Category: Featured

Female Disruptors: Annie Raygoza of WebEnertia On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Women tend to have the classic case of “imposter syndrome.” This can be a tremendous barrier when trying to voice opinions, bring up ideas, or even challenge specific situations. Being able to maintain a level of confidence is key to showing your worth and making your voice heard.

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

Annie Raygoza serves as the Director of Client Services at WebEnertia. Throughout her career, she has specialized in building strong, responsive relationships with clients by delivering strategic account and project management. Her deep insights into effective processes and powerful connection to the needs of their clients ensures her teams deliver on deadlines, stick to budgets, and always meet the client’s demands. It’s her expertise that helps ensure that projects achieve the clients’ business objectives. Annie has a master’s degree in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.

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

I’ve always had a passion for working in the creative industry, specifically within the tech space. I love how everything is continuously evolving, and I love being at the forefront of new trends. Beginning my career in search engine marketing, then moving into media planning, buying, operations, and eventually into account management — I was able to pinpoint my passion around the work I do.

Building relationships with clients and creating long-term business opportunities together is a personal driver in my career. Every person wants to feel heard and understood, and they seek an agency partner to support their goals and initiatives. Including that human element into our partnership is key to success — and what’s incredibly valuable to me in a Client Services Leadership role.

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

In my role, I’m always communicating with the client through various touchpoints. Although that may not be seen as “disruptive,” the actions taken from these touchpoints make the work unique and beneficial for clients. When a strong relationship is understood, having these conversations becomes seamless. We understand pain points and create actionable plans to address and rectify the situations further, which enhances the relationship between the agency partner and client.

I proactively approach clients about current projects, capture feedback on crucial team members, address timelines and quality of work, and touch base on future goals and initiatives, so we can continue to brainstorm together. Realigning expectations both internally and with our clients strengthens our relationships. Being able to juggle both conversations equally creates strong morale between both the internal team and the client.

Adaptability is vital within the tech space. Things are constantly evolving, and the way we approach clients should also evolve. Consistently looking at new tools, technology, and approaches allows our client service team to always provide top-notch support for all of our clients. Taking on new technology or requests from clients is another way we’re competitive in the space. We’re always open to utilizing new tools to provide a seamless and straightforward experience for our clients.

Encouraging our team to participate in educational opportunities or conferences allows them to understand other new customer service and account management trends. By proactively addressing these trends, we’re setting up the team to manage these relationships and strengthen our partnership with clients.

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?

Early in my career, I worked for a tech company with clients in various countries, including Japan. I was instructed to send out emails to a few clients across different locations. I, unfortunately, was unaware of the etiquette required for addressing a client appropriately and professionally in Japan. It was a cringe worthy conversation with my boss, but also a moment I’ve never forgotten. Of course, it was a critical lesson on understanding different cultures and taking a step back — to ensure the message has little room to be misconstrued. I can confidently say that I always ask (or Google!) each time I address people within different countries.

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?

The desire to move into a management role was due to the mentors I have had through the different roles in my career. With the variety of leaders in my life, I captured those that resonated the most with me. Those that exuded patience and time to provide education and coaching were instrumental in my success. People that showed care and desire to teach made me feel valued. Additionally, it gave me the confidence to tackle new opportunities and challenges.

I took opportunities to share knowledge and coach and train people early on because I understood what it was like to be on the other side of things. Some of my most incredible mentors are those that I can be vulnerable around. Being open and honest about concerns isn’t a weakness. It’s an opportunity for your mentor to support and provide guidance. I’m so proud of the mentorship I have today because I know that I can capture honest opinions from my colleagues and view situations from different perspectives. It has also allowed me to be open to receiving feedback, further expanding my management skillset, making me a better manager for my team.

On the flip side, not all managers are great mentors. Taking those specific situations and personalities into account is essential. I must remember these situations and individuals to ensure I always approach things with humility and honesty.

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?

I’m a big advocate for evaluating processes and people often. Although what we may do may be normal or “what we’ve always done,” it doesn’t mean it’s the best approach. As people, clients, services are expanding and evolving — we must expand and evolve as well. Staying on top of trends, evaluating things from another lens, participating in educational courses or conferences to network and gain different perspectives are ways to disrupt these old or stale processes. Although something may not be a problem, we must ask if it is the most efficient process. Is it preventing growth or causing a decline in morale with the team? Could this be done better? These are good questions to ask. I also think that “disruption” must be done strategically and thoughtfully. It shouldn’t be rushed through, and it should be evaluated thoroughly before rolling out.

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

1. Always remember what it was like to be new (in an organization or in your career).
2. If you have a problem, be prepared to throw out some solutions.
3. Always remain professional. You never know when you’ll cross paths with that individual again in your career.

How are you going to shake things up next?

Attending new conferences and networking gives me opportunities to not only gather new ideas in the industry but also the confidence to roll them out with our team and clients.

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

Women tend to have the classic case of “imposter syndrome.” This can be a tremendous barrier when trying to voice opinions, bring up ideas, or even challenge specific situations. Being able to maintain a level of confidence is key to showing your worth and making your voice heard.

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

1. Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity (Kim Scott)
2. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People (Gary Chapman & Paul White)
3. It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders (NPR Podcast). Yes, this is not business-related, but I really enjoy taking a step back to understand different perspectives on things that are happening in our world. I love the different outlooks from various cultures, listening to people’s stories, and listening to uncomfortable situations and how they’re approached. I think these are important soft skills for anyone in client services.

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

Remember that, at the end of the day, we’re human. When we talk to people internally or with clients, we can become frustrated with mistakes or issues that come up. At the end of the day, we’re all faced with challenges and goals in front of us. We’re all trying to do the best we can. If we encourage people to become more “human,” it helps arrive at solutions as a partnership.

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

“If you want to be a true professional, do something outside yourself.” — Ruth Bader Ginsberg

“Don’t confuse having a career with having a life.” — Hillary Clinton

Women in the professional world are oftentimes challenged with the ability to pick and choose things in their lives. Women are resilient, and I’m proud to support other women in becoming professionals — especially within the tech and digital spaces.

How can our readers follow you online?

Annie Raygoza, M.S. Mass Communications – Director Of Client Services – WebEnertia | LinkedIn

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

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Female Disruptors: Annie Raygoza of WebEnertia 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: Kirsten Saenz Tobey of Revolution Foods On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Have a clear vision. Knowing what you want to do with your company, why you want to do it and how to execute your mission are key components to a company’s prosperity. The day-to-day may look different, and at times you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, but when you are guided by a true north star, you can steward that vision to fruition. Be sure to clearly define what success looks like, both for yourself and your team.

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

Kirsten Saenz Tobey is co-founder and chief impact officer of Revolution Foods. Prior to founding Revolution Foods, Kirsten was a teacher, researcher and garden educator with Earthjustice, the School for Field Studies, and Phillips Academy at Andover. Her career spanned from leading experiential education programs in the US and Ecuador to evaluating school feeding programs in Ghana. She is an Ashoka Fellow, Aspen Institute Environmental Fellow, member of the Culinary Institute of America’s Sustainable Business Leadership Council and past mentor for the Women’s Initiative Fellowship Program.

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 “back story”? What led you to this particular career path?

Prior to founding Revolution Foods, I was a teacher, researcher and garden educator. I worked with education programs in the U.S. and abroad, including evaluating the scalability of school feeding programs with the U.N. Hunger Task Force in Ghana.

My leadership foundation came from my parents, both of whom were educators. They always taught me the importance of helping others from a young age. My mom introduced community service to my high school as a requirement for graduation, and after spending a great deal of time volunteering in low-income communities in the U.S. and abroad, I realized how many people didn’t know where they would get their next meal. As I got older, my curiosity grew in addressing overall accessibility to food.

I had always thought I would become a teacher; however, I quickly realized that wasn’t my long-term goal nor my passion. I wanted to work in a field that addressed larger issues like hunger and food systems, and during my time as an educator, I noticed some students came to school ready to learn while others struggled to focus. I began to question if students’ home situations and access to food impacted their academic success.

I went on to business school, and that’s where I met my Revolution Foods co-founder, Kristin Groos Richmond. Although we came from different backgrounds, we immediately shared interest in socially driven causes. We ended up turning our business school project into a reality.

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

Since founding Revolution Foods over 15 years ago, Kristin and I each have had multiple children — no easy feat while building your own company! We’ve been able to juggle motherhood and leading a business. And while it’s been challenging at times, it’s also been the most rewarding experience. We hope to inspire other mothers and show them it is possible to build your family and still pursue your career ambitions. After all, mothers are assets to any team; they are intuitive, strong and emotionally connected, all of which drive greater success and deeper connections with the people they serve.

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’ve definitely had a couple of funny mistakes over the years but this one always comes to mind. When we bought our first delivery truck for distributing meals, we forgot to factor in the weight of the food carts. Anyone watching Kristin and me trying to hoist hundreds of pounds of fresh food and insulated fresh food containers into the delivery truck would have had a good laugh. Thankfully, a kind stranger passing let us in on the secret: the lift gate that all delivery companies use! He just so happened to be a metal welder, so he helped us weld a temporary plate onto the truck ramp for smoother access until we could get the lift gate installed over the weekend. After one week of deliveries, we took the truck to have a lift gate installed!

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?

Hands down, I would say Kristin. From the first week we met in business school to creating our company together, we’ve always shared a vision and have been able to build a talented team that share the same passion as us. Kristin’s boundless energy, focus on delivering excellence, and her ability to build a team of incredibly talented individuals has always been an inspiration to me. Kristin’s optimism is a major factor in what has made Revolution Foods successful. Her enthusiasm is truly contagious!

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?

Unfortunately, society has long set the expectation that women should play the primary parenting and home-making role than men, creating this pressure on the men to become the bread winner and ensure career success. If we got rid of these gender norms, women could prioritize their career free of the guilt caused by defying social norms. I believe for there to be more women founders, we need to normalize men and spouses taking on more of the home and parenting duties. We, as women, should encourage and support our male teammates who want to take on more parenting or home responsibilities. We must support our spouses in helping lighten our load; after all, it takes a village to raise children and build a career.

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

The most important thing society can do is to normalize and recognize that mothers and women need help with parenting duties and household responsibilities. For instance, we should offer equal maternity/paternity benefits to encourage equal responsibility for childrearing. This would help both men and women to feel encouraged by their employers and society to build both a family and a career.

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

If I can generalize a bit, women tend to be more emotionally in tune and can connect with clients and employees at a level that may not come as naturally to men. In my experience, women use a balance of logic, gut instinct, and emotion to lead. I also find that women tend to build more diverse teams, which has been shown to drive business success. I think women-founded companies thrive because of the unique talent women bring to the table.

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

Many people assume being a founder means you are your own boss; you can make your own schedule and choose what tasks you want to work on. In [my] reality, founders feel more pressure to always be working, to be constantly available to the team, to think of the next big thing — the list goes on. Kristin and I have put more of ourselves into this company than any other jobs we’ve had and that’s probably because we feel like the company’s success rides on our shoulders. Being the founder is not the easy path — it is all consuming and takes an emotional investment, endless time commitment and hard work. But it is worth it to be able to achieve your vision.

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?

Starting a company is not for the faint of heart. You have to be comfortable taking risks. If you are too risk-averse, a position that offers job stability and predictability might be a better career path. As a founder, you need to be creative in problem-solving, flexible, open to being wrong and being able to learn from those mistakes, all while striving for a vision that many tell you is impossible. Founders also have to have deep conviction in their ideas because when they believe in them, they won’t be easily persuaded by nay-sayers.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

It’s hard to boil it down to just five but here are my top pieces of advice:

1. Build a strong support network. Both personal (family and friends) and professional (mentors and colleagues) support networks are vital to anyone’s career success, but especially founders. You need people you can trust and turn to for guidance — people that can lend an ear to bounce ideas off of or people who can support you to overcome obstacles. You are only as successful as the support system you build.
2. Recognize when you need help. Having the self-awareness to know when you need help is vital, but that’s only half the solution. The other half is actually asking for help when you need it. Whether that is inquiring how to raise money or figuring out difficult company decisions, help can come in many different shapes and sizes. Knowing how to get it will help any founder thrive.
3. Have a clear vision. Knowing what you want to do with your company, why you want to do it and how to execute your mission are key components to a company’s prosperity. The day-to-day may look different, and at times you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle, but when you are guided by a true north star, you can steward that vision to fruition. Be sure to clearly define what success looks like, both for yourself and your team.
4. Create a team that shares your passion. You can’t do everything yourself. Being able to delegate is key, but if you don’t have like-minded team members, you won’t get far. Your team goes beyond your employees; it’s your consultants, board members and mentors. When the entire team has the same vision, you can hold them accountable and trust they are doing the job just as well as you would.
5. Have a strong set of core values throughout the company. A clear, articulated set of values speaks to how teams work together, how team members are treated and what the overall expectations are — all of which is imperative to achieving the company’s goals.

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

Since day one, my team has been focused on completely transforming the quality of meals offered to students by offering a new approach to school lunch. Through public-private partnerships, we have designed, produced and delivered over 500 million meals to various sites across 23 states, including community feeding programs, childhood education centers, districts, charter schools, senior programs and afterschool youth programs. The company is continuing to expand its product and service offerings with the goal of making healthy, culturally relevant and delicious food accessible to all individuals, families and communities.

We also recognize the need for nutritious meals goes beyond school programs. When the pandemic began, we knew we had to expand our efforts. With the lasting effects of the pandemic exacerbating food insecurity across the U.S., the company shifted its focus to include the country’s most food insecure communities. Revolution Foods pivoted to partner with key cities and municipalities to create new distribution models — a model of positive systematic change.

Revolution Foods’ mission expanded beyond its core student focus to include vulnerable adult populations, such as the homeless, seniors and the homebound. The company now distributes 2 million meals per week in hundreds of cities and towns across the country. With school closures continuing due to the pandemic, Revolution Foods’ work became increasingly important because many families rely on school meals as one of their primary sources of food.

Our impact on the communities we serve goes beyond just providing meals; we create jobs for those who need work. For instance, we provided daily meals to New Orleans (NOLA) residents impacted by the pandemic through our partnership with the City of New Orleans, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local restaurants. Our team realized that the unemployment rate in NOLA was at a record high, so we leveraged our public and private partnerships to create more than 500 new local jobs. Local eateries and restaurants (many of which are BIPOC- and/or woman-owned) joined forces with 90+ of our NOLA teammates and 100+ of our local drivers to nourish NOLA residents.

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’d love to ensure people have access and the knowledge of the benefits of healthy eating. If more people — particularly parents — had access to high quality foods and introduced kids at a very young age to healthy, balanced eating habits, I believe it would bring a lot of good to a lot of people.

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

I would be honored to share a meal with Megan Rapinoe, the professional soccer player whom my daughter admires immensely. Megan embodies those character traits I value so deeply — she lives with a values-driven purpose, she uses her platform to make a difference and inspire others, she advocates for equity and equal pay for women and men, and she strives for excellence. As a woman in leadership, seeing the personal impact that Megan has had on my daughter affirms my beliefs on how society should further embrace women leaders.

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

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

The Future of Beauty: Jeff Durham of GIMME Beauty On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Beauty Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Beauty can be more accessible. — Prestige brands and brands with premium and healthy ingredients are often only found in specialty and department stores. Our brand is designed for our global community in every walk of life. We want everyone to have access to quality beauty solutions in the place where they shop.

As a part of our series about how technology will be changing the beauty industry over the next five years, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Durham.

Jeff Durham is the founder and CEO of Durham Brands — a family CPG company. The Durham’s have over 30 years of global design and sourcing expertise. The flagship brand is Gimme Beauty, which aims to eliminate bad hair days from the world. The Gimme brand specializes in custom hair accessories and tools distributed across multiple channels: Food, Drug, Mass Retailers, Extreme Value all the way up to Specialty and Department Stores.

Prior to starting Durham Brands, Jeff worked in innovation at Moen, a CPG leader in the faucet Industry. He holds an MBA from Case Western Reserve and a BA in marketing from Brigham Young University. He is also the founder of the CPGX forum, a group of CPG Brands and their Executives organized to network and leverage perspectives to collaborate in the brand-building effort. Jeff has 6 beautiful children and an incredible wife and that is his greatest joy.

Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Entrepreneurship is in the Durham Family blood. Mark Durham, Father & Chairman of Durham Brands is a color-blind oil painter that sees the world through a unique lense. He’s founded and sold companies. We’ve built and sold brands together. Years of global sourcing and connecting the dots between trend and market needs brought us to the beauty space and we’re here to disrupt.

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

The stars aligned for us during the pandemic. We bet big in a year of chaos and injected millions into digital and influencer marketing bringing patented beauty & hair care solutions to consumer’s homes when many salons were closed. The bet paid off as we doubled our business last year and even were picked up by ULTA Beauty as they recognized the brand’s momentum.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

Coming out of the pandemic, we see the masses jumping on the bandwagon, it is now up to us to welcome and nurture the community. This will be the tipping point. When you are blessed with success, you have to show gratitude to those that made it possible. We have BIG plans for nurturing and rewarding our community as we continue to accelerate our momentum. Brands that put revenues over community will never become household brands.

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

The list would be too long to share. I started a CPG forum a few years back to gather executives of like-minded brands to meet and discuss the challenges of CPG and retail. This network and the time invested has been the secret to getting further faster and magnifying our ability to compete and be a thought leader in our industry. At times when Target or Wal-Mart call to cut a new deal or restructure funding, it is priceless to be able to phone a friend that has similar experiences to navigate the deal points and design a fair outcome that will sustain. Relentless networking and going to lunches with someone new often is an under-utilized resource that comes at the cost of a sandwich but pays big dividends.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

If you aren’t innovating, you’re dying. We are betting on beauty tech! As Tesla puts batteries in cars, we’re bringing wireless technology to the vanity. We have patents pending on hair styling tools that let dance moms do touch ups behind the curtain when outlets are unreachable. If you want to binge Netflix in your living room (not shackled to the bathroom), we’ve got disruptive solutions for that. We’re launching curling irons, wands, and flat irons with more wireless runtime than competitors. We’re launching a disruptive claw clip, brushes designed for unique hair types, and seamless hair ties that can withstand up to 70 pounds of pressure without snapping… The beauty world will look to GIMME BEAUTY for innovative hair solutions. #wetakecareofhair

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

While making beautiful hair accessible through technology and innovation is our mission, an unintended consequence could be that cosmetic beauty is prioritized over inner beauty. Our brand aims to instill contagious confidence, to give people more time through time-saving solutions, to spend more time doing things that matter most. We want beauty outside to breed inner confidence. A good hair day can bring confidence and self-worth and empower women to stand taller and reach their potential in leaving their mark on their piece of the world. We’re also building into our model an opportunity to give back to the community as we scale. More to come on this in 2022.

Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the “beauty-tech” industry?

With the advancement of so many technologies, the fruit becomes more low-hanging every day. You can decide to be the 100-year-old beauty brand that does things the way their mothers did beauty OR you can embrace the future and elevate beauty. Fail fast and lead quickly. We may not be perfect today, but we are adding more value and refining novel concepts through tight consumer feedback loops day in and day out. We listen harder to the consumer. We watch trends and forecast color. We are passionate about telling our story and love our community. Beauty tech is viral in nature and is exciting. This is an angle that will accelerate our mind-share grab in a noisy lipstick red ocean of beauty and hair care.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

1 — Beauty can be more accessible.

Prestige brands and brands with premium and healthy ingredients are often only found in specialty and department stores. Our brand is designed for our global community in every walk of life. We want everyone to have access to quality beauty solutions in the place where they shop.

2 — Brands are too exclusive.

We at GIMME = INCLUSIVE (all are welcome and every hair type is celebrated)

3 — Education can be accelerated through technology

Technology can be leveraged in products, but also to bring high-value education to the masses in convenient, virtual, authentic, and personal ways. We are building a technology road map to disrupt education related to hair care and health.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1 — Invest in your hair. GIMME products are available in most channels. Don’t settle for value solutions that will damage your hair. Damaged and broken hair from bad hair ties is unacceptable!

2 — Try natural care and scents. We recommend our lavender night-time-routine dry shampoo. You’ll wake up feeling fresh. Feeling clean is key to feeling beautiful — especially if you’re a fan of 4-day hair 😉

3 — A high ponytail with real volume using a hair tie that is customized to your hair type will help you feel powerful. No one likes a saggy ponytail.

4 — Find beauty in friendship — we encourage sharing products and trends with friends. We’re starting a movement and believe in community surrounding #nobadhairdays

5 — Strive for balance in life to find inner beauty. Wireless tools on the go can save you time and allow for touch ups in critical moments (interviews, presentations, recitals, etc) Brands should support your life goals. That is what is beautiful about our cause!

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. 🙂

I have dreamed of a movement to turn capitalism into an engine for good. I’ve sat on boards where we raise funds from those with abundance to further a cause. That is one way to make a difference. Begging for money will never be as effective as building a profit engine with a commitment to a cause. I’m building a community that will attract members that care. As they spread the word about the brand, they enable us (and them) to give back in perpetuity. No begging required. It also doesn’t have to be a single cause. It can be a million micro-causes and it can be funded through innovation.

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

Give more in value than you take in payment (Credit — the Go Giver Bob Burg & John David Mann) As I network, my goal at every lunch is to ask, “How can I give you value?” Without any doubt, I know that any value I give will come back in 18 months or less bearing a return on that value invested. I hope to end my career by calculating my net worth as the total value I created for others.

How can our readers follow you online?

The best thing to do would be to join our community. It’s not about me — it’s about building this brand to make a bigger difference. (https://gimmebeauty.com/pages/community)

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

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The Future of Beauty: Jeff Durham of GIMME Beauty On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake… 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. Tara Morris of Airrosti On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Develop relationships with other healthcare providers in your community. Understand that we are a specialized group of doctors, and that’s a good thing. We can’t take care of every condition, so do what you do exceptionally well and then find other providers you can rely on to send patients who need alternate care.

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

Tara Morris, DC, CCSP, an Airrosti Certified Provider, has been a Doctor of Chiropractic at Airrosti Rehab for ten years. She graduated from Boston University with her undergrad and then went to Palmer College of Chiropractic West. Morris has been serving on the USA Swimming Medical Staff for over ten years and travels to exciting International competitions with the team. Since moving to Austin, TX, 15 years ago, she has also been the Team Doctor for the Austin Outlaws Women’s Full Tackle Football Team. She is also a mom to two very active boys who are athletes themselves.

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?

Absolutely! I was a very active Army brat growing up, so we moved around a lot, and playing sports was how I made friends. I was a swimmer and played volleyball, basketball, and softball. This is where my passion for working with athletes started. I played volleyball through college, and then in chiropractic school, I got a part-time job coaching a local swim club team, beginning my work with USA Swimming. Also, in chiropractic school, I learned the process of working with other USA teams and set my goal for it! I took endless hours of seminars dealing with athletes, their injuries, rehab, etc., and when we moved to Austin 15 years ago, I decided to focus on swimmers. That led to my work with USA Swimming after a rotation at the U.S. Olympic Center in Colorado Springs. When I found Airrosti Rehab Centers 10 years ago, it was a perfect fit for me. I love spending time with patients working on their injuries and teaching them how to rehab and maintain their health.

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

I have a funny story that happened just a few years after I first started practicing, back in Pleasanton, CA. A patient came in for lower back pain, and after a few years of knowing him, I began to notice a pattern with his injury. I would only see him in my office with flare-ups in the summertime, and for the rest of the year, his low back felt pretty good. It seemed kind of strange to me. Well, upon talking more with him during his visits, I found out that not only was he an Oakland A’s baseball fan (like my husband and I were!), but he had season tickets to the games. One day, I asked him where his seats were at the stadium and when my husband and I went to a game that weekend, I found where he was sitting. After just a few minutes, I realized that to see the field of play, he had to turn his back in a particular direction, and he would sit like that for almost three hours every time he came to a game (which is A LOT with season tickets for baseball). So, we talked about his posture in his seats at his next visit. The following year, he changed the location of his season tickets, and guess what? No more chronic low back pain during the summer! So sometimes, you’ve just got to dig a little deeper with your patients to figure out what in their lives might be affecting their musculoskeletal conditions.

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

When I first started practicing over 20 years ago, I had no desire to run my own business. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of an option out there for Chiropractors to just join a practice, work, and get paid, so I was forced into an independent contractor-type of work. I didn’t take any business courses in undergrad, so I had no idea what to do regarding finances. I paid for many things with a credit card, which was NOT a good idea. Anyone I talk to now who is joining the profession, I try to emphasize that if their goal is to run their own office, then go out and take business courses along with their D.C. degree. We learn how to diagnose and treat patients, but we don’t walk out of school with MBAs. Some of the best doctors (in all different specialties) don’t make it on their own, not because they’re not amazing doctors, but because they don’t know how to run a business.

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

I believe that my work with patients is changing their lives. I hope that not only am I helping people to heal and get out of pain, but along with that, improving how they function in their daily lives. Most importantly, I hope that I am educating them on how to stay healthy and take care of themselves in the future.

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.

So much comes down to posture. Technology has changed the world, primarily for good, but with it, we have become addicted to our screens and drawn into whatever happens to be on them at the time. So, my top 5 lifestyle tweaks mainly have to do with that.

1. Keep your head up! Hold your phone up, not your head down, to see the screen.
2. Bring your work/keyboard/mouse to you, don’t lean forward towards it.
3. Sit back in your seat. You don’t need a fancy $500 chair; you just need to USE the chair you have.
4. Sleep in a neutral position, don’t have your head flexed forward or rotated to the side.
5. Hydration! Drink water throughout the 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?

The movement I would start would be centered on standing up and taking care of your body, not on others for your health. Get up and move! Eat healthy most of the time (but allow yourself to cheat sometimes too, it’s all about balance) and find things that interest you, where you can get involved and develop personal relationships for your mental health.

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

1. Believe in yourself and own what you are doing.
2. Develop relationships with your patients. Find out about their lives, which can open up the door to what might be causing some of their underlying problems.
3. Develop relationships with other healthcare providers in your community. Understand that we are a specialized group of doctors, and that’s a good thing. We can’t take care of every condition, so do what you do exceptionally well and then find other providers you can rely on to send patients who need alternate care.
4. You will make mistakes, own them and grow from them.
5. Know your worth. You put a lot of time and money into your education, don’t give your services away.

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 hugely significant as we’ve started to come out of the pandemic. I am very concerned about our children and adults who have spent so much time alone without in-person interaction with others. Virtual interaction is not the same as being in-person. At Airrosti and when I work with USA Swimming, being part of a team is one of my favorite parts of the job, being able to share in both the hardships and joys with your team. We need this as human beings. It’s essential to our well-being!

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

I will say I’m pretty old school when it comes to technology. I even still get an actual newspaper delivered to my house! But you can follow me on Instagram @14tjmm. You can also follow Airrosti on instagram, @airrosti, Twitter, @airrosti, or other social media platforms by searching, Airrosti.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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Women In Wellness: Dr Tara Morris of Airrosti On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support P was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Jessica Beck of Alfred On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Adapt to change: We know that things change constantly. Day to day, minute to minute. If you expect things to stay according to plan, you will fail. Change is inevitable, so you have to embrace it.

As part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Beck of Alfred.

Jessica Beck is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Alfred. Beck leads Alfred’s day-to-day operations and under her direction, Alfred has grown a best in class hospitality service and successfully rolled out a national building management service platform with tens of thousands of units managed.

In an effort to expand Alfred’s footprint, she has negotiated and developed partnerships with some of the country’s largest real estate developers, expanding Alfred to 44 major cities across the country.

Along with Alfred’s Co-Founder, Marcela Sapone, Beck supports founders who want to live more consciously through WHITESPACE Ventures, a seed investment firm focused on design-led tech for better business.

From SXSW to the Sante Fe Institute’s Annual Business Network & Board of Trustees Symposium, Jess speaks regularly on entrepreneurship and building scalable solutions in the sharing economy.

Beck holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in economics from Williams College, where she was captain of the women’s rugby team and graduated cum laude.

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?

In my early days at Harvard Business School, I met Marcela, Alfred’s CEO and co-founder. While in class, we both discussed how being a full-time employee, attending business school, and attempting to live a social life, was next to impossible. We began to do a lot of research and small experiments. We looked on Craigslist at the time and saw over 35,000 lists for recurring help in the top 10 cities in the U.S. We knew we were onto something and we knew we weren’t the only ones who needed help. This revelation led us to create Alfred.

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

Over the past year, our world has faced extreme tragedy due to the coronavirus epidemic. There was a drastic shift in resident needs almost immediately. Due to lockdowns, months of isolation, and limited connection, people needed more than just services and support, they were missing engagement with their communities and were left with isolation in the absence of social interaction. As Alfred began to integrate new community offerings, Marcela and I met co-founder and CEO, Francesca Loftus of HOM, an international technology-enabled amenity and community engagement provider. With HOM’s background and expertise rooted in wellness and engagement, we saw an opportunity to expand our community offerings to close the gap of isolation and encourage a greater focus on wellbeing and self-care to support our residents even more. Since our acquisition of HOM in May, Alfred has been offering virtual wellness services for residents, including fitness and mindfulness classes, webinars and community building activities. These programs, which have since expanded to in-person events, helped to reintroduce routine and community into our residents’ lives during a time when it felt like it was nearly impossible.

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?

Early on, I knew it was going to take a lot of progression, power, and talent to turn our class case study into a working business model. It’s not uncommon to fail along the way, and we certainly made our mistakes. When we first started pitching Alfred, we did it as often as we could. After countless pitching fails, brainstorms, coffee runs, and sticky notes, we realized we needed to focus on one key element: our audience.

Fast forward to when Marcela and I were prepping for TechCrunch Disrupt in 2015, we decided to make every detail of our pitch resonate with the male-dominated audience we were about to speak to (i.e. Dan from Silicon Valley). We made sure to note every question, comment, or concern we received during our early days of pitching and decided to use this feedback to refine our pitch this time around, thus leading us to win TechCrunch. We learned what people were thinking and used it to fuel improvement of our pitch, product, and business.

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

It was recently reported that more than 300,000 women left the labor force, the largest drop-off of women from the workforce since September 2020. Census Bureau data shows that about 3.5 million mothers living with school-age children lost their jobs, took leave or left the labor market when Covid hit last year. It’s clear we’re still in this period where “traditional” home life has not successfully caught up with the current state of the workplace. The demands of meeting work deadlines, while trying to stay afloat from the endless second-shift duties that women traditionally take on, has had a serious impact on women’s careers. Helping people at home is a key element keeping women in the workplace. It’s about being intentional about where your time is going and where you can delegate your tasks.

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

As a society, we need to increase growth opportunities for women in leadership and executive roles. This responsibility falls on all of us, men and women, to ensure we are creating an inspiring path for our future leaders. When women are in power, it shows society that it is possible. It falls on everyone running a business, to keep this top of mind.

Another big change that needs to be made across the board in order to ensure women are leaders, is for businesses to offer better benefits to employees. Whether that be through childcare, mental health support, or better paid maternal leave. Offering these benefits will open up a window of opportunity for women, because they won’t have to worry about paying for a babysitter, or only staying home with a newborn for an allotted amount of time.

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

If you have a great idea, and are passionate about it, pursue it, especially if you are a woman. It’s inspiring to see females in high power positions, because it encourages all of us to aspire to that. We all deserve to share our ideas to the world, no matter our gender.

I also think it’s important for women to be the faces of companies that help women. We know ourselves better than anyone else, and should be the ones problem solving and creating companies that benefit women. Marcela and I set out to create Alfred to help with some of those issues facing women, and we hope that our story inspires others to be courageous enough to believe in their ideas.

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

MYTH: Entrepreneurs need to put their companies first and their lives second.

One of the most important things I have learned as a founder, and throughout my career, is that a healthy work life balance is crucial. If you aren’t spending time doing the things you love outside of work, then ultimately your work will suffer. If you aren’t fulfilled personally, then you won’t ever be fulfilled professionally. Burn out is real, and it’s important to put emphasis on building a healthy personal life.

MYTH: It’s all about taking risks.

Sometimes, you don’t have to take the road less traveled or put investment and time into a big idea. Sometimes, it’s the littlest, or simplest ideas that have the most impact. Risks can ruin a business, if they aren’t thought out well.

MYTH: It’s impossible to have two founders.

I would argue that it’s better to have two founders, as opposed to one. I don’t know where I would be without my co-founder, Marcela. Having two founders allows us to have two perspectives, more ideas, and more opportunity to grow.

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?

Everyone has a passion for something, it’s just whether or not they make a business idea out of it or not. To be a successful founder, it takes patience, determination, and compassion. It’s not always fun and games, but when it comes down to it — you’re the voice of the company. You set the tone and energy for the rest of the team.

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. Evaluate who you are as a leader: It’s important to look inward, and critique, as well as praise yourself. Are my employees happy? Am I setting the right example? Are my actions a positive impact on the company?

2. Embrace your strengths and weaknesses: Sometimes our weaknesses are what make us special. If you aren’t the best at something, it’s not a bad thing. It gives you the opportunity to find someone who is. It’s also important to lean into your strengths. Most of the time, your strengths are also what you are most passionate about.

3. Overcommunicate your asks: It’s important to remember that not everyone thinks the same way you do. If you’re asking something, make sure to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. This will give you the ability to understand how they see your ask, and if you need to provide more detail. If you aren’t getting the outcome you want, evaluate how you are communicating your asks.

4. Stay humble: Never ever, let your success get in the way of who you truly are.

5. Adapt to change: We know that things change constantly. Day to day, minute to minute. If you expect things to stay according to plan, you will fail. Change is inevitable, so you have to embrace it.

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

We launched Alfred with a mission to make help a universal utility in every home, and to give people the support they need to focus on the things that matter most. Today, Alfred has become the leading resident-first software and lifestyle brand, offering a network of trusted services and support for residents in a sustainable, socially conscious way. Through the Hello Alfred App, residents can connect with their Home Managers or “Alfreds” — all of whom are W2 employees — to help them check off their to do’s, from grocery shopping and picking up prescriptions to folding laundry and paying rent. Our app even offers a marketplace with discounts and special offers to our local and national partners, making everything you ever need accessible in one place.

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.

Pushing women to escape from second-shift duties, so they can experience their life to their fullest.

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

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

Female Founders: Ilsa Manning of Ilsa Fragrances On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Create a tribe. From mentors to friends to family to social media relationships to networking acquaintances — find the people whom you can have community. The people in this tribe will be ones you can seek advice or solace from, laugh or cry with, despair with, elate with, grow with. These people will give you the strength to keep going when you lose steam and energy, because it will happen. My tribe is what has gotten me to this point today and I could never express my gratitude enough to each of these fabulous ladies who has supported me mentally, emotionally, and physically along the way.

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

Founder and mother Ilsa Manning, who honed her perfume prowess previously working at Givaudan and Coty, started Ilsa Fragrances in 2016 with a dream: wanting to be the best person she could be for herself and her daughters, while also lifting up other women. Born, raised and currently residing in Phoenix, Arizona, Manning also believes in giving back, donating 5% of all net profits to Girls On The Run, a nonprofit empowering young women.

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?

Thank you for having me! Honestly, I fell into it by accident! I was living in England and had just finished my MA in history. I had wanted to continue on to do a PhD, but the reality was that I needed to start paying off my student loans, which meant I needed to get a job. I put in my resume with a job agency down the road from where I was living, they sent me for an interview with the UK sales office of the largest fragrance and flavor manufacturer in the world and that was it! I got the job, and it was this role that introduced me to the world of fragrance and I fell in love!

It was about 8 years later that I decided to take my passion to the next level and start my own company. After a year of product development, I launched Ilsa Fragrances, my own fine fragrance brand.

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

It’s not quite a story, but it is something that I’ve found interesting and amazing at the same time, and that is the support I’ve been given since the founding of Ilsa Fragrances. Whether it be a random passerby, friends, family, work colleagues, networking acquaintances or new contacts, each person in their own way has been a cheerleader and guided me along this journey. I think it’s a great example of how people want to see others succeed in their dream. I cannot express my gratitude enough!

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?

Gosh! I don’t know if it was the funniest mistake, but it was a SMH mistake for sure! On my first run, I decided to have the name and logo screen printed on the bottle. This was done first, and then the bottles were filled with the juice. When I received the finished product there had been some damage on transport, which caused some bottles to leak a bit. When the juice leaked, it removed or smudged the screen printing, and I was left with unsellable product. Needless to say, I went with labels on the second run!

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?

Goodness! So, so, so many people have helped me — it’s really all about having your tribe around you! I have only been able to do what I have done because of the people around me — from their support to their love, to their guidance and advice, to their sharing of knowledge. One person that I should give a shout out to, whom I am forever grateful to, is my long-time, childhood friend Jessica. She has helped foster and grow the business as our freelance PR guru, but more than that, at the launch of Infinite No 1 in 2016 I found myself in the hospital due to life threatening pregnancy complications. She rushed in from Los Angeles, came to the hospital where we made a game plan, took the reins and lead the successful launch of the first fragrance in The Infinite Collection.

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?

In my opinion and experience, what I believe is holding back women from founding companies is the lack of mentorship, from childhood onwards, in entrepreneurship. When I was growing up and all throughout school, there was never a conversation about owning or creating my own company. It was always about fitting into careers that already existed.

I believe this is changing — an example I can give is that my daughters, who are 5 and 7 and who were my inspiration for the brand, are learning all about founding a company and entrepreneurship from me. I also saw recently that a fellow female business owner (and friend) made her 5-year-old daughter (who was the inspiration for her retail shop) co-owner of the business.

With proper mentorship and guidance from friends, family members and school counselors, girls can grow up knowing that founding their own company is an option, and thus not be held back by the boxes society has created around women and careers.

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

The main obstacle I see for women to found companies is lack of mentorship, but also seeing women in the role of entrepreneurship and leadership in business. As individuals, we can help overcome this obstacle by providing our time and guidance as mentors.

Our mission at Ilsa Fragrances is to empower women to believe in themselves and all they can do. I do believe that part of being able to start your own company comes from an inner belief that this is something that you can and are able to do. So, it’s an important part of our mission as a brand to encourage women to seek out their dreams and as we can, we provide access to mentors who can help. One way we did this pre-pandemic was through a Facebook Live event called Coffee and Conversation where I sat down with women from a variety of backgrounds (artists, entrepreneurs, etc.) and asked them questions about how they got to be doing what they were doing and what advice they had for other women who may be watching. My hope with these sessions was that whoever was watching got the inspiration and information they needed to start pursuing their goals and dreams.

We don’t stop there, though, because we also want to empower our girls to become empowered women. We want them to know they can do and be anything they dream. My hope is that my daughters, who gave (and give) me my purpose and inspired me to create Ilsa Fragrances, are seeing and learning from my example and learning from their participation in the brand, that, should they choose, they themselves can found a company.

We also donate to the non-profit Girls on the Run so that girls everywhere can learn they have the power to do and be whatever it is they dream.

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

The simplest reason is because women can. Women 100 percent have the capability to be founders. If a woman has a passion, a dream, an idea, or a vision, she should become a founder. Every woman out there can achieve the dream of owning her own company, the first step to the dream is first believing that she can do that, and that comes from within. My goal with Ilsa Fragrances is to engage that inner self-belief and push it out, so each woman knows and engages her own power.

To that point, women are powerful and tenacious. Once they have their vision and once they believe in themselves there is no stopping their force to achieve.

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

I’m not sure there are any myths I feel need dispelling, though I’d like to squash the idea or “myth,” if you will, that being a founder or entrepreneur, or business owner is easy. It is not. It takes drive, determination, vision, tenacity, but more than that it also takes humility, the ability to ask for help, the ability to seek advice, and the ability listen to that advice and to take the help.

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 believe anyone can do anything they set their mind to — anyone can be a founder and any one can be an employee. The question is, what do you want? Do you want to be a founder? Do you want to be an employee? You’ve got to seek that answer from within and then your ability and drive to be one or the other will come forth.

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. Believe in yourself. A lot of people will believe in you and your vision, but a lot of people won’t. The ultimate foundation to moving forward and taking on challenges is believe in yourself, your capabilities, and your vision.
2. Ask questions and listen. Most founders begin their journey as an expert in one area, then out of necessity become a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. We are just individuals and by seeking out those that are experts in their field (that you trust), you will have valuable insight and information for making decisions without all the weight of figuring it out yourself.
3. Seek and embrace feedback. The only way to know if you are on the right track is by asking those that are purchasing or consuming your product or service. Requesting feedback and analyzing it allows you to pivot when you need to pivot or stay the course when you need to stay the course.
4. Be brave and say No. This goes back to number 1 — believe in yourself, believe in your vision, know what you stand for. When you ask questions and listen, when you seek and embrace feedback, always do it through the lens of your vision and what you stand for. Doing this will keep you true to yourself, your vision, your goals. I’m not going to lie — this could mean potentially saying No to an opportunity or the “right way” of doing things. This is why you must be brave. It takes courage to believe in yourself, to say no to what doesn’t align with your vision, yes to what does and to do it your way… truth is, there is no “right way” anyway.
5. Create a tribe. From mentors to friends to family to social media relationships to networking acquaintances — find the people whom you can have community. The people in this tribe will be ones you can seek advice or solace from, laugh or cry with, despair with, elate with, grow with. These people will give you the strength to keep going when you lose steam and energy, because it will happen. My tribe is what has gotten me to this point today and I could never express my gratitude enough to each of these fabulous ladies who has supported me mentally, emotionally, and physically along the way.

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

I want women to believe in themselves and all they can do and so from the start of Ilsa Fragrances we have aimed to make the world a better place — we want to see positive change in the life of women and girls, which is why we donate to the non-profit Girls on the Run with each sale and have also been a sponsor of their annual 5K since 2017. The 5K is the culmination of their program which teaches girls they can do and be anything they dream.

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 want to create a world where every woman and every girl believes in themselves and everything they can do. We are incredible forces of nature, but often we forget this. We get bogged down in life and can’t and shouldn’t all over ourselves. I want every woman and girl to know they have an immense inner beauty, inner confidence, inner strength — when they believe and know this, watch out world!

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.

There is someone I would love to reconnect with and that is the magnificent beauty entrepreneur Cristina Carlino. I was fortunate to work with her briefly before the birth of my first daughter seven years ago. We’ve lost track of each other, but I would love to reconnect. She is such a visionary — with philosophy skin care she created a brand that not only made you look good, but made you feel good. Truly inspirational!

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

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

Female Founders: Dr Yusra Al-Mukhtar On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It’s going to take time to find your people. When you do start out and you start to grow the team, you will find people who understand your mission statement and those who are best suited elsewhere. Hire slow, fire fast is a mantra that I have come to understand though still find challenging to put into practice.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Yusra Al-Mukhtar.

Dr Yusra Al-Mukhtar is a skincare, aesthetics and wellness expert with premium clinics in Harley Street, Harrow-on-the-Hill and Blundellsands. She has recently published Beautified Britain Index: The Skin Report, a comprehensive analysis of Britain’s post pandemic beautification landscape. Her areas of expertise include skincare, aesthetics, tweakments, non-surgical treatments, skin and mental health issues and skin diversity.

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

My story started back when I was eight years old. My mother had just bought me the video “Jungle book” and told me I could watch it if I brushed my teeth first. I eagerly ran upstairs and climbed on top of my bathtub trying to reach my toothbrush in a rush, ended up slipping and slicing my lip open on a broken tile. I needed several stitches in my gums and lower lip, and, when I went to school the next day my teachers and classmates were horrified. They asked me to sit at the back of the class so no one would get scared or ask me too many questions. “Baby Horror” became a nickname that stuck at school. The scar bothered me for many years and I would be asked what was “wrong with my lip”. Naturally that had an impact on my self-esteem, but it also led to a life-long passion for facial surgery and aesthetics and really made me understand the impact of physical trauma on appearance and wellbeing. I went onto study Dental surgery and during my university years, I took a year out to take on an extra degree called Medical Science and Healthcare Management, at Imperial College London, qualifying with a First Class Honours degree. I then qualified as a dental surgeon with Honours and Distinction at Kings College London. After my vocational dental training I spent several years working in oral and maxillofacial head and neck surgery at various trauma hospitals in London.

During this time, I worked with victims of domestic violence and road traffic accidents and provided joint clinics with the dermatology team performing skin lesion biopsies, surgical excisions and reconstructive surgical treatments for patients who suffered from skin cancer and oral cancer. As a result, I developed a keen interest in facial reconstruction and aesthetics and is now what I dedicate my working life to..

I was also involved in research looking at orthognathic surgery for patients with congenital skeletal discrepancies and the psychological impact it had on them. This led to an interest in perfecting an aesthetic finish that would protect, restore, and maintain both my patients’ physical and psychological wellbeing. I am now a Level 7 Trainer in medical aesthetics in line with the Ofqual guidelines for medical aesthetic training pathways and have been practicing since 2013 and opened my Harley Street practice in 2019 and my latest clinic in Blundellsands in 2020.

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

Last year I launched a new state-of-the art centre of aesthetics excellence in Blundellsands, a beautiful village in Merseyside. I had wanted to find somewhere warm and inviting, where I could offer patients a holistic experience. I spotted a Victorian house that had been on the market for a long time — it was falling apart and needed a lot of work. I put an offer instantly and completed in December 2019. I applied for a licence from the council and planning permission to change the use of the building and we didn’t get it until the end of February. The building work started then had to stop because we went into lockdown. It was so frustrating for months to not be able to progress the works, so I decided to paint the place myself. I did the walls and thought “at least I have utilised lockdown usefully”. Then I got an electrician and plumber in, and they said, “oh we’ve got to break all the walls and rewire the whole building.” It was my first building project, so I had no idea what order I had to do things in. I just remember standing there watching as they broke all of the walls that I had just painted by hand and cringing with every drill. It was an expensive lesson!

Once we came out of lockdown in July, I had to race through many hurdles; designing a car park and ramp, interior design, insulation, sound proofing, building regulations and controls and becoming licensed with the care quality commission. It has been an adventure and a labour of love. In short, I invested half a million pounds in a new building, only for it to close within weeks of launching due to Covid lockdowns across the UK. The new clinic is in the north west, which has been one of the most hard-hit areas in the country. This has been a real test of resilience, but also an opportunity to rethink the way we work: we created one of the UKs first Virtual Clinics, offering patients access to our support and care worldwide. With adversity comes opportunity, with challenges comes growth.

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?

On my first day as a senior house officer in the oral and maxillofacial surgical department at the Royal London Hospital, I had to go and take bloods from one of the patients. I took three or four vials and I was about to throw them down the chute when I noticed that the content of one of the test tubes had coagulated. I thought “what’s happened here? I must have done something wrong”, so I went back to the patient, apologised and took more blood from her other arm. I was about to throw the vial down the chute, and the blood coagulated again. When it happened a third time, and I had to go back, I could sense the patient was trying not to panic. I was thinking “either I’m doing something wrong, or there’s something seriously wrong with her blood.” I had taken blood from both arms now, so I took it again from her feet with a forced smile thinking please let this work. When the blood coagulated yet again, I texted my husband “this patient’s blood keeps coagulating, I think something is wrong,” and he replied “honey, what colour is the test tube?” and I said “it’s yellow” and he replied “yes it’s meant to do that, it checks biochemistry.” That was quite the start to my first day in the hospital and I realised I had a steep learning curve! I did learn a lot and come out the other side with a few good stories.

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

My dad is a surgeon, and my mum is a dental surgeon, and I learned a huge amount from them about healthcare. Both of my parents always pushed me to do my best and be the best version of myself. They taught me grit, tenacity, hard work, and the principles of being a healthcare professional. My mother taught me to never turn a patient away in dental pain, and my father showed me about resilience and trauma management. Both my parents would always stay late to ensure that all of their patients received the right care. My mother was a catalyst in my career as a young aspiring dental student. When I was newly qualified, she was a very well-known implant surgeon, and the only British female diplomat in the International Congress of Oral Implantologists. I went to the USA with her to collect her award and I remember looking at her thinking “wow, she’s a warrior, she’s amazing.” I pulled her aside and I said “mum, I want to learn how to do implants, can you teach me?” and she said, “no shortcuts here, you need to go and learn how to do surgery properly first, then come back and I’ll teach you.” I really respected and valued that- and that’s why I went into surgery.

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?

Is that great progress?! In my field, aesthetic medicine, you will find that although most of the practitioners are female, the board members of faculties and professional bodies tend to be heavily male skewed. This is something I’ve challenged in the past and the tide is changing, but it is still swayed, especially against working mothers. This is something I feel really strongly about. Even today there is societal judgement that your success as a career woman signifies your failure as a mother. And naturally- that hurts! In my opinion, it’s societal prejudice and a fear of judgement that is holding women back. Women who are successful are often perceived of as ruthless or assertive, and they hold back because they don’t want to be judged in that way. I think there’s a constant concern about perception. Ambition in a woman is not a dirty word. We should empower women to believe in themselves, and to capitalise on their innate gifts to lead gracefully. If and when they choose to become mothers, that it does not have to mark the end of growth in their careers. Being a mother makes me a better leader, a better clinician. It’s with my innate skills of nurturing that I can understand my team be compassionate with my patients. I have learnt to silence the noise and be unapologetically me — a mother, a wife, a clinician, a business owner and a boss.

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 would love to see more female leaders championed in their local council to share their stories and the challenges they’ve overcome.

For me, as a woman who has also chosen to be a mother, it’s taken a real understanding that I can continue my art, my passion, my joy, my identity as a clinician and choose working hours that allow me to be a mother at the same time. It’s taken self-acknowledgement, commitment and understanding that I can be both and I can be a leader at the same time. You can nurture and lead gracefully; you don’t have to take on masculine traits in order to succeed. Women have incredible emotional intelligence and that means they can read people. I can read my team and I can read my patients and that’s a hugely powerful tool in my profession. Believing in yourself is a huge first step. Secondly, it’s really important to find a mentor and surround yourself with people who empower you and respect your vision. Empowered women empower.

In terms of what the government can do to help, teaching empowerment and entrepreneurship as part of the education syllabus would be a great first step.

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?

To change the tide! To create an equal level playing field for generations to come. I want for both my children to know there is no glass ceiling. I want my daughter to know that she can be anything she wants to be, and a mother if she wants to be. That it doesn’t have to be this or that. I want her to know that being a mother is the most incredible role in the world, but this role does not define everything that she is and should not be where she starts and stops.

There are other reasons to be a founder, of course, such as having the ability to build flexibility into your life, being able to choose how and where you work and define your own heroes. But it’s about more than that, it’s about knowing that you can achieve anything — there are no limitations — and that your voice is important, relevant, and valued.

I don’t think being a founder is the necessary end goal I would advocate to everyone. I would ultimately advise everyone to find their passion, fulfil it and excel at it. If you enjoy what you do, you never have to work a day in your life! Being a founder for me was a by-product of being in an area at a time where I couldn’t find a company that provided what I wanted to provide. The end goal wasn’t money or success or being my own boss. The end goal was about empowering change, about providing a service in a way it wasn’t done before. There has to be a reason or a just cause for founding a service.

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

That it’s easy! It all looks glamorous on the outside but what happens behind closed doors is sleepless nights, hard work, relentless gruelling training (especially in healthcare) and lifelong learning. Being a female founder can be a magical place, but it’s not all roses. It can also be a really lonely place because there aren’t that many people to talk to and figure out how to deal with the varying challenges you’re faced with on a day-to-day basis. I started a clinic from scratch and had many difficult decisions to make with little to no guidance, and I made many mistakes along the way. I had to learn everything, from business and accounting to project managing building works and navigating local government. People talk a lot about women suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ but I believe that everyone suffers from it — men and women and experts in their field. It is normal, to some degree. For me, that’s why it’s so important to have a network of individuals to support you and create a team of like-minded individuals rowing the boat in the same direction. Your team needs to have a common goal and it can be really hard to curate a good team. I’ve not always been a good leader; I’ve learnt how to be. I’ve learnt how to communicate my why and how to empower and support my team and ultimately, we are all working towards the same vision, and we all have good and bad days. The team is important because we all lift each other up when we fall and help each other get back on our feet.

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?

Anyone that wants to become a founder can be, it comes back to self-belief, mindset and having a clear purpose. Not everybody wants to be a founder and not everybody should be. The world needs employees, they are very valuable, and they make the world go round. Employees are very much part of the team and without them we wouldn’t be able to achieve anything. In terms of traits that increase the likelihood of success, I would say:

• Resilience — you will be knocked down, be accepting that this is part of the journey, and you will need to get back up again.
• Hard work — there is no nine to five, being a founder is 24/7.
• Focus — you need to know what you want to achieve. Trying to conquer everything will result in nothing being done. Start with small steps and focus on one thing. Ace it, then move on.
• Humility — accept that you will make mistakes and be willing to learn. Adopt a growth mindset and be kind to others and yourself. Know that arrogance gets you nowhere
• Team spirit — working as part of a team is essential. Alone you can do a little, together you can do a lot.
• Adaptability — you will need to be a quick thinker and a problem solver. Circumstance and environment changes. Knowing how to adapt quickly is important.
• Working well under pressure — being able to keep going, and handle a wide range of different challenges, personalities and demands without “crumbling” or “freezing” in fear is important. Being able to calm your mind in the midst of a storm is a trait of leaders and doers.

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. That you’re allowed to rest. Rome wasn’t built in a day and self and rest and self-care is important to your productivity.
2. You’re going to have highs and lows and make mistakes and that’s OK. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.
3. It’s going to take time to find your people. When you do start out and you start to grow the team, you will find people who understand your mission statement and those who are best suited elsewhere. Hire slow, fire fast is a mantra that I have come to understand though still find challenging to put into practice
4. You can do anything you put your mind to.
5. Nothing is handed to you on a plate. It takes hard work, tenacity, and grit.

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

I’m a passionate advocate for the connection between outer and inner wellbeing and my practice philosophy is rooted in empowering transformations. To me this means providing treatments that deliver both radiance on the outside and, wellness on the inside. I have a deep desire to help my patients to improve their wellbeing and their treatment forms part of a wellness journey that is about much more than just a tweakment. Many come for aesthetics treatments as a result of low self-esteem or to improve a feature that they are not comfortable with or have even been bullied about. This is why my new clinic is the first in the UK to offer patients a complimentary session with a clinical psychologist, alongside their treatment.

I’m a member of the Safety in Beauty campaign and actively support the profession in providing safe aesthetic treatments for all patients. I am also a lead lecturer and trainer to doctors and dentists at the Royal College of General Practitioners in London with Acquisition Aesthetics- a female led training academy that has just won training academy of the year in the UK and together we have recently launched my rhinoplasty masterclass focusing on how to deliver safe effective treatments.

I am a strong advocate for children and as a clinic we support the NSPCC- raising money for our local charity that supports children who have undergone child abuse. I believe every child deserves a happy and safe childhood and will continue to raise funds to safeguard these children.

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.

Me and my husband feel very passionate about mental health and believe that we can empower one another through telling authentic relatable stories of our challenges and struggles and successes. In this way, we can break down barriers and understand each other. One day we would love to realise this dream and create a platform for global mind health, to empower people to take ownership of their mental health, by understanding themselves, and others, better and in doing so bring people together.

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.

Simon Sinek. He’s incredibly motivational and he has incredible insight. He has been a huge influence on me in how I’m communicating my vision, my passion, my reason for existence and understanding my ‘why’ — my reason for being in business which goes far beyond existing to make a profit. I’d love to sit with him and pick his brains about how to be a phenomenal leader. I love his books, his philosophy and if I’m honest I wish he could be my mentor because I have so much to learn and so much I struggle with. I think I’d learn a huge amount from him!

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

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

Female Founders: Junea Rocha of Better-for-you On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

Being a founder is a tough job but also very fulfilling. It’s certainly not for everyone and that is okay. To be a successful founder you have to be resilient and have an incredible level of determination. You have to have a vision for what you want to achieve and confidently and tirelessly work to get closer to that goal. As a founder you also have to be willing to take risks — it’s not for those who are risk averse or need security to feel fulfilled. Embracing change is also critical. Accept the things you cannot change and use every opportunity to learn and improve your business.

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

Junea Rocha is the Co-Founder and CMO of better-for-you, Latin-inspired food brand, Brazi Bites. In 2010, along with her husband and Co-Founder, Cameron MacMullin, Junea decided to bring a cherished household staple that was native to her Brazilian roots, “Pão de Queijo,” AKA cheese bread, to the U.S. market without any experience in the food industry. In a few short years after taking a giant leap and perfecting the family recipe, Brazi Bites grew into a nationally distributed brand with a cult-like following after appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank and being included twice on the Inc. 5000 list of “America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies.”

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

I grew up in Brazil where my memories are filled with family and delicious homemade food. Growing up in Brazil in the 90s, there were cultural career expectations that you must either become a lawyer, doctor, or engineer, so, I went with engineering. After going to college, moving to the US and working in engineering for over seven years, I realized I did not see a future for myself in that industry. Having always had an entrepreneurial spirit, I decided to take a leap of faith and do something that would bring me the fulfilment and passion I craved. I missed my family’s Cheese Bread recipe (“Pão de queijo”) which is a staple in South America, and I wanted to share these tasty bites with Americans. After my American friends traveled to Brazil for my wedding and gushed about the cheese bread more than any of the other wonderful things they experienced, I was convinced there was something to the idea. That’s when the lightbulb turned on and I decided to pursue bringing authentic Brazilian cheese bread to Americans.

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

There are so many great stories in the journey of starting and growing Brazi Bites over the last decade. If I had to choose one single important moment, I would say it was appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2015. Everything about it was challenging and amazing and pushed me way out of my comfort zone. It was incredibly competitive to be selected, the preparation for the pitch took weeks and the actual airing day changed the trajectory of our business and my career.

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?

One mistake that always comes to mind that I can laugh at now, was when we were starting off, we bought an old food truck in hopes that it would create awareness and drive sales in our local market. We spent a crazy amount of time renovating it with plans to start sampling Brazi Bites at events throughout Portland. We hoped the food truck would drive people to the store, however, consumers struggled to connect that the cheese bread from the food truck was available in the freezer section of their local grocery stores, despite all our efforts to bridge that gap. We eventually sold the food truck and shifted focus to in-store sampling. Although it was challenging, I’m thankful for that experience as it taught me a lot about shopping behaviors and ultimately made us stronger as a company.

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

I’m very grateful to our peer founders. They have been our greatest mentors and have always had our back. When we were preparing to go on Shark Tank, we leaned on a few of our founder friends who had previously been on the show and their help was invaluable. The natural foods industry is incredibly open and supportive. We are always lifting each other up.

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 believe one of the biggest challenges many women face in starting their own businesses is a lack of stable and affordable childcare. It is such a significant issue in American society today. I believe more women would be founders or in leadership roles if there was more support. These roles require high focus and time commitment and unfortunately it is very challenging to do when childcare is not stable. Funding is also a big challenge for female founders. In 2020, women-led startups received only 2.3% of venture capital funding, according to crunchbase figures.

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?

Federal paid family leave and federal childcare support are good starting points. I’m hopeful those pieces of the Build Back Better bill will go through and that will be a good step forward. There is a lot of criticism and noise around the length of the paid family leave but anything at this point is better than nothing and you have to start somewhere. The funding issue is systematically rooted — having more women in leadership roles of VC Firms and Company Boards would be a good step forward as well.

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

• It is so important to have representation — especially in the food industry, women are doing most of the shopping and should be represented at the leadership level by the brands that serve them. We as women are also natural problem solvers. Starting a business is fraught with roadblocks and challenges and having problem-solving skills and the ability to think on our feet is crucial as a founder.
• We bring communication skills to the table, and it is no secret that women tend to be great listeners and are master communicators and networkers. Communication is essential for growing a business, building a strong team and developing talent as you grow.
• Women are also talented multi-taskers, and it is key for entrepreneurs to wear many hats and women do this their whole lives.

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

There’s an idea out there that founders operate alone and make all of the decisions. However, most successful companies have more than one founder with different strengths. Another “myth” is that the work is glamorous. Being a founder is like being a small business owner. There is a tremendous amount of work, and you have to do whatever it takes to keep things moving. Founders wear all the hats and need to roll with all the punches. Work-life balance doesn’t really exist. Lastly, there’s this misconception that founders are crazy risk takers. While that is true to a degree (you have to be comfortable taking risks) more often than not, big decisions are usually calculated and thought through.

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?

Being a founder is a tough job but also very fulfilling. It’s certainly not for everyone and that is okay. To be a successful founder you have to be resilient and have an incredible level of determination. You have to have a vision for what you want to achieve and confidently and tirelessly work to get closer to that goal. As a founder you also have to be willing to take risks — it’s not for those who are risk averse or need security to feel fulfilled. Embracing change is also critical. Accept the things you cannot change and use every opportunity to learn and improve your business.

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.)

• Expect to hear a lot of ‘no’s’ — don’t let them stop you from moving forward.
• The amount of work and time that it’ll take to get the business off the ground will be way more than you imagined.
• You can do hard things. Keep pushing through the challenges and the path will unfold in front of you.
• Understand your target consumer and listen to them carefully.
• Be strategic and thoughtful about your retail launch strategy.

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

What makes a life fulfilling is being of service to others and making the world a better place through what you do. I believe making foods that are better-for-you and replacing the junk people buy in the freezer has been one of our greatest achievements in growing the company. I also want to help aspiring entrepreneurs so I mentor and advise a number of entrepreneurs and hope that sharing my lessons learned will help them achieve their own goals.

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

I would like to inspire more women to go after their dreams and break the glass ceiling. More women need to be in boardrooms and leadership positions, and we need to start by giving them the opportunity and addressing the structural problem our society has around childcare.

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

I would love to have a private breakfast with Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. She is successful, humble, authentic and a great role model. She spent two years doing tireless research to establish a brand and all without having any fashion or business leadership experience. She has changed women’s undergarments forever and it’s so inspiring to see what you can do with little experience but relentless determination.

I would also love to chat with Greta Thunberg. She is absolutely inspiring because she is fearless. She is courageous and speaks her truth with conviction. She embodies qualities of a leader and is a powerful and inspiring young woman.

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

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Female Founders: Junea Rocha of Better-for-you On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Rachel Fiori of Masters of Self University On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Stop staying small by spewing your truth all over everyone, and open yourself up to higher levels of consciousness that invite universal truths to flow through all aspects of your life.

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

Rachel Fiori MSOT, CEO of Masters of Self University, is a Mystical Therapist & Elite Coach for High Profile People & Couples. She is the lead Mystical Professor teaching the Mystical Life Coach Certification program.

With a Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy, (specializing in mental, emotional, & behavioral health), a BA in Business/Corporate Communications, a Psychic-Intuitive-Empath, and as an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person), Rachel has spent the past 23 years empowering individuals, coaches, and high profile people across the world to heal their lives and relationships at the soul level.

Rachel masterfully utilizes the principles of Spiritual Psychology, as well as her gift of Divine Sight with her clients. She has the ability to perceive the unperceivable, and can see the deep truth of any situation which makes her the best in her field at doing “shadow work”. Her genius is the ability to “See” the root causes of all of your struggles. What she has the ability to see and show within a person or their relationship can change the consciousness of that person and elevate them to the status of fully healed, whole, and free.

Rachel’s wisdom of transformational-healing, her methods, and her reputation are unprecedented. She is a Radical Spiritual Teacher here to lead us into the New Golden Age of Harmony, and someone the world desperately needs right now.

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

My first shift into spiritual awakening was at thirteen years old when I was standing in my living room with my mentally ill, abusive stepfather as he was about to unload on me for earning an A- on my report card. Since the ‘minus’ was so close to getting a B, “it didn’t even count as an A”. As the verbal abuse began to spew from his mouth, I had an out-of-body experience. I was suddenly slightly above and behind both of us watching this scene play out in front of me. And I had this incredible epiphany. “Oh my god. This has nothing to do with me. His abuse isn’t about me at all. It’s about him.” And it’s almost like I heard this very stern voice firmly tell me to “stop taking his abuse so personally!”. My soul had the epiphany. My guardian angel “yelled” at me for being so ridiculous in my attempts to seek approval from this broken man who was doing nothing but projecting his own brokenness and unhealed inner child wounds onto me. I never gave a shit about his opinion of me from that day forward. I never sought his approval ever again. I was completely detached from his negative opinion of me, and from the rare times that he praised me because I knew it wasn’t authentic. I experienced a degree of emotional freedom from that experience.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have a shit ton of inner child wounds to heal as I grew into adulthood. And I tried everything under the sun to heal myself at the deepest level, and never got the results that I was working so hard for. I had many painful inner child wounds that I couldn’t seem to heal at the core level no matter what I did. This was confusing to me considering the shift I had had at thirteen. It took me many years to unlock the energetics of “programs” and how they run in our psyches. The process of how they’re created and how to transform them at the root level . . . permanently. How to even see the programs that are there in the first place. Most programs love to hide in our blindspots making it nearly impossible to uncover them and heal them. But I discovered how to shine the Light on all of them so they can be transcended into a higher vibrational frequency. I gained the keys that end suffering, and I now share those keys with anyone who is willing and devoted to learning what they are.

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

I disrupt every single aspect of a person, a society, and of the collective that is a reflection of darkness. People love to pretend that they don’t carry darkness inside of themselves. To pretend that they are the Light and only Light. That the planet is dying and in the poor state that it’s in because of other people… not because of “me”. That their relationship is crappy because of their partner, not because of “me”. Even though you are the common denominator in every relationship you’ve ever been in. That their job sucks because of their boss or poor management. Never because all we do as humans is reenact our childhoods over and over again, being completely oblivious to this of course, and therefore many often create parent-child relationships at their places of employment. But no, we want to focus on productivity levels, price cuts, overworking employees in every attempt to increase profit. Humans have all but erased what it means to take responsibility for how they show up in this world. And they’ve mastered blaming everyone else for how bad things are.

I show people how they are actually showing up in the world, at their jobs, and in their relationships, versus how they like to think they’re showing up. I teach people to shift into what integrity actually means. I teach radical responsibility and radical self-awareness. No one heals without these fundamentals. Sooo many people claim to want to end their suffering. “They’ll do anything” they tell you. But many are really just asking for you to hand them the magical key that, once placed in the palm of their hand, will miraculously remove all of their pain. Their delusional egos tell them that healing is this sweet, tender process of just being told over and over again that they’re perfect as they are, that they’re loved, and that they don’t need to change. That everyone else is the problem. What bullshit. If you’re not ready to awaken to the programs that you run and project onto others in this world that cause others pain and harm, then you are not ready to heal. You still need suffering to be your guru. Weak people don’t heal. Only warriors heal. Weak people hate, project, deny, avoid, and drown in their own selfishness and victim consciousness. Weak people spiritually bypass and try to cancel everything in our culture that makes them feel uncomfortable, all while blaming everyone else for their suffering, for their failures, for their triggers.

I am a disruptor of the darkness. For those that refuse to see their own darkness, are people that are far from being filled with Light. In fact, they are the people that darkness works through. And this planet desperately needs more beings of the Light, now more than ever before.

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

I think the funniest mistake I made was believing that healing myself (or others) was something I could do simply by applying some healing technique or working on myself for a brief period of time. I ignorantly believed that because my healing abilities were very powerful, that I could heal anyone. Many years ago I had an elderly patient that was mostly bedridden after she had a hip replacement. With tremendous help from her daughter and her walker, she could get out of bed and make it to the bathroom once per day. It was a painful and time consuming process, as she could barely walk at all. It had been approximately six months since she left the bedroom and could travel to any other part of the house. When I met her she was lying in bed. I placed my hands on her, and after several minutes her eyes got really wide, and she started to repeat, “no pain. No pain.” Louder and louder, “no pain!” She barely spoke english, so when she was yelling this I thought at first that I was somehow hurting her. But no, she suddenly swung her legs out of bed, stood up by herself, grabbed her walker and began to walk out of the room. Her daughter asked her, “Mom! Where are you going?” And her mom responded, “Into the living room! I haven’t been out of this room for six months!”. And she just walked out of the room. Her daughter translated what she said for me, and we both laughed hysterically.

When I came back a couple of days later, this woman was back in bed “unable to walk”. I was so confused. We all witnessed the miracle. This elderly woman experienced a miracle. And here she was. Bedridden again. So I did the same thing again. I placed my hands on her, and the exact same thing took place. She was almost startled as she began to yell “no pain!” because her excruciating pain simply vanished. She moved her stiff, almost frozen leg like she was warming up for a gymnastics meet. And then she stood up and walked out of the room, with her walker, just like two days before.

I came back for a session the following week, and I almost fell backwards when I saw this woman back in bed, “unable to walk” and get out of bed. Her daughter translated for me so that I could speak to her to try to understand why she was in bed after being able to get up and walk around the entire house without pain, all by herself. . . not once. . . but twice the previous week! She shook her head and said that when she went to bed that night, she woke up the next morning believing it was all a dream. She believed that her hip wouldn’t allow her to walk anymore. And her belief in that was more powerful than her belief in the miracle that she herself had experienced.

Now, you may be thinking that this is a horribly sad story and not at all funny. Well it is horribly sad and nothing about it is funny. What is funny was my ignorance. I learned an incredibly valuable lesson that day. One that shaped the way I coached and “healed” others. A lesson that is infused in everything that I offer as a healer, a spiritual teacher, and a coach. One that I teach my clients and my Mystical Life Coach Certification students. And the lesson is this: If someone at their core doesn’t want to heal, then there is nothing you can do to heal them. You can’t force them to love themselves enough to accept a miracle. If they believe more strongly in victim consciousness, or in a lack of deservedness, then that’s what they will continue to experience, no matter how powerful your healing abilities are. That experience placed me on the trajectory to teach my clients how to heal themselves instead of remaining in their powerlessness to either depend on me for their healing, or to reject my healing because of their lack of self-love. I now teach and heal from a place of empowering others. That is the core of everything that is offered at Masters of Self University. Every single type of coaching, every master class is to teach people how to connect to their own, inner, divine, power and to grow that power so they can be the miracle workers in their own lives. And it’s easily the most rewarding work that I do.

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

I wish I could tell you some fantastic story about an incredible mentor that guided me into healing, growing, and becoming what I am today. But there really were none. The ironic thing is that I hoped, I searched, I prayed, I BEGGED the universe to send me some enlightened being that was more psychic and more awakened than I was so I could learn from them. I desperately wanted a guru. But . . . nothing. Blackness. Absolutely no one. The funny thing is, my intuitive guidance told me all along that I was on this journey alone. Well except for my spiritual guides of course. And although, as a general rule of thumb, we all need teachers and guides that are way more advanced than us in order to guide us higher, it is also true that for some of us we’re not meant to have a person like that. This is one example of an intense spiritual test of initiation to go within. And that’s what I was forced to do. To go so deeply within myself until I could hear my higher soul speak to me clearly, precisely, and directly. I had to master my self. I never would’ve transformed into the radical spiritual teacher that I am today if I had followed another. I had to learn to connect directly to Source. I had to learn to raise my vibrational frequency to the highest level so that my level of consciousness could channel the consciousness of universal Wisdom. So my mentor is the Wisdom of the universe. That cosmic Wisdom is my teacher. My mentor. My guide. My support. My comfort.

There is a reason for that, by the way. The reason is that we’ve turned into a society that absorbs a gluttonous level of information and knowledge. And we love to tell ourselves that we know so much because we can quote a thousand teachers or authors, or regurgitate tons of information to others to show how smart we all are. And the truth is, that all comes from the programs of low self worth and inferiority. It comes from this incessant need to prove to others how special we are. And you only ever need to prove that to others you’re special because you lack the self-love and validation from within. You don’t believe you’re special which is why you need others to think that you are. Because of this, many seek out teachers and join “tribes” that will validate them, uplift them, and tell them how loved and supported they are. These are wounded inner children searching for the mommy and daddy replacement of unconditional love that they didn’t have while growing up. They seek out “mentors” that will pat them on the back and hold their hand so they don’t have to face their shadow-selves. So they don’t have to do the real healing work on themselves and finally grow up. They seek out countless people or coaches that will give them the next “hacks” so they can bypass doing the real work to face their darkness and heal their own pain, and that will tell them what they want to hear. They want the quick fix and they expend an exuberant amount of energy avoiding or filling their time with the latest technique, certification, or healing modality in hopes of magically eliminating their own pain. By not having my own teacher, I learned to go into my own pain and develop a very different relationship with every aspect of it. I learned how to actually heal it, and heal it permanently. This led me to the creation of the coaching programs that I offer to clients and the Mystical Life Coach Certification program that I now offer at Masters of Self University. Those that are enrolled in this program are devoting themselves to the deepest level of transformational-healing work that humans have access to in this lifetime. These coaches-in-training are not only healing themselves, but are becoming masters at guiding others through authentic healing, transformation, and self-actualization.

Outside of that, my dog, Mason, has been my biggest guru to date. He demonstrated to me in a million and one ways what unconditional love was. And as a highly sensitive being, he mirrored to me my own sensitivities. My having to show up for him with such gentleness, allowed me to learn how to be gentle with myself. My Mason passed away at fourteen years old in April 2021. I felt like my soul died on that day. The level of love, gentleness, and nurturing that I had to give to myself to heal the grief of losing him, was his final gift to me.

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?

Disrupting an industry is ALWAYS positive when it promotes the qualities and aspects of Oneness. When you’re dismantling and bringing down the programs of inequality, such as sexism that still plague our society in order for people to raise their level of consciousness to the way of Equality, that’s positive. When you disrupt to uplift and to promote the ways of Truth, harmlessness and gentleness . . . to promote the creation of a harmonious society or world, to promote sovereignty and human rights when they are the very things being taken away from us, that type of disruption is essential and is desperately needed across the globe right now.

Being disruptive is never positive when you carry your own selfish agendas, or agendas that cause harm to others as a byproduct of your disruption. Are you disrupting because you’re angry? Hateful? Unhealed? Because you feel inferior or powerless? Then you have no business doing anything but sitting down, shutting your mouth, and seeking out the healing that you, yourself so desperately need. People who come from hate or anger are doing nothing but spewing more hate and anger out into the world. That’s a reflection of weakness, not power. That’s how the darkness of evil moves through people. But you’ll justify your hate because someone else has hated you. Grow up. That makes you just as bad as them. That shows the low level of consciousness that you actually function in. You are only qualified to “disrupt” when you’ve healed yourself enough to express your own power of divinity through your words, your teachings, your actions. When you can come from love not hate. When you can speak universal truth in every one of your words. When you can show the emotional and spiritual level of maturity to be a disruptor, not for fame, or so you can call yourself an influencer, but so that you can elevate humanity to a higher level of consciousness. That can only happen after you’ve raised your own level of consciousness. Being a disruptor requires the ability for a person to accept the radical level of responsibility that comes with changing people’s lives. If you’re not strong enough yet to change people’s lives for the better, then you have no business being in the arena of disruption.

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

“Get out of your head and drop into your heart. Thinking ruins everything”. ~Rachel Fiori

Thinking comes from the egoic mind that is run by sabotaging subconscious programs. People are SO trapped in their minds. This is where they make all of their decisions from; from their measly, little human pea brains. When you stop living in mind and anchor yourself into your heart center, you exponentially expand. You open yourself up to the wisdom of the universe. This is how mystical wisdom, guidance, and healing comes to you. Get out of your arrogant, limited minds that can only learn so much knowledge, and drop into your hearts so you can expand and become synchronistic with the unconditional love that the universe offers.

“Weak people don’t heal. Only warriors do.” ~Rachel Fiori

I say this to people because it’s true. It takes strength and courage to face your wounds and feel your pain. But that’s what power is. Power is the ability to refrain from running from pain, and dive all the way into the depths of it so you can shine your Light on the roots of darkness.

“Fuck your truth.” ~Rachel Fiori

People have become so arrogant and self-absorbed and now justify their ugly behaviors by claiming, “this is my truth!”. “My truth” comes from nothing but programs, wounds, and ego. Your truth is a delusional perspective that comes from ego that reflects victim consciousness, self-righteousness, and separation. So quite frankly, you can go fuck your truth. I’m sick to death of people attacking others and showing up as non-compassionate assholes and justifying it by stating “I’m just speaking my truth.” What a way to take absolutely NO responsibility for how you show up in the world! Your truth is plagued by the delusions of your ego. You want to know what isn’t? Universal truth. Divine truth. You see, once you can get past your small, unhealed, personality self, you begin to see what the universal truth is in all situations. Instead of viewing life experiences from the selfish belief that you are the center of the universe, you begin to see every experience as a divine experience; the positive ones as well as the negative ones. The truth in every life experience is that that experience holds a valuable lesson of growth. And if you discover the lesson, no matter how painful or challenging that experience was, you gain the gift of that experience that is always hidden within it. If no one was there to support you or to help you heal yourself, “your truth” would be to claim how lonely, ugly and isolating the world is. The real truth. . . the universal truth, is that you had to learn to tap into your own divine powers to achieve your soul’s mission in this lifetime. That could only happen by being forced to move through painful life experiences with no one supporting you. If you’ve been walked all over, taken advantage of, or used in relationships, your truth might be to claim that there are no “good ones” out there, or to blame the opposite sex. Universal truth will tell you that you’ve experienced these things in relationships to show you what your inner child wounds are and the programs of powerlessness that you run. Those painful relationships were there to give you the opportunity to step into your power and learn to love yourself enough to master how to set healthy boundaries.

Stop staying small by spewing your truth all over everyone, and open yourself up to higher levels of consciousness that invite universal truths to flow through all aspects of your life.

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

Where do I even start?! There’s so much! One small way is through the No BS Relationship Master Class that is being offered in 2022 by Masters of Self University. You can learn more about that here. This class wakes people up to the fact that they’ve been brainwashed to show up as disempowered, codependent children in their relationships by expecting their partners to meet their needs for them. It’s time people stepped into their full potential and show up in a relationship as a divinely powerful being. This course teaches step by step how to create a sacred relationship and how to put an end to the old paradigm where relationships were based on inequality and survival.

On a larger scale, Masters of Self University is a role model for a new way to function as an enlightened corporation. Everyone rises together. Unity is the core focus so eventually Oneness can be achieved. The old paradigm of how corporations function meant that your mental and emotional health had nothing to do with work. Work was work. This is insane considering people’s work lives tend to be the leading cause of stress in one’s life, since it’s their source of financial survival . So Masters of Self University offers a very special program for corporations and organizations called Corporate Harmony Coaching. It’s the only one of its kind to date. What is this disrupting? The ignorant belief that you can’t go to work to heal yourself. Your place of work should be a place of healing! No matter what your product or service industry is! This corporate coaching program focuses on healing and creating harmony on an individual, organizational, and global level. It’s dismantling the belief that many have capitalized on that learning how to meditate for twenty minutes a day while at work, with your meditation coach that your company has invested in, is going to make profound impacts on the company’s bottom line. This is ridiculous. Most corporate coaching programs fall short because they make the same mistakes that most make when it comes to healing: what they offer doesn’t heal shit. They’re offering surface level techniques that might make someone feel a little better temporarily, but never heals the root causes of stress, overwhelm, burnout, or conflicts on an individual or an organizational level. Some positive impact may be seen temporarily, but long term gains fall by the wayside because people’s programs that get triggered at work don’t get healed via meditation or surface level coaching strategies. We believe that going to work cannot only be fulfilling, but it can be truly healing. And that’s how we’re making a global impact in a more profound and groundbreaking way. When healing yourself and your organization becomes a part of your every workday, every employee that participates begins to elevate and thrive. When they thrive, the company thrives. When activating an abundance of mental and emotional health at work, this thrusts the organization into a higher level of abundance in all forms. Productivity, sales, satisfied customers. . . the benefits are unlimited. Work transforms into a feel-good win-win, even when you have deadlines and periods of working extra hard. The Corporate Harmony Coaching program is probably the most exciting disruptor to the old ways that corporations have been run that we are currently offering at Masters of Self University.

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

Women are immediately labeled as angry, over-emotional, or too much. Men can show up as sexist, racist, arrogant pricks and they’re applauded for being “leaders”. Like these are characteristics of a leader. But if a woman so much as changes the tone of her voice, ever so slightly, she’s treated like she’s out of control and often interrupted with gestures and comments telling her to “calm down”. The irony of this is that anyone who gets triggered by the emotions of another is the person who is emotionally weak. Their emotional IQ is so low, that they need the person or people in front of them to act like an emotionless robot so that they’ll never be challenged to expand their own level of emotional resilience. A powerful person doesn’t need everyone else to remain calm and peaceful at all times in order to remain calm and peaceful themselves.

One way that darkness expresses itself through sneaky forms of sexism, is to expect women to be soft and nurturing all the time. Like this is the definition of the divine feminine. Like women have to walk on eggshells and suppress their voices and disapproval of the way unconscious men show up in this world. Divine feminine energy is pure raw power. It’s the only energy that pierces into the depths of all forms of darkness to transform the darkness into Light. That’s not masculine energy. It’s feminine energy that does that. Transforming darkness into Light IS nurturing. To say “no”, or to speak out against injustice, IS nurturing. It’s nurturing to yourself if you’re being mistreated, and it’s nurturing to others who are being treated like you are. Women don’t have to be soft spoken to be in their feminine energy. That’s just another way to oppress feminine power and allow victimizers to get away with what they’re doing.

Men don’t have to face any of these challenges because they’re born with a mic in their hands. They are automatically listened to and taken seriously, even if they’re clueless and unqualified for the job. Women are dismissed as leaders even though they are the natural born leaders. Women are the leaders and men are meant to follow from the front. Women are the beings that I call the golden compass because they innately have the gift of divine sight. Awakened women see the truth and the wisdom in everything and therefore make the most qualified leaders. Men follow from the front in order to protect and guard against anything that would interfere with her divine wisdom and guidance that stems from her natural connection to the One Power. When a divine and awakened woman leads, her plan includes what’s best for all involved. She never leads from selfishness. Her agenda is never about me, myself, and I. She provides the plan and direction to go in, and then masculine energy steps up and takes that plan to completion, protecting it until it comes to fruition. This is a reflection of unity and how divine feminine and divine masculine work together.

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

Yes! The book that has had the most profound impact on me is the book that I just finished channeling. I just wrote it so I can’t say much about it yet. But it has elevated my consciousness in a multitude of ways. This will be the next level of teachings that I will be offering to the world in the not so distant future. These teachings will guide those that are ready into the New Golden Age of Harmony. The challenges that humanity is facing in our current times are a reflection of a global dark night of the soul. The teachings in my book will elevate people out of their darkness so they can learn to live in the Light experientially. Not just as a mental concept or a cute social media meme that’s posted to gain followers.

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. 🙂

That current movement is being offered with our Corporate Harmony Coaching program. With this movement, we are healing and creating harmony on an individual level, an organizational level, which butterflies into a global level. I really feel that this will spark a ripple effect globally to elevate humanity faster than any other method.

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

“Weak people don’t heal. Only warriors do.”

I know, I know. I’m tooting my own horn, here! But I believe passionately in this saying. I learned like everyone else has, to avoid my pain. . to achieve success. . . to accomplish. . . to earn financial abundance. . . and then I’d feel happy and free. This is brainwashing bullshit that keeps people weak and functioning with a low emotional IQ. This is what keeps people in depression and anxiety disorder and dependent on meds that never heal these conditions. This is a never ending cycle of codependency on seeking things outside of yourself to feel a sense of happiness and joy. It’s time for people to learn the true definition of what it means to be a Warrior of the Light. Warriors dive full force into their own darkness and transmute their ugly, unloving programs, unhealed traumas and pain, with the unconditional love that they learn to become. Warriors embrace their pain and transform it with their Light. Weak people avoid their darkness, thereby giving permission for the darkness to set up shop within themselves and on this planet untouched, unchallenged, and unscathed.

How can our readers follow you online?

Website: www.MastersofSelfUniversity.com

IG: rachel_fiori

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3U9tlcGLwx9wwt-1vJbwvQ)

FB: rachelfiori.msu

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

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Female Disruptors: Rachel Fiori of Masters of Self University On The Three Things You Need To Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.