Category: Featured

Women In Wellness: Annalicia Niemela of Exercise180 On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help…

Women In Wellness: Annalicia Niemela of Exercise180 On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Stop praising willpower. — We often think that the key to not “falling off the bandwagon” with our healthy habits is mustering up more willpower. But what if the real problem is thinking you have to rely on willpower in order to sustain your health habits in the first place? The reality is that willpower if a very limited resource. So it’s actually is not wise or even realistic to think you can “fuel” your life with it.

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

Annalicia helps individuals who not only want to be fit and healthy, but want to be fit and healthy, long term, and in a way that doesn’t mess with their heads (or their kids’ mental health). Her groundbreaking philosophy helps people find their unique, healthy-living sweet spot (where success, sustainability and peace of mind all coexist). She’s the leader of the Exercise180 Movement which is helping people around the world become among the strongest, healthiest people they know (in body and mind) and is helping them create real, positive change for the next generation.

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

My health journey began when I was 18 and heard about the “Freshman 15” for the first time. Prior to hearing about the “Freshman 15” I didn’t think much about my health or my weight. I was a three-sport athlete in high school so I got the exercise I needed simply by showing up for my games and practices. And, like most high school kids, I ate the meals that were prepared for me and whatever was in my house for snacks.

So, I’m 18 years old, I’m thin and I’m fit, but I suddenly realized that could all change very quickly. And, even though I didn’t think much about my weight prior to that, the idea of gaining weight started to really scare me. All I wanted was to stay thin and fit, but I didn’t really have any health habits in place, I didn’t really know what it meant to be healthy or how to do it on my own.

I got to work and established rules about food and strict exercise routines. I told myself there was no excuse for me not getting to the gym. So, I went…

Every. Single. Day.

It didn’t matter how I was feeling, emotionally, and it didn’t matter how I was feeling, physically. I never allowed myself to miss a workout because, “I didn’t feel like it.” I was the perfect poster child for the “no excuses” fitness philosophy.

My obsession with exercise escalated to a point where I would work out even if I was sick. I was obsessed with exercise, obsessed with rules around food, and obsessed with my weight. It was far from healthy. Anxiety and exhaustion dominated my life and escalated to a point where I was finally willing to consider that there might be a better way.

I sought out training in different health modalities, like yoga and health coaching, that promoted listening to your body and your feelings and I eventually found relief from my fear of food, my anxiety and my exhaustion. After about a decade of practicing this new way of being healthy, my life had completely transformed. I had become a different, happier, healthier individual. I had truly found my healthy-living sweet spot where success, sustainability and peace of mind can all coexist!

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

It’s a very interesting experience to do live television segments and to be in a studio where there are only 20 or so individuals actually in the space with you (camera people, producers, etc), but to know your content is being immediately seen by thousands more. That unique blend of a small, personalized feel with immediate, larger impact has taught me a lot about being present and trusting myself in the moment.

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, I was focused mostly on arriving at my goals instead of focusing on the process of becoming who I needed to be to reach those goals. Forcing achievement can work, short-term, but it’s never sustainable and often comes at a high price. These sacrifices that I’ve made in pursuit of external accolades have taught me to focus less on results and more on who I’m being and how I’m thinking.

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 help people get stronger in body, mind and spirit. Healthy 180 transformations are possible and I help people exercise their power to make them happen! I’m the leader of the Exercise180 Movement which is helping people around the world become among the strongest, healthiest people they know (in body and mind) and is helping them create real, positive change for the next generation. E180 helps people change the way they think about their bodies and health and leads them to begin thinking about life, in general, in more-positive, empowered and constructive ways.

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

1.) Add in, don’t cut out.

I used to be a person who had a bunch of rules around food. It was exhausting and it always seemed to backfire. I would, for example, set the goal of NO TREATS for a week . But during that week, treats were always on my mind. Then, if I did end up making it the entire week without eating treats, the first thing I would do to celebrate…the first thing I would do to reward myself…would be by eating treats.

So when it came to being healthy long-term and when it came to being healthy with ease, nothing really changed. I would reach my goal, but there I was again…under the spell of treats.

When I gave myself permission to focus on what I would add in vs. what I was going to cut out — that’s when things started to change for me.

I love this wisdom from Joshua Rosenthal (who is the founder of Integrative Nutrition, the health coach training school I went to). He says, “Add in to crowd out.”

What are a few important things I focus on “adding in” in my life on a regular basis? Water, movement, fruit & veggies, and deep breathing.

2.) Maximize fun and satisfaction.

You have permission to mold everything about your health to a feeling that equals satisfaction for you. In other words, you have permission to find the right yoga class for you. You have permission to drop your yoga class and go to the treadmill and watch a movie while you work out. There are always ways to make health habits more fun, more satisfying, easier and/or more delicious.

3.) Stop praising willpower.

We often think that the key to not “falling off the bandwagon” with our healthy habits is mustering up more willpower. But what if the real problem is thinking you have to rely on willpower in order to sustain your health habits in the first place? The reality is that willpower if a very limited resource. So it’s actually is not wise or even realistic to think you can “fuel” your life with it.

4.) Focus on thinking better.

When it comes to getting healthier, it’s crucial to NOT just focus on your behavior (what you’re doing or not doing and the results you’re getting or not getting). But it’s ALSO crucial to focus on what you’re thinking and who you’re being. And, ultimately, how you’re feeling.

What I’ve learned is, in order to find your healthy-living sweet spot (where success, sustainability and peace of mind can all coexist), you MUST bring “intangibles” into the conversation. Put another way…

Thinking better must be a priority.

A natural byproduct of thinking better is doing better. Meaning, when you begin to think better, you won’t have to force yourself to do better…it will happen, naturally, and will be sustained, naturally. Valuing life’s “intangibles” is absolutely key to finding that sweet spot where success, sustainability and peace of mind all come together.

5.) Think holistically.

If you’re “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, if you’re wreaking havoc on important aspects of your life in pursuit of improving your physical health, is that truly healthy?

The answer is — no.

The time has come for us all to have a higher standard for what we label as “healthy” and the only way to make that happen is to not only 1.) bring the intangibles into the conversation, but also 2.) STOP compartmentalizing life…we must make the conversation broader, more holistic.

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

I started the Exercise180 Movement nearly four years ago to bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people. What follows is our manifesto.

The E180 Manifesto

My name is ___________ and I’m a part of a grassroots group of individuals who came together because, when it comes to getting healthier, we had a suspicion that there had to be a better way.

We tried and failed and fell off the bandwagon enough times to realize the truth in Albert Einstein’s words, “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

So instead of repeating what didn’t worked in the past, we decided to investigate what could actually work for us moving forward. We are having a completely different conversation about health and food and exercise than you’re used to hearing. Completely different.

We do not believe that more self-discipline or accountability is required to become healthier. Science has proven that willpower is a very limited resource. Instead of denying this truth and expecting ourselves to run our lives on something that’s guaranteed to run out, we have decided a different kind of “fuel” is required. We don’t think deprivation leads to good things. We do not believe in the attitude of no excuses. We do not believe that pushing through is a virtue or that it’s wise to label certain things in your life as “non-negotiable”.

And this does not make us weak. On the contrary! We are likely among the strongest people you will ever meet…in body and mind. Our strength increases each time we reclaim our power from what doesn’t work and, instead, put our time, money and attention behind what does. It is 180 shifts like these that our transformation is built upon.

We are the initiators of true change and the builders of a healthier tomorrow. We exercise 180.

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

1.) Embrace mess.

Mess is the mark of a maverick…one who thinks beyond, one who creates beyond, one who becomes beyond that which has been before. The mess, the swirl of uncertainty, the dust of disappointment, the tornado of ideas are all natural as better becomes.

2.) Show yourself and others grace.

Strength is not the same thing as rigidity. A healthy mind is a flexible mind. And a healthy heart is one that softens easily.

3.) Check in with yourself often.

Others will have opinions about your journey so it is very important that you establish a strong rapport with yourself so you’re able to hear your intuition through the “noise” of others’ opinions.

4.) Mold things into place.

You always have permission to err on the side of simple and set yourself up for easy success in pursuit of becoming better. Baby steps always, eventually (and sooner than you think), lead to big progress.

5.) Be patience with your process.

For seven years, the bamboo plant looks like it is making no progress. Then, almost overnight, it shoots up into a towering stalk. During the seven years of seemingly no progress, the bamboo plant was actually creating complex root systems to ensure its long-term wellbeing. This is a great metaphor to keep in mind on your journey! When it seems like you’re making no progress, maybe what’s actually happening is you’re deepening your roots and establishing a more-solid foundation for your success.

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

As someone who neglected her peace of mind in pursuit of physical “health” goals, mental health is dearest to me. Because of my personal perfectionistic struggles in pursuit of trying to become better, I’m committed to being a new kind of leader in the health, fitness and personal-development world. One that not only concerns herself with people’s behaviors, what they’re doing or not doing to get healthier, but one who also values the thoughts, feelings and intentions behind people’s behaviors. One who not only gives credence to what can be measured, seen and tracked, but one who also gives credence to the motives and values we’re living and teaching to the next generation.

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

I’d love to connect on Instagram @exercise180 and you can learn more about the E180 Movement at www.Exercise180.com/Join-Now.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Annalicia Niemela of Exercise180 On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Alexandra Mosca and Doris Amen: They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Do it now. Otherwise, all hell may break loose. No matter how busy, take care of things in a timely manner. Otherwise, you may become overwhelmed, and miss an important opportunity.

As a part of our series about “dreamers who ignored the naysayers and did what others said was impossible”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexandra Kathryn Mosca and Doris V. Amen.

Known as the Morte Girls, Alexandra Kathryn Mosca and Doris V. Amen are two of the best-known names in funeral service. Having achieved success in a formerly male-dominated field, they are role models for women aspiring to similar careers. The women are sought after for commentary about the state of the industry.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit better. Can you tell us your ‘backstory’?

We grew up in New York City’s outer boroughs, Doris in Brooklyn and me in Queens, at a time when women were embarking on traditional careers, like teaching or nursing. We, too, felt strongly about aspiring to careers that would serve our communities, and help others. We just weren’t sure in what capacity. But I can tell you that becoming funeral directors was the furthest thing from our minds. For Doris, it was becoming engaged to a mortuary student, who was following in the footsteps of his uncle and cousin, and helping him study, which proved decisive. Until then, the only reference she had to funeral service was the local funeral home’s ad on her school’s book covers, which to her seemed a little curious. For me, it was an after-school job in a funeral home that changed the course of my life.

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

I am almost finished putting my first book, Grave Undertakings, a memoir about my entrée into funeral service, into ebook form. It is a project a long time in the making. The hardcover edition has been out of print for a while and the remaining copies are prohibitively expensive. I want to make it available as a reference for young women so they can see how far we’ve come and won’t feel they are alone on their journey. We wholeheartedly subscribe to the message in the ad campaign: “If you can see her, you can be her.” That’s another reason, despite our busy schedules, that we keep a public presence. Being seen as role models is something that is important to us.

Doris endured a prolonged battle with New York City’s Department of Buildings after it claimed her funeral home was not a funeral home at all (though it has been in existence since 1950). The DOB claimed it was a cabaret restaurant (which it had been in the 1920s) and threatened to shut her business down. It took 2 1/2 years, and lots of red tape, to clear the matter up. All the while she feared that the funeral home she had poured so much love into could be taken away from her. Doris has written an account of that — a cautionary tale for others — which she hopes to publish in the new year

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?

In the funeral business, personal service is everything and that’s what we offer the families we serve. Such service goes a long way in setting us apart. What’s more, we are there for families during –and after — the service.

Making funeral arrangements for a loved one is not something anyone wants to be doing. It can be dauting and overwhelming. We try to look at it from the survivors’s perspective, treating them as we would wish to be treated if we lost someone we loved. In mortuary school, one instructor explained that people often felt more comfortable making funeral arrangements in the comfort of their own home. To this day, I continue that practice for those who prefer it.

Ok, thank you for that. I’d like to jump to the main focus of this interview. Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us? What was your idea? What was the reaction of the naysayers? And how did you overcome that?

People were literally in shock when we told them we wanted to pursue careers as funeral directors. You want to be what!? They gasped; eyes wide with surprise. Some thought it morbid, or just plain weird. Since women were, for the most part, not generally visible in the field, it was not an idea people could wrap their heads around.

“You will never make it in the funeral industry!” we were told time and again. as we embarked on what was a most nontraditional field for women. “You can’t do it,” they said. But as Doris likes to say, “Can’t means: can try.” She positively fumes when someone says something is impossible.

The naysayers were wrong. In fact, their dire predictions for our failure only strengthened our resolve.

“All those guys are six feet under now,” Doris said with a laugh.

Today, our success has exceeded our expectations, and we are gratified by the doors we helped open for other women entering funeral service. We’d like to pass along what we learned, so that these women will not be discouraged on their career journey. Resiliency and tenacity truly will get you where you want to go.

In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂

Doris owns one of the busiest funeral homes in Brooklyn. She is also the face of funeral service in many documentaries and newspaper articles. During the height of the Covid crisis in New York City, swamped with work as she was, Doris made herself available to the press so that they could fully grasp the horror of what was happening. What’s more, she is a fixture in her community. She always says that being appreciated and acknowledged by her neighbors fuels her. The letters, notes, and cards she gets are some of her most precious possessions.

As for me, I run my own funeral service in Queens and also have a career as a writer. I chronicle the funeral industry, and profile my noteworthy fellow professionals. A colleague recently gave me the best compliment. He said, “You really haven’t made it in funeral service until you’ve been interviewed by Alexandra.

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

I am grateful to my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Clara Silverman. She recognized in me my love for the written word and both challenged and encouraged me to keep writing. When I would struggle with my writing projects, she would not allow me to quit until it met with her satisfaction. Those assignments become life lessons in perseverance. Sometimes when I’m writing, I remember Mrs. Silverman telling me, Keep at it. I know you can do this.

Despite a difficult relationship with her father, Doris still credits him with encouraging her to pursue her dreams. Though he wanted her to follow in his footsteps and become a dentist, she would have none of it. Despite his disappointment, when she chose funeral service, he supported her career goal.

It must not have been easy to ignore all the naysayers. Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share the story with us?

We both came from dysfunctional families. Our respective parents were demanding, strict disciplinarians, and emotionally withholding. By college, we had to fend for ourselves. Despite the difficulties, coming from such backgrounds was good training ground for what we’d have to face down the line early on in our careers when dealing with some very unpleasant people.

Doris was also the victim of bullying in her Catholic grammar school. Ethnic slurs were often hurled at the students of Italian heritage. She learned to stand up for herself at an early age.

Based on your experience, can you share 5 strategies that people can use to harness the sense of tenacity and do what naysayers think is impossible? (Please share a story or an example for each)

Work hard and stay focused. It’s that simple. Funeral service is a 24/ 7 commitment. You can’t tell a potential employer, “I don’t work nights or weekends.”
Refuse to take “no” for an answer. If not for that, we wouldn’t be where we are today. When we were job- hunting and facing rejection after rejection, rather than make waves (we knew that strategy was a bad one) we remained stoic and cautiously optimistic as we followed up on any and every lead until we found funeral homes willing to take a chance on us.
Have a sense of humor. That goes a long way in defusing a situation. We often find humor in the strangest situations.
Make it happen. That sometimes calls for creative thinking. If someone asks for something special at a funeral — an accordion player, red casket interior, a horse-drawn carriage — some funeral directors might say they can’t do that. We are both willing to, as the saying goes, move heaven and hell to make things happen.
Do it now. Otherwise, all hell may break loose. No matter how busy, take care of things in a timely manner. Otherwise, you may become overwhelmed, and miss an important opportunity.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

Doris’s favorite quote is by author Napoleon Hill, who famously wrote, “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.” And she more than lives up to that spirit. Mine is from philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” We share a third from poet Maya Angelou: “I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” This resonated mightily given some of the unfortunate negativity we’ve seen around us.

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.

We would enlist our colleagues around the country in our mission to keep dignity in funeral service. Somewhere along the line, it began to be played for laughs, losing the reverence it deserves. We are dismayed at the portrayal of funeral service in popular media. To hear reporters tell it, solemn rituals have been replaced by a host of outrageous alternatives. These stories bear no resemblance to what we see daily but have convinced some consumers that traditional funerals are no longer part of the American culture. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Can our readers follow you on social media?

Absolutely! You can follow us on Instagram and on Twitter @themortegirls

Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!

Alexandra Mosca and Doris Amen: They Told Me It Was Impossible And I Did It Anyway was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Cindy Salas Murphy of ‘WithHealth’ on The 5 Leadership…

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Cindy Salas Murphy of ‘WithHealth’ on The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

End your days with favorite moments: In our field, not every day will yield the results you expect. However, every day we have a moment that brings us joy or peace. Celebrate that moment by recalling it before you go to bed and share it with someone you love.

As a part of my series about “Lessons from Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Cindy Salas Murphy, CEO & Founder of WithHealth.

Cindy Salas Murphy is the Founder and CEO of WithHealth, a San Diego-based digital precision care, telehealth company that is committed to delivering on the promise of precision care by dramatically changing the healthcare experience to improve employee health and employer outcomes. WithHealth uses genomics, digital twin technology, augmented intelligence, care coordination, and telehealth to make healthcare personalized, affordable, proactive, and accessible. Cindy has more than 20 years of experience leading transformation in healthcare for hospitals, medical groups and as an entrepreneur with a successful exit. Her outcomes include growth of a start-up to more than $1B under management, improved patient safety, quality, service and growth, while also reducing cost and optimizing productivity levels. Her passions include precision health, improving access to care, destigmatizing mental health, and eliminating health disparities. She holds a Master in Public Health from San Diego State University and a Bachelor in Science from Mount St. Mary’s University.

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

I am the daughter of two immigrants who met and fell in love in Los Angeles, CA. On their honeymoon, driving from Los Angeles to Costa Rica, they were in a horrific car accident. Both of my parents were significantly injured and my mom, at the age of 24, became disabled. Miraculously enough, she was able to have five children, two of which survived — my older sister and me. My parents’ dedication to us was endless, and still is to this day. My mom taught us to enjoy life, to be creative, and to play nice. My dad was active with us, took us running and biking, and taught us to love the ocean. He loved to play with us outdoors, which was something my mom could not do.

When my dad was about 38 he was injured in another accident, and as a young child, I felt like I was losing my playmate. When he was hospitalized, my only question for the neurosurgeon was whether my dad would be able to play with us outside. Dr. Richland (I still remember his name) told me that he wasn’t sure. He told me he would do his best, but he couldn’t give me any guarantees. As you can imagine, this was incredibly difficult to hear. I told Dr. Richland that I wanted to make medicine better. I knew then and there that I wanted healthcare to be better — not only for the patients, but also for their families. I was eight years old, with a defined purpose in life. My determination and drive to make healthcare better have only grown throughout the years, and it fuels me everyday. I awaken with a fire in my belly, knowing that each day I have the opportunity to make a difference in this world.

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

In March 2020, the most unprecedented event in my life occurred. Our country shut down. The world shut down. People were getting sick. At WithHealth, we were launching our digital precision care delivery model to employers, but the employers went home. They were unsure of their future, both personally and professionally.

WithHealth already employed physicians, nurses, and genetic pathologists. Plus, we had a platform. So, we rolled up our sleeves and carried out our mission to make healthcare affordable and accessible. While our original focus was on precision care, we turned instead to immediate COVID risk mitigation and testing for employers. It was the fastest pivot I have ever taken in my professional life. In a matter of weeks, we were serving as the telemedicine provider for San Diego County’s COVID alternative discharge centers and shortly thereafter providing workplace safety for employers across the U.S. To date, we have serviced more than 150 clients across many industries, from first responders, to financial services, to professional sports teams. Our biggest industry is entertainment and production. We have the privilege of servicing some of the largest production studios in the world, and are working shoulder to shoulder with them to keep their workplaces safe and free from COVID outbreaks.

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?

First, I believe a mistake only happens when you do something unintended and you don’t learn from it. Instead, I like to think in terms of unintended moments that lead to growth. One of the funniest moments of contrast that I have experienced was in a meeting with a potential investor. I asked him why he was interested in meeting with us. He said that he was intrigued by our model. I, in turn, asked what intrigued him. As he attempted to respond, I quickly realized he actually had no idea what we did, nor did he realize that we were not actively raising money at that time. Nonetheless, I took the opportunity to practice my elevator pitch and share more about WithHealth. Turns out, he only invests in real estate. We weren’t the right fit for him before I even entered the room. I spent over an hour explaining our model and, upon reflection, I learned a lesson. While the experience had been amusing and great fun, in the end, I was not a good steward of his — or of my own — time. Nowadays, I am very intentional in creating alignment at the beginning of my meetings so that I can be the best steward of everyone’s time.

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

We are a digital precision care, telehealth company. We are the only solution that brings primary care, specialty care, behavioral health, and urgent care all together in a digital first model that is powered by genomics. Our delivery model enables care for employees and reduces costs for both employees and employers. We cost less than a cup of coffee per day and offer unlimited chat with clinicians, unlimited urgent care visits, five visits per year with their WithHealth primary care physician, and access to our specialists for only $45 to $85 per visit. What this means is that we can focus not only on treating illness, but also on creating a plan of care that is preventive and proactive. Our clinicians use the patient’s clinical information, including their pharmacogenomics and genomic profile report, to help patients take the right medication and prevent new or continued illnesses. A beautiful example of this came early. One of our first patients suffered from adult acne and irritability. They were interested in learning more about how to improve their mood and their skin condition. Their pharmacogenomics test showed that they were on anti-depressants which weren’t working well for them, and their skin condition was related to their gut health. In a few short weeks, this patient felt significantly better and the skin condition was improving. That was fuel! It was immediate evidence that our model worked. Here we stand, a year later, iterating on that experience and creating more opportunities to make healthcare better.

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

Our focus on delivering our digital first precision care offering to employers is primordial, but we also know that employers are trying to figure out how to respond to the new vaccine management mandate that is currently under review by the White House. An exciting development in our workplace safety offering is our vaccine management program. The program includes both testing and confidential management of vaccine status for employees.

We know this is a great help for employers. It takes the burden of the validation and management process away from HR teams and enables the confidential communication of readiness for work, whether it is with an up-to-date vaccine card or a negative COVID test.

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

As the mother of two young school-aged children, I can tell you that we MUST do more. When I meet with experts in genomics, medicine and technology, I am keenly aware that the vast majority of them are men. I believe as leaders we must do our part in mentoring and elevating those that have an interest in STEM. I feel very blessed to have amazing mentors in my life, many of whom were women in STEM. They serve as a guidepost for how my career has progressed.

We can do more to engage young girls in discussions that focus on limitless thinking rather than qualifying them as not being good at math or science. We need to be more playful with math and science as a way of creating curiosity. We should do away with standardized testing since the research has shown that speed is not an indicator of aptitude and the scoring of these timed tests demotivates many.

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

A major challenge for women in STEM is finding female mentors. As STEM leaders, we need to do a better job of pairing ourselves with other women in STEM and build a stronger community. We need to do a better job of succession planning and invest in women that not only demonstrate ability, but also willingness and desire to learn and grow.

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

Myth: Women in STEM are boring.

Answer: False. I have a creative edge that generates excitement in my work.

Myth: Women in STEM are not well rounded, they only like science, tech and math.

Answer: False. I speak three languages and enjoy spending time learning about new cultures and their history.

Myth: Women in STEM must enter the market at a young age.

Answer: False. Our VP of Technology at WithHealth started as a social worker and transitioned into tech. When you find your calling, follow it. Age is not an indicator of your ability to enter the market.

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

Things always work out for me: Even when things seem dire, when the dust settles, I always see the beauty where that specific moment of contrast brought growth and opportunity in my life. What I have learned as a scientist is that a positive outlook on life, living in happiness and gratitude, being in service and experiencing love all enhance telomerase enzyme activity and promote a long and healthy life.
Your thoughts create your reality, so be careful of what you think: Quantum physics has taught us that everything in the universe is made up of energy and generates a certain energy signature. The energy we emit can and does alter your environment
Your best teachers are your customers: We must consider the perspective of our clients/customers when building solutions. They trust that we will couple our knowledge and passion with execution for their benefit. That unspoken contract places the responsibility on us to assess, design, and implement solutions that are important to them. Using the scientific method, we have the tools available to properly hypothesize and assess the best possible product or service for our clients/customers.
End your days with favorite moments: In our field, not every day will yield the results you expect. However, every day we have a moment that brings us joy or peace. Celebrate that moment by recalling it before you go to bed and share it with someone you love.
Nunc Coepi — leave the past behind and begin again: We can’t live in the past and expect to enjoy the future. Not only is living in the moment integral to creating new technology or incorporating new scientific findings, we must leave the past behind in order to release biases that may prevent us from discovering new paths or ways of doing things.

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

Culture trumps skill everyday! Promote those that drive a culture that is aligned to your values. Skills can be taught.

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

Don’t take on too many direct reports and always make time for your own personal development. Hire a coach or build a “kitchen cabinet” (aka personal advisors) to serve as guideposts for you.

My parents!! They taught me that there is no limit to what I can accomplish and to always love what I do every day of my life. This is how I live my life and what I am also teaching my children. Additionally, I am blessed to be married to an incredible man that also subscribes to this belief.

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

I often have this conversation with my children. In our own backyard in San Diego, we have communities that are food deserts. Among our clients, in some of the tribal nations, the average life expectancy is 59 years old. Whether in San Diego or across the country, we have small moments to make big differences. We must seize those moments every chance we get in both our personal and professional lives.

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

It would be to destigmatize behavioral health. It would be to transition mental illness from a whisper word to a normal topic of conversation, like diabetes or heart disease. Let’s get people diagnosed earlier and provide them with treatment that is precisely designed for them. There are too many suicides that are preventable.

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

“Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.” — Mother Theresa

Every person is a gift and we must treat them as such. There are times when in the moment, I have failed to see the gift that the person was in my life. By recognizing that the gift, whether it was in the shape of a blessing or a lesson, it served a purpose in my life.

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

Donna Langley, Chairman of Universal. The pivot she led for Universal during the pandemic is commendable. I feel connected to her as we too had to pivot and we did it with great success, of course at a much smaller scale.

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

Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Cindy Salas Murphy of ‘WithHealth’ on The 5 Leadership… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Alessandra Pollina of Quotable Media On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Alessandra Pollina of Quotable Media On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Persistence- you will not thrive or succeed if you do not persist when things get tough. Literally no successful business owner will ever tell you that it was easy all of the time or that the success they wanted came on the first try. The number one thing that business owners I’ve talked to on my podcast say, and what I truly believe myself as well, is that the only difference between someone who seems successful and everyone else is that they didn’t stop before they got to that point. To achieve a level of success is simply to keep going until you figure out a way that works, rather than quit before you’ve gotten there. That’s where persistence comes in.

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

Alessandra Pollina is the founder and owner of Quotable Media Co. which she launched in 2012 at just 23 years old. Quotable Media Co. is a PR and media agency which works to elevate female-led brands and produces Quotable: A Female Millennial Entrepreneur Podcast and Quotable Magazine. You can learn more at quotablemediaco.com.

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

I have been doing PR from the very beginning. I studied it in college, where I was in the school of communication and was most drawn toward the PR concentration because I liked the idea of getting to promote brands and causes that I cared about in a really conscientious way. Sharing important causes with the people who needed to know about them resonated with me, so I dove into those classes and I had a variety of internships in all different types of companies throughout, until I had a really good sense of what I liked and wanted to do. When I graduated it was tough out there, and I ended up with a terrible job that didn’t pay a livable wage, and I realized I needed to make a change. So within a year of graduating I started taking on my own clients while working part time for another small agency, and that’s when my business started.

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

The whole experience of starting and running a business is interesting, but I don’t know that there’s one specific instance I can point to as the most interesting thing that’s happened. The most interesting part to me is getting to interact and be around other business owners and learn about what they’re doing in their businesses. I’m fascinated by people in general (I minored in anthropology in college because I just love learning about people and how we are the same, different, and how we’ve approached life throughout time) and find it so interesting to see the ideas other business owners have, how they choose to do things, the innovation, all of it. I guess I would say that getting to talk to hundreds of other business owners, between my agency’s clients, guests on my podcast, and interviews for our magazine, is something I never imagined I would do and is one of the most fascinating parts of my work.

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

I don’t know if it’s funny but the biggest mistake I made was charging too little for too long. Of course when you’re first starting out and have less experience you may charge less than people who have been in business longer, but I think that — maybe partly because I was also very young — I waited longer than I should have to raise prices and gain confidence in the value of my services. Looking back now I think some of the proposals I sent out to people and the fees I proposed for certain projects are kind of laughable, but not exactly funny. It was all part of the growth process, but also a mistake to let it go on for too long. I eventually learned that not every project is a good project, and if it’s not paying enough it’s probably not worth taking on and is just taking up space and time from a better client that might be worth waiting for. I realized over time that you have to consistently be working toward upward growth in business, and even if I took on small projects or charged less than I should have at the beginning I should have been working toward charging more and more with every proposal/client/quarter. You never get bigger or grow as much as you can if you aren’t consciously working toward it, even when it’s scary.

There are two people that I consider instrumental in my business being where it is now. One is the person who led the small agency that I worked for when starting my business. He was my mentor from the very beginning- literally the first agency owner who took a chance on me with my very first internship in college when I had no experience, and then also hired me when I needed a new opportunity to get out of that first terrible job. I learned so much about PR and business from working with him, and he was so supportive of me starting my own company too. There was never competition, just support, and to this day we are great friends and support each other in business all the time. The other is my friend who I met through a networking group for female entrepreneurs that I began a few years into my business when I was craving connection with other women in business. While I had a viable and ‘successful’ business at that point, I wasn’t in growth mode and wasn’t making as much money as I wanted or could be. She has helped me for years now in believing in my worth, gaining confidence in my business, encouraging me to raise my prices more and take the scary leaps that I needed to in order to become more successful. I don’t think I would have seen the growth that my company has had in the past several years without her pushing and inspiring me in all the right ways.

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

I think we have a really negative mindset around women founding businesses — and not that women don’t think they can do it but that there is so much negative talk about how hard it is to get funding and things like that, that it makes people think it will be too hard to reach success and that it may not be worth getting involved in. I’m not even talking about the women who want to start the business but other people who maybe would be investors or other key players — it’s exhausting to try to convince them to come on board, because they’re already coming into the conversation with stats like that one from EY in mind and think it may be a losing battle. I also think that women are more likely to start companies that need less or different funding, so it makes it look like we’re not starting businesses based on stats like that, but really we may be starting different types of businesses or being more creative about funding. Ultimately I think if we encourage women to found companies and show that they’ll have the support they need, there will be more and more who do it. The main blocker is fear, and feeling like it may be the wrong time for your life or family. We need to encourage women and reiterate that there is no right or wrong time and you can have a family and a company, and do whatever else you want to do in life!

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

I think we should focus more on the success and achievements of women founded companies than on the obstacles and challenges. It’s been proven that female led companies are more profitable, nicer places to work, and can be just as successful, but for some reason people don’t focus on that enough and instead always focus on how hard it can be for them to get started. I think one of the things to keep in mind too is that women are often so strategic and smart with funding and how to get a project going in a really thrifty way that they often don’t need as much funding, yet media only want to talk about startups that are receiving tons of funding, as if that somehow means they’re more viable or more important. In reality, women-led companies tend to fly under the radar more, so people aren’t as aware of what’s even happening with them, and then it looks like the male-run companies are more prevalent — but really they’re just spending more money, because they can.

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

Women are smart and able to come up with unique solutions to problems. Women are compassionate, and make great leaders, and as I said, are able to make a lot happen with little resources. We’re extremely efficient, which I think comes from generations of having to make our personal projects happen along the fringes of our other responsibilities of running a household and taking care of children. When women lead, it creates better workplaces, happier families, great role models, and innovative companies, all of which help make our society stronger.

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

The main myth is that being a founder means you have to be working 24/7, and that you’re always putting out fires and struggling to get or stay ahead. In reality, if you set your company up in a solid way, and create and maintain the right systems and have the right people in place to support you and the company, things should run smoothly a lot of the time. You can absolutely take time off and have room for personal growth, if you take the time and effort to create the right support as you grow. A lot of people skip that or don’t put the effort in to set their business up like that, so then they feel constant stress or pressures, but that’s a personal choice and something you can resolve if it’s important to you. You can run a strong business and have a life outside of it. As I said before, you can be a founder and have a family and do the other things you want to do in your life, and I think sometimes people don’t believe that.

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?

Absolutely not everyone is cut out for it! There is a lot that goes into being a successful founder beyond just having a good idea for a business. I just did a podcast episode for my Quotable Podcast on some of the things that I think go into creating a strong business with longevity, and a lot of what I talked about has to do with not giving up. That’s a certain mindset that can be really tough to hold onto throughout years of building a business. There will be so many things that come up over time that might make it feel like it’s easier to just do something else or give up, and it will be tempting to give in to that. You have to be willing to not make a lot of money for a while, to potentially deal with difficulties for a long time before things are running smoothly, and maybe even put a lot of other things on the back burner for a while, without a guarantee that what you’re working toward will pay off — all of which are things that most people aren’t willing to do long term. It’s a big gamble and you need to have a lot of faith in yourself and just an unwavering belief that you will make it work eventually — and of course the drive and skill to actually make it so. Most people don’t have that kind of belief in themselves and would rather have a steady paycheck and not take on the stress of being responsible for their wellbeing or that of others. Most people would rather rely on someone else owning the business and just show up for work each day even if over time they don’t have the opportunity for growth that they would if they started their own business. And that is totally fine! Also, I think to be successful you need to have a certain amount of personability. You need to be someone that people want to work with, and who can get people to want to be a part of whatever you’re doing, whether it be employees or other stakeholders, and even just other community members whose buy-in you’ll need at some point. You can found a business without it, but there’s a certain amount of personality that I think is important to actually becoming successful, because people want to work with people they like. Being likable can take you far.

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.)

#1 Grit #2 Motivation #3 Persistence #4 A strong support system #5 Self-belief

Grit- it’s not easy. Even if it feels easy at first because you’re so aligned with what you’re doing and you feel so called to this business, I think for almost everyone there will come a point where you find yourself in a tough spot. Whether it’s a tough business decision, a negative experience, a hard situation with a client or customer, frustration at not making enough money as you hoped or needed, having to fire an employee, having stock shipments delayed, or having a sick kid at home on a day when you had a huge meeting planned, there will be times that are not easy. Having grit will get you through. Not taking no for an answer, consistently figuring out a way to make ‘it’ work, never letting someone’s harsh words make you quit, just having the stamina to make it through the tough times and not let them break you or your love for the business- these are all the ways that having grit will help you succeed. There’s a certain capacity for letting things roll off your back, and also for plowing forward when you know you’re right that I consider the grit you need to succeed.
Motivation- a lot of people I’ve seen start businesses and quit before they felt successful because they lacked motivation. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just a fact of life. Sometimes you lose motivation for your business or whatever you’re doing. Some people just aren’t very motivated in general but maybe decided to start something because it seemed fun or easy, but then didn’t want to stick with it once that part of it wore off. The people who I’ve seen succeed and thrive the most are those who have an innate level of motivation within themselves and/or constantly seek to build and hold onto motivation. I think it’s important to continuously create motivation within yourself so as not to risk losing it. My motivation is always reinvigorated by talking to other successful business owners and hearing about what cool things they’re creating or have worked on. It keeps me excited for new possibilities and motivates me to do more and do better. Whatever motivates you, I think it’s important to consciously take part in that on a regular basis and make sure you don’t let your motivation die.
Persistence- you will not thrive or succeed if you do not persist when things get tough. Literally no successful business owner will ever tell you that it was easy all of the time or that the success they wanted came on the first try. The number one thing that business owners I’ve talked to on my podcast say, and what I truly believe myself as well, is that the only difference between someone who seems successful and everyone else is that they didn’t stop before they got to that point. To achieve a level of success is simply to keep going until you figure out a way that works, rather than quit before you’ve gotten there. That’s where persistence comes in.
Support system- most of what I’m listing are innate qualities that you ultimately have within yourself, while this one is not. I do realize that people have succeeded without a strong support system, but I also believe a strong support system is one of the things you need to fully thrive- to fully *feel* like you’re thriving. Without it, you can still succeed but I don’t think you’ll feel as much of a sense of thriving and feel like you’re succeeding. Without a support system it’s easy to overlook your success or not even feel or believe in it at all. With a strong support system, people succeed faster and thrive more. You have the power to create your support system. This isn’t built in, and it’s not something you can just say you don’t have if your family or friends are not that supportive of your business. You get to create your support system, and build the group of people around you, so you have full control over your support and what it looks like and provides for you, which is really empowering. Your support needs may be different from someone else’s. It may be one person who you know will champion you no matter what. It may be a small group of business owners who you can bounce ideas off of. It may be an online group that you interact with on a monthly basis for questions and feedback. Or it may be a perhaps more traditional support system of a husband who will make dinner when you have to work late and family who live in town and can watch the kids if you have a last minute meeting. Whatever it is for you, feeling supported helps people do the things they need to do and be in the mindset they need to be in to truly thrive so I think creating that for yourself is incredibly empowering and important.
Self belief — different than just having confidence, self-belief is there even when the confidence wans or wavers. Sometimes I’m not feeling super confident about something specific or for a certain period of time, but I always believe in myself and know that at the end of the day I’m capable and going to make things happen. Failure to accomplish what I want throughout life is not an option and I wholeheartedly believe I have the power to accomplish things. It’s this self-belief, even in the face of uncertainty, or when your general confidence isn’t quite where you want it, that ensures you won’t give up.

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

I believe strongly in reaching back to pull up those behind you. We’re all stronger together, and anything that one woman can do to help another succeed is something they should try to do. The first thing I did was found a networking group for other female millennial entrepreneurs, so that we could all learn from and be inspired by each other, as well as aid each other along our journeys. These connections I find to be invaluable, and it’s something I feel strongly about creating and facilitating. I like to think that this group has created positive opportunities for lots of other women and helped them build their business. In 2020 I started a grant for women in business, where we supported a women-founded startup. We gave $5,000 to one woman who was working to start a business but needed that leg up to really get it going. We plan to offer this grant annually and hopefully grow it over time.

I’ve always wanted to start a nonprofit daycare center specifically for single mothers who have little support. It will be free to attend, and provide mothers an opportunity to have the space and time to go to work or school, or even just ‘be’, while knowing that their child is safe and well taken care of without having to piece together childcare or take days off when they don’t have access to it. It would also provide free resources for going back to school, or improving job prospects if they desire to take part in these opportunities, so they can improve their situation in life. I imagine it as a sort of community center, where children and their mothers will both feel at home and supported, in a place that is not tied to religious, educational, or government funding or obligations. I think there are so many women who have a hard time getting the leg up they need because there are many obstacles in the way if you don’t have family or money to help, and if we can remove just one of these obstacles (limited access to affordable childcare) many families will be able to crest the hill and become self-sustainable and be able to thrive and set their family up for generational success, which will have a tremendous positive impact in the long term. I don’t think it’s fair that single mothers end up having to put their dreams on hold and often never are able to live out their potential. I guess if we were going to turn it into a movement, I’d dream to have one or several in every major city, so that this kind of organization was the norm and not a one-off place in one city. I hope to actually get started on the first one in the next 2 years so that may be my next project!

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’d love to have lunch with Whitney Wolfe Herd of Bumble. I found it really inspiring when she took her company public earlier this year and would love to hear more about her journey. It’s incredible to see the level of success she’s reached, especially given we’re the same age and I started my company before she did, so I can imagine the timeline of what she’s done, but she scaled so quickly and effectively!

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

Female Founders: Alessandra Pollina of Quotable Media 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.

Female Disruptors: Leah Garcia of NULASTIN On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Never quit a race.” Metaphorically speaking, a race is competition, life, business, forward progress, challenge. Once you quit, you learn to quit, and it gets easier and easier.

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

Leah Garcia is an entrepreneur, television talent, award-winning infomercial host, and athlete. She is the Founder and CEO of NULASTIN®, a direct-to-consumer personal care company that is disrupting the beauty industry with novel, clinically proven, naturally derived, ethically sourced elastin-replenishment products for lash, brow, hair, and skin. Raised on a ranch in Northern California, she spent years on the rodeo circuit where she captured several all-around championships; a foundational sports path that transitioned her to professional mountain bike racing, fitness, world travel, marketing, and a profound passion for ethics, performance, and wellness.

Thank you for the opportunity! I had a rural upbringing, and growing up on a ranch, I have always been adventurous and ready for the unexpected. Hard work and responsibility were the norm, along with involvement in sports/outdoor activity and a heavy emphasis on etiquette. These were values that my mother (female mentor #1) had instilled in me. My Mom’s family is Basque — both my grandparents immigrated from Northern Spain and no one in my family had graduated from college, making a college degree one of my first major life goals.

At university, I found my niche in studying public speaking and business all while competing in rodeo and triathlons. The first job I landed after college was at an employment agency where the founder (female mentor #2) did everything one should do to run a smart business. Every morning, we would read affirmations centered around lessons from, “A Course in Miracles.” The teaching was to “step into our fears” and meet them face-to-face. I am forever grateful for her guidance. I ended up working in the hospitality industry as a sales manager and loved collaborating and creating with a team of women. After a couple of years under the leadership of a powerhouse G.M. (female mentor #3), I noticed that although I came from a Spanish speaking family, my lack of fluency in the language was preventing me from being able to help a lot of the Spanish speaking staff who turned to me to help communicate with upper management. So, I decided to quit my job, buy a one-way ticket, and move to Spain to immerse myself in the culture.

During this time in the hotel industry, stress had gotten the better of me and I suffered Bell’s Palsy, or facial paralysis, from the pressure I was putting on myself. The right side of my face flopped and the left side was overcompensated. I couldn’t blink, close my eyes, or even drink out of a straw without drooling. In retrospect, I gave myself 10 minutes to have a pity-party. Then, I got to work planning my future with this new norm. The physical setback, as it so happened, was the best thing that ever happened to me as I began to clearly understand what was important to me in life.

While living abroad, I met (female mentor #4) who owned an English academy, and she hired me on the spot. We worked together on developing her company offerings and under her watchful eye, I was introduced to more insight on running a business, press, budgeting, follow-through, and maneuvering to stay ahead of the competition. Teaching English in Spain was lucrative (for my modest needs) and allowed me to have the money and time to pursue my athletic passions. Riding my mountain bike for exercise went from pleasure to purpose. Within the first year of competing, I turned pro. Professional athletes in outlier extreme sports market themselves, pitch to sponsors, fight for position, set goals, and execute. If we fail, we learn, fix it, and continue.

After years racing all over the world and winning my fair share of titles, the door opened to work for ESPN as a side-line reporter and commentator for the U.S. National Mountain Bike Series. Shortly thereafter, the door swung full circle and I was hired to cover rodeo and bull riding. I filled the rest of my time by starting my own business, Naturally Caffeinated®, Inc., with a tagline, “Wake up your potential.” I wrapped my on-air talent work, personal training, and fitness under this corporation. Being on the road 200 days a year presented an opportunity: how to work out while on the go? I launched the Zone Workout Series, later rebranded to Leah Garcia Fitness. The Zone Workout Series was one of the world’s first hotel room workout programs. Despite my best attempt to get funded, I couldn’t get the funding I needed. Production cost a fortune back then. We didn’t have the technology that we do now for video creation. This was go-time, so I self-funded and mortgaged my home to produce seven videos.

I was eventually hired as a spokesperson for Slendertone and later for Contour Core Sculpting System. I worked at HSN hosting infomercials and in 2008, won the Female Presenter of the Year Award at the Electronic Retail Association. Being involved in the soup-to-nuts building of the later brand, which went on to sell $220M and was one of the most successful direct response commercials, was the pinnacle of my DRTV success-driven heartbeat. Nevertheless, after five years my time as a spokesperson had run its course. What I learned during the infomercial tenure was just as much “what not to do” in business, as it was, “what to do.”

All this brought me to where we are today–Boulder, Colorado. Home of entrepreneurs, start-ups, natural food, outdoor adventure, and organic products. Through mutual friends, I met my business partner, Dr. Burt Ensley, a pioneer in the field of microbiology and the inventor of our novel elastin replenishment formulations. This was the missing link to bringing skin back from sun damage, aging, stress, and environmental challenges. Something that was near and dear to my heart, as, to date, I have not completely recovered from my facial paralysis. No other brand seemed to be truly addressing the loss of elastin. My criteria for launching this company were specific: products that are scientifically proven, performance-based, results-oriented, ethically-derived, and accessible. NULASTIN is not just a cosmetic brand, but a lifestyle brand. My vision is that elastin replenishment becomes an essential part of everyone’s life. The end goal is a more vibrant and enriched personal care journey, one where we radiate confidence along the way.

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

At a glance, it appears that skincare and haircare brands are all saying the same thing. So, claiming to be disruptive tends to be cliché. Finding a niche is what everyone wants and at NULASTIN, we are doing just that with our skincare and haircare collection. We are disrupting the industry by providing a synergistic blend of active ingredients that deliver scientifically proven biological activity and clinically supported results. Our flagship ingredient, Elastatropin® is a novel elastin protein, the DNA precursor to human elastin, never-before used in cosmetics. NULASTIN’s technology was developed in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Defense as a treatment for wound healing.

Our elastin source is cruelty-free, vegan and ethically derived, and essential. Inadequate and damaged elastin slows and weakens the body’s healing of wounds, increases scarring and wrinkles, contributes to brittle, fragile, sparse hair, and prohibits regeneration of certain tissues and organs. What’s shocking is that the human body stops producing elastin around puberty — meaning what we have at about the age of 12 is intended to last a lifetime. Our formulator and co-founder, Dr. Burt Ensley, is a pioneer in the field of microbiology and has dedicated his life to this research.

The quality and potency of our NULASTIN ingredients is unsurpassed. Our products are proudly made in the U.S.A in small batches to ensure freshness and maximum bioavailability. We literally courier finished batches from our cGMP facility in Colorado to our fulfillment warehouse (a town away), where we pick, pack, and ship to customers’ doors with little to no shelf-time. We don’t just answer to shareholders and chase profits. Our goal is to deliver results and I often joke that it’s impossible for our products not to work. Even the most lackadaisical human will benefit from NULASTIN — which is great news for those of us who are overworked, sleep deprived, stressed or aging. Our skincare products also play well with others, making it easy to incorporate into your current routine.

As the founder, I pride myself in being accessible and involved in the day-to-day of the business. I’ve been a one-woman show for years. The people you see in our marketing and our ads are friends, colleagues, and real customers who have used and loved our products. I would say we are disrupting by delivering on the promise. Real Science. Real People. Real Results.

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

I was so bold and brazen when I first launched this business. As a former professional athlete my mindset was to race to the top of the hill, push over the peak and sprint down the backside; no coasting allowed. So, I thought with this business, I could work hard, put in the effort, and be rewarded. NULASTIN is 100% self-funded. I tried to get investors but I didn’t know how or who to pitch. Being a TV personality, my instinct was to shoot a video and upload it on a crowdfunding site. After being turned down by Kickstarter, I landed on Indiegogo. To save money, I taught myself to video edit, wrote the script, and created the assets.

In the video, I made promises on hair growth, guaranteed changes to length, thickness and volume, and skin repair, but I had no idea that in doing so, I was violating a lot of FDA rules around the claims you can make about your products.

That iteration of NULASTIN lasted 2 days. Our credit card merchant shut me down. The fault was mine. I failed to stay within the boundaries of what language is legally allowed for a cosmetic brand. I didn’t do my homework.

Shortly thereafter, I hired a regulatory lawyer and revamped the entire campaign, edited the crowdfunding video, and relaunched. I raised $17,000 through crowdfunding, which was enough to purchase my first round of product containers. My business partner manufactured and filled them for me — and I was off to the races, again. This time, with more respect, humility, and awareness.

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?

Earlier in this interview, I talked about a handful of female mentors. The women that were the foundational business mentors in my life. I also had a lot of male influences when I was launching my business. A buddy of mine is probably tired of me asking, “Tell the story of how you started your business.” Like oral history, I find that hearing from those who have walked the walk is enlightening.

Athletic coaches and educators (both high school and college) provided me with different skills: Knowledge about how to think, analyze, get creative and maximize potential. I still apply those lessons daily. One quote that I repeat often is, “Following directions is an essential element in maintaining a learning environment in our classroom.” That’s a sentence I had to write 1,000 times because I was unruly in grammar school. What I love about that lesson is that it turned me into a rule follower…without losing my insatiable desire to test the boundaries. There’s an invisible box around us. If you cross the line, you’ve gone too far. But — you can play to the edges and not live in the middle of the rule-box. That’s the fun of life and work. That’s the restlessness that drives innovation, that seeks the extraordinary.

Great minds attract me. I’ve surrounded myself with positivity and people who are making an impact in their worlds. My husband, Ian Adamson, is one of those people. Former Nike Athlete, 7x world champion adventure racer, Guinness book world record holder and classically trained musician. His brain works on all cylinders. He and I met in our 40’s and had already finished our respective athletic careers. Television and entrepreneurship are where we picked up.

Ian took what was great about my experiences and made them better. Training tips and techniques, methodologies, nutrition, marketing, goal setting, planning, organizational savvy, and business acumen. The list goes on and on. He reminds me that “correlation does not imply causation,” and to seek “evidence based science.” He’s that guy that follows the facts. I am a conceptual thinker at heart, a big picture visionary person. This balance of seeing facts, data and science, coupled with the feel-good part of analysis is paramount to the success of my current business.

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’d say that what we can do with science is both positively disruptive and destructive. Chemical warfare, bioweapons, bombs, GMOs, vaccines, robots are disruptive scientific discoveries. Not all of them are morally neutral.

Looking at medicine and the cosmetic industry, we see a push and pull when it comes to disruptive science. Do we love those genetic improvements and how stem cells can repair tissue and organs? Are we queasy that human stem cells may come from animals, embryos, or adult human tissue? Do we question if it’s okay to use genetic “reprogramming” techniques? How do we feel about placental fluid as an anti-aging ingredient?

At the risk of causing a debate, in business, we need to understand the difference between good-science and bad-science. If what we are doing with science works constructively towards helping people, without causing harm, this is a positive disruptive path in my mind. In the case of NULASTIN, we are committed to ethics in science and publication. One thing I like to keep in mind is that without disruption, there is no change.

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

“Never quit a race.” Metaphorically speaking, a race is competition, life, business, forward progress, challenge. Once you quit, you learn to quit, and it gets easier and easier.

I think the quote speaks for itself. Let’s put it into a real-time perspective. Say, you’ve entered your first ½ marathon and your part way through the event, getting passed by other people. You’re tired, scared, doubtful. Your ego gets the best of you and instead of staying in the moment, remembering why you are there in the first place, knowing what it is you want to achieve, you simply stop. Given no external factors (severe dehydration, an injury, or other physical reasons), it’s classified as a mental failure. When you quit, that sets a tone. My experience is that even if you decide to compete again, you’ll find another reason to quit. I’ve known people who self-sabotage way too often. They create an opportunity to fail.

Athletic examples are widespread in my interview responses, but I truly believe they apply to business. I have worked with a few men over the years who have demonstrated this sabotage behavior. They make last-minute, poor choice negotiations that sets the company back detrimentally. COG’s are too high, too restrictive, inappropriate partnerships. The moment they shrug their shoulders and quit taking responsibility, thinking it’s not really their fault, it’s the beginning of the end. Being in the trenches and seeing this phenomenon firsthand, watching someone hit home run after home run — and then witnessing the egregious failures, convinced me that these are moments when someone has quit the race previously — and have come to do it again. It’s their self-fulfilling prophecy of hard-knocks, bad-go-of-it mentality. What I’ve seen is that they’ll start another business soon after, get about to the same spot and repeat the process all over again. This is quitting the race.

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

I’m focusing on being in the moment right now and scaling my business. What’s inspiring about this phase is that I’m shaking things up in real-time, touching so many lives. I am providing jobs and opportunities to individuals, companies, and networks. People are benefiting from my products. Visual transformations are empowering confidence. The ability to take control of personal care is freedom and authenticity is power.

Frequently, I get an email from a customer that has had a life-changing experience with NULASTIN. This is typically from the LASH & BROW Serums, or the Vibrant Scalp Treatment. If shaking things up is giving people better eyelashes, fuller brows, and healthy hair, then, I’m on the right path. While I’m hyper-focused on accentuating people’s lives aesthetically, I’m also keenly aware that it’s confidence that I am able to help deliver. Especially for those suffering from thyroid issues, post-chemotherapy, and/or other conditions.

At 57 years old, I think about the meaning of life a lot and what my contribution will be. Hopefully, it’s to make other people’s lives easier and bring some joy to the world. Regarding work, I do think about what my next chapter will look like. Professionally, I’d like to invest in start-ups and mentor founders like myself.

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

Funding, opportunity, advancement, and respect. I’m not typically one to harp on these things, but they are very real challenges we face.

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

I used to belong to a book club that sent positive affirmation and feel-good publications monthly. My library is still filled with these gems. From Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill to Happiness is a Choice by Barry Neil Kaufman, to one of my all-time favorites — All I Really Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum and his follow-up, It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It. The paragraph about “Ponder” flows into a, “What is it we do” question. Fulghum writes, “Making a living and having a life are not the same thing. Making a living and making a life that’s worthwhile are not the same thing. Living the good life and living a good life are not the same thing.” A job title doesn’t even come close to answering the question, “What do you do?” My takeaway was on par with Fulghum’s point. My work should not be what I do to get paid. The focus should be to do that which gives me great pleasure and makes me feel useful to others.

The book, Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype still sits on my shelf, reminding me, “With every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing.”

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 would love nothing more than to inspire people to be beautiful versions of themselves. A worldwide invitation to radiate in kindness, love, understanding, acceptance, and potential. I’d like to create a movement where people practice honest communication, have trust and transparency, are empathic and inclusive. In this utopia, I see laughter, wit, and wisdom.

Imagine if we put our collective energy toward these things? If I can personally contribute to this, through my practice, business, and life, then, I am making a difference.

Over the years, I’ve had people tell me that I’ve impacted their life, or that what I did by example or action was what they needed at a particularly tough time. These acknowledgements always catch me by surprise, and they are solid reminders that I am better when I am putting myself out there.

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

If the “why” is big enough, the “how to” will come. I’ve had a lot of “why” in my life, which I’ve mentioned previously. The “how to” has always come to me through my hard work, the wonderful mentors I’ve had and my persistence on not giving up on the things that are important to me.

How can our readers follow you online?

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

https://www.instagram.com/nulastin/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missleahg

https://www.facebook.com/nulastin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-garcia-592988/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/nulastin/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nulastin

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

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

Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Diversity is a must”, With Niambe McIntosh

Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Diversity Is a Must” With Niambe McIntosh

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Diversity is a must. If you are in cannabis, you have to be diverse, PERIOD. There are no acceptable excuses here. Every cannabis company should have a diversity plan. We need diversity in ownership, leadership, employees, supply chains, vendors, and right down to the products on your shelves. Every company should seek out education that will make their organization a part of the solution rather than perpetuate the problem.

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

Over the last several years Niambe McIntosh, the youngest child of the revolutionary musician and activist Peter Tosh, has stepped up to the mantle to carry on her father’s message and legacy. A renaissance woman, she serves many roles including the head of the Peter Tosh Legacy & Brand; Managing Member of Tosh Holdings LLC; Board Chairperson for the Peter Tosh Foundation Ltd.; and President of PT Capital LLC.

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

To be honest, one could say that I was born into the movement, not so much the industry. My father’s music and message advocated for this plant long before I was conceived. His hit single, Legalize It, was introduced to the world in 1976. So in my eyes, I was not “brought” to the industry. I was born into the movement that brought about the industry. What we are all witnessing is a cultural, social, and legal evolution of an industry that is a direct result of my father’s work. Therefore, it’s only natural that the Peter Tosh legacy remains at the center of the movement and the industry.

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

After forming The Peter Tosh Foundation, then subsequently forming PT Capital, our cannabis based entity, in 2016, we had planned for a collaboration between the two to launch our cannabis brand SEEN by Peter Tosh. Our vision was to bring Rastafari culture and the spirit of Peter Tosh to the market in a way that maintained integrity and uplifted marginalized voices.

Unfortunately our plans were diverted when, in 2017, Jawara “Tosh 1” McIntosh, my brother, my father’s youngest son, a father of 4, a musician, activist, and a follower of Rastafari, was brutally attacked while imprisoned for cannabis possession, suffering a severe traumatic brain injury. At that time, my family stepped up to provide 24-hour care for Jawara while somehow also managing to stand up and fight for justice. No family should be at risk of losing a loved one due to cannabis prohibition and antiquated laws. Sadly, in July of 2020, Jawara had succumbed to his injuries and passed away.

Before this, the “War on Drugs” was somewhat of an elusive term; jargon loosely thrown around in the industry. But now after a direct attack on my family and our beliefs it was clear that the War on Drugs is discriminatory and ensnaring. My family came to personally understand how insidious it really is. Cannabis legalization is critical.

Do you have a funny story about how someone you knew reacted when they first heard you were getting into the cannabis industry?

A lot of people often ask the question, “who consumes cannabis in my family?” An easier question to answer is, “Who doesn’t consume cannabis in my family?” I am the youngest of 10 children on my father’s side, and I have over 30 cousins on my maternal side. We are Rastas and most of us consume herb.

Cannabis is just a way of life. So the most common response from people that know about my father and his activism is, “It’s about damn time!”

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

I definitely could not have done this work alone, and there are so many good people around me that just make life that much more of a blessing. My mom and daughter have been the individuals that keep me in orbit. While Brian Latture and Akayda McIntosh, Manager and Executive Assistant/Niece respectively, for the Peter Tosh Legacy & Brand, have kept the ship sailing through the most challenging waters.

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

I am elated to announce that we have been working diligently to launch our cannabis brand, SEEN by Peter Tosh. Our fans can expect more about this come 2022. SEEN by Peter Tosh exemplifies the ethos of Peter Tosh — edification, integrity, and wellness. Those tenets drive our mission to amplify the spiritual and medicinal value of cannabis. Through our brand, we will elevate the stories of marginalized voices of the cannabis movement and represent the Rastafari culture in a way no other brand can.

And what’s most significant about this project, is that a portion of the proceeds will go to the Peter Tosh Foundation, directly supporting our initiatives that: bring awareness to the dire need for cannabis legalization, support the Rastafari community, and ensure that black and brown families that have been targeted by the War on Drugs can truly benefit from the cannabis industry.

Ok. Thank you for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. Despite great progress that has been made we still have a lot more work to do to achieve gender parity in this industry. According to this report in Entrepreneur, less than 25 percent of cannabis businesses are run by women. In your opinion or experience, what 3 things can be done by a)individuals b)companies and/

or c) society to support greater gender parity moving forward?

Achieving gender parity will not happen overnight, but all of us have a role to play in promoting gender equality.

Individuals must consciously listen to and defend women and girls. We must actively create, attend, and welcome them to safe platforms where their voices will be heard in every aspect of life, including business.

Companies need to lead by example and be led by intention; They must commit to achieving gender parity. Creating a corporate culture that values women, recruits and promotes diverse leaders, and educates company executives and employees about gender biases and inclusive practices.

Ultimately it comes down to setting good intentions, measuring their success, and adjusting as needed.

Society, in general, must be vigilant in demanding the representation and leadership of women and girls in all spaces. Some people don’t like change, while others have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, but the truth is that we all win when we have diversity.

You are a “Cannabis Insider”. If you had to advise someone about 5 nonintuitive things one should know to succeed in the cannabis industry, what would you say? Can you please give a story or an example for each.

1. Diversity is a must. If you are in cannabis, you have to be diverse, PERIOD. There are no acceptable excuses here. Every cannabis company should have a diversity plan. We need diversity in ownership, leadership, employees, supply chains, vendors, and right down to the products on your shelves. Every company should seek out education that will make their organization a part of the solution rather than perpetuate the problem.

2. Find your Niche. This space is quickly becoming oversaturated, with every brand and company desirous of being a household name in the cannabis sector. It’s imperative to find your niche and be the best brand in that niche. Know your audience, demographics, and identity. Running in all directions will not get you far. Fine-tune and shoot straight.

3. Learn to be an Activist too. Most of the regulations written across the country have started off without the right voices heard. In this industry, you have to show up to advocate for what’s right, not just for your business but for the greater good of humanity. How do we all support those that have been harmed by the War on Drugs? How do we promote access for all consumers?

4. Think outside of the box when it comes to entering the industry. Due to federal regulations, there are many restrictions regarding how e-commerce can operate in the cannabis space. Whether you have significant funding or not, it’s going to take strong relationships, collaborations, social media experts, and more to broaden your audience and reach your consumers.

5. Have integrity! — Just do the right thing.

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

What most excites me about the cannabis industry is all of the progress that the future holds. In 2020, during the pandemic, cannabis was deemed an essential need for the public. That is a long way from where this movement and industry began.

Moreover, the conversations around social justice and equity have grown louder and louder in recent years. And although the regulations around these topics have not been completely successful, I am optimistic that things will continue to improve.

I’m equally excited to have my father’s brand, SEEN by Peter Tosh, make its mark in the industry. There is no better time in history than where we are today for his Legacy to play a role in the upliftment of humanity.

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?

What I’m most concerned about is the fact that we still have people getting arrested and incarcerated while states make millions of dollars in tax revenues from cannabis. So in regards to reform, we need the immediate decriminalization and legalization of cannabis. This should then result in the automatic expungement of all cannabis-related convictions for prisoners of the War On Drugs.

Another concern is the high costs and barriers to entering the cannabis industry. Regulations should prioritize economic opportunities, access to financing, and industry specific education for individuals and families that have been most impacted by prohibition. The industry needs to be accessible for those that have been a part of the unregulated market, these are the individuals that have paved the way for today’s industry.

Lastly, coming from a family of Rastas, regulations need to support access to the plant for all adults, fear and ignorance based regulations. Cannabis is not harmful like alcohol or cigarettes and should not be regulated as such. Consumers should have the freedom of choice around the mode of consumption and the genetic makeup for which they choose to consume. Our entire approach needs to be revamped.

What are your thoughts about federal legalization of cannabis? If you could speak to your Senator, what would be your most persuasive argument regarding why they should or should not pursue federal legalization?

The objective truth is that cannabis has proven beneficial for a plethora of diseases, a pendulum-swinger in the social justice paradigm, and a fiscal imperative for cash strapped municipalities.

The obvious advantage is the economic benefit. An estimated 321,000 people presently work in the cannabis industry. That number continues to grow with each state that legalizes the consumption of the plant. Plus, some of the earliest states to legalize have made over a billion in tax revenues to date.

Second is the health benefit. The science speaks for itself. From studies showing cannabis benefiting those with HIV, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, PTSD, and various ailments yet to be determined, to the thousands of anecdotal testimonies around the country regarding their personal benefits from consuming cannabis..

Lastly and equally important is the social implications. Cannabis legalization is slowly shifting the needle towards justice. The statistics have revealed major shifts in our criminal justice system. In LA county, the district attorney dismissed nearly 124,000 marijuana convictions since 2020, while in New York cannabis arrests dropped from 28,239 in 2017 to 2,720 in 2020.

This is no longer a conversation about if cannabis legalization will happen, it’s just a matter of determining when and how.

Today, cigarettes are legal, but they are heavily regulated, highly taxed, and they are somewhat socially marginalized. Would you like cannabis to have a similar status to cigarettes or different? Can you explain?

My father once said “Herb (cannabis) is creation. Cigarette is imitation.” I come from a family that recognizes cannabis as a sacrament. It has been in existence since creation; With its first recorded usage dating back to 8000 B.C. The idea of cigarettes in the same light as cannabis is just difficult to conceptualize.

I would like cannabis more widely accepted, available, and affordable as it is much safer than alcohol and cigarettes.

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

“Live Clean and let your works be Seen.” It’s a quote from my dad’s song Stand Firm. It become my Mantra and words I live by each day. “Living Clean” is to have a clean heart, body, and spirit; Being kind with your family, community, and most importantly with yourself. It’s only with this foundation that we can fulfill our passion and let our works be SEEN.

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

I stand on the shoulders of my father and his legacy, and you’re right that allows me to have influence. The funny thing about your question is that it brings me back to the very first question you asked. I was born into a movement, the cannabis legalization movement! Everyday I work to inspire the next generation of cannabis warriors. My efforts through the Peter Tosh Foundation is MY movement, it’s my father’s movement, it’s our movement.

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

Women Leading The Cannabis Industry: “Diversity is a must”, With Niambe McIntosh was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You have to believe in your business! You will be told “NO” by so many people and you will face so many obstacles that unless you’re really passionate about the business you’re starting and really believe in its potential, you will give up. One thing that helps is surrounding yourself with a group of people who believe in you and your business so that on days when you’re struggling to see whether or not it’s worth it to keep pushing, they can remind you that it is!

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

Julia Dawe is the daughter of an entrepreneur, she grew up in a home in Canada where coming up with business ideas and product names with her siblings was as common as playing Monopoly in other households. One day, while leaving the gym, Julia reached into her bag to grab the jewelry she’d tossed in before her workout, fully expecting to have to unravel it when she pulled it out. But on this occasion, her necklace had landed in the bristles of her hairbrush and, for once, her necklace didn’t tangle on itself. Julia had an epiphany- two years and five prototypes after that trip to the gym, Julia had a product in hand.

In 2015, after graduating from The University of Toronto with a teaching degree, I started working full time as an elementary school teacher. I loved my work and never imagined embarking on a different career path. Every day after work I’d go to the gym to participate in a group fitness class. One day I was running late and tossed my necklace into my gym bag, knowing I’d have to untangle it after class. Much to my surprise, when I went to find my necklace I saw that it had landed in the bristles of my paddle hairbrush and the bristles had kept it from tangling on itself! I thought “WOW! That is a really cool idea for a jewelry case” and left it at that. In 2018 I gave birth to my first child, and while on maternity leave decided to use my extra time to see if I could turn my idea into a reality. The rest is history! After a year of prototyping, setting up my business, etc. Blingo officially launched in the Fall of 2019 and I haven’t looked back since!

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

Last year I applied and auditioned to be on Dragons Den, the Canadian equivalent of the super popular American TV show, Shark Tank. Thousands of businesses apply to be on the show from all across Canada so I didn’t think I had a great shot of making it onto the show. Much to my surprise, I got a call saying that Blingo had been chosen to pitch our business in front of the panel of dragons (ie. investors). I couldn’t believe it! Pitching Blingo in front of the dragons was an incredibly nerve-wracking but also a super rewarding experience. Three out of the six dragons ended up offering us a deal which was very validating and we were given incredible advice from all six of the investors.

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

Once my first prototypes arrived I was so excited to share my idea with the world that I signed up to be a vendor at the first relevant trade show I could find that was taking place in Toronto. It happened to be a luggage and handbag show. An hour into the trade show I realized how unprepared I was! Businesses and stores who were at the show to order inventory for their stores were asking me about purchase orders, turnaround times, point of sale displays, etc. and I had no clue how to answer them! It was definitely a humbling experience. I learned that 1. There was a lot I still had to learn and 2. Sometimes it’s best to take things slowly and execute them well.

Starting a business is tough, especially while raising kids and trying to maintain some sort of work-life balance. I can wholeheartedly say that I wouldn’t have been able to launch or continue to run Blingo without the help of my family members- my parents, my husband, and my siblings have all stepped up to help more times than I can count and I’m eternally grateful to them for being so generous with their time/expertise/resources.

I think it comes down to time and responsibility. While the world is definitely starting to shift, the majority of women are still the primary child raisers, home keepers, cooks, etc. in their families. Until we see more men start to take ownership of responsibilities/duties at home, I think it will continue to be challenging for women to found companies!

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

I think it has a lot to do with the messaging that our young girls are being fed. I grew up in a family where I was told that I could be and do anything that I set my mind to and yet I still grew up believing that owning a business was primarily something that men did. I think that if we show young girls more stories of successful female entrepreneurs they’ll start to believe that founding a company is an option for them.

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?

Female founders are strong, brave, hard working, talented, creative, etc. and when women become founders they show other women that they can be strong, brave, hardworking, talented, creative, and successful too!

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

I think the biggest myth is that founders have it easy. Popular opinion seems to suggest that founders are able to sit back and relax, while their companies grow effortlessly and this couldn’t be further from the truth! Behind every successful business is an extremely hardworking founder- someone who is willing to work around the clock and pour their blood, sweat, and tears into their business. I believe that success is 99.9% hard work and 0.01% luck (being in the right place at the right time, which one could argue is also a result of hard work).

In order to be a successful founder, you have to be someone who is okay with making mistakes, being told “no”, working hard, and taking risks. If you want to work a 9 AM-5 PM, like to avoid risks at all cost,s or are sensitive to criticism then entrepreneurship is not for you. I don’t think that some people are born to be founders and others are born to work “regular jobs”, I think it comes down to timing (some people are not wanting the life of a founder while raising young kids, but might be super successful founders once their kids are in school and they have more time to focus on their business, etc.) and passion (once you have an idea you’re passionate about and believe in, you can find within yourself the traits you need to be successful), both of which are fluid.

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.)

Entrepreneurship is not a straight road up! Obstacles appear all of the time. Some examples of obstacles I’ve faced include receiving samples of products that were ugly, delays in shipments, language barriers between myself and manufacturers resulting in being told “no that’s not possible” for multiple months, Covid, etc. It can feel like a grind! But don’t be discouraged! If you have an idea that you love and you think others will too… keep pushing!
Put yourself out there! One thing I think I did really well in my first year of business was seeking out and signing up for every opportunity for exposure! I have to admit, putting myself and my product out there for purchase and hence, review was SCARY! But, one step at a time! Seeing customers genuinely love Blingo was very rewarding and seemed to fuel my desire to tell more people about it. The more you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you’ll find! In my first year of business I contacted a few hundred influencers, attended multiple trade shows, applied to be on many TV segments, etc. and I experienced a lot of success because of it.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help! You might think “why would THAT person want to help me?!” Everyone started somewhere! In my experience, people who have no reason to help me have been so willing to share their expertise! Two examples- Michele Romanow from Dragon’s Den, and Rachel from Hillberg and Berk. Both are super successful Canadian, female, entrepreneurs with who I’ve had the opportunity to connect with since starting Blingo. Both of them are busy women and I thought they definitely wouldn’t have time to invest in me but both have been so generous in providing incredible mentorship.
You have to believe in your business! You will be told “NO” by so many people and you will face so many obstacles that unless you’re really passionate about the business you’re starting and really believe in its potential, you will give up. One thing that helps is surrounding yourself with a group of people who believe in you and your business so that on days when you’re struggling to see whether or not it’s worth it to keep pushing, they can remind you that it is!
Starting a business will require significantly more time, energy, and resources than you think! I remember thinking (naively) that once I worked my butt off to get Blingo up and running, the rest would take care of itself and Blingo would grow organically into a multi-million dollar brand! HA. What I’ve learned is that nothing happens without a lot of hard work, determination, and persistence. Getting a business off the ground is the easy part, the real hard work comes when you want to grow!

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

You mean aside from thousands of women being able to travel without dealing with the stress and frustration of tangled jewelry thanks to Blingo? 😉

Whenever we have the opportunity to give back and support organizations that help people in need, we take them! Blingo is still in its infancy, but as we continue to grow, giving generously will be at the forefront of what we do.

I totally believe in the concept of mentorship and helping one another. I’ve benefited so much from people choosing to say ‘yes’ to investing in me (even when it was of no advantage to themselves) and I take every opportunity to pay that forward! I’d love to exist in a world where more people were engaged in mentorship relationships.

Oh my gosh, if you could arrange a private brunch with Lori Greiner for me, that would be great! Ha

Lori is a powerhouse businesswoman who I admire greatly for her personal success, but also for the way that she gives back to other business owners who are just starting out. Growing up watching Shark Tank and witnessing Lori’s powerful, female presence on TV allowed me to believe that I could be a strong female in business too! Also, I think Lori would LOVE Blingo, so that would be a bonus too! 🙂

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

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

Thomas DeLauer: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Make Your Bed in the Morning — Starting your day with a good, disciplined habit sets the pace for the day. This has become so important for me since having kids. It’s chaotic in my house, and this is the piece of control that I have on my day and it sets the bar.

As a part of our series about “5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Thomas DeLauer.

Thomas DeLauer is a Nutritionist and Expert in Diet, Cognitive Nutrition and Performance. He is motivated by a guiding ethos of integrated optimization: if you perform better, so does the world. Thomas reaches more than 15 million viewers monthly (on average) through his Youtube channel, where he translates experience and learning from his own health transformation utilizing intermittent fasting and other forms of nutrition into actionable steps for his dedicated community of 2.85 million subscribers.

Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?

I had just gotten out of a high stress, corporate career and it was beyond critical that I started focusing much more on wellness and lifestyle. Although I had a history as a student as an athlete, I had let it all go during my early healthcare career. For me, it was really coming down to life an death. I was close to 300lbs and not going down a good route.

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

Still to this day, it is people coming up to me in the store or on the street and thanking me for how I have impacted their lives. It is always interesting to me, because each person has a different story and reason for why they made a change.

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

At first, my wife was my videographer. Shooting with an iphone. It was always comical how I could see a certain look in her eye when I said something that she questioned or perhaps stumbled over my words. The amount of trust and how much the judgment of our spouses or loved ones weigh is so immense. It just became comical. We were trying to make a perfect masterpiece the first time through, and now, that is just comical to think about!

Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the fitness and wellness field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?

My unique contribution is the ability to distill complex subject matter and biochemistry in a way that people can understand and put into practice. I’m not a clinician, I am some guy that has been through it before, but I also have a knack for explaining how the body works.

I am exceptionally grateful towards my wife. I know it’s cliche, but without her trust and her encouragement (even when she looked at me funny during filming) there is no way I could be doing what I do now. She trusted that I would build a business out of this one way or another and she never questioned me. It allowed me to dive head first into what I believed in.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. We all know that it’s important to eat more vegetables, eat less sugar, exercise more, and get better sleep etc. But while we know it intellectually, it’s often difficult to put it into practice and make it a part of our daily habits. In your opinion what are the 3 main blockages that prevent us from taking the information that we all know, and integrating it into our lives?

Sustainability — Being able to do it for the long term. Sometimes, subconsciously we don’t even start something because it seems like it’s unrealistic to keep it going.

Education — I always say that education leads to adherence. Without educating someone on how their body works, how can they trust to make the changes. They need to know the WHY, even though they may not say it.

Social Pressure — Social Norms are super important. If your new routine is not “cool” or accepted widely, it is going to be that much harder to stick to it. So do NOT make it a big deal. Don’t even mention that you’re changing your lifestyle if you don’t want. Actions speak louder than words.

Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”? (Please share a story or an example for each, and feel free to share ideas for mental, emotional and physical health.)

Make Your Bed in the Morning — Starting your day with a good, disciplined habit sets the pace for the day. This has become so important for me since having kids. It’s chaotic in my house, and this is the piece of control that I have on my day and it sets the bar.
Close it down after 7pm — Simply put, eating later in the evening is when we run into trouble. This was my biggest issue. By simply having a contract with myself that unless it was an unusual circumstance like dinner with friends, etc, I would stop earring by 7pm. This made such a difference in my sleep, and I ended up consuming about 300 calories less per day.
Bigger Breakfasts, Smaller Lunches, Smallest Dinners — For me, this was a game changer. I used to always go for a light breakfast, and then I found that later in the day I was exhausted and making bad decisions PLUS very hungry. This has been a gamechanger for me, not to mention there are some interesting studies to back it up.
10 Minute Walks vs Long Workouts — I will tell you, what made the biggest change to my body during my weight loss wasn’t just going to the gym. I realized that on an active day, I would walk 20,000 steps, vs 5,000 that I might get in a structured workout. It’s the perception of a hard workout that really tricks us. You will burn more and become a healthier person just going for multiple short walks per day. Try to get out a few times for just 10 minutes. Amazing stuff.
Get out in the sun consciously — Vitamin D is becoming so much more important than what we thought years ago. Really set specific time to get outside and absorb sun. Mood, Weight Loss, Immune Support, you name it, because Vitamin D is a very active hormone in our body and we are designed to see the sun!

As an expert, this might be obvious to you, but I think it would be instructive to articulate this for the public. Aside from weight loss, what are 3 benefits of daily exercise? Can you explain?

Sends signals to the brain to keep the metabolism elevated and healthy. Exercise is less about the literal effect of exercise and more about the benefit that comes from muscle as an ORGAN that signals the body to burn more and ultimately be healthier.
Mood — This is a big one. Cerebral blood flow (blood to the brain), serotonin that helps us feel better throughout the day, SLEEP — cannot over emphasize how this affects our mood!
Longevity — Being able to support the cells and the mitochondria (what makes energy in a cell) can allow us to use fuels like carbs and fats better throughout the long haul. This can protect a cell and keep it running at it’s max potential for longer. Especially cardio!

For someone who is looking to add exercise to their daily routine, which 3 exercises would you recommend that are absolutely critical?

Squats/Deadlifts — Maximizing as much muscle usage as possible. Bigger muscles require more metabolic demand. The larger the muscle, the more metabolic effort it takes to compensate for the workout. These moves use very large muscle parts plus help activate and stabilize the core.
Walking — Do Not stop walking. Even if you’re resistance training, walking should be a staple in your daily life in order to keep muscles stimulated but also to keep consistent movement throughout the day.
Thrusters — This is where you do a squat movement while holding dumbbells at your shoulders and then press up into a shoulder press at the top of the movement. You only need to do 8–10 before your heart rate is nice and high, giving you a great cardiovascular workout alongside activating large muscles like the legs and shoulders.

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

“The Magic of Thinking Big” Such a simple read. It helped me understand belief systems and that anything is possible if you just simply develop the right thought patterns and outlook. I was depressed after exiting my previous career, thought that I would have to settle for the same kind of corporate grind. Reading this book forced me to put things into proper perspective and stop doubting myself.

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

I want to start a movement to reinvigorate family values in our world again. I think much of health and fitness is so focused on vanity these days, sometimes we forget about the real reasons that we are working on our health and wellness, and that is to be able to live a vibrant, full life. Sometimes in the age of digital media we lose sight of the things that are truly important. I want to inspire parents to instill healthy habits in their children as well.

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

“Money Doesn’t Wait Atop the Hill, Glory Doesn’t Wait Atop the Hill, all that waits atop the hill, is the top of the hill” — This was actually a quote from a Nike ad decades ago, but it’s so important, it’s tattooed on my shoulder. Don’t do it for any reason other than to just do it. The amount of times I have been paralyzed by my own thoughts, waiting for the perfect scenario or setting is countless. I have learned that a minimum viable product is much better than no product at all. Just get it done and get moving. No more motivation, 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.

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

It is a big mission of mine to make a big impact in Formula 1 and Motorsports in general. My father was a racecar driver (he passed away a few years ago) and it’s been a big driver for me to focus on cognitive nutrition in motorsports. I think that if we can spread the word of health and wellness to a younger generation that is into performance (motorsports, formula 1, etc), we can make a very big change in the world. I’d love to sit down and have breakfast with Zak Brown (CEO of Mclaren).

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

Definitely YouTube — http://www.youtube.com/thethomasdelauer

IG — @ThomasDeLauer

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Thomas DeLauer: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Riddhi Gangolli Of SmileDirectClub on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help…

Women In Wellness: Riddhi Gangolli Of SmileDirectClub on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Technology free time: We are surrounded by technology and distractions most of our lives. I always allocate time within the day when my mind is allowed to creatively wander.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Riddhi Gangolli BDS, MS, PhD, Sr. Director of Professional Education and Marketing for SmileDirectClub.

Riddhi Gangolli BDS, MS, PhD, is the Sr. Director of Professional Education and Marketing at SmileDirectClub and focusses on helping dentists grow their practice using the company’s unique telehealth platform. She has a broad and deep understanding of the dental field. Her experiences are rooted in oral care, biomedical research, innovation, commercialization, and healthcare marketing. With a multidisciplinary background she is a boundary-spanner driving medtech focused innovations for physicians and dentists. Gangolli earned her Bachelor of Dental Surgery degree from Padmashree Dr D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth in Maharashtra, India, holds a Master of Science in Biomaterials and Biomimetics from New York University and earned her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Temple University.

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

My career goal is to bring best in class medical devices to the hands of health care providers (HCPs). I took a multidisciplinary approach to my goal using my technical and marketing expertise to develop and bring medical devices to HCPs. I am a dentist and have an MS in Biomaterials and a PhD in Engineering. I have enjoyed using my background to bring technologies and products to life as part of the R&D and marketing teams at Glidewell labs, Straumanngroup and now SmileDirectClub. SmileDirectClub has been able to provide access to care over 1.5 million people. The access has been able to push dental care into the lives of many who never considered it before due to the high cost or inconvenience. Dentists and orthodontists have always been a critical part of SmileDirectClub clear aligner therapy treatment, but we created the Partner Network in early 2020 to open our teledentistry platform to more dentists and orthodontists, giving them the opportunity to expand their current services and provide patients with the ability to get started at a SmileDirectClub-affiliated dentist’s office if they choose.

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

There have been several instances that have been impressed on my mind, most of them have to do with understanding a new perspective through a journey of learning. While I was working as an Innovation scientist as Glidewell labs, my team lead was able to bring me into a broader discussion that involved product marketing. I was immediately drawn to the subject and enjoyed contributing through the many stages gates that go into a successful product launch. I am still grateful for that experience because it showed me the path to the next steps of my careers which would involve product development and management, clinical affairs and HCP marketing. My learnings from the process were to always be open to new experiences and imbibe a culture of learning and humility throughout life.

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

When I was starting off in my career as a young professional, I had not fully internalized that owing a practice is akin to owning a small business. As the dentist, you are the executive, financial, operational, clinical and marketing lead for your practice. I was able to learn quickly through keeping an open mind and being okay with knowing what I did not know. There is no better way to learn than being neck deep in the problem. I learned to fail mindfully rather than just failing fast while breaking things.

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

The doctors who use the SmileDirectClub teledentistry platform have safely and successfully treated more than 1.5 million patients. Their before & after photos speak for themselves, but we also look hard at the data. Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a great indicator of our Club Member satisfaction. We have one of the highest NPS scores in the healthcare industry. SmileDirectClub is customer-centric, and we pass that same level of care on to the doctors who are part of our Partner Network. We also found in a recent health survey that 1 in 7 people said they visit their dentist more regularly after their treatment and 4 in 10 people said they brush and floss their teeth more frequently following their treatment.

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.

Have a good routine: Exercise, get 6–8 hours of restful sleep and have good physical and mental wellness check-ins from time to time.

Oral Care: You get just one set of adult teeth, so take care of them. Using a water flosser, fluoridated toothpaste and an electronic/power toothbrush is a great way to ensure your pearly whites last a lifetime.

Read as a way to disconnect: I am an avid reader, I love reading different genres spanning fiction, nonfiction and biographies.

Technology free time: We are surrounded by technology and distractions most of our lives. I always allocate time within the day when my mind is allowed to creatively wander.

Work- Life balance: Spending time and deeply bonding to friends and family is very rewarding. I designate time to do this each and every day so I can lead a fulfilling life at home and at work.

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

Mental wellness is a very necessary issue to consider in our society, especially this last year due to COVID-19. Acknowledging the need and developing ways to address common issues would be a giant leap forward for our community.

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

The top 3 things that are the most meaningful to me include:

Access to care and use of telehealth would become the next frontier in medicine/dentistry

Remote patient monitoring and connected care would be the best way to keep patients close to their doctors without disrupting their lives

Providing new solutions requires a matrixed environment and a combination of skillsets housed within diverse groups

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

As I mentioned, mental health is the dearest to me. Mental health is often stigmatized and not considered as essential in many countries. We at SmileDirectClub consider it a top priority and I am thankful for the attention we give to this topic. Just like any other medical concerns, prevention is always better than cure. No matter what demographic you belong to, having a wellness check that includes mental well-being can often be the prevention most people can incorporate in their daily lives.

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

Connect with me in LinkedIn!

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Riddhi Gangolli Of SmileDirectClub on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You can succeed at this. Taking that first step is so difficult. It’s exhausting thinking of all the ‘worst case scenarios’ and ‘what ifs’, so much so they really do delay you making the leap and founding your own company. Believe you can succeed and focus on that. It took a lot of people giving me a much-needed pep talk to remind me that I can bring something to the table AND be successful.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing The Aesthetic Consultant®️ Vanessa Bird.

Vanessa understands the challenges faced by successful aesthetic practitioners , businesses and clinics and coaches them to succeed in a competitive market. Vanessa builds world-class Luxury Patient Experiences, dramatically increases revenue for her clients and enhances their positioning and reputation in the aesthetic medical arena. Visit www.theaestheticconsultant.co.uk to find out more.

I side-stepped from working in FMCG sales into capital equipment sales, specialising in selling non-surgical devices to doctors, surgeons and clinics wanting to perform anti-ageing aesthetic procedures. Working in this fast-moving sector was exciting and I absorbed everything I learned from others in industry, identifying the most effective ways to generate business, how best to create a luxury patient journey, ways to promote treatments and also how to teach clinic staff selling skills After 11 years success in aesthetic medicine sales I set up my own consultancy business 2 years ago specifically to help medical professionals build successful clinics, sharing my knowledge and experience with my clients to ensure they reach their full potential.

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

There are so many interesting things that happened to me since I founded my company, however the stand-out one was the pandemic! I was 5 months into running my new business before it hit, closing down all my clients’ clinics and leaving me (and many others) with a stressful time ahead. Through one of my connections I was invited to be part of a weekly business webinar service, providing information free of charge to any of the people in our industry who had their clinics closed down. By working hard to come up with new content every week for months and sharing my information freely this opened up many doors. These included speaker opportunities at conferences when we reopened society, new business, referrals, magazine articles and collaborations. This interesting plot twist of a pandemic (!) has shaped my business in a way I could never have envisioned and for that I am grateful.

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?

Pricing! I was used to selling something physical in the shape of capital equipment and when I started my consultancy business I offered my skills and services ‘for sale’ instead. I had no real idea how long a project may take, or how to price my time so I found myself working long hours for weeks for pennies! This was my own fault for not thinking through the timings and pricing but when I look back and think of the months of coaching I did for one particular client when now I would charge 7 times the amount I just have to laugh or I would cry. I learned the value of my time and expertise pretty quickly after that.

It would be unfair to name just one person as I have so much gratitude for so many people. Whether they guided me, offered support, gave pep talks when I was down or even made a throwaway comment that triggered a lightbulb moment, I am grateful to every single one of them. I’m lucky to work in an industry full of generous, supportive people.

History, upbringing, education and society all play a role in holding back women from founding companies. Are we really encouraged in the way men are? Sadly not. Maybe there is no one factor that stands out but when you have history books filled with men who started companies, families who saw the father as the main breadwinner when the mother stayed at home to raise the family, a slightly biased education system that unconsciously encourages women to select more ‘female friendly’ subjects and a society that almost expects women to be the caring supportive role, is there any surprise when all these things combined result in less women even considering starting a company as an option? Has it even crossed their minds to do it?

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?

Remove any limiting beliefs we may have that consciously or unconsciously pass down to women around us. Do we ask our male colleagues when they plan on starting a family or whether they have kids? Not in the same way we ask women we meet. Are we genuinely surprised if we meet a woman who runs a company compared to how we react when we meet a male company boss? Stop and check yourself and see how many beliefs and expectations you hold when it comes to the typical roles for men and women and let’s try and open up possibility to everyone.

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 cliche that we multi-task? That’s true. So when you’re first starting out as a woman you will be able to multi-task and wear many hats as you grow your company rather than relying on hiring in help. We are naturally more empathic and this gives us an edge in business as it allows us to understand how a customer or competitor may be feeling and the reasons behind their actions and adjust our approach accordingly.

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

One big myth is that’s a lonely life. It really isn’t! If you surround yourself with good people who support you and look out for you then you’ll never feel alone.

I may be biased as sales is my background, but I do believe sales people have the drive and self-discipline to be a successful founder. We spend years planning our time to be most efficient, networking with people, growing business relationships, working well under stress and ‘selling’ ourselves as well as the brand we represent. It’s almost like Founder Training! However if you have no real desire or motivation to get out of bed in the morning, need to be told what to do or wait for sales to come to you then you’d be better off working for someone else.

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

You can succeed at this. Taking that first step is so difficult. It’s exhausting thinking of all the ‘worst case scenarios’ and ‘what ifs’, so much so they really do delay you making the leap and founding your own company. Believe you can succeed and focus on that. It took a lot of people giving me a much-needed pep talk to remind me that I can bring something to the table AND be successful.
You are better than you think. When you are good at what you do, your reputation grows as does your confidence. When I worked in sales I was at the top of my game, the best rep in the company and super-confident I could deliver. Yet when I started my own company doubt crept in. All of a sudden I worried that nobody would hire me or that they would be disappointed in the quality of services I offered, even though they were equal to if not better than the services I provided alongside every device sale I did as a sales rep. You eventually build back your confidence yet every now and then it pops back up, usually when you introduce a new service. Believe in yourself.
Taking a holiday may well be more stressful than going without. When I worked in sales I used to schedule in holidays around times when I was ahead of target. I thought that once I ran my own business I would be able to go away at the drop of a hat. Wow, how wrong was I? If anything I am less able to go away simply because the workload does not accommodate it, and when I am not working I am not earning. Based on those facts alone, holidays can really stress me out. I’ve since learned to make time for a holiday and force myself to switch off completely as nobody wants a burned out business consultant!
Don’t under-value what you offer. Price accordingly. It’s easy to price low to begin with as you want to attract customers but you’ll soon learn the value of respecting your own skills, experience and talent and price yourself where you belong. You have identified a gap in the market and you’ve launched your business to meet that gap, so why offer your skills and services for peanuts? Price low and people expect a poor service. Price high and they will respect your services and time more.
Don’t take on every single project, client or opportunity. It may feel counterproductive to say no to a job but trust your instincts. Some clients or projects really are bad news and no amount of money is worth the hassle, stress and time. I won’t name names but there are certainly a few clients I worked with that I probably should have said no to.

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

I hope that by unlocking the potential in my clients that I do in some way make the world a better place simply because I helped them improve their businesses. I also make an effort to support small businesses now I am a founder compared to before when I was an employee. I understand what they are going through and if I can get what I need from them over a big corporate then I will do that time and time again.

I would create a Networking Group, not just for business opportunities but for support too. It’s nice to be nice and sometimes it’s all about what you can do for someone rather than going to network simply because you want something. If there were more networking groups that encouraged a more supportive viewpoint I think that would really help a huge number of people

I follow Jade Dunkerton, founder of clothing brand Holland Cooper on instagram and she really is incredibly motivating and inspirational. She is hugely supportive of women in business, shares business knowledge with her followers and really knows how to build a brand and run a successful business. She doesn’t pretend it’s all easy and she works hard for her success. I would just soak up any advice, tips and words of wisdom she may have over lunch. If you’re not following her already then I recommend doing so. @jadehollandcopper

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

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