Category: Featured

Women In Wellness: Rose Cheung & Genevieve Wong of Healing Herbal Soups on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be persistent in what you want to do. Do not give up easily. Even in my diabetes study, we see how persistence pays off. The patients who bought my formula never got cured because they would try the formula for one or two months and then they would give up. They always seemed to have other options distracting them. On the other hand, we had patients who were quite poor. The ones who got cured were the mostly indigent patients who received the supplements for free. They didn’t have anything else to distract them since they did not have extra cash to spend, so they were persistent in getting themselves well.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rose Cheung and Genevieve Wong.

Rose Cheung and Genevieve Wong are the authors behind the Simon & Schuster bestseller “Healing Herbal Soups: Boost Your Immunity and Weather the Seasons with Traditional Chinese Recipes.” Outside of teaching people about Traditional Chinese Medicine, the mother-daughter duo resides in Los Angeles, where Genevieve produces television and Rose runs various enterprises in real estate and solar energy.

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?

Rose: I have been involved in setting up new businesses over the years with a background as a CPA since I was 21. I developed a passion for Chinese herbs and healing when my late mother got cancer in the late eighties. I was trying my best to prolong her life and through this journey, I discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine’s effectiveness, as well as how to use food as an important healing supplement. Instead of three years as predicted by my mother’s oncologist, my mother lived 13 years from the time of her cancer diagnosis.

Genevieve: My main profession is that I am a TV producer, writer and documentarian. When I graduated from film school, my goal was to be a late night comedy or a sitcom writer. Unfortunately I didn’t make much headway, mostly due to the fact that my manager retired and I didn’t know many people in the business. I didn’t have a mentor nor did I have any sort of guidance as to how to make a career. As a result, I ended up making money as a broadcast journalist. I transitioned to being a producer in my twenties and I have been one ever since. In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, I had a lot of time on my hands so I decided to write a cookbook with my mom, “Healing Herbal Soups.” It got picked up by an imprint at Simon & Schuster and I have been promoting that with my mom for the last year.

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?

Rose: Before I wrote the book, I started seven new businesses and got involved with three charitable organizations. Two of the for profit businesses and all of my charitable endeavors failed. Through the failures, I learned that just passion and hard work alone is not sufficient to achieve your goals. My most interesting encounter was with a client who showed no interest in working with me until he mentioned his mother was very sick and he was extremely worried. I offered to set him up with a renowned TCM doctor. The client ended up inviting me and my whole family to dinner. That strikes me to date that the most precious thing in life is health, not only your own health, but the health of your most immediate loved ones, above any material possessions.

Genevieve: I think one of the most interesting things about my life is that I became a network producer at just 25 years old. Looking back, it was a really abnormal time to be in charge of so much. The problem with having success at such a young age is that you don’t have the maturity or life experience to deal with the curveballs that are thrown your way. Had I just waited a few more years, I would have been able to have the foresight to do more long-term planning, in both my work and personal life.

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?

Rose: The biggest mistake I made all these years is a project that involves mining and excavation in the Pacific Islands. It turned out to be a complete disaster not only financially but everyone on the team got quite sick at various times. I started to see in that moment that no good comes out of destroying nature. I realize that we have to respect Mother Earth and the great natural environment that is provided to us. We should appreciate and cherish what the Universe has given us and not destroy it for profit.

Genevieve: This is going to sound outdated but I think the biggest mistake I made was that I always spoke my mind. That ended up being very polarizing because when you work in a corporate environment, there are office politics and feelings involved. I wish I had just listened and reflected more. I am a different person now, obviously.

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?

Rose: My life’s motivation is comprised of two main goals. One is to make enough to support my family. The other is to support my passion for bringing health to the world through awareness of alternative medicine. Even if my contribution is small or not so financially successful, I firmly believe the opportunity in making a difference in someone’s life is the most rewarding experience. An example of this is occurred when I wanted to make an herbal formula for the treatment of diabetes Type 2. I championed a study in Hong Kong with the Macau University of Science and Technology back in 2012. The results of the clinical trial showed substantial improvement over time. However, we never succeeded in marketing it to private patients as we were inexperienced and had limited resources in Asia. Nevertheless, we provided and continue to provide free supplements to indigent seniors through a charitable organization. It is through them that we see how remarkable the results can be. We helped one patient‘s open wound heal so he could be discharged from hospital. We also helped an 80 year-old woman — whom for 8 years is still taking the supplement — to control her diabetes and her night urination which decreased as a good side effect of the formula. These stories are sufficient motivation for me and our study to continue our work.

Genevieve: I came down with asthma when I was 13. Finally when I was 23, I decided to do something about it. I found a fantastic Chinese herbalist and really devoted myself to following a holistic lifestyle. Now at 41, I don’t have asthma anymore. Television aside, I really feel it is my mission in life to encourage people to make healthy changes and to learn more about the powers of Traditional Chinese Medicine. That’s part of the reason why I co-wrote the cookbook. We need to rely on ourselves and the personal health choices we make. Nature has everything to heal us.

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

1. Be persistent in what you want to do. Do not give up easily. Even in my diabetes study, we see how persistence pays off. The patients who bought my formula never got cured because they would try the formula for one or two months and then they would give up. They always seemed to have other options distracting them. On the other hand, we had patients who were quite poor. The ones who got cured were the mostly indigent patients who received the supplements for free. They didn’t have anything else to distract them since they did not have extra cash to spend, so they were persistent in getting themselves well.
2. Have a critical mind. Don’t just listen to what people say or follow the crowd. Just because your friends are taking a trendy supplement, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for you. Be analytical. Study the seller’s motives and really think about what they gain before you form your own opinion. Do not be swayed by advertisements.
3. Expand your horizon beyond what you normally do. Try new food and experiences. The herbs and vegetables we introduce in the book have great long term medicinal effects. It may seem foreign to you in the beginning but you will grow to like it. TCM may have a different concept than Western medicine. But do some research and you will see that some illnesses that Western medicine cannot seem to cure has a remedy within the TCM world.
4. Stay positive and be happy. Don’t just compare your situation to others and think it should be better. Think of how it can be worse and you will feel grateful what you already have and be appreciative.
5. Teach yourself The Six Healing Sounds of Qigong. It’s a breathing technique that helps rid your body of disease-causing qi. Essentially you say six different tones every day to keep your heart, liver, spleen, lung and kidney healthy. When we are not feeling well, we will notice that we have problems singing one of the tones.

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

Everyone has a story to tell and everyone has wisdom to share. Write a book especially during unusual times like a pandemic when people are worried about their health. That is exactly what we did. Start promoting your book to spread your ideas — for us the real intention is to spread the word about using herbs and food as medicine.

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

1. Build up your network with helpful friends and colleagues who have connections and different skills.
2. Good planning is the most important thing to do before implementation.
3. Find the right teammates who are dedicated, and share the same goals and ethics that you have.
4. Make friends with people who understand the importance of networking and the need to help each other. It is a waste to continue a relationship with someone if they don’t believe in giving and taking.
5. Prepare for the worst case scenarios and think of solutions ahead of time. Have backup options.

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

Rose: Sustainability is the most important because it encompasses the environment, the economy and society. Everything on earth should be sustainable or it will only cause disaster, chaos and instability to human civilization. Sustainability is the only way to keep our world going.

Genevieve: The environment is becoming increasingly polluted. That is why it is important to detox on top of trying to heal and nurture.

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

Through our website’s blog or Instagram.

Readers can find us at www.healingherbalsoups.com. We post free recipes, health tips, videos and have an online store where people can buy ingredients for our soups and teas. We are @herbalsoups on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Rose Cheung & Genevieve Wong of Healing Herbal Soups 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.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

One hundred percent. Everything — work conversations, plans for a family, plans for a brand expansion, plans for deciphering between the couple that runs a company and the couple that runs a household and a relationship — all of it begins and ends with trust.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Justin and Taylor Norris, the millennial husband-wife duo who, together, founded LIT Method, a wellness and tech company known for its innovative, high-intensity, Low Impact Training (LIT™). Recently, they announced the launch of LIT Method’s franchise opportunity that is set to reimagine the future of fitness franchising with a first of its kind hybrid digital and physical experience. LIT Method provides a sustainable workout alternative built on the promise of “no running, no jumping, no weights.” After becoming a household name for “building bodies, not breaking them,” the emerging franchise brand is now projecting explosive growth with a development goal of 100 signed units within 12 months.

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

TN: Oddly we met on the first day Justin was in LA. We met at a small, boutique gym. It feels a little cliche thinking back on it now, but we were two personal trainers at a gym and we first met there.

JN: I certainly didn’t think I’d meet my wife on my first day in a new city, but that’s exactly what happened. We began working out together and then literally began working together.

TN: We trained a great deal of clients with injuries and Justin had already had a life-threatening injury with his main artery. He was in physical therapy and he had really rehabbed himself back from a dark place. So, we started looking at what kinds of exercises were most resonating with people in the physical therapy space. The low impact workouts like rowing and resistance band strengthening were really something people gravitated towards.

JN: This is so true because it was — and still is — that allure of the low impact ideology. That this exercise will not hurt you, will not put you in harm’s way. It will allow you to get stronger without setbacks.

TN: So together we started tying resistance bands to rowers and looking at a more integrated approach to creating a much more versatile and attractive method. Not only for injured people, but certainly for people who were looking to have long lasting, effective exercises where repeat injuries were less likely.

JN: We turned our home into this prototyping space. It really became the early blueprint of all of this — just the two of us attaching different levels of resistance to a water rower we bought.

TN: It’s not a very glamorous story about the early days of our career path, but it’s very true to the realities of product design. That’s what I studied in school and at Parsons, so much of the trial-and-error part was really where the most creative juices were flowing.

JN: And my background was in physical therapy and personal training, so we married that form and function between us. I mean, we literally got married as well, but that’s a whole other story.

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

TN: You know, it’s interesting, because so much of our personal life is wrapped up in our work day, right? We have probably only spent a few days apart from each other in the entire decade we’ve known each other. So, we’ve got the stories that fall under our marriage-marriage, and then of course a lot of interesting landmark moments from our work-marriage.

JN: On the personal side, it’s not so much something that happened to us but to someone we love and it deeply impacted us. Taylor’s grandmother turned 100 last year and I think because so much of the last two to three years has been about loss and grief, and about emotional and physical challenges that some of us thought we’d never see in our lifetime, that seeing her reach that age was pretty remarkable.

TN: Yeah, interesting maybe isn’t the word — but inspiring certainly is. I think that’s a pretty big deal to reach that age and to really have lived a fulfilling life. It’s something that we think about a lot in our marriage, about being there for each other for the long haul, and about what we can do to make this life the most interesting, the most inspiring it can possibly be. So yeah, I’d certainly agree with that.

JN: And with work, well it’s perhaps the answer you are expecting. But when you create a product like we have with the LIT Strength Machine, and you hope for the opportunity to meet extraordinary people and organizations who just ‘get it’ about what you’re trying to do, you don’t automatically assume that one day you’re going to hear from Jay-Z.

TN: Or Adrian Gonzalez. These are two of the most interesting people out there. Two cultural contributors in different fields but certainly committed to personal betterment.

JN: It was very humbling. So again, interesting is one word — but it was so much more than that to learn that these guys believed in us enough to put money behind the mission.

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?

JN: I can tell you right now, without hesitation, that this was early on in our first studio in 2016. We were doing construction and we were so hyped about this small little space we had to get started. But when I say small, I mean small.

TN: Like the bathroom was inside the studio itself small.

JN: Exactly. So during the construction period, a pipe burst and flooded the entire studio right before we were opening our doors. It was a mess.

TN: It was funny because it was so bad that you had to laugh at the luck and the timing. I don’t think it was funny for the dance studio beneath us who also were a bit underwater because of the burst in the building. But I think the lesson was pretty simple: Expect challenges. And more than that, expect untimely challenges.

JN: Because they will happen. And they will happen often. And if you expect them, or anticipate them — you can navigate them with a lot less stress and a lot more levity.

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

JN: What has always made our company stand out is its promise to ‘build bodies, not break them.’ That’s really what it always comes back to.

TN: We started in small gyms and physical therapy spaces experimenting with this idea that strength training does not have to mean weight training. You should not have to fear fitness — and you should not have to spend a large portion of your workout wondering whether, in the long-term, it’s damaging your body.

JN: When I tore the artery in my arm, the loss of blood was unlike anything I’d ever seen. It was an accident and I was young, but I was an athlete. I had big plans for baseball and football — and the most common sentiment shared with me after this happened was all about what I couldn’t do. What wouldn’t be possible. What I would never be able to experience again with my arm. It was soul crushing. It took a big toll on my confidence and on my mental state. I’m not ashamed to say I was almost certainly depressed. So much of what I was looking forward to was now days spent in a physical therapy center and it all felt very grim. But I witnessed someone next to me — an electrician who had had an on-the-job injury that made it so he wasn’t going to be able to use his hands again. I watched this guy because our sessions were always at the same time — and over months and months, we became friendly and he became a big source of motivation for me and for this idea that there are safe, sustainable ways for coming back.

TN: And it was that sentiment right there that really guided us with LIT. Everything feels approachable and safe — and we want people who are all over the demographic spectrum in terms of physical fitness experience to be able to access this method and this low impact lifestyle and say, “This is something I can do often and it’s something I can empower myself with.”

JN: Tay’s right because with weight training or other high impact exercises, it can feel really great, right? You can get that endorphin high and you can feel stronger than you’ve ever felt before. But there’s a ticking clock with that. You’re tearing muscles. You’re putting unnecessary stress on your joints. You’re doing the most and the worst at the same time. And so, you get a few months or a few years, whatever it is, and then you get injured, go to rehab, and return right to it.

TN: That’s not what this is. This is a sustainable way of working out where you can know while you are doing these exercises to build your body up, you aren’t simultaneously creating this cycle of violence and repair.

JN: And for me, that is just so personal. Because I know what that cycle was on the football and baseball field, and then when I had this accident with my arm, that was putting me out of commission, it really got me thinking, “How many times can we ask people to beat themselves up and build themselves back up — and never offer an alternative?”

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

TN: Our franchise expansion is our big news as of late. We’ve had this dream for some time of creating a first of its kind hybrid digital and physical subscription model. We want entrepreneurs to be able to break that fourth wall of only having a brick-and-mortar space and subsequently a revenue cap. And our franchise opportunity gives these entrepreneurs a chance to provide Low Impact Training, to access proprietary technology that offers sustainable health and wellness, and that really helps people run a business in what we now know is an ever-evolving landscape.

JN: Exactly. We’re moving into this next phase of the pandemic — and hopefully into the late stage and we want people to have a model that is malleable. The world is changing and the fitness franchising space has to evolve with that. I think our model provides one thing that others don’t — versatility.

TN: We have super members who do digital workouts on the on-demand platform three times a week and then on the weekends they come into the studio and take classes. We have people who use the machine and people who use the accessories — and people who use both. We have pilates enthusiasts and former weightlifters who have transitioned to resistance band strength training. There are people who love rowing, who love cardio and ab workouts. We are literally offering more than 500+ exercises for every type of person.

JN: It’s pretty incredible to think that, for example, there are couples out there like us, who have one person who loves the lengthening and toning. Tay loves that. And then I love the strength bar and the 100lbs of resistance you can create with the machine. We’re both using the same machine, in the same house, or in the same studio, and we are both meeting all our goals. And believe me, they’re very different goals.

TN: So that’s incredibly helpful for people. From an economic perspective. From the perspective of not wanting to be bored or uninspired. From the perspective that repetition can lead to overuse injuries — so variety and versatility prevent injury. It’s a model that is really, as Justin said, malleable — for both the client and the franchisee. For everybody in what we refer to as our Boltcult community!

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

JN: We always say it’s a three-part approach. First, you always have to have that sense of urgency, that sense of purpose when you get up in the morning. So that’s the drive. You have to know why you’re doing this, what you’re trying to build, and who you’re trying to help. Second, it’s about determination. This is especially true for a startup. You are one hundred percent going to doubt yourself — but regardless, you have to find the path forward. And the reason you have to do that is to fulfill your vision. That’s the third part. For us, our vision isn’t just to become the best in the fitness category. It’s to create a first of its kind, integrated approach to wellness and tech — to create a whole new category that doesn’t even exist yet.

TN: That’s so true. And you have to lay that approach out really quickly because it’s not like you can have one of the three pieces. They all work — and they only work — if you do them together.

How do you define “Leadership”?

JN: Well, this builds off that last point about vision. The best leadership is picking the right team. It’s having the ability to have your team members really see that vision and believe in it. That’s how you motivate people and that’s how you then empower their leadership. So, for us, defining leadership means having the ability to influence in a meaningful way the organization — and ensuring they really maintain that motivation.

TN: Absolutely. Everybody can be excited at the beginning of a job or the formation of an idea — but leadership is maintaining that motivation, and particularly that motivation as it pertains to fulfilling the long-term vision of the company.

JN: The bottom line is that if you are motivated, you are finding meaning in what you do. We want this company to provide meaning and to be a legacy brand that improves people’s lives. So, for us, the leadership piece is about fueling that pipeline day in and day out. It’s about making sure we not only surround ourselves with people who believe in the mission but who also challenge us.

TN: And it’s about our own accountability in this whole process. About making sure we do our part in engaging and igniting that collaborative fire in them, too.

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?

JT: This is a tough one. Because there have been a lot of people who have inspired us from a distance and then there have been the people directly in our lives who have made great personal investments in us. Taylor’s father has been a big influence on our knowledge of business. We created this brand and this company ourselves — maxed out our credit cards, got down in the mud, and built it from the bottom up. But he gave us a lot of very valuable insight from his own experiences in business.

TN: He did — and I think it’s also true that we probably don’t say enough how much impact our teachers — like some of my professors at Parsons — had on how we work today. I’m very proud of our brand identity and its bold presence in the fitness space, and a lot of my confidence around those design decisions comes from what I learned in school. That kind of help has shown up in exactly what we put out in the world and these are the people who definitely helped shape my — and now our — understanding of the fusion of creativity and business for a successful outcome.

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

JN: Oh, wow, well we always say in our classes that we are just trying to be a small part of making your day better — or your life better. And it’s true.

TN: And I think it’s hard because you certainly don’t want to be out there bragging about something you believed to be a bit more altruistic in intention — but yeah, I believe that when we tell people we are empowering a generation of people to build their bodies, not break them, we’re saying that we want to help you do what you love for as long as possible. We want you to be as healthy for as long as possible.

JN: I hope that commitment to longevity — and to making this accessible to as many people as possible is inherently good. If what you bring to the table doesn’t start with being good — with truly being good for others — then what’s the point?

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

TN: We don’t have five. That might sound dismissive, but we have one. And everything else, of which I’m sure there are more than five, ladders back to it.

JN: I know what she’s going to say.

TN: Of course you do.

JN + TN: Trust.

TN: One hundred percent. Everything — work conversations, plans for a family, plans for a brand expansion, plans for deciphering between the couple that runs a company and the couple that runs a household and a relationship — all of it begins and ends with trust.

JN: Full stop.

TN: And a story? I mean, there isn’t one in particular, but only because there are so many. I would say that there is no other human being that I would have trusted to create my ecosystem with. And what I mean when I say that is that when you are married and you also run a business together — whether it’s a small business or a growing franchise like ours — you are creating an ecosystem, a culture on the corporate and home front, a set of values, etc. There is just no one out there who I trust more to not only keep that intact, but to ensure it all thrives.

JN: I feel the same way. On every level — she’s the first and last step of talking through something. She’s the first and last step on the conscience of things. And all of that ladders back to the fact that I’m all in. I trust her implicitly and without reservation.

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

TN: This is it.

JN: We’re doing it.

TN: We said we wanted to empower a generation of people to build their bodies, not break them.

JN: And we’ve created a machine — an all-in-one rower, reformer, and strength trainer — that does just that.

TN: And now we have a business model that empowers people to not only further that mission but make a living themselves off of a movement that is wholeheartedly committed to bringing the most amount of good — in this case the most amount of safety, of injury prevention, of motivation, of education, of inspiration, of all of it — to as many people as possible.

JN: She’s right. It’s not if we ‘could.’ We’re living our dream of doing that and we’re trying to grow that movement more every day.

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

TN: Can we have two since there are two of us? I’m going to assume we can. I think mine has to be one from several years ago from President Obama. It’s great: “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.” I like it because I’ve always said to myself and to Justin that everything we do has to be for a larger, lasting contribution. Not to oversimplify it, but what I mean when I say that is something that actually outlives us — outmatches any name or identity he and I could ever has as individuals or founders, and that is so deeply embedded in the way people are able to have a better quality of life that it is just a staple, or an amenity that has evolved into an expectation. Because that’s how much the work, the product, the brand has come to mean in a person’s everyday existence. And yeah, I’d like to think that ties back to what you just asked about ‘goodness’…and about a movement for good. Because all of this is intertwined — teamwork, community in our franchising, community in our company, a sense of togetherness around something that is literally bigger than any single one of us.

JN: I’m of course very partial to that as well. We’ve talked about the collective good a brand — and specifically LIT — can do in the long-term and that quote is always at the back of our minds. And I would add in a Kobe Bryant quote: “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will do it for you.” I mean, I felt that in my bones when I first heard it. I was homeless at 16. I worked a lot of jobs to get to where I am today and to not only build this company with my wife, but to build this life — for us, and now hopefully for a lot of entrepreneurs out there. It’s not to say I never had anyone believe in me. I did. First and foremost, the woman sitting next to me. But it is to say that that deeply ingrained sense of worth that really permeates through everything else you put out there has got to start within.

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

TN: Oprah.

JN: Oprah.

TN: It might sound predictable for us to say that, but I don’t care. She’s not only a tastemaker, but she’s got the whole package when it comes to considering brands, considering aesthetics, and considering societal impact. The conversation would literally have no limits because in my mind, she’s become this multifaceted empire all her own. Her voice touches all fields.

JN: Definitely Oprah. Are you kidding me? She’s a business woman. She’s an empire. She’s an activist. She’s a motivator. She checks all the boxes of a person who is out there doing the most amount of good possible — and she’s built a successful career, and critically, a life out of it.

How can our readers follow your work online?

TN: We share an Instagram handle @justinntaylor and of course LIT is @litmethod on Instagram.

JN: And check out our site litmethod.com for information about the workout, about the machine, franchising, and all of our new product announcements and initiatives.

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

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Justin & Taylor Norris of LIT Method was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Dora Palfi of imagiLabs On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.” These words are taken from Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead, but I learned this lesson first hand. Sometimes, you don’t go through the effort of setting clear expectations and of holding people accountable according to them. Sometimes it’s actually out of niceness (you think you are being kind and understanding at the moment), but sometimes it’s more from laziness, because it is hard. But the only way to set teams up for success and give the opportunity for fulfilling goals is by actually setting and measuring against goals.

As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dora Palfi.

Dora Palfi is the co-founder & CEO of imagiLabs where she works to empower girls with the skills, confidence, and community to create with technology. Dora has a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience with a minor in Computer Science from New York University Abu Dhabi and studied Human Computer Interaction at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm, as part of the European Union’s EIT Digital Master School. In addition to her work to bring technology closer to girls, Dora is also a yoga instructor, bringing mindfulness closer to engineers.

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

I was an aspiring neuroscientist studying at New York University in Abu Dhabi when I first got exposed to programming. I was amazed by the possibilities and mostly with the process of creating something that worked, and could make other people’s lives better! I remember attending my first hackathon where together, with a team of other students we created a prototype of a health monitoring device just over a short weekend. I decided then that I wanted to know more about technology and take more programming classes.

After graduating I worked shortly as a developer, but throughout the years of studying and working something really stood out for me: I was often the only, or one of the very few women in the room.

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

A highlight in the early days was being selected for the Apple Entrepreneur Camp and spending two weeks at the Cupertino HQ redesigning our app with advice from engineers at Apple! And of course, seeing Tim Cook tweet about us. It has also been interesting to have the chance to speak at various events including at the European Parliament about the importance of gender diversity in tech and to pitch my company on both the Hungarian and Swedish version of Shark Tank!

But the stories that make me personally the happiest are the ones related to our community and users: some of the girls who were part of giving feedback and designing the initial versions of the imagi App with our team have now grown older and had internships at imagiLabs as well as went on to study Computer Science at university.

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?

We have a hardware product which means that in the beginning we needed to prototype, 3D print, truly get our hands dirty with work!

In the earliest days we got our first customer who asked us to create 30 prototypes of our product for an event. At the time it was a stressful mistake (but looking back it’s somewhat funny,) we thought some of our hardware components were faulty and we had to order new one’s last minute, forcing my co-founder to even pull an all-nighter to finish the prototypes before the big day of delivering to our customer. Afterwards it turned out the original components weren’t faulty, we just didn’t test it correctly. We definitely learned not to panic and make sure to think twice before jumping to conclusions.

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

We are an unconventional founding team to say the least. The three of us founders are originally from Central Europe (Romania and Hungary), met while studying at NYU Abu Dhabi — living together in both Abu Dhabi and New York and ended up starting a company in Sweden. When we met in college, the three of us bonded over the fact that we were one of the few women in our STEM programs.

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

We are constantly working to improve our offerings to make learning to code truly fun for kids, especially for girls. We are in fact working on version 2.0 of our concept, which we will be launching in 2022, but I cannot say much more about that for now!

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

Let’s start with a simple exercise in logic!

If: technology = future

And: women = technology

Then: women = future

I believe technology is our most powerful tool to shape the future, but today women make up less than 20% of the tech workforce in the EU. Hence, today we do not have an equal chance to contribute to shaping our future.

Up until the age of 11, girls today have a similar interest in technology as boys do, but during our teenage years the majority of girls drop this interest. In Sweden for example while at age 1, 86% of girls are interested in technology, at age 16 this drops down to only 36%. I started imagiLabs to break this trend and to create a solution that would equip and empower teenage girls to shape the future with technology.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?

We could probably fill an entire interview or even a book addressing this question, but let me give you 3 examples that I think are a large part of the problem.

At an early age girls are often discouraged or if not discouraged they are most of the time not actively encouraged to aspire to study / work in the STEM fields. As it is a very prevalent stereotype, for example boys are better at math than girls. Parents and teachers go out of their way to put in extra support, tutoring and encouragement when boys don’t perform well in the subject, while girls are often told it’s OK to not excel at it. We need to make sure to provide equal opportunities and encouragement for girls!

Second, the girls who do end up studying STEM at university end up in an environment where they are severely underrepresented. Hopefully with all the efforts of encouraging young girls to aspire to become STEMinists, the numbers will steadily increase in the coming years. And while the numbers might take years to really start showing a significant increase in the gender ratio in the industry, there are already incredibly successful women and women leaders in the industry. Highlighting their examples as role models has the potential to accelerate change.

Third, women leave the Tech industry at a higher rate than men do. (More than 40% of women leave tech companies after ten years compared to 17% of men, according to — a topic discussed in detail in Caroline Criado Perez’s book, Invisible Women). Companies that decisively support female employees to reach leadership positions, and who put in place systems for identifying and promoting high-potential individuals, regardless of their gender are able to reverse this trend.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?

Specifically speaking of Technology in this case, I believe it’s still a common misconception that coding and tech is mostly for introverts and it just requires one to sit in front of their computer all day.

Being aware of the way computers are overtaking our everyday’s I like to think of it differently. We value communication skills in colleagues — the better you can communicate with other humans the more likely you are to succeed at your job. Let’s use this analogy of why we need technological fluency and coding. In almost any field of work in the future you will be working with computers — hence if you want to be a good communicator you need to be fluent at computers.

What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

– Your measure of productivity isn’t how much you personally are able to do, but how much your entire team can achieve.

– “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.” These words are taken from Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead, but I learned this lesson first hand. Sometimes, you don’t go through the effort of setting clear expectations and of holding people accountable according to them. Sometimes it’s actually out of niceness (you think you are being kind and understanding at the moment), but sometimes it’s more from laziness, because it is hard. But the only way to set teams up for success and give the opportunity for fulfilling goals is by actually setting and measuring against goals.

– Stay true to you — so often the advice I hear is about how women could be more like men if they wanted to be successful. I think that is a dangerous narrative, and we need to be able to instead highlight leadership styles on a wide range of the diversity spectrum. Of course, feedback is a gift and you have to listen carefully but you also do not have to implement and take action on all feedback concerning your leadership style. You can choose it for yourself.

– Show up (most of the time). As a leader you have to walk the talk and you have to be present, even (or especially) when things get tough. However, I don’t believe that leaders have to be 100% bulletproof. It’s also OK to sometimes have a day when you just cannot show up. There, you are actually also leading by example and setting the tone that no one is expected to be perfect at their job.

– And this links to the final one — self-awareness and self-love. You really only can remain consistent at delivering your A game for a long time if you also take time for reflection, evaluation, feedback. Managing your mental hygiene is in fact one of your most important jobs.

What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?

One of the most important concepts I have learned from mentors / coaches leading large teams was the idea of situational leadership. While it is extremely important for one to have their own, authentic leadership style, being able to adapt this natural leadership style to specific situations is just as important. Let me give you an example — it might be that your style is letting people have maximum freedom and ownership, however if someone on your team specifically asks for help and feels daunted by the freedom of choice, you must adapt and use a closer management style, at least temporarily.

Just like I said in the previous answer — your measurement of success isn’t what you personally can achieve, but what the team as a whole can. Don’t just think in individual contributions, but also in terms of team dynamics and allowing team mates to utilize each others’ strengths.

What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

Our team isn’t that large yet, however whenever I think of managing teams I actively remind myself how every team mate has different needs! I think it’s very important to have a good structure, a clear vision for the whole team, but also to recognize the differences among the members. In practical sense this relates closely to the previous answer, this means that you have to show up as a different kind of manager depending on the context — an action might be considered as micro management from one person and truly valuable for someone else.

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?

In my journey with imagiLabs it has all been about the team. Without my co-founders and the rest of our team it wouldn’t have been possible to get to where we are.

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

In a recent panel discussion, the moderator asked me “You are in the business of doing good — was it clear from the beginning that you wanted to build companies with a focus on impact? Isn’t it better to do as some of the most successful entrepreneurs do (e.g., Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates) — build a company, get filthy rich and then be able to make a BIG difference?“ The truth is I started my company from the aspiration to do good at scale and not for financial returns. Hence, when we succeed, we are on track to be able to do even more good in the world.

You are a person of enormous 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. 🙂

I actually am working every single day for the movement I believe I could bring the most good to the world with. By equipping and empowering girls to create with tech, I aim to contribute to a diverse generation of innovators and entrepreneurs who will solve the most pressing problems of our tomorrow.

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

“The biggest risk of all is not taking one” — Mellody Hobson

Some might think that starting your own company at 24 instead of getting a corporate job was risky. To me it would have been way bigger risk for regret later in my life if I had not gone after my dreams.

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

I couldn’t pick just one — my top three would be Melinda Gates, Brene Brown and Jacqueline Novogratz. They happen to be the authors of some of my favorite reads from the past years. Melinda Gates’ Moment of Lift has given me so much motivation on why empowering girls is the most impactful work I could be doing, Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead has given me the courage to keep walking on the entrepreneurial path and remain open and vulnerable despite challenges and failures. And finally, Jacquelin Novogratz’s Manifesto for a moral revolution has boosted my perseverance and given me immense inspiration through the stories of change makers who are truly walking the talk of impact entrepreneurship.

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

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Dora Palfi of imagiLabs On The 5 Leadership Lessons She… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be intentional with decor. Display pieces that reflect your personality and interests. I’ve found that it reminds me to make time for hobbies when I can visually see them. It’s also a fun conversation starter when you entertain. Coffee table books and decor objects are two of my favorite ways to incorporate them.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Zara Khan. (www.zarakhan.design).

With a background in engineering, interior design is where Zara’s technical mind and creative intuition come together seamlessly. Zara has fully embraced her passion for all aspects of the design process. From construction to decor, Zara is driven by her desire to make sure every detail of the project is completed to perfection.

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

I honestly never considered interior design as a potential career path. My undergrad was in biomedical engineering and it was clear that I was not passionate about the field even though it was the fastest growing industry at the time.

I was venting to a friend about how scared I felt at the idea of spending the rest of my career doing something I didn’t enjoy. She revealed that she always thought I would be a natural at interior design. She reminded me that every year we moved in college I took the lead on how the apartment should look (even suggesting how others should decorate their rooms). Once she planted the seed, I started researching interior design and the more I learned the more I realized it might be the perfect fit!

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

When I decided to pursue interior design, it never occurred to me just how personal it could be. I chose biomedical engineering because I wanted to help people and the more I interacted with clients I realized that interior design is helping people, just in a different way.

Being inside someone’s home, learning about how they live their life and getting to know their family is so intimate and necessary in order to design a space that meets their specific needs. I think the hardest part for me is completing a project because you don’t see the clients as often, but I am so grateful that they transition into being friends.

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

I was designing a little girl’s room and had tunnel vision for finding a very specific nightstand style at a specific price point. After searching for what seemed like forever I found one that fit the criteria. When it arrived the box was small, really small…it was for a dollhouse! I check the dimensions on EVERYTHING now.

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

I primarily work on residential projects and there is such a range of spaces within that category. I have found that I gravitate towards wine cellars. I enjoy talking to clients about the importance of a conditioned space, organizational preferences and how to make the space cohesive with the rest of their home.

I recently completed my first commercial project- a wine tasting room for Emercy Wines in Paso Robles, CA. I am going to start working on a boutique hotel soon in Morro Bay, CA, which I am really excited about!

Commercial spaces really push you to think about how to create a space that can be used by people with different needs and still provide a memorable experience for everyone. I am so fortunate to live in a place where most people vacation, and the goal is always to provide a unique space where they can relax and make memories.

Most of my friends and family aren’t able to see and experience my work so it has been neat to have a space to take them to visit and enjoy ourselves too.

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

“Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.” — Margaret Walker.

Relationships are the most important thing to me, but it is also so easy not to make time for them when life gets busy. I am convinced most of the opportunities and experiences I have had can be traced back to surrounding myself with great people.

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?

When I was still in the research phase of what interior design even entailed, I emailed a few designers in my area and took them to coffee to ask them more about day to day work. One of the designers I met with, Erica Gomez, offered me a part time job a few days after and I worked with her for a little over a year. I am still so grateful that she took the chance on me, invested the time into teaching me and for all the experience I gained working with her.

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

1. Have a home for everything. I believe a neat space helps us relax and we are more likely to put things away if there is a designated spot for it.
2. Always have a candle on hand. Enjoying a space isn’t just about what we see, but how we feel. You can influence the type of experience you want to have just by the scent you choose!
3. Be intentional with decor. Display pieces that reflect your personality and interests. I’ve found that it reminds me to make time for hobbies when I can visually see them. It’s also a fun conversation starter when you entertain. Coffee table books and decor objects are two of my favorite ways to incorporate them.
4. Add greenery. I can’t be trusted to keep plants alive, but I have found that a unique vase filled with eucalyptus branches has the same effect and can last a couple months before they need to be replaced (with zero care in between!).
5. Less is more. I love a perfectly styled bookshelf or coffee table, but make sure you’re taking scale and balance into consideration, otherwise you can end up with a cluttered, over-styled look.

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

I would require that everyone study abroad in high school or college- I wish I had done it myself!

I believe that if more people were given the opportunity to live somewhere completely different, have experiences they otherwise wouldn’t and understand how others live, we would all live in a much more tolerant, accepting and accessible world.

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

Bethenny Frankel- I really admire all that she has been able to accomplish in business and philanthropy while being transparent and completely herself. We seem to have similar personalities and I think she would be able to understand and offer guidance in a way that would resonate with me. I also just love her style!

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Instagram/Facebook: @zaraseharkhan

Website: www.zarakhan.design

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

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

Women In Wellness: Dr Ann-Marie Wong of Medverde On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Pick up a book instead of your phone at the end of the day. Reading soothes the soul and calms the body. People that tend to read before bed get a better nights rest. Do this as opposed to scrolling through your phone which causes overstimulation and decreases sleep efficiency.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Ann-Marie Wong, MD.

Ann-Marie Wong, M.D. is Medverde’s medical marijuana doctor specializing in pediatric medical marijuana. Dr. Wong is a native to Miami, Florida. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then finished medical school at the University of Miami. Dr. Wong completed her internship and residency at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Dr. Wong moved to Beijing in 2000, to work at the Beijing United Family Hospital for several years, then back to New York City to work at the Charles B. Wang Community Health Center in Chinatown. After living in Amsterdam for a few years, she moved back to Miami, to work at Pediatric Associates for the past 9 years.

Dr. Wong is now Miami and Medverde’s #1 medical marijuana doctor at Medverde’s medical marijuana clinic. She accepts all patients and specializes in pediatric medical marijuana.

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

I’ve been a practicing pediatrician for 24 years now. But when Florida was legalized for medical marijuana at the end of 2016, I was approached by some other physicians to start a medical cannabis practice. Our collaboration did not pan out, but it led me to explore medical cannabis and spend time with doctors in Oregon and Michigan, which was fascinating. I was especially excited about the possibilities of treating children with CBD and cannabis and in seeing positive results with childhood conditions.

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

The most interesting part of my journey, which may seem contradictory to my specialty as a pediatrician, was getting the opportunity to also see adults and older patients. Medical cannabis may treat and help diverse conditions from anxiety and sleep issues to chronic pain and digestive issues. I find adults and senior patients may have multiple conditions improved using cannabis and have been able to wean or stop some of their other medications. Coming from a Western medicine background, then starting to use medical marijuana has been an eye-opener into alternative treatments. Also, watching and following patients whose quality of life is significantly improved from natural medicine has been gratifying.

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?

Biggest mistake when I was first starting is not asking more help and guidance from those who are more knowledgeable about business. As a health care provider, our focus has just been taking care of patients. Making the jump to start my own clinic, I was mainly concerned about patient care. One thing I would have changed is getting more business advice.

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?

Working at the clinic I am able to open up a world of possibilities for so many patients that have been suffering for far too long. Whether they have a condition that can be cured or healed through Cannabinoids, or have been taking prescription drugs that have had harmful side effects. Medical marijuana has become a fantastic alternative for many patients that want more options than pharmaceuticals. The medical community has witnessed the positive effect this plant based treatment has had on patients. Both children and adults now have the possibility to return to a sense of normality after diagnosis. Today, it has been proven to help with a variety of symptoms including epilepsy, Cancer, Chronic Pain, MS, ADHD, Anxiety, Migraines, Arthritis and over 30 other common issues Americans are facing daily.

We still are trying to change the stage of medical marijuana. At times people need some convincing that his is not just a recreational drug, but a serious option for patient relief. I have patients thanking me all of the time for helping them get their lives back and live pain free or anxiety free. For the children that I treat, this job is even more rewarding because I am able to see them grow and flourish with this new treatment and live the lives they deserve.

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.

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.

– Pick up a book instead of your phone at the end of the day. Reading soothes the soul and calms the body. People that tend to read before bed get a better nights rest. Do this as opposed to scrolling through your phone which causes overstimulation and decreases sleep efficiency.

– Your body is sending you signals, listen up! Our culture is always seeking for the next quick fix. But often times you body is just telling you it needs more or less of something, instead of a pill to quiet it down or numb it. It’s quite simple really. Have a headache? Perhaps you need more water or your body is responding to something you ate. Stomach ache? Are you getting enough fiber? Or perhaps having a reaction to dairy. If we take time to listen to our bodies, we often find the secret to wellness.

– Meditate. Whether it’s 5 minutes or 20, take time each day to calm your mind and meditate. Our day to day lives are so hectic and we are connected more than not. That’s why it is more important than ever to take some moments to just sit in silence and recenter.

– Spend time with people you love. Pick up the phone, make a video call, grab a coffee together — just be sure to carve time out of your schedule for those most important to you. Try to remove all distractions and enjoy the moment.

– Move your body. Our bodies function best when we build motion into our daily lives. It promotes digestion, gets our organs working, boosts serotonin and can help you sleep better too!

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

If I could start a wellness movement to affect as many people as possible, I would promote the simple suggestion of “listening to your body.” It applies to many things, such as eating only until you feel full, and going to sleep when you’re tired. If certain foods, make you feel sluggish or bloated, then don’t eat those foods.

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

Five things I wish someone told me before I started:

1. Devote yourself whole-heartedly to your business. Don’t spread yourself thin by too many endeavors.

2. Put yourself out there, even if it is uncomfortable.

3. Get advice and help in areas you feel are your weakest.

4. Don’t get discouraged when business is a bit slow. It will pick up again!

5. Be kind to yourself and take some time for self-care.

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 one of the most important causes for me, since I see that need the most in my area of practice with CBD and medical cannabis. My patients often times share quite a bit with me, then leave and say it was like a therapy session. I find it particularly heartbreaking since I have some friends who have passed due to mental health issues. And, I also see how mental health not only affects the patient, but their family and friends.

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

Readers can visit my website at www.medverde.com, or follow me on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/medverdeinc or Instagram at www.instagram.com/medverde_inc/ @medverde_inc

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Dr Ann-Marie Wong of Medverde 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 Disruptors: Shelley Armato of MySmartPlans On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Life happens Struggle Optional! I realized every struggle I have been through could break me or motivate me more. By choosing to learn from my struggles, I have created a company that is changing the industry, a life that I am proud of and family relationships I treasure.

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

Shelley Armato is the founder and CEO of a state-of-the-art software application called MySmartPlans. The technology behind MySmartPlans creates accountability, transparency, and efficiency during the construction process for all projects. Shelley is the driving force behind Data Governance, which mitigates the risk associated with insufficient document oversight. Shelley also founded the Courage Coalition in 2011, which believes that if one person shares their courage, they can change the world.

Website — https://www.mysmartplans.com/

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?

Life has not been easy for me, I was born into a family that thought girls, were less than. However, that motivated me to build muscles that serve me today.

I believe we are always being set up for greatness! I do not have a normal, ideal career path. I was immersed in the idea of working for myself at a very young age, business was the only topic my family was able to discuss. At age 11, I was the point of contact for my parents’ businesses, Sundays were my busiest days. Church and then home to a yellow piece of paper. On the top were directions to our driveway dealership and information on my mother’s open house. I set up a “desk” at the kitchen table and excitedly answered the phone, every weekend assisting in selling all the cars, and my mom would have great results. I also became the family editor for their newspaper postings.

At the age of 25, my (ex) husband said, HE was smarter than me and left me with 3 children. At the hospital he told me to get a ride home. It was that moment that I decided my life would be a great movie and took action to make sure if someone was watching me on the big screen, they would be amazed. I was served the opportunity of a lifetime, the CEO of my own life.

16 years ago, my husband Dominick and I suffered firsthand, the construction industry. Dominick was a 45-year contractor, and he was wildly successful even in a world of corrupt projects. His company had to be shut down due to the contractors mishandling of important project data. Impacted, I rose from the ashes, and bootstrapped a construction technology company of 15 years. I am a problem solver, a DOER, I raise my hand everyday asking GOD to pick me to do his work, his hands, and feet, that has taught me that everything is possible!

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

I have stopped corruption in the construction industry, streamlined, and fast-tracked the process! MySmartPlans allows for transparency, fair bid, stopping long drawn-out litigation. We have challenged the norm in the industry to require higher expectations and better communication.

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 made so many mistakes, most were realizations that are not funny. First one was believing that everyone wanted to do better, I was alarmed at the amount of corruption, the amount of divorce, etc. Standing in the midst of chaos has opened my eyes.

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?

My mentors are TD Jakes, Jim Cymbala, Tony Robbins, just to name a few.

In 1995, I had a nervous breakdown, Tony Robbins had an infomercial, and I bought all this tapes and started down of road of possibility. He showed me the ability to soar like an Eagle. I learn from many people, but I am also amazed at the great length people go to be a victim of their circumstances.

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?

DISRUPTION IS A MUST! Disrupt your thoughts also. I have always been curious to possibilities, I have found that when I understand my thoughts lead to my actions, I am a master at transforming my thoughts!

FEAR has been a negative disruptor that causes positive outcomes. Fear has been my disruptor that made me face everything and rise. I recall sitting in the ICU with my third baby, my life was crazy. I had found YET another man to treat me like my family had taught me. I could not imagine how I could raise my children in this environment, how could I allow my children to believe that is what LOVE looked like? FEAR was real, False Evidence Appearing Real. I cried and cried until my tears dried, then it was just sorrow. That was that moment I decided to rise up. I would soar, I could raise my children alone, I could show them what is possible. I went on to transform my life, and today I am a disruptor in the construction industry, however it started with disrupting my own FEARS!

Sometimes we must follow the crowed to see where it will take us, but if we continue to follow the crowd…we will get where the crowd is going. I am a disruptor in the construction industry, and I often get push back. People don’t want to be held accountable for their mistakes; they would rather cover them up. Also, that has been almost an accepted norm in the construction industry. In creating transparency, we often make those, who don’t do what is right, upset. I have always been in the opinion of doing what is best for everyone, not just a few!

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

We are sure you aren’t done.

I have heard this said to me multiple times and it gives me so much motivation. I am always working on making an impact and I am not done. I won’t stop until there are systems in place to protect the project, bottom line, schedule, safety, lives of those working in construction.

How are you going to shake things up next?

I started with a reprographics (construction printing) company, and soon after launched the MySmartPlans software. We have added the human element to our software, which isn’t incorporated with any other third-party software in the industry! I love coming up with the next thing to shake the industry up and make it better.

Also, I have come to terms with the fact that I am not always liked and that is okay! Getting rid of the chaos and manipulation in the industry is my one goal, no matter whose feelings I might hurt. I am always working to save the livelihood of innocent people before they get taken advantage of by the industry.

My next venture is “TRASH.” Trash talk, trash dumps, how can we clean it up?

We have a mantra that plays inside their head. From a young age I was told I wasn’t good enough, wasn’t a boy, wasn’t worth anything and I decided that trash needed to go. I feed my mind with the positive thoughts and ideas that will motivate me daily instead of bringing me down.

Trash as in Dumps is the same problem, they build up, impact our world, water, pollution. The two go together.

Catching yourself trash talking is hard, our trash becomes our familiar friend, our go to. We can count on those thoughts showing up and impacting our lives. My life was one big dump, my father and brother were the holder of my dreams, what they said was “true”, what they meant for my harm has been turned to my majesty! Living a life on someone else’s terms will never lead to happiness. Choose your thoughts wisely!

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

Women are not unique in the idea of being a disrupter. Standing in the face of adversity is not always fun, however it is what has been us the greatest country in the world, the world of tall white men being right is the way of life, when you stand steadfast, the obstacle will not be so big.

I had to learn this at a young age, my family believed I was less than, less than male children. So, I believe that I have been in training all my life to stand up to the male dominated industry of construction, and say, there is a better way!

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

I read a lot of motivational and life changing books and that transfers into my own Podcast Rebuilding with Shelley Armato. Know that 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! Being inspirational can be something as small as deciding to put your grocery cart back. Showing kindness by letting the car merge on the highway in front of you and by saying Thank you!

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

Life happens Struggle Optional! I realized every struggle I have been through could break me or motivate me more. By choosing to learn from my struggles, I have created a company that is changing the industry, a life that I am proud of and family relationships I treasure.

How can our readers follow you online?

Linked-In — https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelleyarmato/

Rebuilding Construction Podcast YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQxozOBD1GklOpidyc-2_3A

Rebuilding Construction Podcast Spreaker — https://www.spreaker.com/show/rebuilding-construction-with-shelley

Website — https://www.mysmartplans.com/

Courage Coalition Website — http://www.thecouragecoalition.com/

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

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

Female Founders: Adi Wallach of CalmiGo On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Network, network, network — it takes a village, and your network is going to be there for you and open doors for you. When I arrived in the United States, I didn’t know anyone. I made a rule for myself to join at least one networking event every week. I learned so much from the people I met and am grateful for this opportunity.

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

Adi Wallach is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of CalmiGo, the first and only drug-free device proven to provide immediate relief for all levels of anxiety, stress, difficulty sleeping and more. Adi is a biomedical engineer who developed CalmiGo to help with her personal struggle with severe anxiety. Like many of the 40 million Americans who suffer from anxiety, Adi’s condition eventually caused her to avoid some of her favorite aspects of life for fear of extreme anxiety, such as swimming and crowded places.

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?

CalmiGo came about because of my personal experience with panic attacks. I started having panic attacks when I was a student. Hoping to avoid medication, I turned to therapy, biofeedback, yoga, herbal supplements, deep breathing, and other relaxation techniques to find some relief. While these tools and techniques helped me decrease the frequency of attacks, I found that it was very hard for me to use them during the attacks themselves. I was searching for something, anything, that I could take with me that would help me get through these moments of distress. When I was unable to find an adequate solution, I decided to dedicate my life to creating products that people could take with them anywhere they go and use to achieve immediate relief whenever they need it.

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

A few months after I arrived in New York City, I was invited to a conference with Columbia University’s women alumni. One of the panels featured amazing CEOs, all of whom were Columbia alumni and shared how they sometimes find it hard to voice their opinions and make themselves heard in rooms full of men. One of them even shared that her VP, who is a man, used to quote her or to redirect questions to her because otherwise she wouldn’t get to speak enough. Hearing from these strong women about their experience was shocking to me. I realized that there are some difficulties that women in the United States are facing, that I didn’t face before in Israel, where women are less polite and have more ‘Chutzpah’. It really changed my perspective.

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 made a mistake in the first investment agreement I sent to an investor. It was a small one but still something that needed to be fixed. Since then, I always make sure to have another pair of eyes checking important documents before I send them. In general, I’m a great believer in getting feedback and letting someone check my work, even when it is sometimes uncomfortable.

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?

It takes a village to build a startup. I was very lucky to be introduced to Alon Matas, the CEO of BetterHelp, the largest mental health platform in the US, a few years ago. Our introduction was made by another entrepreneur who thought it would be interesting for me to talk with Alon and learn from his experience as a leader in the mental health industry. Alon was impressed by our achievements and the fact that we were able to create a product that really helps people with such a limited budget and suggested leading a fundraising round. Since then, he has been an investor of our company and a very active advisor. I can’t stress enough how much I learned from his experience as a B2C expert, mental health leader, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you are doing many things for the first time. Having someone at your side that has been there, done that, is priceless. It doesn’t only save you from mistakes, but it also gives you the courage and ability to dare.

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?

Thank you for referring to this EY report. I believe there is a difference between what holds back women from founding companies and what affects the fact that companies founded by women are less funded. Regarding the latter, I believe that some aspects of the fund-raising process, like the need to sell (sometimes sell hard), be very confident even regarding things that might have high levels of uncertainty, and some might say over-promise, are characteristics that are more common among men. We know that women tend to be more cautious, over-deliver but not over promise, tend to ask for less money and underestimate themselves, and this might hurt some funding processes that require you to sell a big dream. I believe that women today are more confident and that some investors have modified their due diligence process to allow women, who are great founders but struggle in the traditional fund-raising process, to shine. I hope we will continue seeing those changes in the process that will help not only amazing women founders but also great men founders who are facing the same difficulties.

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 that a lot has already been done, and I’m very happy to see it. I think that as a society and in our education system, we need to encourage women to share their opinions and not avoid conflicts. We need to promote standing up for what matters and to be confident. To quote Sheryl Sandberg, I believe that a small change, but an important one, is to stop using the word “bossy”, that unfortunately seems to still be used mostly for girls, and instead encourage them to be leaders. Another thing that is very important in my opinion is to allow men to take an equal part at home. I’m saying ‘to allow’ because in my experience, in many workplaces it is still very normal for a woman to leave early but when a man does, it raises questions. I believe that as women we need to allow our partners to take an equal part at home, even if it means that some things will be done differently, and that as C-level managers, and society, we need to allow men to do that too. I recently sent an email to someone senior at Google and got a response that he is on paternity leave. I couldn’t be happier getting this email. This is the future.

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?

First, I think that women should feel comfortable with their choices. I want my daughters and my son to be proud whether they choose to be stay-at-home parents, or found a company. Founding a company gives you the opportunity to make a difference and to create something that you really believe in, both from the product perspective and from the company culture aspect. It is a way to take a dream and make it come true, and when you are the founder, you have a lot of opportunities to affect every step of the way and choose the people who will join this amazing journey with you. Last but not least, founding a company creates job opportunities for other people, and it is not only a way to support our community and economy but also to create a workplace that reflects your values and provides a fulfilling, supporting and enjoyable working environment. It is the most fulfilling experience I could wish for.

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

I recently read a few articles and comments that criticized founders who are successful. I would like to take this opportunity to say that starting your own company is a 24/7 commitment. Even if you have the biggest investors in the world behind you, even if you have the best team, it is a super intense job that usually requires more time than you assume. It requires a lot from you and from your family and taking a dream and making a successful company out of it is never easy. I think this part of having your own company is often left out after companies succeed.

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?

Founding a company requires you to spend most of your time out of your comfort zone. You will do things for the first time without any guidance. It also requires you to confront conflicts quite often and negotiate. It is not a fit for everyone. Some people flourish in these circumstances, but some might suffer. I personally enjoy every part of 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.)

1. Network, network, network — it takes a village, and your network is going to be there for you and open doors for you. When I arrived in the United States, I didn’t know anyone. I made a rule for myself to join at least one networking event every week. I learned so much from the people I met and am grateful for this opportunity.
2. Investors are a major part of your journey — and good investors will be there for you every step of the way. I have been very lucky to have amazing investors that are helping my company constantly. As a founder, do your due diligence and choose the right investors for your company.
3. Send documents for signatures with DocuSign — this one is a bit funny and might seems small but made a real difference for us. I get no commission from DocuSign and don’t know anyone that works for the company, but since I started using it, I can’t stop. It is really an amazing solution that helps keep everything organized.
4. Build a team — our company grew substantially before we were a big team, and we are still relatively lean compared to other companies with our revenue, but there is a limit to the growth you can achieve on your own and your team is what will make your company successful. I also added a co-founder at a relatively late stage of the company and it is one of the best decisions I took. It is not easy to find someone who completes you professionally and that you can fully trust, especially at a late stage of the company, but if you can do it, you’ll see that one plus one can make three.
5. Hire a CFO or a CFO for hire as soon as you can — this is not a “sexy” topic, but the financials of your company are super important, and it becomes something that requires a lot of time and effort very quickly.

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

Our company creates drug-free products that provide immediate relief. Our first product is CalmiGo, the first drug-free product that provides immediate calm for moments of stress and anxiety. We have tens of thousands of users, from the age of 6 to 97, that use it to combat stressful moments, e.g., veterans with PTSD that use it to achieve calm and sleep better or kids and adults that use it while they have panic attacks. There is no better feeling than knowing that you can help people in such a substantial way. For me, it is worth everything and it gives us the energy to overcome any obstacle in the way.

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

I’m very worried about the intolerance that I see increasing in the last few years. If I would start a movement, it might be about recreating the tolerance for different opinions and sharing diverse opinions in any medium.

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.

Jamie Kern Lima, the founder of IT Cosmetic. I read her book and I am very inspired by her story and by her entrepreneurial journey. She started from zero, got so many “NOs” on her way, she was told people would never buy cosmetics from someone who looks like her, she almost stayed with no money in her bank account, and still, she never gave up. Her positive and optimistic character, authenticity, and modestness, despite her huge success, are inspiring and fueling.

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

Female Founders: Adi Wallach of CalmiGo 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.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Pause. No really, hit pause and be grateful for one thing every day: Find that one thing, say it out loud, write it down and take a moment to appreciate it. Gratitude is a way of regaining some perspective in the midst of difficulty without minimizing the presence of struggles. It is an opportunity to reframe the bad in relation to the good. We can get tunnel vision very easily and only see the bad things everywhere and many things in our culture magnify this. Mentally, when we get to a place of gratitude, we can defeat fear and what we focus on expands. Choose gratitude.

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

Sarah Weaver is a Massage Therapist and Acupuncturist at Northwestern Health Sciences University. She has over 20 years of experience in the field and a true passion for her work.

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?

During undergrad, I studied creative writing and theater both from a literary and technical focus. At one point, I contemplated pursuing a career as a stage manager, but along the way, I developed an interest in activities that promoted body awareness. That’s why in my 20s, I went to massage therapy school and have now been practicing for 29 years. My interest in people’s stories is a perfect fit for the health care profession, and my gift for language is an asset in helping people create better relationships with their body and move forward on their health care journey. During my time as a massage therapist, many of my client struggled with migraines and I saw that Chinese Medicine was helping them in ways I couldn’t. That’s when I wanted to become a Chinese Medicine Provider. My goal is to support clients through a diagnostic framework that helps understand different health states that don’t necessarily fit into the Western medical paradigm. In complementary and integrative healthcare (CIH), we often see clients who have not been able to receive help from mainstream medicine because their problem may be subclinical, meaning there is no label for their problem. Chinese Medicine can always describe the problem whether it’s mild or if it needs management. In the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) framework there is always help to offer.

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

Due to doctor-patient confidentiality, I can’t share some of the most interesting stories. However, through my career as a both a massage therapist and TCM provider, I have helped identify serious health problems for clients at early stages, helped them to pursue proper diagnostic screening and then supported them through very difficult treatments. That is what I love about CIH. We, as providers, proactively address health care issues, rather than managing diseases. One of the best things about being a massage therapist and a TCM provider is having long term relationships with clients and having the skills to help people be resilient through difficult times. My work truly helps people get through difficult times like cancer treatments or other serious health conditions without feeling like they are at war with their bodies. Massage therapy and TCM often focus on helping clients appreciate what their body accomplishes, develop more compassion for themselves, and become better at listening to their body.

One of the most entertaining stories from my experience is a client brought a raccoon stew for me as a thank you for caring gift. The stew was great, although I am not sure I am a fan of raccoon. This gesture shows the deep and meaningful connections massage therapists and TCM providers make with their clients, which ultimately helps them on their health care journey.

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

It takes time and practice to become confident with fire cupping, a common technique in TCM. I describe it as reverse massage. It involves inducing a vacuum inside a spherical glass jar with a cotton ball soaked in alcohol, and then it is placed on the patient’s skin where you want a suction effect. To get sufficient suction, a lot of alcohol needs to be soaked into a couple cotton balls. It takes time to get used to carrying this ball of flame around without worrying that you are going to set your patient on fire. Often, students don’t use enough alcohol, and the flame goes out. As a student completing my internship, I was working on using enough alcohol and found that when I had all the cups placed on a patient one day, I couldn’t figure out how to put the flame out. So, I was standing there trying to blow it out like a birthday candle which doesn’t work with all that alcohol. By running it under the faucet, I finally figured it out. It was a great lesson in humility, and I advise interns and future massage therapists to understand that with time and practice, you can reach your goal.

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

I am particularly grateful for the friendship and mentoring of a fellow CranioSacral therapist who was my classmate in massage school and who introduced me to CranioSacral therapy (CST). I always credit her for getting me through two master’s degrees. The sessions we had have been some of the most profound experiences in my life. It became a part of my self-care journey and learning journey. This is in part because CST connects us the wider world and community and can also support people working through trauma. The experiences can be very transformative for clients.

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

Take your own advice. We regularly encourage clients to keep a regular schedule and get enough sleep; it’s beneficial to put that into practice in your own life. Another piece of advice is to keep in touch with why you are in health care. Don’t let outside forces define what is important to you, whether that is an employer or a feature of the market. Patients really appreciate an authentic provider and that comes from understanding your own motivations and honoring your own values. This can help you find the patient base that is right for you.

Don’t forget to make time for fun and advance your education and interests including those outside of work. Sometimes creativity outside of your career can feed your work. For example, I am really interested in dog training and animal behavior. Many aspects of animal behavior give me insights that I can apply to my work with people.

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

At Northwestern Health Sciences University, I work in a practice clinic with providers of different professions; this is my preferred work environment because I can collaborate with co-workers. Working together is critical to making the workplace supportive and welcoming. When we have a new colleague, I always reach out to make the start of their work with us go well. If people get left alone too much — which can happen in a clinic environment — they can fall through the cracks and not feel supported. Check on colleagues and see how they are doing. Ask if you can do anything to improve their workday. Reach out and tell people how much you appreciate their contributions. These connections matter and create a positive work culture.

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

• Establish a routine: Put some predictability back into your life. This provides sense of control over your day-to-day life. A routine can also boost moods by getting the little things done such as good sleep hygiene, getting out of your pajamas, brushing your teeth and going for a walk. Having a dog helps me set and keep a routine. Every morning I must take them outside for the bathroom and to get exercise in order for them to stay happy and healthy.
• Focus on what you eat and drink: It’s important to limit sugar, refined foods, caffeine and alcohol intake. Sugar may interfere with immune system functions and caffeine causes jitters throughout the day and can lead to disrupted sleep. Plan on eating well-balanced meals and drinking enough water to keep your body hydrated and ready for the day. I regularly speak with people with insomnia about evening snacking and how that can disrupt sleep. I try to learn from my own experiences and use those to help others.
• Practice good sleep hygiene: Getting enough sleep (but not too much!) helps the body recover and feel refreshed. Focus on going to bed and waking up at the same time every day. This helps regulate your body and increase moods. Depending on work schedules, this can be challenging for a lot of people. For example, people in education and health care may begin their day very early after working a late night. If possible, I recommend negotiating for a better schedule or modifying what you can control.
• Try a self-massage: People with anxiety often experience headaches and increase tension due to jaw clenching and teeth grinding when asleep. Massages calm the nervous system and alleviates stress and anxiety. In small circles, gently rub tight muscles along the jaw, at the temples and above the ears to relieve tension. Do this right before bed to help settle the mind and body and to support good sleep hygiene.
• Pause. No really, hit pause and be grateful for one thing every day: Find that one thing, say it out loud, write it down and take a moment to appreciate it. Gratitude is a way of regaining some perspective in the midst of difficulty without minimizing the presence of struggles. It is an opportunity to reframe the bad in relation to the good. We can get tunnel vision very easily and only see the bad things everywhere and many things in our culture magnify this. Mentally, when we get to a place of gratitude, we can defeat fear and what we focus on expands. Choose gratitude.

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

With all the disruption in the lives of children and youth, it is really important they focus on wellness. Keeping a regular schedule and routine is critical for this age group, but it is difficult for several reasons. First, it is a time when young people have more agency to define the structure in their days. Parents may not be enforcing a bedtime any longer, but choosing to have a regular bedtime is important for teenagers. Some of the recommendations for adults are even more vital for youth. This can be difficult because there are so many distractions and magnets for our attention. Taking a break from the internet, social media, and screens for an hour before bed and doing something quiet, like reading a book, making some art, or listening to quiet music is a healthy bedtime habit. Also, during teenage years young people are sorting out complicated things about their relationships with peers, which can heavily affect mental health. Having a trusted adult to talk to is important. Seek out a mentor.

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

During my teens and twenties, Howards End by E.M Forster had a significant impact on my life. One of the themes is about what connects human beings to each other and how those were changing right before World War One. Forster identifies that for much of history people felt connected to each other by living in the same place. Land and houses connected many generations of people together and created feelings of community. Forster rightly saw this pattern of living was disrupted by the speed of modern life and was eroding human relationships. An important mantra in the novel is “only connect.” To this day, this idea is fundamental in my life. Having heartfelt, honest connections between people is one of the most valuable things in life and that we have to seek out ways to glue ourselves together. I encourage my clients to make meaningful connections to deepen relations and support their wellness journey

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. 🙂

As a health care provider, I am often confronted with how a patient’s life story impacts their health. Problems like housing and food insecurity can dramatically affect health and diminish overall wellness. At NWHSU, we are developing a vision of what true integrative care can be by addressing the whole person. For example, if basic needs are not met like having a safe home and enough food, then we can’t improve their health with just treatment. In TCM addressing basic needs is the initial approach, but so much more is needed. My movement would be to work towards ending homelessness and food insecurity. Oftentimes, this impacts families with children and elders. This preventative approach would have enormous impact on community health.

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

While it’s not a quote, I often say that soup is one of humanity’s best inventions. Partly because soup is one of the most nutritious, comforting foods humans make for each other. Just like the story of my client bringing a stew, this is an expression of love and connection. As a massage therapist, I am forever grateful for these meaningful connections with clients.

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

Can connect with me on LinkedIn, and follow NWHSU on Twitter and Facebook.

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

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

Female Founders: Nasya Kamrat of Faculty On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Shut up and listen. Entrepreneurship is not new. Find the leaders who you admire most and take their advice, listen to their experiences, and formulate your own style based on the successes and failures of those who came before you. If you are too busy talking, you’ll most definitely miss something.

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

Nasya Kamrat is the Co-founder and CEO of Faculty, a certified women-owned spatial storytelling agency that creates human-centric experiences for global brands. An award-winning creative strategist, her work spans traditional, interactive, experiential, and digital media. Nasya volunteers as a mentor for PDX Women in Tech and PIE Incubator Experiment, is a member of Chief, and a founding member of Komuna and the World Experience Organization.

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?

Backstories are never linear. They’re full of twists and turns and surprises. And I think to find your way, you must be motivated and curious and elastic in equal measure.

I initially moved to NYC to work in theater. After a couple years I realized I needed health insurance and a real paycheck, so I got a job in advertising. And it was amazing! I somehow found this incredible family that seemed laser focused on my personal growth; Eventually, I was creating new job titles during my reviews because what I did best — part storyteller, part producer, part strategist — didn’t fit into a singular bucket. But after a few years, I started to realize that the things that I held true and close didn’t align with traditional agency models. I’d be sitting in meetings with brilliant men and women (but mostly men) where one moment it was all about making sure we billed enough hours and the next moment we’d be putting together creative briefs based on abstract personas instead of real people. Disciplines were siloed. Transparency was not even a consideration. So, eventually I left, hopping around a bit on both the brand and agency side, but no matter where I went it all felt similar. Sexism and ageism and racism — all the isms really — were rampant. And the thing that I loved and that did best — telling stories — became watered down deliverables. I just sort of knew that it could be different.

At one previous workplace, I met my future business partner and we decided to start our own agency, Faculty, after knowing each other for only a month or two. Our shared vision was to create an ecosystem where we could bring together the smartest, creative, most thoughtful people we know to offer brands a different approach to the traditional agency model. One that brought together the things we loved most — storytelling, technology, and strategy to our brand partners. It’s been almost 10 years since then!

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

The pandemic. 100%. So much of our business is in experiential and physical design and when the pandemic hit, nearly every single project was paused or cancelled, as I’m sure is relatable to most creatives and ad industry folks. The impact to the business was devastating, but the impact to the entire world was devastating. We had to figure out how to keep Faculty alive while also supporting all of the actual humans involved — employees, clients, all of their families. We ended up coming through the other side, positioned even stronger, but the collective journey (and my own perceived personal responsibility to keep everyone in my world OK) is hands down the craziest thing that’s happened since we started a decade ago.

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?

About 5 years in, I became pregnant with my son. I had a very challenging pregnancy and had to spend my third trimester on bed rest in the hospital. I irrationally thought that if I told any of my clients what was going on they’d lose confidence in our agency, so I kept it very much under wraps. This was doable, except for one particular client call; I was on a really big pitch via video chat and the woman in the room next to me went into labor. Alarms blaring, hospital machines beeping and people shouting and flashing lights and of course I couldn’t mute fast enough. Everyone on the call sort of stopped and looked at me. And I said, “oh, you know, the sounds of Brooklyn.” They all nodded like that was a totally acceptable answer and we went on with the meeting. New Yorkers are a different breed.

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

I grew up with two older brothers and always considered myself “one of the guys.” In my early career, I often surrounded myself with mentors who were men, especially in the theater world. But in my early agency days, I had this one executive creative director who took me under her wing and taught me about (and how to embrace) empathy and humor in leadership — seeing firsthand that you can be strong and powerful, but also lead with empathy, which was a game changer for me.

My early founder days felt incredibly lonely because I had this ridiculous notion that if I showed even the slightest crack I wouldn’t be seen as a credible leader. I know this is common for first-time founders, but it’s hard to explain to someone who is silently suffering and pushing through it alone. Fast forward to having my son four years ago and it became very apparent that I needed support to navigate foundership and parenthood at the same time. I started building this incredible network of women and the amount of support and guidance that network provided me was imperative to the growth of my business and my own personal growth. I have a few close friends and confidants who are my go-to support team when my world gets upended — for example, when covid hit and my business went to a complete halt for a few months, I had one friend (hi Ricki!) who picked up the phone every damn time I called her, often starting the call-in tears and ending it with side-splitting laughter.

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

I’ve talked about this quite a bit with other female founders and I think it’s a twofold issue.

The system is not built to support women’s careers. Our growth and financial trajectory simply aren’t the same as our male counterparts by design (and don’t get me started on BIPOC women) and it takes quite a bit of financial security and a certain level of bravado to be able to go at it on your own. From the minute women enter the workforce, we are at a disadvantage because, often, those in the position to hire and advance careers do so based on confidence (even when misplaced) rather than competence.

Secondly, women are generally the primary when it comes to family and parenting. Even when we have supportive partners (and my partner is incredibly involved and supportive) so much of building and supporting a family falls on the shoulders of women. This intrinsically creates gaps in our careers which make making the jump to founding and running a business incredibly challenging.

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?

On an individual level, women need to start supporting other women’s growth as leaders. Open up your network, help those around you, and bring together all the badass women you know so they can lift each other up. Lifting each other up is paramount to success as a group, and we don’t do it often enough. That said, I am incredibly hopeful that the next generation of leaders will be well-equipped to change the statistics in favor of workplace equity, but it won’t happen unless there are incredible women sponsors to help them navigate the arduous reality of life as a woman leader.

On the other hand, men simply need to MAKE ROOM for more women. Room for our ideas, our voices, and our way of doing business and community building. As much as women need to lift each other up, men need to stop viewing/treating the success of women in the workplace as a threat, but rather as a benefit, especially in the development of new ideas and workplace structures. Upholding systems of oppression are as impeding as those who create them.

I think the government can also make a huge impact here — if we had more supportive parental leave on the government level, it would allow for both women and men to co-parent more effectively. Many countries offer both maternal and paternal leave. The US could do, if only we weren’t systemically afraid of the (positive) changes that would have on our work culture overall.

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

In the US, women make up 51% of the population, 41% of MBAs are acquired by women, and in a 2019 HBR study, women were rated more effective in 84% of the competencies that are most frequently measured. While those numbers are promising for women who are considering becoming founders, it is still a daunting leap.

But the best leaders are empathetic, are effective during a crisis, can inspire others, and are able to multitask — all areas in which women excel and all areas that are instrumental to being a founder.

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

Ping pong tables and beer on tap do not make a company great. The best founders don’t hide behind faux benefits — they listen, they build, and they learn from every one of their failures (which will be many). They’re open to making the changes necessary to support their employees, their clients/customers, and their business.

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

I don’t think everyone is cut out to be a founder. An incredible idea doesn’t make an incredible founder, it’s knowing how to realize that idea in a sustainable way while inspiring others to become part of the journey that makes a successful founder. And sadly, founders often don’t get to do the fun stuff — if you are a designer or an engineer or someone who likes to get into the work and get their hands dirty, being a founder can be super depressing and creatively stifling because you rarely get to do the things you love to do as founders are often too busy looking and spreadsheets and contracts.

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

1. You are not alone. The humans you surround yourself with — your partners, employees, clients, mentors — they want you to succeed. Let them help you.
2. Messing up is the best way to grow — if you use your mistakes to evolve and transform, they’re not setbacks. Nobody is tracking all your little missteps except for you, just learn, adapt, and move on.
3. Showing your humanity is a strength, not a weakness.
4. Shut up and listen. Entrepreneurship is not new. Find the leaders who you admire most and take their advice, listen to their experiences, and formulate your own style based on the successes and failures of those who came before you. If you are too busy talking, you’ll most definitely miss something.
5. Stay curious. The minute you stop learning is the minute your business will fail.

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

I am a community builder at heart, and the thing that I’ve focused on over the last few years is how to bring communities together and champion one another. From hosting dinner series’, to mentoring next gen women in business, to donating my time as a board member for an organization that supports women entrepreneurs, I believe that community building is essential to growing both personally and professionally.

As part of my initiatives towards community building, I recently launched Komuna, a co-op network of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ independent specialty agencies that work together to support brands and be an alternative to the holding company model.

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

I believe that we need to move away from thinking DEI is a box to tick. If all the underrepresented founders — women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ etc. — create a community in which we are supporting one another and not staying in the silos/boxes that are forced upon us, we will no longer be the minority. Together, our voices can be louder than our individual “subsets” that the hashtag culture and misdirected DEI initiatives are imposing on us. Together we can make a difference that is unachievable when we’re in constant direct competition with each other. The voices of underrepresented founders deserve to be heard, not just because different perspectives allow us to approach problem-solving in different ways, but because we, all of us, deserve a more equitable workplace.

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.

Rose Marcario without a doubt. The things she did while she was CEO of Patagonia were game changing — from how she supported working mothers to her commitment to climate change to redefining what sustainability can be in retail. Hearing firsthand about her experience leading one of the most progressive and iconic brands of our time would be amazing.

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

Female Founders: Nasya Kamrat of Faculty 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.

Women In Wellness: Cheryl Victor of Vivrint Corporate Wellness on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t be afraid to get help. You can’t do this on your own. When you first get started, you’re going to do it all. But you will soon find your weakness. If you can’t do it, don’t know how to do it or it takes you a substantial amount of time to complete a task, you help.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cheryl B. Victor.

Cheryl B. Victor, the founder of Vivrint Corporate Wellness, is a Texas state-licensed massage therapist, instructor, and continuing education provider. She is a former massage therapy program director at Everest College in Illinois and Vista College in Texas, where she was granted the Teacher of the Year Award. As a Compassionate Touch Instructor, Cheryl has worked with special needs clients, clients with Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as administering bedside massage therapy to hospitalized patients. With more than 30 years of experience, passion, and dedication to the industry, Cheryl is committed to educating businesses as well as individuals, on the importance of self-care and wellness.

Offering seated chair massage and wellness programs to corporations, hospitals and universities, VIVRINT aims to promote health and wellness, help eliminate stress, encourage a better quality of life, improve mental health, increase workplace productivity, and decrease employee turnover. Vivrint, LLC is registered in the state of Texas as a H.U.B. (Historically Underutilized Business).

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 been a licensed Massage therapy for over 30 yrs. It’s more than what I do, it’s who I am. It’s my calling. I started giving my parents massages when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I would massage my mom’s back and my dad’s feet. I went on to study massage therapy. For about 10 years I saw it as a hobby, giving massages to friends and family. I began to take it seriously and pursued a career. After years of practice, I decided to teach. I realize after teaching for several years and then becoming a program director, the importance of wellness in the workplace. I worked 12–14-hour days. My days were full and non-stop from teaching, to meetings, to putting out one fire after another. I know how valuable massage, yoga and meditation is to me, so I decided to do a survey. The faculty and staff agreed to take my survey. Ninety eight percent of the employees surveyed believed that massage therapy and or a wellness program would be beneficial to their health and productively.

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’ve worked with hospice and children and adults with special needs. I had a hospice 95 yr. old hospice patient, upon arriving at her home for her initial assessment she was in bed unable to walk. I immediately addressed the caregiver with a few questions concerning the client. She quickly corrected me by saying why are you asking her questions about my body, you should address me, I know more about my body than anyone else. Please don’t do that to me. I immediately apologized to her and for the last 6 weeks of her life she taught all about tobacco farming, her life as a young wife and mother. And how to live your life to the very end with dignity. The takeaway from this story is don’t make assumptions. I assumed because my patient was 95 yrs. old and was in hospice that somehow her cognitive skills were impaired. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Now I approach each client/patient and life without assumptions.

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

The biggest mistake I made when I first started was quitting my job too soon. I had money saved and decided I would quit my job because I could get more done working full time in my business. I thought because I had a great idea for a business that everyone else would think it was a great business and my sales would skyrocket. But I did have enough income from the business to sustain. If you are starting a business, you must strategically plan to exit your job. Do your research and seek help to design an exit plan that best suits your needs for success.

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? The work we are doing is making an impact on the world because we work directly with the people that are affecting the way the world functions. First responders, Military, Corporate and hospital employees all have some sort of impact on us, whether the local or global level. Massage therapy, yoga and meditation by offering restoration to the body and soul which in turn helps improve clarity and productivity.

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

1. Increase your water intake. Instead of carrying a gallon of water around, start slowly, try adding one bottle of water a day to your normal water intake for a week, then gradually add more water each week.

2. Say something positive about yourself to yourself every day. We say things about ourselves that we won’t dare say to our friends and loved ones. Words and thoughts are powerful. Speak love power and strength to yourself

3. Take a vacation or a weekend getaway. I find that taking a vacation, getting away from my day-to-day routine allows me to refresh and recharge.

4. Move your body. A body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest. By moving you are strengthening your muscles, which improves stability, balance, and coordination. Walking and yoga are two great ways to keep your body moving.

5. Get some Sun. It’s not just in your head, there’s a scientific reason, being in the sunshine improves your mood. Sunshine boosts your body level of serotonin, which is a chemical to improve your mood and helps you stay focused. Try to get 15–20 of sunshine a day.

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

If I had to start a movement it would be “The Wellness through Touch” movement. Wellness is said to be in good physical and mental health. I believe in the eight dimensions of wellness which includes: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual. Often when referring to touch we think of the physical touch, but touch is much more. When we express words of kindness, we touch someone’s emotions. Educators touch students intellectually when teaching them calculus. When I offer a therapist employment, who has been out of work for a year I’m touching them financially. We can change the world if we modify our mindset of wellness and the power of touch.

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

1. It is going to be hard work. I thought just because I really love the work I do it would be easy. We’ve all heard it: you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. Well, the truth is your coming to work harder but it will definitely be more rewarding

2. Don’t compare yourself or business to anyone else’s. Everyone and every business is unique. You must be confident in what you are doing and the things you are trying to accomplish. Comparing yourself to others only causes more stress and anxiety. Focus on your goals and execute the plan.

3. Be true to yourself and your vision but don’t deviate from your mission and purpose. Write the vision down and refer to it to keep you on track.

4. Don’t be afraid to get help. You can’t do this on your own. When you first get started, you’re going to do it all. But you will soon find your weakness. If you can’t do it, don’t know how to do it or it takes you a substantial amount of time to complete a task, you help.

5. It is lonely at the top. Being an entrepreneur can be lonely. Not everyone can understand the long hours, late nights or drive you have to be successful. It helps to find a mentor to help you through the process.

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

I would have to say Mental Health. Mental health is so vital to our everyday life. It affects the way we receive, process and implement information. Basically, how we live our lives. I personally experienced living in a household with someone with mental health issues. My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. It affects not only the individual but the family members as well. Therapy helped our family dealing with my brother’s mental illness but definitely took a lot of work.

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

www.vivrint.com IG vivrintmobilemassage

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Cheryl Victor of Vivrint Corporate 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.