Author: Candice Georgiadice

Female Founders: LaKendra Smalley Of The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs On The Five…

Female Founders: LaKendra Smalley Of The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Redefine the word “hustle”/ work-life balance- I would have personalized what that word meant for me instead of running myself into the ground. Redefine it to fit your business and yourself as a CEO.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Master Coach LaKendra Smalley.

Master Coach LaKendra Smalley is the CEO and Founder of 7-figure earning life coaching school: The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs. The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs specializes in certifying, training, and hiring life coaches, and intends to employ a life coach in all 195 countries around the globe.

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

I am the founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Coaches & Entrepreneurs, Inc., a school dedicated to training and certifying one million life coaches around the globe. As a certified life & business coach, I’ve made it my mission to help leaders with their self-healing so that they can live the lives that they want to lead. Too often, those who have not done their inner-work transfer their suffering onto others and inadvertently contribute to problems they are trying to solve. Affectionately known as ‘The Heart Expert’, I help my clients and coaches substitute the suffering in their lives with love via a process I call ‘The 7 Dimensions of Wellness’.

Watching my mother battle with clinical depression is what inspired me to start my journey as a global leader, coach, and heart expert. Growing up, I’d always go with my mother to the public library and watch her read self-help books in attempts to improve her quality of life. Realizing the amazing impact these self-help books had on her by helping her conquer unfavorable life challenges, I became passionate about humanity, psychology and in dismantling trauma and lost hope in order to create a better and happier life for people.

Set on the career path I’d chosen for myself, I started my 15-year journey in the industry. Prior to deciding to open my life coaching school, I’d worked in behavior management as a parole officer and as a behavior adjustment educator working with at-risk youth with various mental illnesses for independent school districts all around the Dallas metroplex.

Since 2005, I have been running a charity in the heart of Dallas called H.Y.P.E Kidz Nation Inc., where I devote all my time, energy, and compassion into educating girls and women on how to mend their hearts and do their inner-healing so they can start having the quality of life that they want to have.

I also became a community activist and advocate where I spearhead two notable charity events a year: Community Fun Walk — designed to raise awareness about childhood obesity, and the Heart Gala — designed to spread awareness about heart disease in women with heart-and-mental-health issues.

I am also in partnership with the Daliso Foundation, a foundation that provides school supplies to less fortunate children in Zambia, and also give charitable donations to other non-profit organizations through my website http://www.leadingwithlove.store.

Moreover, I have been recognized by her community as the Top Executive Female — Addison Magazine, 10 Shades of Success — Elite Award of Growth, Pioneer — Nationally recognized SOS Award, Home-Town Hero — Radio One, 10 Shades of Success Dallas- Elite Award, and Community Service Award — Sons Of Light Grand Council, A.A.S.R.M. & Seraphina Grand Chapter, O.E.S. Besides, the widely acclaimed professional coach and motivator has been featured in several publications.

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

I’d have to say my most interesting story would be about my expansion into the Philippines and traveling there to certify life coaches in-person, not knowing anything about the country or culture. That was a very life-changing moment for me because it made my business a global brand. Now, The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs has a hub in the U.S and in the Philippines.

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?

Once business started picking up with certifying life coaches, it was hard to keep up with everyone’s names. After you certify your first 100 coaches, it can be easier for things to become a blur.. Sometimes, you forget names.

I had a coach fly in for certification that asked me if I knew what her name was, and I realized then and there that I didn’t know anyone’s name. Being a CEO with ADHD, it’s harder for me to learn and remember names, so now everyone wears a nametag.

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

My mother and my grandmother.They were my highest example of what entrepreneurship looked and sounded like. They taught me about resilience, consistency, and discipline– I learned that through them.

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?

Mindset and that big word I don’t agree with: balance. It’s the guilt women feel for having to choose family over business or business over family, instead of choosing what lights them up.

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?

1: Hire a life coach.

2: Society not putting so much pressure on a woman having to choose between one or the other, family over business.

3: Government having more resources to help women start a business without having to sacrifice taking care of her family. If the government does this, she won’t have to make that sacrifice because she will have those financial resources.

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

It will extend her legacy and give her a greater purpose. It’s not only men that can leave a legacy of wealth to their families- women should be able to do that too. Becoming a female founder will allow her to leave her name in history.

My grandmother was the first black woman to work in the assembly line at Texas Instrument- her name will forever be in history.

My mother was the first black flight attendant student that graduated in her class.

I am the first black woman authorized by Medicaid to hire qualified life coaches to offer mental health services.

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

That entrepreneurship is glamorous.

The glamor comes at the end- it is never at the beginning.

It’s long hours; it’s a huge sacrifice of your time, family, and sometimes your own health, but if you can survive it: it’s all worth it in the end.

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?

You have to be a visionary. And not just that, you have to be able to see the vision and execute the vision.

You have to have resilience, innovation, and passion.

You also need to know your weaknesses and not hide from them. When you know your weaknesses and don’t hide from them, you won’t have the fear of putting people in place to help with your business. Self-awareness is key to being a successful female founder, and part of that self-awareness involves knowing what you need to pass off to those that are more qualified.

You also have to be responsible for doing your “inside” work. Your desire for personal development needs to be as strong as your desire to make money.

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.)

Your personal growth and/or lack thereof can affect the growth of your business
Outsource earlier- I know many people feel they aren’t in the position to do that yet, but you can. There’s never not a way. Instead of saying “I can’t do it”, say “how can this be done”. You can find interns, you can barter, give gifts and exchange services. You need to come into business thinking “we” not “me”- think team.
Hire a business attorney- it’s important that when you do business with anyone that you understand your legal obligations and other people’s legal obligations to you. If you hire a business attorney they can tell you what contracts you need for protecting your Intellectual Property. It also helps you have a different kind of posture as a business owner.
Legal advice is also needed before starting your business.
Redefine the word “hustle”/ work-life balance- I would have personalized what that word meant for me instead of running myself into the ground. Redefine it to fit your business and yourself as a CEO.

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

I am working to have a Certified Life Coach represented in all 195 countries.

If there’s one radical Change-Agent, Thought-Leader, Influencer, or Decision-Maker represented in every country with the heart of a Life Coach; the expansion of their heart will infinitely penetrate one child, one person, one family, and one community at a time, and what a better place this world would be.

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.

My vision for The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs has always been to have one one million life coaches around the globe.

I was given this vision of bringing the entire world together to expand love and compassion into the hearts of leaders wanting to make our world a better place. I had no idea how I could do that until I found life coaching. I found that in order to make the world better, I had to become better. I needed to be more responsible for the life I was living by limiting my suffering, which expanded more to loving myself better. I am the “better world” I was looking for all of this time. Now, I am teaching others how to become their “better world.” Life coaching is God’s profession. It teaches you how to love through the expansion of self, which makes you responsible for helping others to do the same.

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.

Jay Z, Puff Daddy, and Jay Shetty.

Jay Z- to me Jay Z really represents what’s possible for me. Him coming from poverty to being a billionaire and expanding himself beyond just rap- it’s just amazing and captivating for me.

Puff Daddy- to me, he is freaking radical. He is the example that you can reinvent yourself however many times you want to, and I love how he unapologetically expresses love.

Jay Shetty- in my late 20’s I was mentored by munk, and I would love to be able to sit down with Jay because he’s transitioned over into a new platform. I’d like to be able to be enlightened by him and hear his takes on healing world suffering.

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

Female Founders: LaKendra Smalley Of The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs On The Five… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Author Rorie Weisberg of ‘Food You Love That Loves You Back’ Cookbook On The…

Women In Wellness: Author Rorie Weisberg of ‘Food You Love That Loves You Back’ Cookbook On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Focus on building one aspect of your business at a time. I was starting a product line, building a website, running social media, and seeing clients all at the same time. I needed to build a foundation and a toolbox first and take things slower in the beginning.

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

Rorie Weisberg, CHC, is the author of the newly released cookbook, Food You Love: That Loves You Back. This book features over 200 recipes that are kosher and made with wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients, and many are also gluten-free! Certified in integrative nutrition, Rorie is the health ambassador of Kosher.com, a popular health columnist and lecturer, and founder and CEO of Full ‘N Free, LLC, an exclusive line of better-for-you baking essentials. To learn more about Rorie’s story, product line, courses, and live demos, visit www.fullnfree.com or follow her on Instagram at @fullnfree.

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

My backstory is long, but the short version is that after my last child was born 12 years ago, I developed Postpartum Thyroiditis. It affected me in many ways. Medicine had little to offer me, so I decided to check out Dr. Google. After a lot of research, I learned that the way we treat our bodies matters and that different foods give our bodies different instructions.

I was totally overwhelmed, but I decided to choose the new hard over the old hard. The process of changing my habits was grueling — I had no idea how to cook healthy food that also tasted good. I didn’t know which ingredients to buy and, most of all, how to feed my family and myself without making two dinners every night. Because I was so blown away by the changes in my health and life, I became a kitchen mad scientist (as my sister says). It meant a lot of trial and error and throwing out pans of food, but I never gave up.

Now that I learned the ropes the hard way, it has become my mission and passion to share what I’ve learned with others and make that process easier for them. This inspired me to develop a line of better-for-you bread mixes and baking essentials and write and publish Food You Love: That Loves You Back. This book features over 200 recipes that are kosher and made with wholesome, easy-to-find ingredients, and many are also gluten-free!

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 have so many inspiring stories, so it’s very hard to choose. I feel like I see G-d’s hand in my life and business constantly.

One story that stands out most to me is when the manufacturer I was working with told me they might not be able to continue. I felt lost and abandoned. It was very hard and after going through a lot of emotions, I finally said, ‘G-d, you gave this to me, so if you want it back, I accept it. Just like you helped me start this from nothing, if you want it to continue, I know you will find a way. Whatever happens, I accept it as your will.’ I really worked hard to come to that place of peace and surrender.

The very next day, I got a call from my manufacturer and they let me know that they actually resolved the issues and not only were they not going to stop, but also they got an investor and would be expanding. It taught me such an important lesson that I keep going back to: I can put in my efforts, but I know all my success and limitations come from G-d and he is preparing the journey that is meant for me to serve him and do his will. When I keep that focus, life becomes truly full and free.”

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 was taking on more than I could handle and not setting work hours. It’s so hard to start your own business, especially when you’re a perfectionist like me and want everything just so. I was pushing way too hard and burned out. All the gains of changing my habits went out the window because even though I was eating healthier ingredients, I was super stressed and not taking care of myself.

I also realized that if my business was sabotaging everything I worked so hard to gain health-wise, it wasn’t worth it all. I had to pull back and learn to limit, say ‘no’, delegate, and stop seeing help as an expense but rather an investment. Unfortunately, it took a bunch of times to learn the lesson, but I’ve learned to ask for help, say ‘no’, and set work hours (well, I’m still working on that one). Overall, though, I’ve definitely learned the hard way to work smarter, not harder.”

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 love this question! My goal is to share a message that’s hard for people to understand. Diet culture has hijacked healthy food, so when people think of healthy eating they think weight loss. My approach is not about losing weight; it’s about gaining health. Sometimes, weight loss is a side effect when a person’s habits are not allowing his or her body to be at its natural weight. However, I never talk about losing weight, calories, or calculations of any kind. My message is to enlighten women on how to treat their bodies with respect and responsibility.

I also put a big emphasis on other health habits like sleep, hydration, attunement, and movement. Not for the means of the end goal to change the way we look, but to change the way we feel. My message is about believing that you can nourish and nurture yourself with dignity and deliciousness. I am also super passionate about sharing the recipes and tools to make traditional favorites with ingredients that love you back.

To that end, I developed a line of better-for-you bread mixes and baking essentials. I also recently wrote and published the first-ever kosher health cookbook called Food You Love: That Loves You Back. The book is a collection of tips, tools, and over 200 recipes that have made my commitment to health doable and delicious. Now, I have the privilege of sharing all of that with others to help them live full ‘n free!

Available in stores and on Amazon, Food You Love transforms all your traditional favorites — pancakes for breakfast, pizza for lunch, schnitzel for dinner. Brisket, kugel, and cholent for Shabbos, along with dips, enticing salads, and loads of veggie sides, topped off with chocolate mousse and cookie crumble. You’ll enjoy every bite and leave the table feeling full, energized, and confident that you’ve served and savored only the best.

Healthy means something different for everyone, especially if you need to avoid certain ingredients. Many recipes offer a few variations, like gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, and even refined sugar-free, so that you can customize them to your and your family’s preference. The cookbook even features QR codes that you can scan for a real-life glimpse into my kitchen & shopping wagon! Also included are my tips on the basics on staying full and energized with healthful eating, menu planning advice, and insight on how to practically balance advance food prep with an on-the-go lifestyle.”

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.

“That’s so perfect that you asked for 5, as I actually call the healthy habits to get ‘in shape’ the ‘5 to thrive’! They are sleep, hydration, attunement, physical activity, and eating respectfully and responsibly. When I talk about each topic, I suggest people work on them in order. Most people want to hear about what to eat and how to work out. However, I think it’s really important to work on sleep, hydration, and attunement first because a rested, hydrated, and mindful person will make much better choices and be able to be consistent.”

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

“To slow down and become more mindful. Most people have aborted ship, as I like to say. I know because I had to work really hard to start to hear my body’s cues. But the more I listened to my body’s whispers, the louder they got and those intuitive signals can really lead me to make respectful and responsible choices. I would also like to make a movement to change so many of the ingredients used that hijack our hormones and taste buds, causing a lot of static. This makes it so much harder to be attuned.”

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

“The top 5 things are:

1. Hire an assistant if you can afford it. You can’t do everything!

2. Focus on building one aspect of your business at a time. I was starting a product line, building a website, running social media, and seeing clients all at the same time. I needed to build a foundation and a toolbox first and take things slower in the beginning.

3. Take one day a week off. I’m still not completely listening to that advice, but I still wish I would have heard it and listened in the beginning.

4. For my book, I wish someone would have explained the process to me. I ended up in a major crunch in the end that could have been avoided or limited had I had more clarity.

5. Trust more and know that not everything you can do you have to do now. My sister always said, ‘Rorie, you can do anything but you don’t have to.’ I pushed too hard during the earlier stages and learned to slow down and not ‘fill’ my plate so much.”

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

“I’d say that of these, mental health really jumps out. Our mindset is everything. Being a healthy person is only partially how you take care of your body. It’s how you connect emotionally to yourself and the other people in your life. It’s all connected.”

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

Website: https://fullnfree.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorie-weisberg/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Full-n-Free-298441800579215/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rorie_weisberg

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Author Rorie Weisberg of ‘Food You Love That Loves You Back’ Cookbook On The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Naya Powell of Utopia Spa and Global Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That…

Women In Wellness: Naya Powell of Utopia Spa and Global Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Practicing mindfulness — take a few minutes each day to a few cleansing breaths and allow yourself to be fully present with your body and surroundings.

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

Naya Powell is a third-generation entrepreneur in the health and wellness space. As the founder of Utopia Spa and Global Wellness, she continues her family’s legacy of wellness and self-care. Utopia is a multi-cultural, international workplace wellness brand.

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

My passion for wellness is deeply influenced by my health-conscious marathon running father and the influences of my mother, the first Black national Mary Kay director in Virginia. I saw both of my parents working hard to empower their communities with employment opportunities. Their entrepreneurial, wellness, and beauty influences shaped me into the wellness pioneer I am today.

As a third-generation entrepreneur, I was motivated to start Spa Utopia, Inc. based on experiences with the impacts of stress and burnout personally and within my family. In addition, I have worn the hats of founder and corporate leader. Therefore, I understand first-hand the immense burnout, time poverty, and lack of work-life integration endured by numerous professionals.

The Utopia brand has evolved to stay relevant and meet self-care needs worldwide during our global pandemic. Spa Utopia (SU) was formalized in September 2018. SU provided luxury spa and wellness services on-demand for events, corporations, and high-end hotels, delivering convenient and customized self-care for The Ritz Carlton, The NFL Superbowl, WeWork, Martha Stewart, P. Diddy, and others.

As a result of COVID 19, we had to pivot, expand, and rebrand quickly. Due to the mental health and wellness crisis the world was thrust into, we decided to leverage technology in new and innovative ways. While the pandemic pushed many into social isolation and depression, we decided to answer the call to create a safe, convenient, fun, and global community to elevate our self-care. So, in December of 2020, we renamed the company and became a D.B.A. Utopia Spa and Global Wellness (UGSW).

Workplace: The American Institute of Stress reports that more than 120,000 people die every year as a direct result of work-related stress.
1 in 5 adults in the US report living with mental health challenges.
The American Institute of Stress reports that 120,000 people die every year due to work-related stress.
A recent WHO-led study estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy $ 1 trillion USD each year in lost productivity.

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?

There have been a few “interesting” milestones and achievements along my entrepreneurial journey. I am proud to say I receiving the Google for Startups: Black Founder Fund. I was one of only 50 recipients to receive $100k of non-diluted capital. Receiving this funding during a pandemic afforded Utopia SGW the resources to pivot, rebrand, and press forward into a global wellness platform.

I applied for this funding the year prior, and we were not selected. I was devastated. However, the lesson learned is that even when you get a “no,” try and try again. A dream delayed is not a dream denied. Had we received the funding the year before, we would have invested the funding in our luxury spa on-demand business model, which would not have survived the initial phase of COVID.

Perseverance and resilience pays off!

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 felt like I could do it all at the beginning of my founder journey. This caused balls to get dropped. The lesson learned is the importance of having a solid quality team of support. I have since hired a team that supports Operations, Digital Marketing & Sales, UX/Technical Development, Client Support, and others.

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?

Utopia Spa & Global Wellness (USGW) is a digital platform that offers live and on-demand virtual wellness classes — that can be enjoyed anytime — anywhere, such as mindfulness, yoga, pilates, movement, wellness coaching/workshops, and retreats. Our global wellness community has members and instructors that span seven countries and five continents.

We help employees bring their best selves to work, which helps employers achieve their talent, retention, recruitment, and productivity goals. We take a multicultural *wholistic approach to wellness experiences that celebrate mindful diversity, inclusion, and belonging!

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.

Gratitude journaling — start or end your day by writing three things you are grateful for.
Practicing mindfulness — take a few minutes each day to a few cleansing breaths and allow yourself to be fully present with your body and surroundings.
Going for a walk outside or getting your body moving with a virtual yoga class
Create an environment of peace and harmony in your home with music to energize or relax you as needed, candles, and pictures
Create a vision for your day by writing down goals daily

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

That is what Utopia SGW is doing — our global platform is revolutionizing self-care so that the world can show up as their best selves!

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

Don’t quit your job prematurely.
Cultivate your network — it is net worth!
Build your business infrastructure to include your business plan, website, marketing materials, business license, insurance, marketing strategy, and client list before you take the plunge to b
Develop relationships with advisors, mentors, and fellow founders

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

Mental health is a cause that is nearest and dearest to my heart. I recognize that the world is suffering on so many levels. The pandemic has certainly exasperated all of us. We live during a time when depression and anxiety are at an all-time high.

The BIPOC, founder, and youth communities feel the impact of mental health even more than others.

Black women are the most undertreated for depression
Entrepreneurs: According to USC Berkeley Study, 72 percent of entrepreneurs reported mental health concerns
Nearly 37 percent of U.S. college students have depression
According to a 2018 study, out of 67,000 surveyed students, 9 percent had attempted suicide.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online? Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Utopia SGW:

Web: https://www.utopiaSGW.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/utopiasgw/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/UtopiaSGW
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/utopiasgw
TW: https://twitter.com/UtopiaSGW

Naya F. Powell

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayafelapowell/
Linktree: linktr.ee/utopialiving.with.naya

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Naya Powell of Utopia Spa and Global Wellness On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Valerie Ribon Of QuartzMind On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Valerie Ribon Of QuartzMind On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Stay over organized. Your calendar, your to-do list, and your files! Have a system for each one. When we first started everything was a mess, getting organized has saved me countless hours & made sure that we’re able to grow and take on employees.

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

After experiencing a decline in productivity and motivation over the course of the pandemic, Integrative Nutrition expert and QuartzMind founder, Valerie Ribon restored her focus and sense of wellbeing by adjusting her diet with whole foods, herbs and vitamins. Valerie was determined to develop a solution that would make a true difference in how people feel as they adjusted to a new lifestyle. Thus, QuartzMind was born with their debut product, Work From Home™, a blend of proven vitamins, nootropics, and adaptogens that aid in productivity, focus, stress reduction, circulation and help relieve eye strain.

My older sister was prescribed Adderall for ADD when she was 7 and then when she was in high school, she decided to work with a nutritionist to heal. Witnessing this transformation made me think about how we can change the way we feel with the help of lifestyle changes, herbs, and nutrition.

Before becoming a nutrition coach, I was a professional model. I encountered many who took health and wellness seriously, yet still fell prey to misinformation. I’ve been advised of every nutrition cliché in the book. “Only eat 6 almonds a day!” Or, “eat a pickle and then sip Diet Coke to suppress your appetite.” I studied integrative nutrition because I wanted to discover how to look and feel my best with information that is based on proven science.

Even though I ate extremely healthy, when I started working from home, I had no option but to sit for the majority of the day and stare at screens. I couldn’t help but notice how my lifestyle impacted how I felt almost as much as the food on my plate did, but the supplements available usually only take your age and gender into account.

When designing QuartzMind’s Work From Home™, the goal was to develop a supplement that would make a real difference in how people feel. You can always earn more money, but you can’t earn more time. We’re so careful with how we spend our money, yet we’ll throw our time away frivolously (social media, unhealthy friendships, the wrong job, etc.). Instead, we should be asking how we can maximize how we feel each day.

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

I didn’t think that starting a business would change me, it’s interesting how much it has. I’ve had to streamline my days and reanalyze my priorities. It has helped me get rid of so many distractions in my life. It’s made me start valuing a home cooked meal and getting to bed early way more than a night out. Now, in order for me to allow something into my life, I need to see if it moves the needle in terms of where I see QuartzMind going, or the type of person I want to be!

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 love this question- because it’s so easy to take yourself too seriously! Always shop around for manufacturers. Our first manufacturer quoted us 3 times as much as we pay now per bottle. Large manufacturers wouldn’t talk to us because we didn’t have the volume to work with them yet. I then remembered a tip from Tim Ferriss’ 4-hour work week, “Call an hour after the office closes. Normally the people who pick up are the ones in charge. Sometimes they’ll do you a favor.” Finally, after 100s of calls (during normal office hours), we called our current manufacturer who told us they could make our product for a third of what we were paying while still maintaining the same high level of quality.

Besides my co-founder, Mercury, I’d like to thank QuartzMind’s scientific advisor, Dr. David Spiegel. Besides helping to bring credibility to QuartzMind, he gives amazing business advice and really goes above and beyond.

I think from a young age as women, we are taught to never ask for more, not stand up for ourselves, and to please everyone else. To start a company is to do the opposite!

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?

A lot of the time, as a woman, I’m weary that people have other motives than just believing in you. I’m so happy to see all these platforms for women to find support at all stages, and I think we are headed in a very promising direction! I still have a hard time talking about my own company, so I’ll do an exercise where I pretend that I’m talking about a friend’s company and it’s crazy how much easier that is.

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

We’re naturally intuitive and connected with our hearts and emotions. Being naturally intuitive helps us identify where people are hurting, we can tap into what people really need help!

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

There is no blueprint. Before you ever ask anyone for their opinion, make sure you have your own first. It can be so easy to be so overwhelmed by everyone else’s opinion that you can’t even figure out what your own is. “Opinion shopping” is a rabbit hole that’s so easy to fall into if you don’t first trust your intuition.

I think regular jobs are great! You can erase a lot of the weight off your shoulders of being a founder. However, if you crave that feeling of creating something, and going all in on an idea excites you more than it scares you, it’s totally worth it. In recent years with the advent of Shopify and the abundance of manufacturers both here and overseas who you can easily connect with, the barrier to entry to starting your own business has shrunk significantly. I can’t imagine the hurdles you’d have to jump through even 20 years ago to create your own brand. — that being said, it’s a total rollercoaster so be prepared for the ride before you get on 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.)

Stay over organized. Your calendar, your to-do list, and your files! Have a system for each one. When we first started everything was a mess, getting organized has saved me countless hours & made sure that we’re able to grow and take on employees.
Get bored. Have one day a week where you allow yourself to do nothing, no screens, no distractions just sit with your thoughts. You’ll come up with some of your best ideas and have the space to solve complicated issues.
You’ll spend more time with your co-founder than most people will with who they’re married to! Choose accordingly. When we first started, we were considering taking on another co-founder who brought a lot of value to the table but at the end of the day, we could not work with him. Looking back, bringing on another co-founder who we didn’t have chemistry with very well could have been the end of QuartzMind.
Stop being busy just for the sake of being busy. At least half of the things I was doing when I was starting Quartz Mind were unnecessary. It’s better to spend more time on the things that matter. Being able to differentiate isn’t as easy as it might seem.
The company energy is almost as important as the product and shows in everything you do. Choose people you enjoy working with, and let people know when they are killing it!

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

It’s often overlooked how amazing working from home is for the environment. By helping people to flourish in this new normal, we’re doing a small part to offset the environmental impact of long daily commutes and the waste built into people’s lives. Besides the positive environmental impact that working from home has, I hope that our products help people have a more positive outlook and most importantly feel good- Because when people feel good, they do good.

Eliminating canola oils and inflammatory seed oils from your diet. Canola oil has been shown to cause major health issues yet it’s disguised in nearly everything we eat, from store bought oat milk to bread it’s everywhere and consuming it regularly can cause terrible health consequences obesity, Alzheimer’s disease & heart dysfunction to name a few.

Adam and Rebekah Neumann. They’ve been out of the game for the biggest transition of how people work in our lifetime, and I’m curious how they see the recent evolution of working. I don’t see QuartzMind stopping with supplements and would have loved to see what WeWork would have accomplished had it been able to grow in the way that they had envisioned.

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

Female Founders: Valerie Ribon Of QuartzMind 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 Disruptors: Nkechi Azie Of SCYNEXIS On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Believe you can do anything.” This is a part of my core philosophy and what has driven me over the years. Going back to my father’s philosophy, this has inspired and motivated me to be all I can be no matter the odds.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nkechi Azie, M.D., MBA, FIDSA.

Nkechi Azie, M.D., MBA, FIDSA, is the Vice President of Clinical Development at SCYNEXIS, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCYX), a biotechnology company delivering innovative therapies for difficult-to-treat and often life-threatening infections. Dr. Azie has over 25 years of experience in drug development and medical affairs, having worked in therapeutic areas including infectious disease, women’s health, and immunology. Dr. Azie, who is board certified in internal medicine, clinical pharmacology, and infectious disease and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), received an executive MBA from the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Science from the University of Nigeria College of Medicine and conducted her medical residency and subspecialty training at Indiana University Medical Center.

As a young girl growing up in southeastern Nigeria, women were very much considered at best seen and not heard; we were taught to be nice, subservient husband-dependent women. I could not see myself that way, so I worked hard in school to be top of my class including beating the boys in math where the boys were assumed to be better than the girls. Because I excelled in school, I was accepted and attended medical school right out of high school. Those opportunities were reserved for the best and the brightest, and it was rare at the time for a woman to be able to pursue a career in medicine. I was breaking that glass ceiling at a young age. By the time I started my specialty training as a medical resident I was already a mother. Given that, I wanted to still be able to be with my family so one of my mentors advised me to investigate clinical pharmacology and that is when I went down the pharmaceutical career path starting with Eli Lilly. The research and development projects I lead today have the potential to impact millions of lives, which is very fulfilling.

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

We are being disruptive at SCYNEXIS through our innovative research and development programs. For example, we’ve developed a groundbreaking, first-in-class systemic antifungal with great potential in both women’s health and hospital settings. Until last year when our first product launched, it had been more than 20 years since a new antifungal had been approved to treat vaginal yeast infections. Our work in women’s health is putting a spotlight on vaginal yeast infections, which the scientific research community has all but ignored. If this were a condition affecting men, there would be 25 drugs already created to treat it. I’m extremely proud to be working in an area with so much unmet need.

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

When I was a young medical resident starting out, I didn’t always listen to others, but I quickly learned that not listening was a mistake when I almost lost a patient. When somebody tells you something you must be willing to listen. As a physician and now a corporate executive, I need to be as informed as possible because the decisions I make impact our company and the patients we aim to serve. Experience in my early years in medicine taught me many things including to be calm under pressure, to value the importance of teamwork and to call for help when you need it. When you are in medical school you must pay attention in class. It is not an option to not know something because lives depend on it. Every day of clinical practice is an exam, an exam if failed could cost a life. As doctors we are required to give so much of ourselves to patients.

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

I have been blessed to have 6 great mentors throughout my life:

Chief Sylvanus Mbanefo, my late father who was ahead of his time despite having five sons and five daughters, encouraged all his children equally. If we came home from school and did not get the highest grade in class he would ask if the person who did, had two heads. This was his way of saying that those students were no different from us, and there was nothing preventing us from also being the best in class. He used to say, “you can do anything that anyone else can.” When we did score at the top of the class there would be a lot of celebration and hullabaloos. He would cook our favorite food and tell all his friends. He would say, “Apply yourself!” This was a good lesson to learn as a child and one that I have carried with me ever since. This is what helps me motivate my team members, and celebrate our big and small wins.

Lady G.O. Mbanefo, my mother carried herself with dignity and a regal air. Her ability to respond to our family’s needs, her discipline, and her guidance has informed my work ethic. She was able to balance being a businesswoman while raising 10 children, and would say, “If you see work to be done, do it.” My mother taught us not to wait around for the person responsible. She also gave me my incredible sense of style. “It’s not what you wear but how you wear it that matters.” At the age of 89, my mom still says this to me today.

Dr. Virginia Cain from Indiana University was a strong black female physician who was one of my strongest professional mentors and advisors, and she helped me choose infectious disease specialty as my therapeutic area of medicine.

Dr. Craig Brater offered me my first break by accepting me as the first foreign medical graduate to enroll in the Indiana University internal medicine residency program. Subsequently, he encouraged me to pursue a career in clinical pharmacology. Dr. Brater suggested I investigate a career in pharmaceutical drug development. At the time I did not know what that was!

Dr. Glenn Gormley, the Executive Chairman and President of Daiichi Sankyo, was another mentor who believed in me. He encouraged me to get an MBA, despite having a full-time job and raising four girls. In a sea of naysayers and voices that discouraged me, he said, “you have to put yourself out there and take it one day at a time.” I was lucky to get him as a mentor, through the ASCPT (American society of clinical pharmacology and Therapeutics) mentoring program.

Lastly, my good friend and spiritual advisor Rev. Paulinus Odozor, C.S.Sp. has been a steady and constant source of support and has helped guide my thinking when I have faced adversity and difficult times.

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

To answer this, I have to reference the concept of Polarity Management in the book by Barry Johnson. One illustration is about setting up a project where people can go to extremes between planning and rapid implementation, and each pole being a negative. For instance, in our industry, some people would want to wait until the study protocol is finalized before considering what it would take and how to implement it, wasting many months in the process. Starting implementation without thinking the goals and objectives through leads to a lot of wasted time and resources. Polarity management as a disruptive practice requires that we think through what aspects of the implementation can be initiated prior to finalization of the plan.

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

“Believe you can do anything.” This is a part of my core philosophy and what has driven me over the years. Going back to my father’s philosophy, this has inspired and motivated me to be all I can be no matter the odds.

“To your own self be true.” Trying to please everyone causes a lot of stress. All my advisors imprinted on me the importance of being yourself. There is only one you. Be authentic.

“As you think so you are.” Be careful what you think as it creates the world around you. It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you think about it. Whether you think you can or you can’t, you will prove yourself right.

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

Within SCYNEXIS, in addition to seeking approval this year of a new therapy to prevent recurrent vaginal yeast infections, we also are focused on an innovative study to investigate our first in class antifungal as a powerful therapy for serious and often-deadly infections treated in the hospital setting, including invasive candidiasis. If approved it may allow patients to leave the hospital and continue treatment with a potent oral therapy that has shown activity against a broad range of pathogens, including drug-resistant strains.

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

In our society there are many gender biases, some obvious and some subtle. If a woman comes up with a disruptive idea, she is often labeled as difficult to work with, but if a man comes up with the same idea, he is considered a maverick. It forces women to be extra cautious or not speak up when they have great ideas, whereas men can be totally spontaneous.

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

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann is my favorite poem of all time. It says so many important things. “You are a child of the universe. You have a right to be here. Be at peace with God regardless of what you perceive that to be. Strive to be happy and do not compare yourself with others. Just be yourself.” It is loaded with so much wisdom.

The West and the Rest of Us by Chinweizu Ibekwe — This is a book that I read at a young age. There is a lot of finger pointing happening out there and this book points a finger back at you. How can we do better, especially when it comes to race relations. It gives insights into how we might be able to reverse things and create better boundaries.

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren is another book that really helped me personally and provides a new perspective on why we are here on this earth. To serve, rather than to be served.

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

Plant more food trees! Specifically, African breadfruit trees. These trees could help world hunger, reduce our carbon footprint and even improve climate change. We are learning about the medical benefits of plants and trees and there is so much value in these trees as food. You can use the leaves, the bark and even the roots to reach broadly and protect the land. Can we please plant more food trees? Plant whatever lives in your part of the world.

Plant medicinal trees like the Neem tree! Most components of the tree are medicinal, and the tree itself serves as a natural pest protector without needing chemicals for pest control on farms. I think about the Indian guru, Sadhguru, speaking about his tree movement in Jaipur, India. Just plant more trees. We need a movement to educate people about trees!

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

“Your attitude determines your altitude.” Believe in yourself, think positive, be positive, treat everyone well, forgive but do not lose the lesson. Greet everyone you meet with a warm smile; those that don’t smile back are the ones that need the smile the most. Smiles have been known to save lives.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkechiazie/

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

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

Women In Wellness: Jacqueline Ramsey Of The Fresh Test On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help…

Women In Wellness: Jacqueline Ramsey Of The Fresh Test On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Know that you have the strength to choose what your intuition tells you is healthy. Without going through the science of everything, I think we all know for ourselves what is good and bad for us.

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

Jacqueline Ramsey is the founder of Fresh Test, LLC — a natural FemTech company based in Los Angeles. Fresh Test, LLC has a product that has been begged for by women…for literally decades.

With 15 years of work in Endocrinology, Obstetrics and Medical Device Business Development, Jacquie was poised fortuitously to take on big-pharma. This passion was sparked when she was asked to drink traditional “glucola” in her 1st pregnancy; Jacquie was shocked by the product’s dyes, flavoring, BVO and preservatives. Jacquie, accustomed to eating anything (e.g. termites on the CBS show, Survivor)..she refused to drink the 1970s glucola. After bouncing around from OB to OB she decided to take on the challenge of launching a more natural version of the glucose beverage for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus screening.

Jacquie’s career has always been in healthcare after graduating from UW-Madison. Growing up in the Midwest, Jacquie has a love hate relationship with her obsession over work. However she finds ways to stay glued to her co-founders (age 3 and 5) after work-hours. Her son and daughter were right along-side her (one was inside) through the many years of R&D and product launch.

Jacquie literally “runs” meetings while taking as many as she can on the road, jogging. A true college athlete and triathlete, Jacquie is taking a unique approach to business and claims the runner’s-high leads to extremely successful brainstorming sessions. She is running this clinically backed company fast with 65% quarterly growth in hopes to make a massive impact before turning 40 in late 2022. Having started many companies throughout her life, Jacquie immediately felt God’s hand on this one. This business always felt unique; no longer a struggler but rather each step was replenishing and reinvigorating.

While starting her family, Jacquie and her artist husband Tyler Ramsey, re-married in 20 different countries and cultures while working abroad in hospitals. Jacquie’s global perspective on healthcare has lent itself to an extremely innovative and natural portfolio of nutraceuticals and medical devices coming to market in the female space. Jacquie started her career in Fortune 500 Medical companies and although she has respects big-pharma, she hopes Fresh Test’s spike in market share has made a loud impression; to steer away from “earnings calls” focus and towards a better “why”…strengthening the voice of the patient & bringing mother-nature back into products.

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 had 15 years of experience in sales and business development for diabetes and obstetrics industries. In a touch of serendipity, 15 years ago, my Obstetrician asked me to drink a beverage to manage gestational diabetes. I was pressed to take on the challenge of creating a natural option to manage diabetes and compete with Big Pharma.

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?

It’s quite incredible that when you find something in life that seems to align with who you are and what you think you’re destined for, everything somehow seems to come together. Daunting obstacles somehow move easily, and progress comes organically. I’ve founded several start-up companies in the past and I always felt challenged or forced, until I founded The Fresh Test, LLC. I eagerly took on the task of launching an organic glucose beverage. With 15 years of experience in endocrinology and obstetrics education and business development, the company always felt right. In many ways, start-ups are hard, but starting The Fresh Test, LLC felt natural, easy and true to who I am.

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 hired a consultant without thinking about or preparing a contract. Within a year of working together, this consultant tried to challenge me on ownership percentages. If I didn’t concede, he threatened to leave the company and compete with me in the market. Looking back, I wish I had been more selective of the people I work with.

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?

My company wants to bring natural choices back into the pharma world. Today, everyone reads labels and does their best to be healthier and more environmentally conscious. Nowadays, It’s important to provide options to people. It empowers women to know they can choose a product designed for and by women with their health and baby in mind. In the past, I feel that pharma companies base their product and company decisions solely on earnings and ROI. However, we’ve set that aside with The Fresh Test, LLC. Our brand brings healthier options for women, whatever the cost. That is our purpose.

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.

Know that you have the strength to choose what your intuition tells you is healthy. Without going through the science of everything, I think we all know for ourselves what is good and bad for us.
Consume what nourishes your mind, heart, soul and body. Everything else brings you in the opposite direction.
If you want to feel your best, say yes to feeling your best. It’s your choice whether you want to make your yes mean yes.
Unhealthy lifestyles and habits are generally a reaction to a larger problem. We should get to the root of the problem and heal from there. Wellness will follow after that.
Every day, we need to put on our armor and call upon strength and choose wellness.

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

Women proclaiming from their rooftops that we should try natural remedies, natural foods and inner wellness FIRST before jumping to “band-aid fixes” or artificial products and drugs. It’s incredible what a single day of choosing wellness can do!

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

Pour LOVE into everything — each conversation, meeting, product, idea, email, employee and everything else in between deserves it.
Use principles from the Bible and the best CEO out there, Jesus, to guide your company and your day.
Things don’t have to be hard or grueling. When they are, it’s a sign that something might be wrong, but a light will shine on it to work it out. Things will feel right and true, when they are ready to be.
Straighten your priorities and everything else will fall into place. If you have the privilege of playing and giggling with your little one on the floor, take it! There is no better way to prepare for a meeting. You will be more efficient and you will have the mental clarity to make better decision with a tank full of love.
I made the mistake of piling on project after project. I felt it was a good idea to pile on another project when my stress is maxed out. Choosing to do less has helped me accomplish more. Adding more projects to mask my stress was a pattern I wish I addressed years ago.

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. We need to heal ourselves and feel and absorb love in order to give it back. Love can move mountains that can assist with sustainability, environmental changes, health concerns, etc. After having my first child, I fell deep into post-partum depression that clouded everything and caused great pain. Starting The Fresh Test felt so empowering and fulfilling that it helped me climb out of that pit and heal. It was only then that I was able to make wise choices, offer love and do my part to help improve the world.

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

Instagram, @TheFreshTest and our website www.thefreshtest.com

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

Women In Wellness: Jacqueline Ramsey Of The Fresh Test 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: Sue Downes of MyEyeDr On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman…

Female Founders: Sue Downes of MyEyeDr On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Not everyone aspires to be the CEO, and that’s ok. Listening to your team and discovering their goals is better than assuming that their ambitions match yours. You need to understand each individual’s needs and dreams and find where that fits into your company’s growth plans.

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

Sue Downes, CEO and co-founder of MyEyeDr., had an extensive career in the eye care industry prior to starting the company, and has worked in almost every area of the eye care field for more than thirty years. She has built a brand that is as unique as she is and has created a brand identity for MyEyeDr. that connects independent optometry practices under one unifying mission — to provide the best vision health and wellness experience possible for patients. In addition to her work, Downes is an active volunteer throughout the community and has been the recipient of several prestigious honors, including Montgomery County Chamber’s “Spirit of Free Enterprise” award; the 2011 Most Influential Woman award; the 2012 Smart CEO award for Entrepreneurial Spirit; the 2015 ACG Corporate Growth Award; the Optical Women’s Association 2016 winner of the Pleiades Award; the 2018 Person of Vision by Prevent Blindness; and was recently named Vice Chairwoman of Highpoint University’s Elizabeth Miller Strickland Women’s Leadership Council.

Every great business usually starts with a problem to be solved, and the energy behind founding MyEyeDr. was no different. My father was very sick and, in the hospital, and I found myself spending more time dealing with insurance companies trying to understand his benefits than I was focusing on his care. My background at that point was in the optical field with a deep knowledge of managed care so I thought, “Why couldn’t there be a business that took the mystery and the confusion away from vision insurance benefits so patients could spend more time with their doctor and less time on the administrative task of trying to figure out what was covered and what was not? So, we started MyEyeDr. with the concept of ‘welcoming all insurances’ so our patients could have an expert in their corner to help them navigate the administrative side of care. The concept is simple — you can spend more time focused on your eye health and eye care needs if you could spend less time and energy trying to understand what you are entitled to and how it works.”

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

“This was more scary than interesting for me, but right at the same time we were negotiating with our first private equity partner in 2012, I came down with optic neuritis. I didn’t know that at the moment — what I did know was that I was losing my vision rapidly and I was scared that I was going to be blind. Optic neuritis is a condition that occurs when swelling damages the optic nerve — that bundle of nerve fibers that send visual information from your eye to your brain. Now, I was fortunate to be surrounded by wonderful optometrists and I knew how to get the help I needed. It was through that experience that I realized how fortunate I was to have the support and knowledge that I had. In a very real way, I understood and appreciated more deeply how people living with severe vision loss are impacted. So, the experience truly crystalized our company’s mission for me. Everyone deserves to have access to comprehensive vision healthcare, and I try to bring that passion to the causes we support. For example, the company and I continue to support Prevent Blindness, a wonderful organization that delivers direct service programs designed to preserve sight through screening, publications, safety, education, information and referral through volunteer efforts.”

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 like to quote Michael Jordan, and he’s been credited with saying that ‘you miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take’. So, have I missed some shots along the way? I know I have, and I will continue to make mistakes but that means I’m in the game, trying new things, putting myself out there. And every time I earn a new battle scar from my mistakes, I’m stronger and more resilient. It is not the successes that make you, it is the wounds that you earn along that way that help you get better.”

“There are 2 people who come to mind right away. First, Dr. Parker May gave me my first job in an optometrist’s office and he taught the importance of filling every available exam slot with someone who needed to be seen. I’ve never lost that lesson about the urgency of getting a patient in for an appointment because that could be the appointment that saves their life, literally. Secondly, my co-founder, Dr. Rob Samit modeled such an amazing drive to succeed, and he gave me the autonomy to grow as a professional. I will always be grateful for his faith in me.”

“I would hope that my experience isn’t the norm, but I’ve learned that too many women have heard the messages that I heard as a young co-founder — ‘You can’t do this or that” or “No one else does it that way, it won’t work.” For me, I was motivated by those messages, I was determined to prove them wrong. But that’s not everyone’s experience. Those discouraging messages can take a toll and stop some potential entrepreneurs from taking a chance and trusting their skills and expertise. I do believe this is changing, as I am seeing more young women expand into many different fields that they might not have even ten years ago. We must do more to open the eyes of young females to careers that allow them the same trajectory that men traditionally have access to.”

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

“I think there are tons of great private initiatives out there building up the confidence and self-esteem of women so they can tackle the toughest business challenges in a world still dominated by men in the C-suite. One of those is the Strickland Women’s L.I.F.T Fellowship Program through High Point University that I am proud to be a part of. The program provides networking, leadership development, mentorship and coaching for female students interested in becoming CEOs, leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, and trailblazers in their chosen careers. There are so many programs like this across the country and I would encourage young women to get involved and seek out these mentorship opportunities. But I would add that it’s not just programs for aspiring female entrepreneurs. There are groups working hard to expand opportunities for many diverse populations and we have a need to grow the representation of many different groups within business leadership, not just 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?

“Well, I think more people in general regardless of sex, should consider entrepreneurship. Starting and running your own business is part of the American Dream and I would hope that more and more people would seize the opportunities and be less afraid to take that leap. However, I understand why you ask your question the way that you do. Women historically have not been business founders and that’s a shame. I think that women have a lived experience that gives them a unique perspective on project leadership and on building and motivating teams, understanding how to balance caring for people while enabling their ability to perform. Remember founders can’t do everything themselves. They can try for a while but it’s not sustainable. Successful founders solve problems and surround themselves with talent to get things done, and, in my experience, women are pretty good at that!”

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

“The biggest myth could be that I have all the answers. The truth is that I don’t have all the answers — but I’d like to think that I ask all the right questions and then hire a group of people who are experts in their specific fields who, when brought together, help me deliver on my vision.”

“Not everyone is cut out to be a founder. To start a company takes someone who is comfortable with risk; someone who is comfortable driving forward when others say stop; someone who thrives on change and on evolving themselves. Being a founder can be a scary proposition and you must be the kind of person who embraces that fear and uses it as positive energy.”

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.).

Not everyone aspires to be the CEO, and that’s ok. Listening to your team and discovering their goals is better than assuming that their ambitions match yours. You need to understand each individual’s needs and dreams and find where that fits into your company’s growth plans.

Failure makes you stronger. But only when you accept and own your responsibility within the failure. What did you learn? Always deconstruct what happened and apply those learned lessons for the next time. You can never be afraid to try!

People are the true key to your success. You may have expertise in your field, you may have a great service to offer, you may have abundant resources; but, at the end of the day, it’s your people that will deliver results.

It really does take a village. In your journey, there will be hard times. You will need your friends, your professional colleagues, your local community, your family — everyone at one time or another. Keep those connections strong and invest in those relationships.

Grow thick skin. You will receive the criticism, I promise. But if you approach the criticisms as opportunities to reevaluate, rethink, challenge yourself, you will learn something every time, even if it’s a lesson you didn’t want.

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

MyEyeDr. optometrists saw over 3 million patients last year and that number grows every year. That’s over 3 million patients that had an opportunity to learn more about the critical role that vision healthcare can play in their lives. That’s the mission and what inspires me every single day — helping people recognize the value of great vision and great vision healthcare. You don’t know how much better you can see the world until someone gives you that gift of clear vision. Think about it — how does a child know that the blurry sign 20 feet away can be seen with perfect clarity by the person next to her? She likely thinks that everyone experiences the same fuzzy world that she does. We are changing people’s relationship with their eyes daily, and I truly believe that helping the world to see clearly can make the world a better place.

Of course, MyEyeDr. supports several outside charitable causes like Prevent Blindness, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Toys for Tots, as well as starting our own charitable entity, The MyEyeDr. OneFamily Community Fund. Those are important, but we see our daily work as making the world a better place — one set of eyes at a time.

“That’s simple. If I can be a part of convincing everyone in this country to have their vision checked annually, that would impact millions of people. Think of children whose vision issues could be caught early and corrected. How would that change the trajectory of their lives? We have been taught for years that you should have your teeth cleaned twice per year. I’d like to play a part in creating a world where everyone knows the importance of getting their eyes checked every year — not just when they have a problem, but to prevent future health and eye health problems.”

I am like most people, so my first thought is I’d love to have lunch with my little dog Coco and find out what she’s really thinking about all day! But this is a very good question. I think if I had to choose, I would want to spend some time with Queen Elizabeth II. She has been through so much change over the time of her reign and has survived through it all. If you’d like to tag someone with this interview, I would enjoy time with Howard Schultz too. His leadership in adapting the Starbucks brand for the future fascinates me. He didn’t keep doing the same thing, and he recognized that to continue to thrive, the brand needed to keep evolving.

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

Female Founders: Sue Downes of MyEyeDr 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: Briana Severine of Sanare Psychosocial Rehabilitation On The Five Lifestyle…

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

@brianaseverine

www.sanare-colorado.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Female Founders: Evie Jeang of Ideal Legal Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed…

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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