, nerve, bone, vascular). If our hormones are out of balance, our bodies can’t function properly, resulting in symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, menopause in women and more.

Females are more than twice as likely as males to suffer from anxiety and depression. Why? Testosterone yields protective benefits against both. Males with decreased levels of testosterone have a significantly higher prevalence of anxiety and depression. Many studies show that testosterone-replacement therapy greatly improves mood, alleviates anxiety and mitigates symptoms of depression. Additionally, BHRT may protect against heart attacks, disease, dementia, and osteoporosis, and help heal PTSD and TBI.

It’s important to take note of your blood work. Many ask, what is the normal range? The normal range is the average of the population, and each year it decreases. Do you want to be in the average range of a sick population?

By using BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), you can mitigate negative side effects that synthetic hormones may cause. BHRT uses all-natural hormones that are identical to the hormones made by your body to ease the degenerative side effects of medical issues, environmental factors and aging. The goal is to re-establish the hormone levels that your system was designed to maintain. Your BHRT dose is based on your bloodwork, height and weight, so it’s the dose that your body needs to get into the goal range — which is very personalized to you. This goal range is the average level of testosterone just fifty years ago.

The work we are doing at Optimal Bio is literally changing lives. As a population, we are getting sicker each year — both physically and mentally. At Optimal Bio, we offer a solution by treating the person’s root cause of issues. Giving bodies these tools to function properly and treat the root cause of illnesses leads to less disease and sickness, and a more productive and happy society with less healthcare costs.

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

1. Focus on proper nutrition. Food is a drug, and whatever you are eating is either hurting or helping you. Processed foods cause anxiety, depression and of course, physical illness.

2. Workout in the morning. Schedule your workout on your calendar like any other meeting. Exercise provides energy, clarity and happiness to start the day.

3. Work hard to improve yourself. Don’t become complacent. Read books, listen to podcasts, and have hard conversations to become a better version of yourself.

4. Go outside. Take a walk, go for a hike or sit on the beach. The negative ions in nature are very calming.

5. Spend time in stillness being alone.

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

This movement would be patient advocacy and education. There is so much information about health and wellness out there that is incorrect and making our population sicker. We grow up going to the doctor and listening to what they say, but we need to learn to be advocates for our health. We know our bodies and how we feel best. Our team provides resources for advocacy in health and wellness to put patients in charge of their health. A few years ago, I had my own health issues, and it took me being at rock bottom to learn how to become my own advocate and find the answers. I went to many doctors until I found the right one for me. I want to help people avoid feeling hopeless or crazy, because I have discovered there is in fact a solution to feeling better.

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

1. Forge your own path. I think leaders currently have a unique opportunity to define our roles as such, and how our companies run as a whole. Companies and job descriptions can become stagnant if leaders always play it safe when running their businesses. I want to be the leader that my company and team needs, and not one that someone may think a CEO should be or has been in the past.

2. Create boundaries. I am a person who has a tendency to take on other people’s problems and emotions, but this leads to feeling burnt out and not at my full potential. Overtime I have learned the power in saying no and creating boundaries.

3. Trust yourself and take risks. Your gut tells you a lot, so listen to it. If you don’t take risks, you won’t achieve your full potential. At Optimal Bio, we are creating something different in the healthcare space. By wanting to be different, I have to take risks to be better and grow. Each new office location, marketing company, and daily decision, as well as creating a culture and team, all comes from trusting myself and taking risks.

4. Turn off your email notifications on your phone. In August of 2020, I went on a trip out West to Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana, so I decided to set up an out of office email and turn off my email notifications. Within two minutes of turning off my email notifications, my stress level dropped. Upon returning home from vacation, I realized I didn’t need my phone to keep notifying me of my emails, when I already check my emails within a timely manner. My email notifications are still off more than a year later.

5. Have a mentor and keep learning. I’m in a group of talented business owners and leaders which helps me learn, grow and stay challenged, as well as create relationships to support one another. Optimal Bio and myself as a leader would not be where we are today if I didn’t have mentors or if I didn’t continually try to learn, take risks and be better. Learning through experience and other’s experiences cannot be compared to a textbook.

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

Of these causes, mental health and environmental changes are the dearest to me because this is what we focus on every day at Optimal Bio. We see the impacts of the plastics in our water, and xenoestrogens and chemicals in our food sources, which lead to mental and physical health problems. We want to be a resource and solution for people to be aware of what’s going on, why they feel a certain way and how to live optimally.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Optimal Bio website: Optimalbio.com, Instagram (@optimalbio) and Linkedin (Tylar Brannon + Optimal Bio)

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.

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