Women In Wellness: Joelle Prevost On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Don’t undervalue sleep and exercise. Sleep is the gateway to emotional regulation and mood control, and I call exercise “nature’s antidepressant”. If you are wanting to prioritize your mental health, start with these basic needs and then build from there. I have seen the power of sleep and exercise work wonders in clients.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joelle Prevost, R.C.C.
J. L. Prevost holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is a registered clinical counselor (British Columbia Association of Clinical Counsellors), a licensed teacher (British Columbia Teachers’ Federation), and a passionate communication-skills coach. In private practice, Prevost works with individuals and couples experiencing communication challenges, anxiety, trauma, and chronic illness. Learn more about her book The Conversation Guide: How To Skillfully Communicate, Set Boundaries, And Be Understood at www.theconversationguide.com.
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?
Hello! Thank-you for having me.
Currently I’m a counsellor living in BC, Canada. I work at a high school and also run my own private practice. Before I was a counsellor, I was a high school science teacher and before that I took care of tropical fish at the Vancouver Aquarium. It’s been quite a journey!
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
The school that I currently work at is the school I went to as a student from grade 6–12. The insight I’ve gained from being able to see this school’s community from many different roles has taught me a lot about perspective! I feel I am able to empathize with students due to really knowing the experience of being at the school as a young person.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I started my private practice, I opened up my schedule too much. Even though I was working a moderate amount of hours per day, those hours would be spread out from 7am-9pm, and often my breaks weren’t long enough to do much (errands, jogging, waking the dog). Now I have a lot smaller windows for clients to book sessions so that I can do the things I need to take care of myself (and to be the best counselor I can be!).
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I believe that teaching people effective communication skills help with feeling connected, increasing self esteem, and an overall increasing personal wellbeing. On a larger scale, when individual people are mentally healthier, they are able to be more compassionate and help others in their community. The ripple effect can create more conscious and compassionate members of society, thus a stronger society as a whole.
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) Make time to do nothing.
Our society’s value on productivity has us reaching for the superhuman feat of being productive during all waking hours, then leaving us feeling disappointed we can’t ‘do it all’. People have it in their minds that they ‘should’ be able to go to school or work all day, then come home and be productive for another 4–5 hours! Think about what’s realistic and give yourself some time to rest.
2) Don’t undervalue sleep and exercise.
Sleep is the gateway to emotional regulation and mood control, and I call exercise “nature’s antidepressant”. If you are wanting to prioritize your mental health, start with these basic needs and then build from there. I have seen the power of sleep and exercise work wonders in clients.
3) Be mindful of your thoughts, they aren’t always true.
As a CBT therapist, I am constantly reminding my clients (and myself) of this. The beliefs we use to make sense of — and predict- the world around us, might be untrue at times. Be aware of thoughts and challenge them for truth.
4) Set up self-care before you need it.
Have a relationship with a counsellor, have self care as part of routine, and/or figure out what actually de-stresses you before you need these things!. I constantly see people trying to add self-care into their routine for the first time when they are extremely stressed about something. This just adds more to the plate, and the self care isn’t as effective.
5) Form a community
Having people you interact with regularly and can count on when times are tough makes all the difference. Spending time cultivating strong relationships helps mental health immensely. It might be friends you play board games with, a book club, a parent and tot class, a sports team — find people who you can interact with in person on a regular basis. This is a key human need that is often unmet and can lead to feelings of isolation and loneliness.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Free therapy for everyone! We might be a ways away from this, so more realistically, the push back against productivity-value culture. People actively taking stock of their values and living life true to their values.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1) Use an ipad instead of taking paper notes. (I hate paper clutter, but take a lot of notes during my sessions!). And speaking of technology, I also wish I had used the Jane App a lot sooner too.
2) Even though I talk to people all day, the job of a therapist can be lonely. It’s important to have social interactions with people outside of work.
3) Book yourself vacation time. While starting my own business, I never gave myself holidays or vacation time. I have now learned that anticipating time off is a huge help for me getting through busier periods.
4) Being a good admin assistant is almost as important as being a good therapist. Running my own business, and working with vulnerable populations, I am so saddened by the amount of clients who have horror stories of counsellors not showing up, not emailing them back, and basically ghosting them. I am lucky to be an organized person naturally, but if someone isn’t, I encourage them to get help (with an assistant or software) that can help keep them accountable to the clients.
5) I had people tell me this, and I’m glad they did — save money for income tax. When you run your own business, it’s not taken off automatically, so be sure to save. I’ve had a lot of therapist friends get shocked by a huge tax bill, so I appreciated their advice so I wasn’t ever caught in the same situation.
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 a counsellor, mental health is high on that list for me. I think mental health needs to come first before people can care about much else (like how on an airplane you are expected to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others).
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Women In Wellness: Kristie Alicea On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
My top 5 lifestyle tweaks would have to start with mediation and mindfulness. I have been meditating for years. I went to a performing arts high school in Manhattan, and our dance teachers would use meditation and visualization to calm our nerves before performance and help us be more in tune with our bodies. I have also been meditating daily for years; the benefits to taking time to be silent with yourself and your thoughts are immeasurable, you feel the effects in every aspect of your life. Meditation has helped my mental health tremendously. I have worked with a therapist for years and I can’t stress the importance of prioritizing your mental health; it will make you a better person, a better friend, better partner, parent etc. The mind takes priority over the body!
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristie Alicea.
Kristie Alicea, co-founder of ABC Fit Collective, brings a multi-hyphenated background of movement and wellness to her practice. Kristie and her partner and co-founder Sabrina Stockel have created ABC Fit Collective by taking Kristie’s training style — which can best be described as holistic in nature and goal oriented by design — to help their clients celebrate what their bodies can do.
After continually being referred to pregnant clients, Kristie and Sabrina realized that pregnant women really want to move and feel strong during this time, but they are often afraid they aren’t doing exercises that are safe and effective during pregnancy.
ABC Fit Collective’s focus is about celebrating what your body can do during this remarkable time: your maternity journey. Their purpose is rooted in celebrating the strength of women and helping them feel connected to their bodies as they are creating life and living theirs.
Kristie’s certifications include: NCSF Certified personal trainer. ACE Group fitness instructor, AFPA, Pre + Postnatal Fitness Specialist Specialties: Prenatal and postpartum training, functional fitness training, strength training, barre, HIIT.
Kristie is also a proud Latina and member of the LGTBQ+ Community alongside her partner (in business and life!) Sabrina.
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 name is Kristie Alicea; I’m a native New Yorker and proud Latina who has been in the fitness industry since 2011. I was born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens and lived in Manhattan for about 4 years so NYC is in my blood. I grew up dancing and went to a performing arts high school in Manhattan; LaGuardia Performing Arts. I continued dancing in college at Rutgers University. However, I graduated with a double major in Communication and Spanish. But Dance is actually how I got into my current career. I started taking Zumba classes so I could increase my cardio in preparation for backup dancing. But then it was a recommendation from the instructor to get a certificate in teaching Zumba that changed everything. That was the gateway that would open up my life to the fitness industry, which I have been in for over 10 years now.
I have had the privilege of working at Gold’s Gym, New York Sports Club, Equinox, Baree, Barre3. Then in 2017 I entered my next chapter in the fitness industry and became a co-founder of a new boutique fitness studio in Brooklyn. In 2020 I started my new business baby, ABC Fit Collective where we work with women before, during and after their pregnancies. When I’m not training clients, I love being outdoors and active. I thoroughly enjoy all things around food; cooking and finding great new restaurants. In 2021, after living in New York City for my entire life, my partner and I moved to Miami. I decided to ride the wave of change while down in Florida and pursue a sober lifestyle which I have really been enjoying. I feel like I hit the refresh button on my life!
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?
In 2015, while working at Equinox, I decided to get a pre and postnatal fitness certification on a whim. Little did I know it would be my main passion in just a few years. I happened to tell one of my existing clients that I had this certification and from there my career blossomed, as I began to teach one pregnant client after another. That one initial client (who I am still working with) was the catalyst to my niche and helped me birth my business idea of ABC Fit. My circumstances lead me to such clarity that this is what I want to be doing in the fitness industry; working with and changing the lives of pregnant and postpartum women.
I also had the pleasure of training Daphne Oz at Equinox and had Dr. Jill Biden and Elaine Welterworth take my Barre3 classes, which really taught me to be prepared for anything because you never know who will be popping in to take class or who I would partner up with as a client.
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?
Before starting ABC Fit Collective I was a part of other fitness business endeavors. Some of the biggest mistakes I made while working for others was not speaking up for myself and asking for what I knew I deserved. Remaining silent landed me in a place of self doubt, a place where no one wants to be. With big ambition you are bound to have some bumps in the road, it’s not always smooth sailing. It is those bumps that teach us the biggest lessons. I have since decided to choose my words wisely and confidently. I have an important voice and people need to hear it and know I’m worth the compensation I am seeking. By doing so I am able to inspire other women in my position to do the same for themselves.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
My work is focused on the health and wellness of others, particularly women before, during and after their pregnancy. As someone who has been working with women during their maternity journey, I believe that taking care of your baby starts with taking care of you. Taking time to be selfish will allow you to be selfless in everything else that you do. Especially during the pandemic, I noticed how unbelievably strong and resilient mothers are and how important they are to the boom of our society. If I can help just one mother to feel her absolute best and strongest self then I have succeeded.
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.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
My top 5 lifestyle tweaks would have to start with mediation and mindfulness. I have been meditating for years. I went to a performing arts high school in Manhattan, and our dance teachers would use meditation and visualization to calm our nerves before performance and help us be more in tune with our bodies. I have also been meditating daily for years; the benefits to taking time to be silent with yourself and your thoughts are immeasurable, you feel the effects in every aspect of your life. Meditation has helped my mental health tremendously. I have worked with a therapist for years and I can’t stress the importance of prioritizing your mental health; it will make you a better person, a better friend, better partner, parent etc. The mind takes priority over the body!
My second lifestyle tweak would be intentionally moving your body and sweating often. I say intentionally because it really takes a lot to listen to your body and give it what it needs. When I was in my 20s I thought I had to do the most intense, hardest workouts every time then I had knee surgery and that put things into perspective for me. I now know that if my body is craving rest then I give it rest and if I have great energy that day I go for a strong solid workout. My goal is to intentionally sweat most days throughout my week. Sweating is one of the best things we can do for our lymphatic system and to simply feel good.
Sleep is one of the most important lifestyle tweaks that I tell my clients to prioritize. During the pandemic when my bedroom became another office, like many of us, I found it very challenging to sleep well and get good quality sleep. I knew I had to make a change so now I have a bedtime routine. Under no circumstances do I bring my cellphone or laptop into my bedroom, no tv or blue light at least 30 minutes prior to sleep. I have a mix of essential oils, a sound machine and I read every night before bed. If you aren’t getting good sleep you are on an endless cycle of binging on caffeinated drinks, your adrenal glands are constantly exhausted and I find myself to be more irritable to the people around me.
Eat real food and drink water; maybe this should be the first lifestyle tweak. If we think about the law of conversion of energy it says that energy can not be created or destroyed but rather passed from one to another. Then by eating real food I am getting all the energy from the earth from the natural foods I decide to consume. Whatever your dietary preferences are, eliminating processed foods and getting back to the foundation of food has amazing benefits to our health. I try to avoid highly processed foods and cook many meals at home to ensure I am consuming the absolute best. Staying hydrated is one of the best ways to feel all around better.
My last lifestyle tweak is getting outside and into nature as much as possible. Getting fresh air, sunshine on your face, getting away from screens, getting your feet on dirt or in sand has resoundingly positive benefits to our body and mental health. Getting outdoors and immersing yourself into nature allows you to quiet the external noise and explore your surroundings and inner workings of your mind. Not to mention the benefits of your circadian rhythm which affects everything.
If I had to start a movement it would be meditation! I believe that if we all meditated; brought ourselves to heightened state of awareness and focused attention, we can all achieve the most amount of wellness. Meditating can help us be more mindful and intentional in everything else we do.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Don’t take things so personally.
Move from competition to collaboration mindset.
If you never ask, the answer will always be no.
People do business with people.
I’m not for everyone and that’s perfectly okay.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
I believe sustainability and environmental changes are basically being mindful of our presence on planet earth. Sustainability and wanting to live a life that is environmentally aware works hand in hand with prioritizing my mental health. Taking care of my mental health is what allows me to be more mindful in everything I do and focus my attention on important topics such as living a sustainable lifestyle and making sure my daily decisions are working towards environmental sustainability.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Female Founders: Alessandra Torre of Authors AI On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
You’re going to get run down, and that’s okay. I had a moment this year where I was working eighteen-hour days, seven days a week, and my energy level and passion were sapped. I shouldered on, and the kinks worked themselves out, and my schedule lightened up, and I could breathe again, but it doesn’t mean that there weren’t times when I was miserable, and it wasn’t because I didn’t believe in the product or our team, it was because I was human and I ran out of gas — and that is okay and natural. It’s important to be aware of your own mental and physical state and not let it affect the company or your decisions and leadership there.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alessandra Torre.
Alessandra Torre is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of twenty-seven novels. Torre has been featured in such publications as Elle and Elle UK, as well as guest-blogged for the Huffington Post and RT Book Reviews. In addition to writing, Alessandra is the creator of Alessandra Torre Ink, a website, community, and online school for aspiring authors. Her annual conference is INKERS CON In 2019, Alessandra co-founded Authors A.I. — a company that uses artificial intelligence to help authors with their development and editing process. In November of 2020, Authors A.I. launched BingeBooks, an online community that helps readers discover their next great novel.
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?
Absolutely! My life has changed drastically in the last ten years, and is a great example of what can happen when you find and chase your passion. For me, my passion has always been stories. I was devouring stories from an early age, and was that kid who lived in the library and always had a book hidden on my lap during meals. I didn’t start creating my own stories until I was 28 years old, and in between jobs and trying to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. I wrote my first novel on a whim, not expecting it to turn into a career. I wrote it for myself, as a step deeper into the book world I had enjoyed for so long.
I self-published the novel, which ended up becoming a chart-topper and led to a six-figure publishing contract. That taste of success gave me the confidence and financial security to commit to writing as my full-time career.
Fast forward eight years, I had three more traditional publishing deals, twenty-five published novels, and hit the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists multiple times. I was an executive producer on the Hollywood Dirt movie, which was based on my novel, and had built an online community of over ten thousand aspiring and published authors. I was looking for ways to improve my marketing and writing processes, and found a group of bestselling authors who were putting together a new community for readers, one paired with A.I. technology, and immediately knew that I had found my next passion — improving the book discovery and creation process, which is what we’re now doing at BingeBooks.com and Authors.ai
I initially joined the group as an investor, advocate, and contributor — then slowly became more and more involved, until I landed where I am today, which is C.E.O.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
One interesting moment occurred in an early marketing meeting, when we were discussing the launch of our A.I. book editor. One of our team members suggested that we give the artificial intelligence a name — and initially, I was against the idea. The marketing team kept warming to the idea, and it was finally decided that the A.I. would be female, and would be named Marlowe — a decision that ended up directing and shaping our entire brand and messaging in an incredible and much-loved way. When I think back, I laugh because Marlowe has become such an exciting and integral part of our company — and she is very much a working team member, with her own quirks, strengths, and personality — it’s hard to believe that I ever thought of her as an inanimate technology and not the interactive and intelligent (and very personable) addition that she has become. I can’t wait until readers ‘meet’ her and experience her book recommendation abilities.
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?
As the old adage goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” But I came in with full confidence. I figured, since I knew all of the aspects of book publishing and marketing — I would slot easily into this role and be able to easily get the ball rolling. Not so fast! I had to pull back and accept that creating and launching an editing and book-savvy A.I. hasn’t been done before. Much of my early days were spent listening and learning from my co-founders and colleagues who were more adept in technology and machine learning. Thanks to the wonderful team at Authors.ai, we were able to pull together our strengths from various areas of our experience and build a platform that works behind the scenes to provide authors an honest and intelligent critique of their work.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My very first boss was a terror, to put things nicely. I was thirteen, working ten hours a week, and she brought me to tears on multiple occasions — but through that experience I learned so many things. I learned what sort of leader I didn’t want to be. I learned how to figure things out for myself. I learned how to work in difficult and hostile environments. I learned how to communicate with different types of people and how to find positives in most situations. She was very very tough, but she made me stronger and wiser, and I will always be grateful to her for that, and for the good memories (there were a lot of good memories too!) that I have from that first job.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
In my opinion and experience, it’s a mindset issue. Often women are relied on for implementation. At least for me, my entire life has been “getting stuff done” — because if I didn’t do it, it just wouldn’t happen. In so many marriages, a husband and wife might decide to go on vacation — but who is the one packing? Booking the hotel? Making sure that the homework is done, and the pets have a sitter, and the mail is held? At least for me, growing up and as an adult — the women handled all of those details. And when we’re so busy in implementation mode, we often don’t have time to dream up new companies — or aren’t in the position or habit of delegating duties.
Our new generations are getting better — but there are still fundamental roles that females are falling into. I grew up thinking of myself as an independent woman, with the mindset of “I don’t need a man for anything, I can do it all myself” — and that isn’t the mindset that a founder should have, and that isn’t the mindset that can build great things. So, I think we’re getting there, and I think that women are becoming more confident and independent, but there is still a need, for many women, for a shift in mindset and approach — and for many, a more selfish approach where they put their dreams and ideas first, even if it is inconvenient to others.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
We need better leadership programs with mentors that teach young women the mindsets and processes of how to build companies, lead teams, and manage finances. Women have such high emotional intelligence, and can be such fantastic leaders, we just need to show them the paths to success and the tools and resources at their disposal.
Women also need to continue supporting one another. I have seen so many female friends and fellow authors who have combined talents to launch new initiatives and empower one another to take leadership roles in organizations. In my own, we have women in every level of management, and over 65% of our shareholders are women. We need to find or create more opportunities where women can bring their perspective and experiences to the table.
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 have so many unique strengths — both innate and learned which can help us to connect, empathize, and create. We are used to multi-tasking, finding creative solutions, and working with different personality types. We can lead by example and deliver criticism with grace and kindness.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
That founders are once-in-a-million brainiacs. What they are is a combination of smarts and good timing. Many aren’t even educated at Ivy League schools anymore. I would never claim to be the smartest person in the room. What I am is surrounded by — and look to hire — smarter people than me. Smarter people, meaning, those who have had varied experiences, educational backgrounds, cultural interests, and work practices. The best founders retain and pull the best out of others. A founder may have had a great idea to launch, but it takes a village to get those ideas off of the ground.
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?
It depends on which role the founder plays. Not everyone is cut out to lead a company — but not all founders lead. Many founders provide the vision, and work as a regular or senior team member, while allowing others to oversee. The traits that I see as necessary for a founder are passion, work ethic, adaptability, and humility. They must believe in the product and vision, and must be willing to work long hours, for years, towards that vision. They must be adaptable and open to changes and new ideas, and must be willing to set their ego aside for the betterment of the company.
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.)
Pause often and breathe. Sometimes you get so bogged down in keeping everything running, and moving forward, that you don’t get a chance to make sure that your path is heading in the right direction. I try to pause at regular intervals, reassess the big picture, and make sure that our path, priorities, and vision are in alignment and no new concerns, opportunities, or factors need to be evaluated.
You’re going to get run down, and that’s okay. I had a moment this year where I was working eighteen-hour days, seven days a week, and my energy level and passion were sapped. I shouldered on, and the kinks worked themselves out, and my schedule lightened up, and I could breathe again, but it doesn’t mean that there weren’t times when I was miserable, and it wasn’t because I didn’t believe in the product or our team, it was because I was human and I ran out of gas — and that is okay and natural. It’s important to be aware of your own mental and physical state and not let it affect the company or your decisions and leadership there.
When in doubt, talk it out. I was raised to bottle things up and sort them out on your own. I then married into an Italian family where everything is immediately blown up, then forgiven. I prefer the latter, and it’s taught me to confront things early on, before they fester into bigger problems. Confrontation is not a bad thing, if it is approached with respect, willingness to communicate, openness to change, and a calm demeanor.
Recognizing your own mistakes is key. When we first set out to build a book site for readers, we didn’t have the large-scale vision that BingeBooks grew into. We had much smaller goals, and started with infrastructure and development on that small scale. When we realized the opportunities ahead of us, we halted development early on (but still after months of work) and turned a sharp corner to move down a different path. It meant months of wasted effort, but the new path was the RIGHT path, even if it was a painful and expensive decision to make. Continuing forward, just because we had invested time and energy in that direction, would have stifled our success potential in dramatic ways.
Approach every problem as a possible opportunity. When COVID hit, it happened right when we were launching our A.I. book editor. While it was initially a problem — press was overrun with COVID items, jobs and health were up in the air, and everyone was distracted and stressed out. We had a launch plan that we had worked months on that was suddenly useless — but we embraced the new reality and changed our messaging to focus on productivity during the pandemic.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I haven’t… yet. But I strongly believe that stories can change our world by educating, influencing, and inspiring readers — and if we can connect readers with books that they love, we can foster and grow our world’s love of books. I want to bring great undiscovered novels to the readers that will enjoy them, and our artificial intelligence can do that in a way that has never been done — by recommending books based on their storyline, characters, and reading experience.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
I fear that new generations are skipping books in favor of video games and television. The novels that are pushed in schools are classics that don’t appeal to younger generations, so children and teens grow up believing that they don’t like to read. We need to introduce younger generations to popular fiction, to find and spotlight books that spawn tens of millions of new readers, the way that Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games revitalized the reading habit. We can find and spotlight those books through artificial intelligence — we just need the vessel to deliver those undiscovered gems to readers, and that’s what we’re building at BingeBooks.com.
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.
Otis Chandler and Elizabeth Khuri are the co-creators of Goodreads, which is the largest book and reader site in the world. I’d love to learn about their journey, chat about great books, and see what lessons and wisdom they have to share.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
Women In Wellness: Holly Harding of O’o Hawaii On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Get out in nature. Exposure your bare skin to the sun. Yep, I said it. Moderate sun exposure can increase your immunity, your mood and it can kill off unnecessary viruses and bacteria that your skin may carry. What is moderate? That varies from person to person. It may be 15 minutes for some or an hour for others.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Holly Harding.
Holly Harding, INHC, AADP is an integrative wellness professional who helps clients be their healthiest self through whole food based nutrition and mind body alignment. After realizing there was an obvious disconnect between internal nutrition and external skincare, Holly developed O’o Hawaii as a simplified regimen to bridge that internal/external gap, specifically using Hawaii’s nutrient rich, volcanic ash grown antioxidants.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I started off my professional career as a classical musician playing in symphonies, chamber ensembles and all sorts of different venues. I even started my own music entertainment agency where I would book out myself and other groups for gigs all over the country. I simultaneously taught students and held down a full-time corporate marketing job. My early 20s were busy to say the least. After moving to Hawaii for my husband’s saxophone job, we started Bubble Shack Hawaii, a bath and body company with Hawaii grown ingredients. After 10 years of running that business, we sold it and I went back to nutrition school. I then started my health coaching business, The H Lyfe Method and O’o Hawaii. I’ve lived in Hawaii for almost 20 years and am an avid surfer, mountain biker, skateboarder and CrossFitter.
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 so many things I could talk about here but the first thing that comes to mind is how everything in life comes full circle. O’o Hawaii is really the culmination of my entire life’s work. For 10 years I owned a bath and body company where I learned about formulation and the ends and outs of business development and operations but dreamed of starting a skincare line. When my passions started moving in the direction of health and wellness, I sold that company and began working in the health coaching field. I’ve also been very involved in animal rescue over the years. Realizing there was a disconnect between internal nutrition and external skincare, I decided to create an integrative line of skincare that features an internal dietary supplement and external skincare products and my entire company acts as a vessel to help animals.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
My very first business, Bubble Shack Hawaii, was a bath and body company. In the beginning I was so worried about having inventory to sell that I overpurchased lots of packaging. Over the course of the first year, we learned many things about our customers, market trends and our products and realized we needed to tweak several things within our packaging, but we had so many bottles and labels!
Lesson Learned: Start more conservatively with purchasing in the first 1–2 years and learn from the market and your customers. You’ll most definitely have to tweak something along the way.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I believe food is life and many people, through no fault of their own, have watched helplessly as their own health has derailed as a result of basic food choices. When a person changes their diet to predominantly whole foods from nature and eats the right food for their body type, their entire life can change. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. As more and more people began to see through corporate food marketing and move towards more whole foods-based diets, the cycle connected to the breakdown of society that starts at the top with big money food manufactures, will start to break down. If you peel back the layers, food can be highly oppressive. Everything from ADD to autoimmune conditions and behavioral issues in children can be traced back to diet. There’s a really great documentary that was just released called “They’re Trying to Kill Us” that I would highly recommend checking out. It’s produced by NBA All-Star Chris Paul and Billie Eilish and really opens your eyes to just how our food system contributes to keeping the oppressed, oppressed.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
For optimum health it’s imperative to regulate your sleep and eating. Eating meals at the same time every day along with going to bed and waking up at the same time puts your body on a clock. Having an internal clock is key for digestion and maintaining a reasonable weight. It also keeps your circadian rhythm in check. Keep your sleeping room, dark and cool is also critical for most people to enter REM sleep. On average 7–8 hours of sleep is the most ideal.
Exercise Daily. I can’t stress this enough. Exercise releases endorphins, strengthens immunity, strengths cardiovascular health and contributes to weight management. Weight training strengthens bones, increases testosterone which provides energy, helps reduce fat and also increases circulation, which can take years off of your appearance. Want to look younger? Lift weights.
Find out what foods are best for your body type. Inflammation is a buzz word these days and avoiding foods that create inflammation in our bodies is key to feeling well and fighting disease.
Get out in nature. Exposure your bare skin to the sun. Yep, I said it. Moderate sun exposure can increase your immunity, your mood and it can kill off unnecessary viruses and bacteria that your skin may carry. What is moderate? That varies from person to person. It may be 15 minutes for some or an hour for others.
Enjoy your work. If you don’t enjoy the work you are doing, which encompasses the majority of your day, you need to find a different way to make a living.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
O’o Hawaii and H Lyfe are my third and fourth businesses that I’ve owned. So, I can tell you I’ve had my share of success and failure.
Start slow and strategic. Don’t try and grow too fast.
Don’t try and be everything to everyone. Find your niche and your people will come.
You usually need more start up funds than you anticipate.
Don’t let perfection get in the way of getting started.
Take strategic risks, be yourself and be bold. Your people will come.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
I’d say it’s a tossup between living predominantly plant based and mental health. I ‘m a big animal advocate and believe in protecting animals on all levels. I’m heavily involved in dog rescue and O’o Hawaii is named after the extinct Hawaiian ʻōʻō bird. We give back a portion of every sale to the Keahou Bird Conservation Center on Hawaii Island that works to protect and preserve the native bird species of Hawaii.
I also believe that a focus on mental health is more important now than ever before. With the many extra stresses people have been under for almost two years now, it’s really taking a toll on so many. Finding ways to separate from or even compartmentalize stresses can be key in being able to push through and even thrive in a challenging environment.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
On IG @oohawaiibeauty and @hlyfemethod
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Your Network is Your Net Worth: Very cliche… but so true. My network is my net worth. Most of my projects come through word of mouth and from previous projects I’ve worked on. In my eyes, business is personal, people want to do business with people they know and trust.
Matthew Head is an Emmy, NAACP Image, and Peabody Award-winning and Grammy-nominated music producer and composer. Based in his hometown of Marietta, Georgia, Head’s work includes ABC’s upcoming hip hop drama Queens, OWN’s Greenleaf, the Halle Berry and Lena Waithe-produced Boomerang on BET, P-Valley on Starz, PBS and WETA’s The Black Church: The is Our Story, This is Our Song, Lifetime’s Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, and after collaborating with Timbaland on Step Up: High Water season 2, is now the sole music producer for season 3 of the hit Starz series. With over 75 credits, Head has the unique ability to move an audience through music; to take a scene and accentuate key moments to increase the intensity of a line, word, glance, or motion.
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’?
I was born and raised in Marietta, Georgia (suburb of Atlanta). My parents wanted me to be involved with the arts and enrolled me in piano lessons at the age of 5. After 8 years of piano lessons, I started creating my own music. It was a fun hobby that allowed me to be creative. I attended Savannah State University and continued to create music on my own and I began to write/produce for local indie artists. After college, I started writing instrumentals and would put them on a cd to pass out. I didn’t care where the music would land, I just wanted people to hear my work. The instrumentals landed in the hands of a local film company, which led me to score my first film. That opened the doors and windows of opportunities in the film and television world. With my music production background and film composition, it created my own lane and I was hired to produce and compose music for many life changing projects.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, there are a couple of projects that I am working on that I am really excited about. I love working on projects that tell our (African Americans) stories. There are a few documentaries (that I can’t mention yet…) I am composing the music for and they are great. Both documentaries are both based on hidden figures in the African American community. They are very educational and newsworthy and can’t wait until they are officially released.
In your opinion, what do you think makes your company or organization stand out from the crowd?
Matthew Head Productions is a company that wants to inspire others to understand the difference between their gifts and passions. Your gifts will make room for you. We are all born with gifts/special talents and understanding them and using them will allow you to pursue your passions. My formula: Gifts + Passions = Dream…. Living the dream is the goal.
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?
Though I never had anyone tell me it will be impossible for me to have a successful career as a film composer…. I’ve had people say that I should move to Los Angeles to have a meaningful career in the entertainment business. I’ve decided to stay in Atlanta, because I wanted to establish roots and bring attention to musicians, composers, and producers outside of “Hollywood.” I didn’t take my talents for granted. I understood that each project was an opportunity to show and prove my talent and worth. I still carry that attitude today.
In the end, how were all the naysayers proven wrong? 🙂
To be honest… I just keep going and let the work speak for itself… LOL.
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 have a very small support system that has pushed me and supported me throughout the years. My wife has been the head of my support system since we’ve been together. She sparks my creative spirit, and I am grateful for her. Being a wife/partner to a musician in the entertainment industry is challenging and stressful, but she handles everything with class and respect. She’s held down me and our household as I pursue my career. We have a true partnership.
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?
To be honest, ignoring the naysayers is natural to me. I am a very positive and optimistic person, so I never hear the drama from others. I stay focused on the end goal and continue to work hard in my field. Both my parents pushed me to always trust my instincts and trust my talents. That keeps me going…
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)
Five strategies that worked for me….
Trust Your Gut: We are all born with intuition and knowing what’s right and wrong and/or what is for us. Understanding that our gut is our spirit guiding us. When it comes to the naysayers, listen to your gut and let your inner spirit guide you in the direction.
Stay In Your Lane: I am a huge believer in staying in your lane and not getting in the way… which can lead to you getting in the way of your own success. Throughout my career, I’ve received more opportunities by understanding and knowing my role on a particular project. Staying in my lane gains the trust of many.
Integrity: Your integrity is your reputation… Your reputation in your resume. Showing good integrity allowed me to be in rooms that I never thought I would be in. My goal is to gain the trust with everyone I do business with and having good and honest intentions helps me reach that goal.
Your Network is Your Net Worth: Very cliche… but so true. My network is my net worth. Most of my projects come through word of mouth and from previous projects I’ve worked on. In my eyes, business is personal, people want to do business with people they know and trust.
Your Gifts vs. Your Passion = Your Dreams: At a young age, I understood that we are born with special talents (gifts). Those gifts/talents are given to us to give away and bless others. The doors will open for you and your gift will make room for you. Combining your gifts/talents with your passions (something you love) will allow you to live your dreams. That is the goal… Live your dreams and you’ll never “work” again.
What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?
MH: I have several quotes, but one that stands out to me is, “You do good, you get good.” I am a huge believer in karma and what you put out, you’ll get back to you. Staying optimistic and thinking positive thoughts keeps the stress and worry clear.
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.
MH: I am a former school teacher and I am very passionate about a quality education for our students. Our education system is struggling, especially within the African American community. Starting a mentor program and guidance for the youth is definitely needed. Our future as a nation depends on it.
Can our readers follow you on social media?
MH: Yes, please follow me on all socials @mattheadmusic
Thank you for these great stories. We wish you only continued success!
Female Founders: Becca Schepps of Mortal Kombucha On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Sometimes say no — Taking time for yourself isn’t slacking. Sometimes you have to say no, push off an event, postpone a meeting so you can take care of yourself. There was a summer where I, without exaggeration, worked 7 days a week, sometimes physical labor with the brewing and production process, for 3 months. I was absolutely broken at the end. I wish I pulled back a bit. Having the space to recharge gives you new perspectives and could have opened different doors. Rather I was like a juggernaut barreling through walls.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Becca Schepps.
After growing up swimming, jumping out of half built houses onto dirt piles, ducking from soccer balls and playing backyard spud, Becca Schepps graduated to becoming a Cat 1/2 crit racer and co-owner of the team LA Sweat, a women’s cycling team equally dedicated to femininity and badassery. So, when she was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic she was a bit shocked, and started searching for a re-hydrating solution after races that wouldn’t wobble her insulin levels. Cut to finding kombucha, falling in love with it, and creating her own badass booch empire: Mortal Kombucha.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
My background is as a Creative Director/Copywriter in advertising. I honestly love working in advertising. I love the creativity and possibility of creating something from nothing and bringing it to life. I think it’s always how my mind worked. As a kid I was always the one who wanted to transform everything I did into an experience, even studying for spelling tests. I would film myself studying and pretend it was a gameshow. I like to think I would have been youtube famous if I was born now, or I would have been a disaster.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
It’s pretty mundane, but I now can operate heavy machinery. I now am the proud owner of a forklift operator license and OSHA certified. But this doesn’t mean that I didn’t somehow damage a $10,000 door with the forklift. Oof.
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?
The forklift accidents can be used as a metaphor. I became very skilled at driving the forklift. And always, just when I was zipping around moving pallets of bottles, ingredients and vessels and I hit max confidence, something disastrous would happen, like when I broke that door. Basically the takeaway is you’re never too experienced to take a moment, become aware of your surroundings and slow down before you take action.
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?
Oh man, so many people helped so many different aspects of my business. There were people who gave me a shot and became our first stores. There were people who opened up their commercial spaces so we had somewhere to make our product. There are the countless founders, CEOs and the likes that listened to me explain my problems and help think up solutions. That all said — we could have never started if we didn’t have a store — so for that I have to give big thanks to Biju Thomas. He had these amazing restaurants called Biju’s Little Curry Shop. I knew Biju through cycling and he became one of our first vendors. I remember going in to present him my kombucha and I believe we still had handwritten labels, no UPC or a full ingredient list on the packaging. He took it in and helped me get my ducks in a row. He introduced me to the person who landed us in Wholefoods, and found us more stores, and even helped find investors as we got bigger. He is 100% a major mentor and someone I look up to.
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 women communicate differently than men and the boardroom is currently full of men. As a result there’s often a mismatch of communication styles. This mismatch also leads to differently valuing how someone leads and commands an organization.
There’s also this realization that I had the other day. I was asked by someone what I do. I told them I had a beverage company and they followed up by asking me what my husband did. When it happened I thought the follow up was weird. As I thought about it a bit more I realized they were asking me that because the way I answered they assumed it was a cute hobby and I was supported by my husband, which is not the case. A similar thing happened when I was looking for commercial real estate when we were looking to build out a production facility. Even though I am the earner of my household from this business and past businesses, this landlord asked what my husband did and followed it with questions where it was obvious he was seeing if my husband was supporting my cute hobby. I don’t know how to combat this assumption.
I don’t know if it’s a female thing, or how I present myself. It’s very frustrating and I believe it closes some doors on opportunities. However I don’t know if I would want to be involved with people that hold this stereotype about a woman in business. On the flip side there are males involved with Mortal that I feel the utmost respect from, and I’m glad to be involved with these people.
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 need to stop engaging with people who uphold these values.
This might be intuitive to you as a woman founder but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
We think differently. We solve problems differently. We find problems to solve that a man might not ever think of. I think a good example of this is what’s being done out of MIT Hackathon where they’re committed to not making breast pumps suck.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
You can’t have it all. I was very nervous because I knew we were going into raising a round of investment, when I was pregnant. I worried from stories I heard that people wouldn’t take me seriously, that people wouldn’t think I would be as committed post childbirth. I would like to say — I think it was an asset. It helped us find people that shared our company values, that honored women and put family first. No one questioned my commitment to my company or thought I would be distracted. And honestly, anyone that thinks bearing a child is a distraction wouldn’t be the right fit for a partner for us.
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?
Having a relentless curiosity is crucial for being a founder. You have to learn so many aspects of a business. Like if your background is in engineering, as a founder, the next thing you know you’re going to be a semi-expert in supply chain management, revenue flow, and branding. You also need to be someone that brings solutions, not problems to the table. You have to see setbacks as opportunities. You also have to have a short memory for the things that suck and really be able to celebrate the wins.
No job is “regular” — but yes, I believe some people are better primed to support and uplift a company than build it from the ground. I think if you’re someone who can be an evangelist to the company you work for, and truly believe in it’s mission full throttle without the need to reinvent it, you’ll make a great employee.
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.)
Always say yes — One of our brand values is “figure out a way to yes” — it opens up opportunities and forces creative problem solving. Nothing is impossible, it just hasn’t been solved yet.
Sometimes say no — Taking time for yourself isn’t slacking. Sometimes you have to say no, push off an event, postpone a meeting so you can take care of yourself. There was a summer where I, without exaggeration, worked 7 days a week, sometimes physical labor with the brewing and production process, for 3 months. I was absolutely broken at the end. I wish I pulled back a bit. Having the space to recharge gives you new perspectives and could have opened different doors. Rather I was like a juggernaut barreling through walls.
“Going all in” means something different for everyone. — In the beginning a founder who I admired asked me if I was “all in.” He asked if I was still taking freelance projects or was my focus purely on Mortal. I told him I was all in, and I was still taking projects. He told me that wasn’t all in. I strongly disagree. For me having no financial worries alleviated me from the stress of mortgages and real life hard costs. It allowed me to take care of my family so I could take risks with my business. I think going ‘all in’ is a mindset, and it’s not always 100% physical.
Keep in touch — you never know who can help you solve your next problem, or the problem you don’t even know you’re going to have yet. So much of success is built on a delicate balance of hustle, execution and good old fashion luck. A breakthrough moment could happen because someone was standing in the right place, talking about the right thing at the right time.
There’s always a pony — This is a metaphor from my parents. Basically, there will be setbacks. There will be failures. You will step in horse crap. And when you do, don’t look at the horsecrap. Don’t feel bad for yourself. Don’t even wipe it off. Realize stepping in crap means there is a pony nearby. And ponies are awesome. Find the pony. Hop on. Gallop towards greener pastures. And continue the wild ride of entrepreneurship.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
That’s hard to say. I own a beverage company. Our product brings joy to people. And I hope how we started from nothing and have become something has inspired people to take their own leaps and follow their own dreams. I don’t know if that’s truly making the world a better place, but I would like to think, happier people make a better world.
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.
Serena Williams and Alex Ohanian. I know the question is for one, but I couldn’t write one without the other. I love these two. I love what they do and stand for individually and together. I love how they don’t just preach, but take action on their values. I love what Alex Ohanian is doing in the VC world. My husband was a professional athlete and his work with depression is very moving and person to me. And with Serena, oh I’m such a fan. I actually have a giant photo of Serena Williams focusing on a tennis ball in my office hanging on the wall right behind my computer. My husband gave it to me for an anniversary gift. *blushing*
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.
Either of the women listed above, for all of those reasons.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Women In Wellness: Stephanie Harris-Uyidi of The Posh Pescatarian On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Eat well! Food is fuel and I believe that the better we eat the better we feel. Enjoying seafood at least twice a week, plus a diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables is part of this equation.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie Harris-Uyidi.
Stephanie Harris-Uyidi, AKA: The Posh Pescatarian, is the producer and charismatic host of the popular travel-adventure-cooking TV series, The Posh Pescatarian: Appetite for Adventure! The show airs in more than 15 countries, and season two is on the way!
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?
After discovering that the pescatarian diet made me feel the best, I have successfully lived the pescatarian lifestyle for over 20 years. I am a sustainable seafood enthusiast with a passion for spreading the word about the benefits of eating a plant-based diet supplemented with fish and seafood. My unique style of cooking demonstrates how easy it can be to make simple, yet adventurous seafood dishes: from Spicy Yucatan Fruit Salad to Caribbean Salt Cod Fritters to Ethiopian Berbere.
I only eat seafood 3–4 days per week and not at every meal. I focus on international recipes and also worked with a nutritionist at the beginning of the process, to safely transition. First, I experienced low energy and was not feeling like myself. I then worked with my nutritionist, removing several foods from my diet and later slowly reintroduced them back into my life. After some time, we realized that the pescatarian diet made me feel best and I have followed the lifestyle since then! I then decided to create a lifestyle guide for people looking to transition into a healthy, active, meat-free way of living, called The Posh Pescatarian.
I am also the producer and charismatic host of the popular travel-cooking-adventure series Appetite for Adventure! The show airs in over 15 countries, including the U.S. Additionally, I am the author of The Posh Pescatarian: A Collection of my Favorite Sustainable Seafood Recipes with my second cookbook scheduled to be released next year.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
This is an interesting question because even with all of my experience working in the entertainment industry, my education and industry contacts, producing and delivering 24 episodes of my show “Appetite for Adventure!” on my own gave me heart burn! Especially when the show took off internationally and I had to meet dozens of different global production specs. This was a costly and time-consuming lesson. What I learned is seeking counsel from experts upfront, can save a lot of time and money.
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?
One of the biggest mistakes that I made early on was trying to do everything on my own. At one point I was simultaneously working a day-job, developing a website, writing a cookbook and producing and hosting a TV series. I was burning the candle at both ends and it took a toll on my overall wellbeing and mental health, ultimately resulting in burnout and boredom. Once I recognized what was happening, I checked in with my doctor and she gave me “permission” to be still for a while and to take time to play — sewing, Pilates, yoga, roller skating, etc. I learned that taking a step back to evaluate my life was just want I needed to rekindle my fire. I also hired help and gave myself a little grace with deadlines.
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’ve been a pescatarian for more than 20 years now. Once I learned that I could be responsible for eating the last abalone, red snapper or shark on the planet, my focus turned to promoting sustainable seafood.
If the topic is new to you, sustainable seafood is caught or cultivated in a way that takes the health of our oceans and long-term viability of the species into consideration and has minimal environmental and social impact. I have partnered with brands like Baja Shellfish Farm, Wild Planet Foods, Pescavore and others to educate and create approachable and sustainable seafood recipes.
The work that I do is helping to preserve the health of our oceans and is having an impact on the sustainably of species and communities around the globe. For example, National Geographic recently reported that several tuna species are no longer critically endangered.
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.
Eat well! Food is fuel and I believe that the better we eat the better we feel. Enjoying seafood at least twice a week, plus a diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables is part of this equation.
Move your body everyday– I’ve been an athlete of some sort since childhood thanks to parents. Starting with ballet, tap and jazz lessons from the age of 6 and progressing to tennis, Pilates, weightlifting and boxing through the years. Exercise releases feel good endorphins and promotes good mood, a healthy heart, flexibility and muscle tone.
Ask for help — Admitting that I couldn’t do everything on my own was difficult. Once I made peace with it, I hired the right help and my world opened up.
Spend time in nature — Imbibe beauty as nutrition! An apple a day keeps the doctor away and being in the presence of something beautiful daily can be therapeutic. Get your toes in the sand, fingers in the garden or just take a walk in the most natural environment possible. Some studies show that being in nature can enhance healing. (Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-that-nurtures/(
Set and maintain boundaries — A key to securing my wellbeing is setting boundaries and expectations with family, friends and colleagues. For me, this translates into going off the grid several times a month, taking vacation and saying “no” to invitations that don’t fit my schedule.
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 have started a micro-movement within my family that promotes making sustainably sourced home cooked meals. There are so many benefits to this way of living including being more mindful of what we’re putting in our bodies, it can bring family and friends together, we use healthier ingredients and there is less temptation to consume higher calorie foods, to name a few. I know it sounds simple but the act of putting a homecooked meal on the table and sharing it with family and friends can be life changing.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
Remember to be nice to yourself along the way. Amplify the positive self-talk and press mute on the internal “mean girl” chatter.
Hire good help! I learned that I could not do it alone. Assemble a good team and delegate.
Love what you do. Understand that you will live with a project for a long time, make sure you love it and have the fortitude to stick it out.
Trust your instincts and intuition. If it feels right, it probably is. If you get the creeps, run!
Practice gratitude and thanks daily. Giving thanks and gratitude when journaling or during meditation sessions can make all the difference on your life’s perspective.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Mental health and environmental changes are both important topics for me. I am deeply involved in both movements.
Mental health issues related to daily stress to severe depression and beyond can wreak havoc on families and careers. I often see it appear on social media with rants and fits of rage. I work within my community to help reduce the stigma of mental health issues and encourage people to seek help.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Female Founders: Amy Nesheim Of Artful Contracts On The Five Things You Need to Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
It’s going to take longer than you think (and that’s okay). Part of the special sauce of being a founder is an innate sense of believing in the vision you’re bringing to life. That optimism and the pervasive stories of overnight success make it easy to be unrealistic when it comes to timelines and goals for your business. If it’s taking longer than you thought to get started, don’t give up.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Nesheim.
Amy Nesheim is a corporate lawyer turned online entrepreneur and founder of Artful Contracts. She started Artful Contracts because she believes that all business owners, no matter the size of the business or how successful, should have access to high-quality legal resources without going into debt over massive legal fees. She’s on a mission to make the legal aspects of online business accessible to everyone, so entrepreneurs can grow their businesses faster and with more confidence.
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 became a lawyer because I wanted to help people. At the end of college, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, but I knew I wanted to be in a position to change things for the better. I thought getting a law degree would give me the leverage to do that. But after law school, I ended up in a small local law firm working with real estate developers and other local small businesses.
I quickly realized that the traditional legal model worked well for established business owners, but so many more businesses were falling through the cracks. Most of the businesses I helped with contracts had been using something they had put together themselves for years because it was too expensive to come in during their startup phase.
Right now, the law is not designed to be accessible. Our legal system is slow to evolve, slow to change, and that means lawyers are out of touch with modern business owners. The only way to access legal knowledge is to walk into a fancy, intimidating lobby, make a sit-down, in-person appointment with a grey-haired man who won’t take your plans seriously, and drain your wallet trying to explain your online business to someone who refuses to use email.
Many people, especially women, would rather avoid that whole process entirely, which leaves them open to huge legal risks. In my entire time at that law firm, I only worked with one female business owner. Every other client was male, white, and over 50.
The traditional legal model didn’t allow me to help people in the way I had always wanted, so I decided to meet online business owners where they’re at by lowering the barrier to entry. This includes providing legal education in their environment, making it easy to actually figure out what they need, and making it inexpensive to protect their businesses so they can get started with confidence.
If my business helps one person who never would have been able to afford $300+ per hour legal fees or never wanted to step foot into that fancy lobby, I’ve done my job. And if I can begin to change the way the legal industry functions entirely, even better.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
In the comments section of one of my advertisements on social media, a man accused me of using my looks to sell legal products. The photo accompanying the ad was a headshot of me smiling, wearing a crew-neck top — no skin showing, nothing risqué about it. This of course sparked a fierce debate in the comments with many women coming to my defense and calling this man a pig. I decided that internet trolls are just a sign that I’ve actually made it.
This experience highlighted for me the types of struggles that women still face as business owners that men just don’t have to deal with. As a young lawyer, I had to be hyper-aware of the clothes I wore to the office so that my male clients would take me seriously, and they still made remarks about my age and qualifications because I didn’t look like a “lawyer” to them. The same is true when a female founder applies for a business loan or VC funding. And as much as we try, this perception issue isn’t going to be solved by wearing dark colors or fancy suits.
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 make mistakes all the time. As a business owner, many of those mistakes are very visible — broken links, wrong dates/times for events, uploading the wrong version of a video, etc. I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that while some people will always tear you down for it, for the most part, people are kind and forgiving. They understand that founders are people too and mistakes happen. Every time I make a mistake, I receive a polite message pointing it out, saying “I’d like to know if it was me” or “Was this intentional?” Mistakes are a part of life, and the bigger goals you set, the bigger mistakes you’ll make. But there will always be kind people to support you and forgive you for it.
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 so grateful to my parents. I quit my job and started this business with no backup plan. I could tell they didn’t understand what I was doing at all at first, but they always supported me. They couldn’t see my vision, but they trusted that I had one and had the ability to bring it to life. Feeling that support and faith gave me extra drive on the hard days. Now, my mom is my bookkeeper! Having someone who I trust to help bear the cognitive load of balancing the financial aspects of business has been such a weight off my shoulders.
Intentionally building community and asking for help from people with similar aspirations has also been vital to my success. I am part of a small group of female business owners in the online education space — we meet virtually every week to talk through issues we’re having in business, new projects and goals, and simply support each other in the highs and lows of building a business. Being part of a community of strong women who understand the challenges of being a female founder has been invaluable to me.
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?
‘Entrepreneur’ isn’t one of the career paths that is presented to us as children in school. So much of education still centers around skills necessary to be a good employee, and that emphasis does not encourage entrepreneurship. For women, this effect is compounded because there are so few female founders for girls to look up to. It also comes down to belief in ourselves — in the same way that women don’t ask for raises, they don’t ask for funding. And that funding is in turn harder to get because investors don’t see many female entrepreneurs and end up undervaluing women-led businesses.
I think it’s also impossible to talk about the challenges or roadblocks female founders face without addressing the imbalance in home responsibilities that still exists. Being a founder requires dedication and sacrifice that many women aren’t in a position to make. Until we can create true balance in the expectations and burdens placed upon men and women at home, there will always be fewer female founders.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
As women, we need to be cognizant of how traditional notions seep into our perceptions of what a founder should be. I got the same comments about my age and my looks from older female lawyers that I did from male clients. We need to be conscious of the way we talk about other women and use our words to empower each other. That includes the way we talk about our female neighbor’s “little side hustle” as opposed to our male cousin’s “new business venture.” Words and perceptions matter.
As consumers, we can support women-owned businesses and businesses that strive to remove the traditional barriers for women to advance.
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?
More women should become founders because it gives us the power to lift other people up. It may seem small, but the impact a founder can have on their own team is priceless to each of those individuals.
For my own company, I want to create a culture that always respects my team as human beings and the lives that we live outside the company. As a founder, I get to help my team live their lives in a way that is meaningful to them. That includes 6-hour workdays so they can be with their kids after school, lots of vacation and holiday time, and discouraging work outside the workday.
If there are more of us who value our team members as whole people instead of just for the work they can do in the office, we may be able to create a cultural shift that will alleviate some of the imbalance in higher positions that stem from women needing to care for the demands of home life.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I think the myth that holds people back the most from becoming a founder is the idea that they don’t know enough, either about business or their own area of expertise. No founder knows everything when they’re getting started. A business degree doesn’t guarantee success. Neither does a high level of expertise in your field. The best way to learn is through experience, and the only way to get experience being a founder is to do it.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I honestly don’t think everyone is cut out to be a founder, and that’s okay. Every founder needs a great team supporting and implementing their vision. A team is at its best when each team member is playing to their strengths. For a founder, those strengths are resilience, risk tolerance, and vision.
Founders are resilient. They see failure as a learning opportunity and a chance to try something new. The fact is, most businesses fail. A founder is someone who looks at that fact and finds it freeing rather than demoralizing because they know they have a few chances to get it right. If the first business plan doesn’t work out, that’s okay because most don’t, and they’ll just try again having learned a few things along the way.
Founders also need a very high tolerance for risk. Again, there’s no guarantee that any business plan will work out. Some people need the security of a steady paycheck or want to check out at the end of the workday. Founders prefer that instability, which they often see as a possibility, to the constraints of a “regular job”.
I also think the most successful founders have vision. They have a purpose and a passion that drives them to create their business. While that could be some bigger mission for changing the world, it could also be a vision for how they live their own life.
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.)
It’s going to take longer than you think (and that’s okay). Part of the special sauce of being a founder is an innate sense of believing in the vision you’re bringing to life. That optimism and the pervasive stories of overnight success make it easy to be unrealistic when it comes to timelines and goals for your business. If it’s taking longer than you thought to get started, don’t give up.
There’s no such thing as failure, only learning opportunities. Successful founders look at what other people would consider failures as opportunities to find another path or improve upon what went wrong. Success comes from analyzing, finding the problem, and addressing it. Not from giving up and pivoting after every perceived failure. Even if the entire business model crashes and burns, you’ve still learned a lot from all the work you put in.
You don’t have to do it alone. The saying “it’s lonely at the top” is never more true than with founders. The founder carries the vision, builds the culture, implements new ideas, develops products…all of it. Especially in this age of “solopreneurs,” it’s so easy to think you have to do everything yourself. It’s ingrained in us from a young age that only the product of our personal effort counts toward our success. But successful founders know this is a trap — they rely on people who have strengths they lack to round out their company and take their vision to even greater heights. Dan Sullivan’s book Who Not How explains this perfectly and really helped me shed the notion that I had to do it all myself.
But at the same time, no one else is going to do it for you. The biggest learning curve stepping into the founder role is that suddenly, no one else is telling you what to do. There is no right way to start a company. And suddenly, there is no boss dictating priorities. I had to learn to be disciplined in only working on the things that would truly move the needle for my business and ignore the things that were more fun or interesting, or just related to vanity metrics rather than true growth.
You can only grow what you can measure. I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last. Business is a numbers game and knowing your numbers is the only way to make sure they’re growing on a consistent basis. This applies to action items as well as financial figures, and each member of the team should know the numbers they’re striving for on a daily or weekly basis.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
I founded my company with the mission of making the legal aspects of starting a business more accessible to everyone, so any success I have furthers that mission. I think creating more equitable access to legal knowledge is an integral part of empowering more women and other people who are not well-served by the traditional legal model to start their own businesses.
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.
In keeping with my mission, I would love to see a shift in the legal system to make it more accessible to everyone. Access to justice is a huge issue that has a reaching impact across all areas of society. In the business world, increasing access to legal resources would help more people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to start successful, sustainable businesses. In other areas, decreasing the burden of legal access would help people reach more equitable resolutions to tenant disputes, family matters, disability access, and other issues that disproportionately impact low-income populations.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to meet Megan Hyatt Miller. She’s a successful CEO of a company that grew from one person and she still prioritizes her family and creates intentional margin in her life. She exemplifies the balance that I strive for in her personal life and in the company culture that she helped create.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this
A vision you can share with others — You must have a goal and be able to communicate it to others in aid of support and business growth. Developing my business in the UK or Spearmint now would not have been possible without the support of the teams I work/worked with or clients who retained me. You need to communicate well to develop momentum.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Fran Berrick, Founder and Career Coach of Spearmint Coaching.
Fran Berrick is a career catalyst who helps professionals launch their careers, seasoned executives pivot and transition into new roles and senior leaders develop the skills they need to go further. Her mission is a simple one: helping successful people achieve and sustain positive professional change and growth. An accomplished business leader and entrepreneur, Fran has worked with — and advised — notable global brands, organizations, and their leaders across all executive levels and she understands the constant challenge of improving performance and meeting goals.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I think what fueled my drive and ambition is fairly typical: my parents, who were amazing people went from relative comfort to having the lights turned out when I was in my early teens. The trauma of this experience forced me to understand the importance of self-reliance and the value of money: what it is like to have, and not to have- at a very young age. I watched my mother return to work– a complete professional/life transition in her 40’s (and after she would return to college to earn a degree in her 50’s!) and following 7 years of bitter legal battles my father relaunch his career, successfully and give 110% to overcoming the seemingly insurmountable legal bills and other setbacks he experienced. There was no one as “glass half full” as my dad! When others would have simply closed shop, he carried on with no loss of self-respect or optimism. As an adolescent, it was painful to watch but it was formative in my belief that humans have the capacity to grow, overcome and learn from their struggles and set and achieve new goals. My Dad was my first and best coach. His unshakeable belief in my abilities, consistent encouragement and ability to ask questions that led me to discover the best way forward shaped who I am today.
Until I was 21 my passion was performing, not academics. I was accepted into of the most prestigious theatre/acting conservatory programs at a top university on audition alone. To be frank, I wasn’t prepared for the rigor or the competitive nature of the program and really crashed and burned while there. It was a humbling experience to accept that as much as my identity was as a performer (no one disputed my talent) the lifestyle didn’t align with values at that time. I transferred to Emerson college as a Communications major and had great success in sales, one of my side hustles for 3 years during college. After graduation, I decided to go into advertising sales. I tried the agency side in planning but the $12,000 they offered post grad just wasn’t going to cut it. One solid contact my parents had was a senior media director who at first said I would need to work AT LEAST two years in planning/buying before I was ready to make the transition. This was one of the first memories I have of someone, a man I trusted, saying “hang on”, “hold up”, “not so fast”, and me deciding I know what it takes and have what I need to try. Fearless! I convinced him to introduce me to a headhunter-who was super connected and he soft-peddled me to Larry Burstein then Publisher of NYMagazine. Fast forward 7 years later and I was the youngest ever (at the time), Advertising Director of Vanity Fair. This was when Tina Brown and Graydon Carter were Editor in Chief and every move we made was under immense scrutiny. That high profile experience was SOME learning curve, not without its personal hits and misses. I moved permanently to the UK to be with my British husband in 1993 and had a successful career in corporate media, founding my own company GoMedia Sales. In 2008, the market and media world were in upheaval as it largely moved to digital. This coincided with the personal decision to, after 15 years in London relocate our family to the US. I dabbled for a nano second in Real Estate, looked at other sales opportunities, but ended up right back in ad sales working for a one of my favorite mentors. For many reasons, it was clear after 25 years in sales, it was time to find my 2.0. Using the process, I use now with those looking to pivot I decided to formalize my experience as a coach. People have sought me out for wise counsel, direction, to help them fix their professional challenges all my life. I decided on an academic grounding at NYU and have been working as a coach ever since. In 2018 I founded Spearmint Coaching.
Two quotes I love regarding resiliency and perceived failure are from Winston Churchill:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It’s the courage to continue that counts.”
“Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”
No Founder I know has not experienced some form of failure in their lives. Your responsibility is to learn what you can from it; accept your contribution, forgive others for theirs and move on.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
How Spearmint came to be is super interesting. I never thought my business would be propelled by a surge of work with young professionals. I planned, prepped and marketed myself to serve senior leaders and CEOs, because in my previous roles, I understood their challenges and immensely admired the work of coaches like Marshall Goldsmith. But when I hung my shingle, my immediate network of friends, friends of friends and family asked if I could offer their college senior some career guidance, or their 23–24-year-old re-launch or transition successfully. I wandered in the halls of corporate HR for about 18 months, until realized this is where my focus should be. Working with young people is tremendously gratifying and that’s been the biggest surprise. I love it. If I had been mentally rigid and not read the tea leaves, I would have missed out on this.
My mentor at NYU once said to me, “you don’t find your coaching practice, it finds you.” And that is what happened.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I finished my Executive Coaching studies at NYU, (all full of knowledge and vigor!) the first people I reached out to were those who knew me as a sales leader and entrepreneur. I had a reputation in ad sales as a result oriented, somewhat intense, fixer and producer, yet I assumed that people would be able to see me in my new role as a career coach. A woman I had a good working relationship with said to me, “I just can’t see you in this.” The company she was working at used coaches all the time, but she couldn’t envision me as one. I thought I could just sell my way into my coaching practice like I did in ad sales. The lesson was that changing people’s perspective takes time, you need to be strategic and play the long game. It doesn’t happen overnite but it if you are committed it will happen. Ironically after founding Spearmint, I was retained by a leading digital media company for various leadership coaching engagements. They saw me as someone who (correctly!) got what they did and had the chops to help their team. My corporate work in outplacement is a direct result of patient commitment to long term goals.
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?
There have been so many people and I am so grateful for that! You are always going to have different mentors at different stages of your career. But, if I had to be grateful to those specifically, it would be my sisters. They have been my wisest advisors and safe harbor, always. Every founder needs some unconditional support. And my kids, as they launch their own careers have taught me so much- the best reverse mentors for tech issues! The turning point in my career was at 29 when Ron Galotti promoted me to Ad Director at Vanity Fair. As I was young and relatively less experienced than others in the same role, he experienced A LOT of pushback internally with the team (at the time it was around a 70 million dollar business) This opportunity made a lot of my future success possible. It was trial by fire and an MBA all in one. He simply said “ok Orner-y (Orner is my maiden name), don’t screw this up.” Lots of hands off support and learning!
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?
The stat I see most often on the VC side is only two or three out of every hundred pitches received at venture capital firms are from women. Do I think anything conscious is going on? I would assume some bias but IF you believe what you read VCs are LOOKING for woman owned and operated to support. But I think the future for female entrepreneurs is going to brighten considerably. I saw a post recently citing what has changed the venture capital industry more than any other factor is Amazon.com’s role. AWS has helped lower the cost of starting a company by 90%.
On AWS and with open source you can achieve amazing results for $500,000. If someone is a developer, they can launch a company for $50,000.
I believe these price points are pushing entrepreneurs to start at a much younger age. You see that everywhere! Think about it — if you only need to risk $250,000 as an investor (or $50,000 across 5 people) to get an entrepreneur started then why wouldn’t you back younger teams [in addition to more experienced ones.]
So why does this relate to empowering woman to start companies?
If women can get funded to run startups at 22–25 years old, they can gain real traction as entrepreneurs before having to navigate the tricky years of balancing family demands with running a company. If your first chance at being a startup founder coincides with your first child, it’s difficult for either gender. But the reality is it is still even more challenging for woman. Woman will benefit from a longer runway.
Peter Thiel started the “20 Under 20″ program to encourage young, talented people to give entrepreneurship a shot. Perhaps somebody will champion a similar initiative to get more young women funded straight out of college to start to reverse the trend and help lead our next generation. Maybe I should do that! I wish I started on my own venture, younger.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
That’s a big question! As a coach and business founder, I’m always asking people why they feel they can’t do things, what are their limitations? Are the self-limiting beliefs, if so let’s address them. If they are gravity issues, (immoveable and fixed for them personally) I work with clients to come up with solutions around them and find the resources they need to move forward. Why wait for someone else to empower you to do anything? I would still be waiting for the Spearmint business plan to have miraculously appeared! When I pose the simple question “why not?” most clients have more irrational reasons than logical ones. People get stuck in the muck of obstacles. My coaching is all about goals, strategies, and solutions. The hardest thing about achieving a goal is setting one (clients are so sick of hearing me saying this, so I apologise). There is nothing as formidable as a thoroughly researched goal, and a plan to achieve it. Yes, we must encourage companies to offer support and programs, leadership training, and other resources to bring more woman up the ranks. But some of the most powerful and impressive young woman I have met have benefitted most from enlightened parents who encouraged and empowered them. I grew up in house full of woman and parents who did just that.
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?
Because they can chart their own course. In a larger scope, they can have the flexibility they want. There is a greater risk (your name is on the door so to speak) but if you can hack it a greater reward. If you have a passion, why give it to someone else?
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I am not sure what all the myths are out there, but I like to point out to others who may think from the outside that it looks like someone was an overnite sensation- well, they weren’t. Most success stories I hear from founders, entrepreneurs are filled with years of hard work, driven by an obsessive determination to bring their vision to life. And most efforts aren’t single handled –they had a great team, and perhaps some luck that they created for themselves.
Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?
I don’t think everyone should be a founder. You must have enough drive, passion for your mission, vision, entrepreneurial spirit, relationship skills, and be willing to accept responsibility for the end result. I think successful founders accept large amounts of risk and have true confidence in their convictions. Not everyone finds this road appealing– it takes a whole team, in all positions to play a game of baseball; you just have to know where you like to stand on the field.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder?” (Please share a story or example for each.)
I am not sure these are limited only to woman — but here they are:
A vision you can share with others — You must have a goal and be able to communicate it to others in aid of support and business growth. Developing my business in the UK or Spearmint now would not have been possible without the support of the teams I work/worked with or clients who retained me. You need to communicate well to develop momentum
Create a “Board of Directors” — you can’t be a founder without mentors, advisors and peers. Find the right people to help you and absolutely seek help when you need it. Be vulnerable with someone, perhaps a coach ☺! Everyone needs a safe sounding board to grow personally and professionally
Share and listen! Most of the best decisions I’ve made, I shared my thoughts and concerns and listened to other perspectives. In sales you quickly understand the immense value of listening and it’s this key skill that makes a great coach. Find quality people to advise you and listen to what they have to say.
Integrity — if something goes wrong under your command, don’t be afraid to own it. Integrity goes a long way. Create something you know works. Don’t let it out in the world until you are confident that what you are selling works. I would not — and I was asked- work with paying clients until I was done with my NYU certificate.
Dress the part- I have maintained that all my best wins and successes have been when I dressed the part. Everyone has their ‘power outfit’ so choose yours, whatever it is that inspires confidence in yourself will inspire others to have confidence in you. Sorry, may be superficial but I have countless points of proof! Another simple but important truth: make sure to do what you can to take care of yourself as well- you can’t launch a rocket without fuel.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
In the first part of my career, I created a vibrant community for people to work, a way to support themselves and their families and opportunity to grow. What I do now as a coach helps people directly. They can become who they want to be and succeed in their professional lives.
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.
Two things: a movement to help people be heard and treated fairly, to help people learn to listen. One of my favorite books is “Just Listen” by Dr Mark Goulston which outlines the importance of this skill and tools to improve it. I share it with many clients. People want to be acknowledged and heard! Second, Temet Nosce is Latin for “Know Thyself”. The key to finding a purpose and fulfillment in life begins with knowing and understanding yourself. An essential part is understanding what drives and motivates you as well as recognizing the limits of your own wisdom and understanding — a movement where we focus on learning and respect the knowledge of others could be a very good thing.
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.
First Barbara Corcoran. My daughter and I are obsessed with Shark Tank. I was well aware of her business success before I really admire the public persona she has created there. Fearless, smart and empathetic. We need more woman founders like her.
Malcom Gladwell- he is a brilliant writer, thinker and I greatly admire his work. I have read and listened to everything (Revisionist History is a must). I am always searching for new perspectives on culture, business and people and he always has fresh ideas.
Female Founders: Linda Hansen of Fund Duel On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed As A Woman Founder
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
I wish someone would have told me how thrilling and amazing this journey would be and I only wish I would have started sooner in my life. We are making such a difference in the lives of others that is breathtaking. We are raising awareness and funds to assist burn victims, the deaf community, those that are battered and homeless, the hungry, environmental issues, and those with diseases. Every campaign we do is shared all over the world and garner hundreds of new donors. It is breathtaking how fast we have expanded into other countries and our global campaigns next year will have such a far-reaching impact that it is beyond magnificent.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Hansen PhD, CEO and Cofounder at Fund Duel Inc.
Fund Duel is an interactive, engaging participatory fundraising website. We have the best programmers in the business. We cherish the ability to make people smile while money is raised for good causes.
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 career path?
Thank you for this opportunity to introduce one of the few female-founded Mother/Daughter technology companies. My daughter, Jasmine Toomalatai, and me are passionate about helping our fellow humankind and improving the world in impactful ways. There has been an unusual ten-year lapse in innovation in the crowd funding space, and we saw a spectacular opportunity to create a game-changing platform that would have a massive impact for good on a global scale. We were right! Our platform is transforming the giving space in dramatic ways.
The reason for Fund Duel’s success is that it is based on my PhD research on the neurochemical and psychological motivation system of humans. Fund Duel incorporates engaging, fun team-based competition, challenges, humor and other powerful positive emotions, prizes, social media sharing, creativity, and empathetic altruism. Each of these engaging elements create rewarding rushes of positive neurochemicals such as endorphins and oxytocin.
The magic of Fund Duel is the expansive audience that engages in each campaign because of its capabilities to instantly share on social media challenge videos and photos. One of the first conversations that my daughter and I had about creating our platform was the question, “How can we change the way we use social media and reward users to post a selfie with the purpose of thinking of the plight of others in an altruistic manner versus the current mode of posting in a narcissistic manner?” This led us to the idea of gamifying fundraising and rewarding users that join a challenge to raise funds and awareness of a good cause with their own photo or video. It has been a thrill to see it come to fruition.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
We cannot believe the doors that have opened for us in this endeavor to bless this world with a proven fun way to raise money. I love our partnership with USA Sumo. We did this fun infomercial with two very popular sumo wrestlers from this organization and grew to love 600-pound Yama who looks ferocious in the ring but has a gentle heart and was so fond of the puppy we brought onto the set. Byamba was our second star wrestler, and he was a hoot to work with and did not even mind to get into a pink tutu and twirl around as a demonstration of a fun Fund Duel challenge. The reason we turned to sumo wrestlers was that it is surprising and funny to see two over-sized competitors croqueting blankets for a cause and being tenderhearted. As you recall, humor is a stress reliever and neurochemically rewarding. Here is a link to that commercial:
The other positive outcome of this relationship with USA Sumo was raising money at the
2019 tournament in the Pyramid Stadium in Long Beach, California. We raised money for scholarships for at-risk youth with the power of 5,000 fans who joined either the West Stands or East Stands teams. The Fund Duel leaderboard was projected onto the jumbotron so fans could see which team was ahead at that moment. If the East stands were ahead, they were rewarded with t-shirts and cute rubber sumo dolls tossed into the crowd on the side of the arena that had raised more money. It was amazing how the crowd went berserk over sumo dolls. The grand prize was a bronze statue of a Sumo wrestler created by academy award winning Tom Woodruff. This event was a mind-blowing revelation that Fund Duel could be a magnificent way to add social impact to any major event and create engaging fun at the same time.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
One of the hardest jobs for a start-up technology company is raising money especially if it is female founded. I went to a women’s business organization in Silicon Valley that offers the opportunity for women founders to present their company to female investors. There were only two legitimate female investors present, and they admitted that they are risk averse and do not invest in start-up companies. I do not know if there is humor in this, but it was obviously a mistake on my part to believe that the cost of this event and the travel expense was worth it. There are so many people that try to take advantage of eager founders. As a result of this experience, I determined at this point to develop our product, make it successful, and self-fund as much as possible
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?
Extraordinary doors have opened in this enterprise. We have to thank many champions and advocates that have come into the Fund Duel Family. As a result of one of our advisors, Saul Tarazona’s introductions, we met the former producer of American Idol, Ron Deshay. He immediately fell in love with our engaging platform and recognized it as a streamlined way for celebrities and corporate partners to join their team through our photo/video challenges. Additionally, we are now in discussions with a top producer to bring a global concert to honor the legacy of a major iconic figure. More news on that will be coming soon!! I must thank our Brazilian partner Getro Silva for engaging many soccer leagues, celebrities, hospitals, government officials in upcoming Fund Duels to raise money for charities in that great country and our New Zealand partner Adam Greenwell for his initiating Fund Duel’s to assist charities there. We have a team in Canada, led by Emmett Dunlop Junior which have opened many doors for us. The list goes on and on………..
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 have been stunned at the lack of support for female founded companies even by organizations led by women that supposedly help female founders but are only designed to take their money and offer no real substantive solutions. The VC community is incestuous and revolves around a male dominated network that completely favors male founders. I was told at a SOCAP conference designed for social impact investors to network with startups in the philanthropy space, by a male investor that I needed to know “when to stop.” He told me this after I shared with him about our democratization and gamification of fundraising concept. I will revisit that conference someday as one of the most successful startup companies that went global in just two years and raised over a million dollars for non-profits just after launching during the year the year of Covid 2020.
Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government, to help overcome those obstacles?
We have to actually see the problem and offer real solutions and not prey upon female founders because they may seem vulnerable and desperate to get their product to market.
I believe that organizations like Girl Power Talk in India and other organizations that help with early stages in education to empower girls to think of careers in science and technology is a good step. Education is a start. It will take some mountain moving before the status quo is changed for equitable treatment and parity for female founders.
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?
My daughter and I have brought such a simple yet brilliant solution to the crowd-funding space. We are both passionate about making a huge difference in our world. Women have a unique and powerful role to bring to the business world. I believe that women bring to their fields a spirit of collaboration and egalitarianism. My own approach to leadership is based on these principles. Women can bring so many important solutions to world problems with empathy and compassion that are innate in their constitution.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?
I am not a typical entrepreneur, nor is my daughter. I am first and foremost an anthropologist and a scholar. The greatest myth I see is that founders must be successful businesspeople with a record of founding and exiting companies — the “serial entrepreneur.” Any person who is passionate about a subject or has an idea on how to solve a major problem should pursue it with gusto and never stop pursuing or dreaming.
Another myth is that you must be wealthy to be a founder. All you need is to be creative and believe in yourself and surround yourself with supporters and experts who can guide you. It is true that having wealth opens the path to founding many companies and is a great advantage but that is not all that is needed to be a successful founder.
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?
Any person who has found a unique solution that is disruptive and is able to capture a portion of the marketplace, is in a perfect position to find a company. We are in that position and our success has been remarkable. There are some incredibly crowded fields especially in online consulting and coaching. Too many people have jumped into this space to become founders of their own online coaching business and cannot find enough customers because they do not offer anything that is compelling and are competing with too many other online coaches.
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.)
I wish someone would have told me how thrilling and amazing this journey would be and I only wish I would have started sooner in my life. We are making such a difference in the lives of others that is breathtaking. We are raising awareness and funds to assist burn victims, the deaf community, those that are battered and homeless, the hungry, environmental issues, and those with diseases. Every campaign we do is shared all over the world and garner hundreds of new donors. It is breathtaking how fast we have expanded into other countries and our global campaigns next year will have such a far-reaching impact that it is beyond magnificent.
I wish someone would have told me that the Covid pandemic would shut down the economies of so many nations and that non-profit organizations would be hardest hit. It is so utterly tragic that charities that have existed for decades have closed their doors. We became the perfect solution for so many organizations and kept them afloat. If only we had a way to get the word out to more charities and grassroots organizations such as churches, sports teams, and schools we would have been able to help them as well.
I wish I would have known how to select consultants that helped our company grow. We spent so much money on consultants that had great resumes but added little or no value to our company. I learned that the best advocates for our business offered advice for free or some of our coordinators who created campaigns that demonstrated the power of our platform in ways we could not have imagined.
I wish I would not have wasted my time pitching to investors at conferences designed to take the money of founders but offered no real opportunity to meet real investors. I will never forget sitting in the back of a room where two investors beside me were laughing to themselves and in hushed tones made fun of the founders that were pitching their companies in the front of the room. These men had no interest whatsoever in truly investing in any concept. It was quite disgusting. I wish I would have known how many companies and organizations prey upon eager founders and require fees and payments without tendering any results for the founders.
I wish I had known that there is such a hunger to do good and change the world for good. The media and political environment is so caustic and filled with animosity and words of despair, yet there are so many people who have come forward and are willing to jump on the Fund Duel train because they see that we are making positive waves across the world. It is actually mind-boggling the talent that has come our way to assist us because our mission is to bless this world with goodness. We have attracted support from all sectors of society and all sides of the political spectrum. It just does not matter. We all want solutions to major problems. For this I am grateful
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Every campaign we do gladdens the heart and raises the prospects of those that are hurting in some way. It is beyond gratifying. We have only just begun. We are the virtual hub where celebrities, social influencers, companies, media outlets, and all their employees and followers — the masses — can join together in unity in fun photo and video challenges and team-based competitions to raise money and awareness for important causes.
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 have the potential to transform the corporate philanthropy space in staggering ways. We have worked with real estate offices that competed against each other for a cause. Just imagine the potential of major corporations such as McDonalds or Walmart to have each store compete to raise money for a cause and have customers join a fun challenge that brings them into the store. The ROI for the company is stunning and the photos and videos shared on social media platforms gives free advertising while raising money for causes they already support.
We have already proven that Fund Duel can be a great addition to a sporting event. I envisage Fund Duel being a powerful tool to raise money and awareness for good causes at major global concerts, sports competitions, golf tournaments, film festivals, corporate conferences, etc.…
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would love to meet Tony Robbins. He has such an amazing record of transforming lives, and he is so charitable. We would be great partners in raising money at his conferences. I also want to meet Duane Johnson, the “Rock.” My daughter Jasmine married a Samoan, and I know that Duane does so much charitable work for the island of Samoa. I would love to link up and use Fund Duel as a platform to raise more money and awareness for those lovely islands. My list is quite long of the many iconic women and men I want to meet. It is happening because of moving forward with a good heart and good intent.
If you have a great idea of a cause or project you want to raise money for please feel free to contact us at www.fundduel.com/start or my own personal email [email protected]
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Thank you for this wonderful interview and your interest in the groundbreaking work we are doing at Fund Duel.
