Category: Featured

Sam Bearfoot of Making Visibility Effortless On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…Always utilize any new feature that Instagram releases. This is generally because algorithms will push that feature more heavily than any of their older features, which means it’s a really good opportunity for growth and leverage for you on your account.

As a part of our series about How To Leverage Instagram To Grow Your Business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sam Bearfoot.

Sam Bearfoot is a Creativity Mentor to Online Business Owners who struggle with content creation and confidence online. She’s created over 60 million views and more than 150 thousand followers with her no fluff, simplistic yet creative approach to showing up online. This paired with her decade long business experience in the online space, she’s the ultimate wing woman you want on your creative team.

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

Back in 2006 I started my own health business in a bid to cure myself of IBS. The doctor had told me that there wasn’t anything they could do medically, so I took my health into my own hands. I found a product that worked wonders and became a distributor of that product. I was a massage therapist at the time so the product also aligned with my therapy work and the clients I was helping. I started my own podcast, which grew so popular that I was given my own radio show on UK Health Radio. In 2016, when I was pregnant with my son I knew I couldn’t keep commuting into London to see my massage clients and to present the radio show, so I gave it all up. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, but I couldn’t maintain the pace of the business with raising my child.

Once I’d got the hang of motherhood and was in a routine I decided to start a business to help those within the health industry with social media, because no-one in the industry actually teaches you how to promote yourself. You go through so much physical training, but no one ever talks about marketing and social media. I’d been really successful growing my own business on social media, so focused on teaching what I’d learnt.

At the time, I really didn’t like Instagram. I didn’t understand how it worked and it was completely different to Twitter, which was very much in my wheelhouse. However, I made it my mission to fall in love with it and understand what does and doesn’t work from a content perspective. Within one month of learning and experimenting I’d grown my followers from 114 to 3,604. That’s when I started to establish myself as an Instagram expert, specifically helping people in the health industry.

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

This is going to sound really weird, so bear with me……when I first started out on Instagram I’d masquerade as a man to learn about some of the Instagram hacks that existed, because as a woman, I wasn’t being shown the same information. There are coaches out there who are teaching business owners about Instagram, but it’s all very surface level. I couldn’t ever find a female coach that could go deeper into the intricacies of the platform.

The more I researched the platform the more I knew that growth hacks existed. Things that would enable better, faster and more aligned growth, but I couldn’t find them in the courses that were available to buy from Instagram experts.

So what I did was, and I still do this, I open various different Instagram accounts and I test theories, in different niches to see how different things respond. I’m always constantly testing so I opened one that was for male entrepreneurs and not female entrepreneurs. The contacts and conversations that I had in the DMS were very, very different from what I would have with female business owners.

As Sam can be a male name as well as a female name I decided not to correct those who were messaging me, to see what the conversations would reveal. This one particular person opened the doors to what I refer to as the ‘Instagram underground’. It was back when Telegram was under the radar and nobody really knew about it. But it’s where all the really great and really big networking groups were. You had DM groups, you had engagement groups, you had people teaching various hacks, it’s where the big giveaway campaigns were happening.

It’s where I learned all the big marketing agency strategy stuff that you wouldn’t have access to ordinarily. It blew my mind, and still blows my mind to this day that female business owners don’t have access to the same learning platforms and growth hacks. learn and I wasn’t learning from that surface level stuff that makes sense.

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’m not sure how funny it is, but one thing that always sticks out to me is the impression that people have on you, based on how you show up online. Sam Bearfoot the therapist and Sam Bearfoot the Radio Presenter was (and still is) very different to the Sam Bearfoot that people see offline. I can be quite bolshie and blunt and my vocabulary often includes expletives. This wasn’t a part of me that was acceptable within my therapy room or on the radio, but once I launched the social media business people started to get a glimpse into the real me.

When I launched that business I made a promise to myself that I was going to show up unapologetically as me, potty mouth included. So it was a complete change from what my audience had previously known. The very first product that I sold was purchased by someone in my health business audience. She took one look at the content and messaged me to ask me to transcribe the content and remove all the swear words so that she could consume the information without the swearing. She also reminded me that my radio presenter job would be on the line if I swore that way over the airwaves. You can probably guess how I replied! I told her where to go and gave her a refund. I think it caught her off-guard as she wasn’t expecting me to remove her access to the course, she was expecting me to bow down to her demands because she’d paid me for something.

Ok. Let’s now move to the main focus of our discussion. For the benefit of our readers, can you explain why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

I’ve been using social media since 2006 and have had access to growth hacks that other business owners will never have access to, which I now teach to other entrepreneurs. I’ve built massive accounts with over half a million followers and sold them to brands to continue to grow them and nurture the audience. I’ve had a global follower network at one point of three quarters of a million people and my social media content recently hit over 60 million views across key platforms.

In the past few months I’ve even been able to launch a side hustle business and sell products to an audience that I didn’t have six months ago. This was made possible by diving into my social media insights to see who was reacting to my content pillars, then asking them questions and getting them involved in product design and creation. My content pillars had created a whole new audience to the one I’ve spent so long building and nurturing. As well as teaching entrepreneurs and business owners how to create awesome content, I was also attracting Mums and Dads who were never going to buy from me, but who related to my personality and sense of humour. And so Slightly Offensive Stickers & Stuff was born. Within the first week of trading I’d recouped the start-up costs and within a month had sold out of everything.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Okay, so my answer actually isn’t which platform is the most effective, but which platform is most effective right now as it changes all the time. For me, it’s not necessarily about the platform, it’s about the platform that’s going to deliver the best ROI for my time, energy and attention. That can change based upon where the platform’s at, what new features are out and whether that fits into your style of communication. For years, Instagram has been the most effective as I could articulate myself in a better way. But now that things have changed and it’s all about short form videos, TikTok is proving to be the most effective platform for me. It’s become the leader and the innovator and it suits my content style.

All the other platforms are trying to mimic and follow TikTok, so every creator who has been on the platform for a while will experience growth at a faster rate than new content creators, because they’re ahead of the curve.

I’ve been in the industry for so long now that I can predict new trends and changes on the platforms before they’re announced. At the moment, TikTok sits at the top of the tree, then I repurpose my TikTok content across all other platforms, including YouTube, which has resulted in phenomenal audience growth and the launch of a whole new business.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share five ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

The first one would be to always utilize any new feature that Instagram releases. This is generally because algorithms will push that feature more heavily than any of their older features, which means it’s a really good opportunity for growth and leverage for you on your account.

The second one would be to have a really nice balance between nurture content and high visibility content. Instagram is turning into a really good nurture place for your audience. So create content that will nurture that ‘know like trust’ process, don’t just focus on content that’s going to be high volume or has the potential to go viral.

Instagram is turning more into an SEO driven algorithm, so my third tip is to switch your hashtags and the keywords in your captions to things that your audience will be searching for. Which is a really, really good idea now, as opposed to just tagging popular hashtags.

Outbound engagement is probably more important than just engagement on your content. So my fourth tip is to spend time in the community. Liking, sharing and commenting on other people’s content has always been and will always be one of the most valuable things you can do on Instagram.

Having a pretty aesthetic isn’t the way forward now. We’re not in 2018. We’re in 2022. Instagram is lining up with more real and realistic content rather than that overly perfect aesthetic that we’ve been used to over the past five or six years. So tip number five would be to create original content that hasn’t been highly polished.

If your brand really stands for imperfect and real then show that in your content. There is still a place on Instagram for highly polished content, depending on what that brand is. Wedding planners, very high-end products, such as furniture or fashion will need to create high aesthetic content because that’s what their customer avatar requires. But for a really large percentage of personal brands on Instagram, it’s not required. It’s not what most people want. Hence why the imperfect short form video has boomed over the last couple of years because they really just want to portray what’s real.

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

It would be for brands and personal brands to embrace who they are and show up unapologetically, because it will attract the right audience and repel the wrong one. Too many entrepreneurs and business owners are nervous of showing the real them, because they think it will put people off, but in reality, it puts off the wrong people, the people who are never going to buy from you anyway.

I’d also encourage business owners to spend more time on their analytics, to see what their audience loves, then focus on producing more of that content. We’ve been taught to focus on growth, but don’t focus on the growth that’s sitting under our noses.

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

It’d be Gary Vee.I think he’s amazing. He would be the yin to my yang. I’d say hi. His mannerisms are similar to mine and I think we’d have a really easy conversation that wouldn’t feel out of place or uncomfortable. I love his ability to foresee what is going on and keep it real. He says what he says and doesn’t apologize for it.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

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Sam Bearfoot of Making Visibility Effortless On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Chloë Walsh of The Oriel Company On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I believe people skills are essential in running any business. No one person has every skill or talent in equal measures but knowing how to get the best out of your team is a crucial part of the job. Picking up quickly on individual personalities is the most proficient way to run a team. Being able to communicate with people well, tell them what you expect from them, learning their strengths and their weaknesses and understanding your own is key. These are the talents on which a business can succeed or fail.

As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Chloë Walsh.

The Oriel Company co-founder Chloë Walsh architects impactful publicity campaigns for renowned hitmakers, icons, and breakout stars in both the U.S. and the UK. Drawing on experience at some of the most influential labels and independent firms on either side of the pond, she brings strategic acuity, expansive vision, and a sterling reputation to The Oriel Company as a partner. She deftly and proficiently handles everything from GRAMMY® campaigns to crisis management for her A-list talent roster. During her career, she has crafted high profile campaigns for The White Stripes, Mazzy Starr, Sinead O’Connor, Yoko Ono, Bryan Ferry, P!nk, Alison Krauss, and more.

Chloe maintains a lifelong passion for social justice and voting rights organizations. As such, she has maximized her PR acumen to excel in consulting gigs for Demand Justice, Power California, Joy To The Polls, The Resistance Revival Chorus, and Rock The Vote as well as fundraising projects for Planned Parenthood and Swing Left.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! 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?

Thanks for having me! I’m excited to take part.

Like most people who came of age pre-internet, I grew up gleaning all of my pop culture information from newspapers, magazines and radio. I soaked up the club culture of London, Manchester, New York and Paris just by reading about them. I first imagined that actually being in those places, and telling those stories, would be my dream job so I thought early on that I would have a career as a culture reporter. I did a little bit of that when I was finding my feet, but because of the people I met through going to clubs and shows, I wound up getting a job at an independent record label in London. That’s where I first got to witness the full extent of a publicist’s job. I saw how much writing went into representing the artists — which was something I loved and relished — and I got to witness the very real excitement of landing a story in a publication; and how meaningful that could be for someone’s career trajectory.

I realized that my passion for writing, and my knowledge of music and culture could be utilized all at once as a publicist. What I really loved — and still do — is getting under the hood of someone’s creativity. Getting to know an artist, working out how they’d like to be represented and then taking that information out into the world to help them find an audience. Helping artists and creators build careers is incredibly rewarding. I was just 21 when I got my first job as a publicist, and I’ve been in the field now for more than half my life. I’ve been based in London, New York City and — now — Los Angeles. I’ve worked with all kinds of artists, creators, companies and creatives. The media evolves at a rapid rate but the fundamentals of strategic image-building remain the same. It’s challenging, engaging and energizing to piece it all together for a client.

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

The Oriel Company started during the pandemic. We describe ourselves as “a new company of old friends”. The four founding partners have known and worked together, in some capacity, for over 15 years. We joined forces to create a new communications firm because we shared the same principles, work ethic and goals. We had a vision for a modern, fresh company that could be a home for creatives of any kind. Even though we were all friends, founding a new company together in December 2020 was a unique challenge. The company was planned and launched entirely over phone calls and Zoom. With two of us in California, and the other two in New York City, the four founding partners weren’t able to meet in person the entire time we were putting the business together.

Since our Manhattan office was closed for Covid safety, we interviewed and hired people over Zoom. For an entertainment firm, it was a very odd experience: so much of our role is to be very present and tune into people’s energy. It’s a very hands-on career and our days are often spent in and out of TV and photo studios, on red carpets and at events, premieres, shows and screenings. It was a unique and unusual starting point, to be peering at one another through our computer screens trying to get to know each other. I didn’t meet some of our early hires on the opposite coast until almost a year after they joined us. We weren’t able to get our entire team, from all three offices in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, together in one room until July 2022. By that time, we had been in business for over 18 months! We brought everyone to New York to have a day-long company ‘retreat’. Suddenly being together — all of us! — felt very joyous. We had a meeting, had a couple of guest speakers, and then we had a champagne toast. It was a beautiful moment to be in the same room with all 17 of our team members for the very first time. I have to say, we hired well!

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?

Because it was the pandemic, and most of the team had never met in person, we did a few ‘company happy hours’ over Zoom and, at one point, even hired someone to lead us through a “Quiz Night” where we shared random facts about ourselves for people to guess. I don’t know that anyone enjoyed those. It was probably very awkward and a bit terrifying for the younger team members. I would hope everyone appreciated our dedication to trying to build company camaraderie whilst working remotely. But yes, I’d say the funniest mistake we made was to try to force some fun on everyone!

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?

The second music industry job I had was at Heavenly Recordings, an indie record label in London that also handled PR for some of the biggest — and coolest — artists in the UK. The owner of the label, Jeff Barret, had started out as a publicist and was a legend in the field. He’s a great raconteur and always knew the perfect angle to go to the press with. Very funny, charismatic — the type of guy who can charm the birds out of the trees. He hired me when I was very young, and inexperienced, although relentlessly keen. I spent a few formative years working for him. Jeff not only trusted me to represent big, successful artists on national media campaigns, he empowered me to have my own style and create my own strategies. He didn’t expect me to do things the way he would, he understood that everyone has a style and that if I could find my style — and pinpoint what works best for me — I would hit my stride. I was extremely lucky to land there so early on. He taught me to be bold, self-sufficient and to trust my gut.

As you know, the United States is facing a very important self-reckoning about race, diversity, equality and inclusion. This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have a diverse executive team?

Absolutely. At The Oriel we have a very diverse roster and a staff to match. The entertainment industry, like many industries, is guilty of decades of the “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” style of hiring. It’s been rampant for years. We all came up in the business highly aware of nepotism in action. Beyond the blatant unfairness of that way of hiring, it’s extremely unhealthy and culturally damaging for things to be so insular. Homogeny is the enemy of creativity and it’s essential to our business, and the culture at large, that we populate our offices with people from different backgrounds and cultures. We view diversity and inclusion as an essential component of who we are. We’re a small, female-founded business but we’re growing quickly. While it’s been the norm in entertainment for decades, we don’t just hire people from a small pool of applicants who have the connections, or family resources, to put them in the right place at the right time. We work with recruiters who can help us cast a wider net so that we continue to broaden our own horizons and field of expertise. We truly value fresh perspectives and the chance to learn from our team. Pop culture is our lifeblood and having a diverse team who can share their perspective, tastes and principles is a priceless asset.

As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.

I think the most essential thing is to listen to your team and to be willing to learn from them. They may be much younger, but they have knowledge. We have a lot of smart, articulate, impressive young women on our staff; for some of them it’s their very first job out of college. We encourage them to speak up, share their values. We then, as a company, take action on issues that are important to them. We regularly canvas our team to find out what they feel it’s important for us to speak up — and out — about, and where to place charitable donations.

It’s an extremely frightening time for so many people in the US; minorities and marginalized people are being attacked every day. We work with artists who come from those communities, and artists who see what’s happening and feel the need to help. When there’s something important or urgent to say, they look to us for guidance on how to message the media and their fans. And we, as an executive team, need to fully understand every nuance in order to be able to advise them properly. We also have a platform of our own with the ability to share information and resources with lighting speed. By leaning in on what our team tells us are the issues and causes of most importance, we’re utilizing our established influence to effect positive change.

We also have a responsibility to provide a safe haven for our young team as they navigate their fledgling careers in the entertainment industry. Even a few years ago, abuse of power was so prevalent that no one was surprised to hear about it, dozens of industries viewed it as a normal workplace hazard. We hope that, with all the upheaval of the last few years, the idea of a harmonious, respectful workplace has become a feasible reality. By having intentional hiring policies, respectful employment practices, and compassionate mentorship, executives everywhere can help build a culture of fairness, inclusion and respect in the workplace. The mentees will take that practice with them when they build their own teams and businesses.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what an executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

An executive has to see the bigger framework at all times. We’re hands on in delivering the service our business provides — in our case communications strategies and PR expertise — while simultaneously overseeing every detail of the company. We’re involved in pacing the growth of the business, evaluating and course correcting on a daily basis, and mentoring the talented people who work for us by empowering them to become leaders themselves.

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

The myth that springs to mind, I guess, is of the lazy CEO — feet on desk — enjoying the fruits of everyone else’s labor while taking credit for his staff’s hard work and success. Right? That’s the cartoonish version of a CEO. That’s certainly not the case in most businesses with which I’m familiar. I’m sure it’s true somewhere, but I believe most executives in our field are giving up evenings, weekends and holidays to keep their companies at the top of their game.

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

In any industry that is somewhat speculative, like PR and much of the entertainment business, there is a lot of bluster and bravado. I believe, having seen it so much over 20+ years, that obstreperous male behavior can be convincing in the moment, while diligent and thoughtful female energy — and deep emotional intelligence — can be overlooked, overshadowed and discounted. Reported research showed that women speak 36% less than men in meetings and that a meeting of any group would need a majority of four women or more for the women to take up as much talk time as the men. We’ve all heard of women who game plan meetings where they amplify one another points by repeating them immediately — and giving credit — before a man can step in and say the same thing. These are real and frustrating experiences for all women, and minorities, in any situation, it’s not limited to conference rooms. It’s across every part of our culture and it is unlikely to change until the culture changes, unfortunately. (Props to Geena Davis’ Institute on Gender In Media for her trailblazing work in this area!)

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

Probably that every single day is so different. Even now, on my third decade, I’m surprised by how I can sit down with my To Do list at 9am and by the end of the day I’ve done a million other things instead. We’re first responders for our clients needs and that’s a rollercoaster. Keeps things interesting, for sure!

Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

For me, I believe people skills are essential in running any business. No one person has every skill or talent in equal measures but knowing how to get the best out of your team is a crucial part of the job. Picking up quickly on individual personalities is the most proficient way to run a team. Being able to communicate with people well, tell them what you expect from them, learning their strengths and their weaknesses and understanding your own is key. These are the talents on which a business can succeed or fail.

I work in the beauty tech industry, so I am very interested to hear your philosophy or perspective about beauty. In your role as a powerful woman and leader, how much of an emphasis do you place on your appearance? Do you see beauty as something that is superficial, or is it something that has inherent value for a leader in a public context? Can you explain what you mean?

This is an interesting and pertinent question! Our business is highly social and yes — appearances are important in our industry. It’s entertainment, we work with famous people and we have to walk the red carpet with them. The British writer Caitlin Moran wrote in one of her books that whenever a woman says “I don’t have anything to wear!” what she really means is that she doesn’t have anything to wear for who she has to be that day. That’s something I think about all the time, as we go from meeting to office to dinner and on to a show or event. It’s a lot to plan for. But women everywhere, in every walk of life, are dealing with the same thing on some level. It’s not unique to entertainment.

As a PR exec, I take comfort in the fact that no one is supposed to be looking at me. I’m usually trying to be invisible, whether it’s on a red carpet or at a photo shoot or TV taping. I try to look smart and understated. I personally never wear a lot of makeup and I have a very traditional approach to skincare and anti-aging — despite the plethora of technologies available to me as a resident of Los Angeles! I don’t think it’s superficial — to each their own, honestly — but I would love for women to be able to age in the same way that is acceptable for men. It’s only fair for older women to be perceived as ‘distinguished’ the same way men are, rather than the inordinate amount of pressure being placed on appearing youthful. It would be a great equalizer, if we could get to that place.

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

I’m a mother, and an aunt, and my greatest anxiety and outrage is for the companies who are actively destroying our planet. Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. The environment is in a death spiral and a small group are to blame. I admire the work of organizations like Extinction Rebellion, the Sunrise Movement and Green Peace. They exist already, the movement is happening, so I can only encourage people to research them and think about how they might like to participate. Our client Michael Stipe recently recorded music to raise funds for Extinction Rebellion and my brother in law — who is 78 years old! — has been volunteering to train their protesters in London. Anyone, no matter who they are, or where they live, can do something. All they have to do is learn about it and connect with the movement.

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 think the aforementioned Geena Davis. My heart swells whenever I see the work she’s doing. To put our popular culture under a microscope and show just how warped things are…And then to put that research into such formidable action for progress: Wow! The change that has to come from that is seismic.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

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Women Of The C-Suite: Chloë Walsh of The Oriel Company On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Kristin Petrovich of själ On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Combatting 5G by using black/dark stones to absorb energy, ground and protect. I also use body align products on electronics, such as the Tesla purple plates.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kristin Petrovich, President and Co-Founder of själ skincare.

Kristin Petrovich, Co-Founder of själ, has been cited as the pioneer of integrative luxury skincare. Along with her mother, Karen, they began their quest to create a simple regimen addressing multiple concerns with a minimal amount of products that include gemstones and precious metals like gold and silver. Kristin has been involved in every aspect of the business since its inception twenty years ago and continues to be the visionary force behind själ skincare.

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?

To design the most comprehensive and well-rounded products on the market with precious metals and gemstones, my mother and I decided to merge our personal interest in Eastern and complementary medicines with the latest in Western biotechnology and research.

Eastern skincare practices has been used for years but that jump into merging it with western philosophies is new. When we first started not many people talked about energy and frequency. It was viewed as make believe. We saw how gold and platinum was being used in different delivery system in medications, vibration frequencies to treat degenerative illnesses. How doctors used gold as disruptors. The delivery systems were created outside of Barcelona. I spoke to an owner of an ingredient company to team up and use it to apply to peptides.

My vision was always to combine something super ancient to new advancements. Why aren’t we linking the two? Re-harmonize the energy? If you put the right enough of frequency you can create luminosity and brightness to the skin. Our skin responds to this. Coupling it with physical ingredients like an algae or vitamins, which makes a powerful component. These are eastern principles. We have to omit these manmade and psychological stressors, själ is skincare’s version of a detox from external factors.

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?

Most manufacturers or chemists were skeptical, questioning why we would these luxurious ingredients. We never sacrificed the integrity of the products. Our contacts did not want to go that extra step. själ’s saphir face oil, for instance, almost four years to formulate. It takes time to find the right people, like our gemstone expert.

We did not succumb to the industry recommendations. You have to have your wits and stay true to your vision.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I omitted a serum product with a new serum. Though our devotees loved them both. If something is good just keep it.

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?

We are a small, artisanal company and do not believe in compromising to the norms practiced in this skincare business. We uphold high quality industry beauty standards. For instance the majority of our ingredients are from Europe with no GMOs.

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.

In addition to eating organic real food from the earth I do the following:

1. Acupuncture/homeopathy .

2. Regular detoxes with zeolite, bentonite, charcoal, beets, green tea, pine needle tea or extract.

3. Liquid Tri-Iodine to support thyroid and metabolism.

4. Vitamin infusions, especially Vitamin C for immune support.

5. Combatting 5G by using black/dark stones to absorb energy, ground and protect. I also use body align products on electronics, such as the Tesla purple plates.

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

Offering food free of GMOs, filtered water and accessible ways to monitor your body’s PH and make sure fluoride is out of your water system, which calcifies the penal gland that connects to your intuition.

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

1. Never realized how much research was involved to create the right formulation, you have to build in in the investment of time.
2. Follow your instinct.
3. There are no shortcuts.
4. Don’t reinvent the wheel, prioritize where your time is most valuable.
5. I was open to a mentor but never found one, be confident on your journey’s mission.

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: In a world of growing complexity and chaos, I think it’s about nurturing the spirit and simplifying, having a back to the basics mentality.

Strive to keep your vibrational frequency as high as possible.

Enjoy nature at much as possible.

Unplug from electronics and news.

Protect yourself from fear mode (a very low frequency).

Connect with the Creator/divine (the most powerful, positive force in the universe).

Study universal laws and principals.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

www.sjalskincare.com

https://www.instagram.com/sjalskincare/

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

The first one, which is the most memorable for me, I received when I was in my freshman year of high school. I was on the track team and I was competing in the triple jump for a spot at the provincial finals. I had faulted on my first two jumps and only had one left to qualify. As I got ready for my last jump, I considered moving the starting line for the jump, which would have made it more difficult to fault but also more difficult to qualify. There was a senior who was standing in for the coach at the event who I looked to for advice. He told me something that has always stuck with me. He said that if I went with Plan B, then I wasn’t going to win anyway. What I needed to do was commit to Plan A and give it everything I had.

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

Ivy is a location-independent entrepreneur writing about the future of education, work, and learning. She is the CEO of Prequel, where the most ambitious teens learn 21st century life skills through passion-led boot camps hosted by leading experts. She is also the co-founder of Wander Women DAO, a venture studio DAO building products to empower more women to be nomadic and financially free.

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 was born in China and emigrated to Canada with my family when I was four years old. I grew up in Ottawa, where both of my parents worked as engineers. During my sophomore year at Queen’s University, I participated in a business incubator program that provided me with a grant to build a business. That experience changed my life.

When I graduated, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, so I moved to Silicon Valley to learn from the best. After three years working in San Francisco, I realized I was getting too comfortable working for big tech companies. To refocus on my goal of being an entrepreneur, I took a sabbatical year to travel. That was 2019.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I did what a lot of young professionals did and moved back home with my parents to wait it out. That move allowed me to reconnect with my sister, who is 11 years younger than me. It was really the first time I had interacted with her since she became a teenager. She was in her sophomore year of high school and stressed out about figuring out the next season of her life, including what she would study in college.

The more I interacted with her, the more I realized that, just like me when I was her age, she knew nothing about the real world. In her mind, there were four career paths that were OK for Asian immigrants: business, engineering, medicine, or law. She liked art, but she did not see how it could be a successful career for her. So, like a lot of her friends, she was planning to study business. As I watched what my sister was going through, I realized that she needed better opportunities for learning about her career options. She had no idea about how changes in the world of technology have opened doors for us to go into whatever we are passionate about.

My first thought was to let her shadow a bunch of my friends who were working at their careers so she could see what they do on a daily basis. But I thought that might end up being boring for a teenager. Eventually I decided that the best way for her to experience as many careers as possible was for her to launch her own startup. That way she would experience the whole process, including ideation, user research, sales, marketing, and more. That idea morphed into Beta Camp, a six week online program to teach entrepreneurship, business, and life skills that launched in Summer 2020.

I thought Beta Camp would include my sister and a few friends, but after we put the word out, we got over 110 applications. We accepted about 80 kids and put them together in teams of five to six to build startups. By the end of the summer, some of the teams were already monetizing their products and services. One team that launched workshops for teachers on how to create more engaging online classrooms ran five workshops, with teachers paying $50 each to participate. Later we had kids that made thousands of dollars selling on Shopify, leveraging a supply chain that they built out in just within a few weeks. One 14-year-old who participated in the first cohort just raised $1.6 million for his startup.

I had no idea whether kids would actually be able to monetize in six weeks. They were starting from nothing. The first week they didn’t even know what a business was. But it went really well. We just finished our fifth Beta Camp cohort this past summer, which is now a part of Prequel, a new mother company that will oversee many new programs that we are building.

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

When it comes to education, I believe the most important factor when it comes to student success is who is doing the teaching. In a typical high school setting, you learn business from someone that has never started a business. In many cases, they have never even worked in a business. When it comes to career counseling, you are getting guidance from someone who has not personally explored different careers. They are learning from brochures as they guide you.

Our program brings in the best of the best, people who are actually working at the forefront of innovation, to teach the subjects that they are really, really good at. Providing those types of teachers to high school students allows them to enter college with a baseline knowledge of what they are studying, which means they can spend the next four years advancing to the forefront of their field instead of learning the basics.

Another step we are taking is making sure that students get real world exposure instead of just theories. What we hear from all of our students is that they learn entrepreneurship by reading a book or filling out a worksheet, but not from actually going out and doing it. When they learn programming, they might play within the game, which is a good start, but you never go beyond that and build a game yourself. Too often, all we learn in school is how to get good grades.

There is definitely a gap between what kids are learning and what they need to know to apply it in the real world in a way that actually impacts the progression of our society. Teenagers, and even preteens, have the potential to do a lot of things that our culture does not challenge them to do until after they graduate from college. Students should be able to explore things academically as a tool for discovering their likes and dislikes, but once they have a passion for something they should learn the skills they need to pursue it. They need to learn financial skills and investing skills and leadership skills and how to build an audience on social media and create a personal brand online. These are the skills that open up opportunities regardless of what career they pursue.

Finally, by taking learning online you do away with the limitations that students had when they were stuck in one geographic community. Now, wherever you are, the Internet allows you to find kids like yourself with the same interests and ambitions. Many kids are ambitious but don’t know what they’re ambitious about yet. Kids are always motivated by their peers. By taking learning online we provide the opportunity for them to connect with amazing peers.

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 funny mistake that I found myself making was a result of the generation gap. I’m a young millennial, but the kids that we are teaching are mid Gen Z. When I tried to connect with them through social media there was a lot of frustration because, as I learned, they use social media platforms much differently than I do.

For example, they use Instagram as a chat tool because they don’t use Facebook Messenger. So their Instagram accounts have zero posts and zero stories but 2,000 followers. I learned from this that social media platforms provide a great opportunity to really know a demographic and what it takes to connect with them.

I also discovered that they don’t use short slang like my generation does and they don’t understand it when I use it. I once told my sister that we needed to create a sense of FOMO and she had no idea what I was talking about. I told her it was “slang that kids use.” When she said she didn’t, I told her it was “slang that old kids use.”

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

I am really lucky to have two mentors, both of whom made a big impact on my life. One of them is an incredibly successful businesswoman who I interned with when I was 20. She helped me to connect with a lot of people in the business community in Silicon Valley and showed me the importance of keeping people within your network. From her I learned that you need to be incredibly generous with people, helping where you can. I don’t think she ever told me this directly, but the understanding that I got from her is that when you network, you act with the people you are connecting with as if you need them 20 years from now and they need you today.

The other important mentor was one of the organizers of a fellowship that I was selected to be a part of in college. It is known as the Cansbridge Fellowship and it provided me with a three month business internship in Asia that allowed me to explore some of the innovative things that were happening in Asian markets. He really helped me to see what was possible. He encouraged me to come to Silicon Valley and be a part of what was happening there. “The pie is here,” he would say. “Come hungry and help to expand it.”

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

Disrupting, in my opinion, is almost always positive. When an industry is disrupted, it results in options that aren’t like the original. And more choices and competition are always good. In addition, having a new option does not take away from the old one.

In my field, for example, I don’t think that more alternative education programs will immediately shut down traditional schools. It might challenge traditional schools to take on some of the best ideas. With each disruption, there are new ideas that come out and the popular or common ideas at that time can take elements of the disruption and incorporate them.

The only thing that comes to mind in the area of negative disruptions are those that leverage short-term thinking instead of long-term thinking. The most obvious of these to me is the disruptions that are contributing to the climate crisis. A disruption that progresses the oil industry rather than one that promotes clean energy would be a negative disruption.

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

The first one, which is the most memorable for me, I received when I was in my freshman year of high school. I was on the track team and I was competing in the triple jump for a spot at the provincial finals. I had faulted on my first two jumps and only had one left to qualify. As I got ready for my last jump, I considered moving the starting line for the jump, which would have made it more difficult to fault but also more difficult to qualify. There was a senior who was standing in for the coach at the event who I looked to for advice. He told me something that has always stuck with me. He said that if I went with Plan B, then I wasn’t going to win anyway. What I needed to do was commit to Plan A and give it everything I had.

I have learned to apply those words in so many areas. In business and relationships and more, you take the one chance you have and commit to it. You can’t go through life doing things halfway.

Another was something I already mentioned about the best way to network. You need to treat people like they need you now and you need them 20 years from now. Every time I use that to explain to others the purpose of networking, it really clicks.

The third is something that a friend shared with me about having confidence. She explained that confidence usually comes from the belief that you can figure it out, rather than from the knowledge that you already know the solution. We try to teach our teens that they will not always know the solution. There will be times when they do not know how to get there or when they are too scared to pursue something. In those times, the belief that you can figure out how to get to wherever you want to go if you put enough effort into provides all the confidence they need.

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

Our long-term vision is to get to a place where we are allowing our students to come in and choose their own journey, which is quite a difficult goal to achieve. We are used to a world of prerequisites, so evolving to a place where we are just guiding them on their own journey is a big step.

The most difficult part of this is finding the right balance between what we think they should be learning and what actually attracts them in terms of their passions. Our end goal is to be able to offer a program in which half is focused on academics and half is passion-based, project-based learning.

We are also looking to be more incorporated into the other places where kids learn. As education becomes more distributed, with micro-schools or charter schools or homeschooling, I would love to be able to help with developing the content that is woven into the standard education curriculum to make sure kids have the best, most fun, and most impactful content to inspire their learning.

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

One thing that I have noticed now that social distancing is coming to an end and I am having more in person meetings with my team, is that I actually really enjoy Zoom meetings. In Zoom, we are all in one square and everyone’s square is the same size. As a result, I don’t feel small. When I meet physically with my team, all of them are taller than me, which makes it harder to command a room. It might seem funny, but I found that being the same size as everyone else in Zoom meetings is confidence boosting and makes a difference in terms of women feeling more empowered to speak up.

Another challenge that women disruptors face is something I noticed during my days in Silicon Valley when I was working in business development. In the industries that are more male dominated, whether that is engineering or tech or finance, hangouts and socials are still very male oriented. The vibe at those events, which sometimes included belly dancers or strippers, pressures you to be something you are not. It might seem like a game that you just need to play, but it makes it difficult for a woman to connect with the people who can be mentors or role models.

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

A podcast that I listen to a lot is My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri. It’s about how people made their first $1 million that typically highlights people I think of as hidden millionaires. They are young people with lawn mowing or SEO businesses, not big business people with nationwide, scalable businesses.

It’s inspiring to me to hear that there are so many hidden rich people who make their millions doing all these different things. It tells me that you can make anything work in whatever field you choose to work in. You don’t need to be Mark Zuckerberg or someone else who is in the press. You can build something in your community that thrives. It speaks to an abundance mindset, which I really love. It also helped me to see that I would rather be niche famous, like most of the millionaires on the show, than mainstream famous.

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

What we’re trying to do is to help kids. How many kids can one person help? Even if I am having an impact on all of the kids that go through my program, that is still only 150 to 200 kids. We need more people who can help kids to have memorable activation points in their lives that really change the trajectory of their lives by giving them a new mindset and helping them to see what they can accomplish.

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

You have to believe that you can figure it out.

When I first moved to Silicon Valley, it was not the normal path for a Canadian with a business degree nor was it an easy step. I moved with no work experience, no work visa, no friends, no network, and nowhere to stay. I slept on someone’s couch for six weeks while I job hunted. It was a brave move with no guarantees, but I believed I could figure it out.

A lot of people ask me if I was scared when I moved or when I launched my company. My response is that other people are doing it so I can figure it out. There are tens of thousands of Stanford and Berkeley kids who are non-technical who find jobs in Silicon Valley. There are plenty of people that build businesses. If someone else can do it, I can, too.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on LinkedIn or at my website where my husband or I write a monthly newsletter on our travels and updates on what we’re thinking about.

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

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

Christina Robinson of Green Umbrella Marketing On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Use your voice — Post original content on LinkedIn every single day. Allow your connections to see who you are, what you’re passionate about and why you do what you do. Share an opinion, or talk about what you’ve been up to that day. It’s common for business owners to struggle with posting daily content, so imagine that you’re sending an email or a message to an ideal client. Share something that’s going to appeal to them and grab their attention. That’s when your posts will turn into conversation starters and encourage more engagement

As part of our series of interviews about “How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your Business”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Christina Robinson.

Christina is the Managing Director of Green Umbrella Marketing, a UK-based Marketing agency that she bought from the previous owners in 2019. Green Umbrella Marketing offers Done-For-You marketing services to recruitment agencies, SMEs, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Christina also teaches business owners how to create and implement their own marketing strategy and campaigns.

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

I went to university as a mature student, at the age of 31, but dropped out after 18 months as I hated it. Most people who go to university talk about it as this amazing experience, but that wasn’t my experience. I found it quite soul destroying. So I made the decision to leave as it wasn’t making me happy, but I didn’t have a back-up plan or a plan-B. I literally had no idea what to do!

As part of the degree I was studying, I did really enjoy learning about social media and how it can be used to promote businesses, so I decided to become a freelance social media manager and would offer social media support to businesses in my local area. It sounded like it would suit my family situation and my lifestyle, so I was able to work around raising my daughters. I started doing some research and soon learnt that social media agencies were a thing, and that there was one within 10mins of my front door.

I checked out their website and their Facebook page and within two days an advert popped up on my Facebook feed — they were looking to hire social media freelancers to support the agency and their clients. It seemed too good to be true, but I applied for a job, went for an interview and started a few weeks later. Within eight weeks I was hired as a part-time member of staff and within six months I’d been promoted to second in command, working alongside my boss to grow the agency and manage the team.

In 2019 I bought the business and now run it as the Managing Director.

It’s not how I thought my life would pan out, but it’s been a brilliant ride!

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

It has to be buying the business from its original founder, as it was never part of the plan. Not that dropping out of university was part of the plan, but once I had dropped out I was quite happy to support other businesses with their social media. I didn’t consider that to be my own business, I was just helping out other people and being paid to do so. Having a business wasn’t something that people like me have, so when I was offered the job at the marketing agency it was an easy yes. I loved social media and knew I was good at it, so being hired as a freelancer allowed me to stay within my comfort zone.

After a year or two of employment, the owner of the business started talking to me about a management buyout and asked if I’d be interested in buying it. In my head I was thinking ‘no’ but I found myself saying yes. I had no idea what a management buy-out entailed, but I knew that opportunities like this didn’t happen very often, so I had to say yes, then learn everything afterwards.

A few years passed and in 2018 I said to Julia; ‘if this is going to happen it needs to be now.’ The MBO went ahead and I’ve now been the owner of Green Umbrella Marketing since 2019. The process of buying a business wasn’t too difficult, but the fact that I was buying a business took time to process. It was never part of the plan. It wasn’t a dream of mine. But here I am now, a university drop-out who is now the owner of an established marketing agency.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. 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 didn’t realise it was a mistake at the time, but I was in such awe of Julia, who owned the business, that I tried to be like her whenever I met clients, or whenever I was delivering a training session or masterclasses. Everyone seemed to love her so I modelled myself on her, delivering sessions in the same style as her and communicating in the same way she would. Looking back, it’s quite sad really, that I felt so uncomfortable being me within my work environment that I tried to be like her. But it’s something I hear a lot from other business owners, that being fully authentic can feel scary, in case we repel clients or they don’t take us seriously.

But the more I allowed myself to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, the easier it was to show up as myself. I soon started to attract people like me and it all clicked into place. People loved Julia because she was Julia. As soon as I started to embrace Christina and show up as her, people loved me for being me too.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

LinkedIn has been the most effective platform for me as a personal brand, as well as Green Umbrella. Once I’d decided to go ahead with the management buy-out I realised that it was time to put as much focus and attention into growing my own LinkedIn profile that we do for our clients. I created something I call ‘The Hit List Strategy’, which is what we now teach to clients too. I looked at the top 20 people within our niche, which was the recruitment industry at the time, and I made it my mission to follow them on LinkedIn and engage with their content so that they got used to seeing me in their newsfeed. After interacting with them over a period of time, I would send a connection request, knowing that they’d accept as I’d demonstrated that I was someone they’d want to connect with and have in their network. In most instances they’d actually request to connect with me first.

By interacting with their content on LinkedIn I could see what they were doing outside of LinkedIn. I could see which events they were going to be at, which books they were reading and which podcasts they were listening to. It gave me the ability to dive deeper into them as individuals, so when I did meet them in real life I had something to talk to them about. Impressing people is really easy if you can demonstrate that you actually care about them and what they do. It also meant that I could tag them in content I was sharing on LinkedIn, which then opens us up to their network too.

Let’s talk about LinkedIn specifically, now. Can you share 5 ways to leverage LinkedIn to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or example for each.

Tip #1: Use your voice

Post original content on LinkedIn every single day. Allow your connections to see who you are, what you’re passionate about and why you do what you do. Share an opinion, or talk about what you’ve been up to that day. It’s common for business owners to struggle with posting daily content, so imagine that you’re sending an email or a message to an ideal client. Share something that’s going to appeal to them and grab their attention. That’s when your posts will turn into conversation starters and encourage more engagement

Tip #2: Don’t just post, engage

The easiest way to be a part of the conversation is to comment and engage on other people’s posts. Commenting on other people’s posts is way more effective than you posting on your own profile. Business is all about building the know-like-trust factor, which you can’t build without talking to people. People may not interact with your comments immediately, but once they’re used to seeing you popping up regularly, they’ll start to interact with you, which pushes you out to more people in their network. The magic always happens in the comments, not on your posts.

Last year we had a stand at an expo and I noticed this guy hovering around the stand. Not just once, but three or four times he’d hover by the stand but never come over and introduce himself. His face looked familiar but I didn’t fully recognise him. When he did eventually come over and introduce himself he turned out to be one of the best CV ad writers in the world, who recognised me from commenting on other people’s Linkedin posts. Because what happens, when you comment on other people’s posts your content is then shown to them more frequently, so they get to see you and build a hidden rapport with you, even though they’ve never met you.

Tip #3: Be responsive

Make sure that your notifications are switched on so that you can see when someone interacts or comments on your posts, because you want to strike up a conversation with them. Take the time to read what they’re saying and respond accordingly. Social media has been designed for us to be social, so be social. A conversation that you start in your feed can then continue in the DMs, which is strengthening relationships even more. We have all these conversations publicly, but rarely move them into a sales environment, which in effect means that you’re leaving money on the table.Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want either.

Tip #4: Show up

Tip number two was all about posting every day, but you also need to show you, especially if you’re a personal brand, as your customers want to see you as much as they want to see and hear about your products or services. Allow your customers and clients to see the real you, outside of work as well as inside of work. Post about what you did at the weekend, talk about something you’re excited about at the moment. You’ll often see people on LinkedIn moaning that ‘this isn’t Facebook’, but showing who you are as a person is just as important in building the know-like-trust factor, so your fun, out of office side needs just as much air time as you inside of work. People buy from people like them, they don’t buy from machines.

Showing up will make the difference between showing up regularly and getting nowhere and showing up and making an impact.

Tip #5: Back yourself

This is all about having the confidence to show up and post every day, knowing that your content is making an impact on someone, somewhere. Don’t focus too much on vanity metrics as not everyone is going to interact with your content, but something that you say may make an impression on them that they won’t forget. When you show up with confidence you’re declaring that you’re the expert. You’re giving people a reason to be connected to you.

In 2020 we started working with a business owner who was nervous to show up online for fear of judgement. The thought of going live filled him with dread as he has a stutter. We slowly helped to build his confidence and create a plan for him to follow. Although he still dreaded going live, he was starting to enjoy it, which showed, as the business is now making over 7-figures in revenue. If he hadn’t made the decision to show up every day and go live on social media his business wouldn’t have survived the Covid-19 pandemic. As with any economic downturn, many businesses pull away from social media, so not only was he in front of his audience at a time when they needed him, but when his competitors re-started their social media he remained at the forefront because he’d been everpresent.

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

I am on a mission to grow one million businesses to reach £1 million in revenue. Think about what that would mean for the world — if one million businesses were able to make £1million in revenue, they’d be able to do so much more to help so many more people. They’d be creating more job opportunities and boosting the economy. They’d also be able to give more freely in terms of sharing their time and expertise and pay it forward, whether that’s hosting free seminars, or talking to primary school kids, or volunteering for a charity.

If I can do this, then over time, those who I’ve helped will then be able to pay it forward, and those people who they help will be able to pay it forward.

One one person grows, we all succeed. So let’s help more people to grow.

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

Alex Hormozi. I really like the approach he takes where he lets people have access to all the information they need, for free, so that they can start to create the products and services that will make money. Not every business owner can afford to invest in learning when they first start out, so how can they be expected to sign up to courses or work with coaches when they haven’t started making money yet?

I’m also really interested in Elena Cardone. She must have to take on so much of the media backlash and social media haters because of who she’s married to. Most of the time she’s referred to as Grant Cardone’s wife, as if that’s her job role. As if she isn’t successful in her own right. But most people won’t know who she is. They’ll know that Grant Cardone is married, but not necessarily who to, or what she does. It’s something we see a lot in the press. When successful men or celebrities are photographed with their wives, the wife is introduced as ‘the wife’, not as a person in her own right. That needs to change.

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

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Christina Robinson of Green Umbrella Marketing On How to Use LinkedIn To Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Compartmentalization — When you are in business with your partner, you need to be able to separate business life and conversations from personal life and conversations. In business, with two results driven people with perspectives, similar to a corporate job, there will be differences in opinions and tense conversations. It is important to leave business conversations as business and not let that be a reflection of your romantic relationship.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Darnell and Alyssa Gilet.

Darnell and Alyssa Gilet launched House Party Entertainment to create memorable experiences that bring people together.

They developed the brand with a collective 20+ years of experience in media and entertainment, event production, talent acquisitions, and project management at companies that include NBCUniversal, Scripps Networks, A+E Networks, Discovery Communications, Unilever and the NBA.

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

Darnell: From a professional perspective, my background is in Human Resources with a focus on Talent Acquisition, Diversity Strategy, University Relations and Employer branding. In school, I studied marketing and expected to work in the advertising space in the media industry. However, my first position out of college was not what I expected as I started in a sales position in a management trainee program. However, I leveraged that experience to pivot into talent acquisition which is marketing and sales in a sense. Since then I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of companies across the media, entertainment, sports, consumer packaged goods, and technology industries. Entrepreneurially, I am able to use my experiences in project management, organizational design, and diversity to build out our business operations and brand identity for House Party Entertainment and Do You Know Black?

Additionally, I have recently received certifications from University of Cambridge, Wharton Business School, and Cornell University in the areas of Circular Economy and Sustainability Strategy, Business Strategies for a Better World, and Equitable Community Change with hopes of leveraging the learnings to ensure the work I do professionally and entrepreneurially are rooted in purpose driven foundations. It is refreshing to be able to take the things that I have learned from my years corporately and educationally to apply them to what we view as an extremely important and impactful entrepreneurial project.

Alyssa: My professional career track has been in marketing, brand partnerships, and event production. While I’ve worked in corporate, I’ve always considered myself pretty creative. We loved hosting friends for game night and I would take the time to create new games and experiences. Back in 2016, I had the idea to develop a Black pop culture trivia card game called House Party and our business was born. We launched House Party Entertainment shortly after because we saw a need for more positive, thought-provoking entertainment that amplifies and elevates Black stories.

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

ANSWER: We have been together going on 12 years now and have been married for 4 years. The most interesting thing about our marriage and relationship as a whole is how we have grown together. We grew up in the same town together and went to the same high school but did not know each other. We were introduced through a mutual friend after we both graduated college. At the time we were both early in our careers with a lot of passion but little direction. Since then, we have challenged each other and supported each other in growing personally and professionally. When we first started dating, we used to speak about the things we wanted to do, places we wanted to work, things we wanted to have, etc. 12 years later, we have been able to do a lot of those things and even more than we had imagined. Now we are setting new goals and new visions together. Looking back to who we were when we first started dating to who we are together today is interesting.

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?

ANSWER: It is funny to think about how naive we were to the process of building a business. Thinking about how quickly we thought things would happen is laughable. For example, when we first taped season 1 of Do You Know Black? in 2018, we expected the episodes to be edited in full within a few months of production. After two years, we still did not have a finished product. However, about 1.5 of those two years was waiting for things to be done, trying to figure out how to properly manage contractors and outsource work. The process was humbling.

However, as entrepreneurs, it taught us the importance of not only time management but also time horizons. This means that it isn’t only important about how you manage your time on a day-to-day basis, but also important to give yourself the appropriate amount of time to get something done or you will put undue pressure or stress on yourself.

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

The entire foundation we are building is purpose driven. We are taking time to ensure that our “why” and our end goal is aligned with creating tangible, measurable, and sustainable change and adds value to the Black community. Where we are today is not where we plan to be in 5-years. We are confident in the infrastructure, brand, talent network, and community we have so far and are looking forward to continuing to build this out.

For example, with Do You Know Black?, our entire production crew is Black and Brown. We have over 50 contestants that represent a range of Black people ranging from engineers, entertainers, educators, entrepreneurs, healthcare workers, immigrants, first generation Blacks, African Americans and more. We strategically partner with over 50 Black-Owned businesses as part of our All-Black Prize Pack to feature Black-Owned businesses in a unique way. Additionally, our content features over 500 questions about Black history and culture. This is all a part of the infrastructure we are building. Our productions are filmed in front of a live-studio audience. The experience is unexplainable as you really have to be there to feel the energy and the atmosphere of Black people coming together around a production that is fun and meaningful. In 2023, we plan to leverage the full foundation and network of our brand to make a unique impact in Black communities so stay tuned.

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

We are currently working on two new projects. One project is a unique conversation series set to launch in fall of 2023. We are beginning production in October. The other is programmatic and experiential in nature. Specifically, we are building a plan to show Do You Know Black? in action. We will be able to share more specific details in Q1 of 2023.

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

This depends on the maturity of your company and organization. Where we are as entrepreneurs in the startup phase, there are a few things. The first is to make sure you have a strong “why”. Why does what you do matter? What is the purpose? What is the impact on your consumers’ lives? If you establish a strong purpose for your brand, it will help motivate those that interact with your brand, including your employees. The second is to stay connected to what it takes to get certain jobs done. As entrepreneurs in a startup, we have greater involvement in tasks that founders of larger organizations do not have their hands in. While delegation is important, understanding what it takes to get a variety of tasks done allows us to properly set goals and timelines for employees, contractors, partners, etc. This also helps with setting realistic expectations of yourself and your team. As our business grows, the keys to successful people management may change. However, the ultimate “why” will always serve as a north star for anyone working on our projects.

How do you define “Leadership”?

Leadership is doing what is necessary to drive targeted outcomes while maintaining healthy environments. At times this may require a hands on approach. At times it may require a hands-off approach. This definition of leadership is flexible. Leaders need to adapt and adjust their approach based on the problem they and their team need to solve.

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 is no specific person. Unfortunately, we did not have much help from any one individual in the form of a mentor. However, we are grateful for the network of people that have taken their time to support us and be part of the process of building out or projects. We have 70 contestants that volunteered to be on our programs with very little details. We have a wide range of Black creatives behind the camera that spent a lot of hours working on this project and pouring into it. We have over 50 Black-owned businesses that sponsored prizes for the show. For us, we are grateful for the opportunity to be able to network across. Networking across and creating situations of shared value and shared vision has been critical for our success to this point. We view all of these people that have invested their time and thought as the greatest help we could ask for. We hope to build a brand that can make everyone proud to be part of the Do You Know Black? Family.

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

We are still working to do this. One of our major goals in 2023 is to leverage the Do You Know Black? Brand to make a tangible, measurable, sustainable impact in Black communities. Presently, our shows have created a platform that can celebrate and educate on Black history and culture in a fun and engaging way while creating safe spaces for all people to learn more. Additionally, our conversation series have allowed our viewers to see healthy dialogue around important topics that impact our communities. Our brand is built on purpose. We aim to elevate and uplift the Black community through content, experiences and events. We look forward to increasing our impact in the coming years and having the Do You Know Black? Family on the journey with us.

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

These are 5 things you need to thrive as a couple doing business together. 5 things to survive as a general couple is a bit more philosophical and personalized.

Compartmentalization — When you are in business with your partner, you need to be able to separate business life and conversations from personal life and conversations. In business, with two results driven people with perspectives, similar to a corporate job, there will be differences in opinions and tense conversations. It is important to leave business conversations as business and not let that be a reflection of your romantic relationship.

Appreciation — When working together, even if you are working on different workflows, you have to take time to appreciate each other and the value we bring. One example is in our strengths and weaknesses. Alyssa is very good with fine details and taking a project from 80%-100%. Darnell is very good at taking a project from 0–1 or (0–80%). In instances where we can not appreciate the part the other person is playing in delivering the product, it can create frustration. However, appreciating the contributions the other is making, and the skills and quality it takes to deliver that portion of the project at the high level it is delivered is important.

Boundaries — When you are working on a big project together with limited people resources, you have to invest a lot of time. Especially when you both have full time jobs. We have learned to take time away from working on business to engage with each other as a couple and to pour into our relationship. Sometimes we shut down working for the day even if we are way behind on a deliverable just to spend time with each other or leave the house. This is something we have been intentional about.

Roles — We have different strengths and different weaknesses. We assign roles based on what has to be done and who is best equipped to do them. For example, for production weekend, we had to create over 700 trivia questions. This requires extensive research, verification and strong writing. This is a strength of Alyssa’s and it is critical for the show. Darnell is strong in project management and mobilizing people and managing competing priorities. While Alyssa managed the content, research and writing side of the project, Darnell managed the project including people management, logistics, relationship management, etc. We have come to appreciate what each other do well and what we don’t do well and assign tasks accordingly.

Shared Vision — Passion is important. If both individuals are not passionate about the project, it will create tension. When we started building Do You Know Black?, it was one thing. As time evolved and we learned more about ourselves, the brand has evolved into something that speaks to who we are as people individually, as a couple, and what kind of life we want to live and the legacy we want to leave.

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

Our 2023 goal is to do this exact thing with the Do You Know Black? brand on a local, then national level. What we have done so far is build a purpose, an identity, and a foundation. In 2023, we plan to start to use this in a tangible way that has a positive and measurable impact on people’s lives.

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

Hope is not a strategy. When we first started the business, it was just an idea. We thought there were five primary keys to success. Most of those keys to success required some level of luck or virality. When hoping that something you create will be so great it will just become viral, you set yourself up for disappointment and failure. Given the resources that we had and the limited amount of market data, we had to take every piece of feedback and every situation as a reference point to learn what it would take to create something sustainable. We realized that it would take years of strategic thinking and consistent execution to build a business that is sustainable as opposed to a product or piece of content that goes viral but does not feed into the next phase of your business strategy. When thinking with strategy instead of hope, it has allowed us to have a sense of confidence in ourselves and the future of our business because it gives us more control over our destiny.

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

Darnell — I would love to have breakfast with Tyler Perry. Specifically because of his rise to fame and how he built his empire. When he originally started with his stage plays, I am sure he had a much bigger vision for the business he wanted to grow that other people could not understand. This is my perspective on where we are with Do You Know Black? I would love to sit with him not from a resource or necessity perspective. Rather, just to have breakfast and an engaging conversation about business theory.

Alyssa — I’d love to have breakfast with Charles King, the founder and CEO of the media company Macro. I’ve always loved and respected how he left a successful career as an agency partner to launch a media company aimed at elevating diverse stories. We share the same mission for our Do You Know Black? brand. Seeing how many stories Macro has brought to life, and how much the company has grown since, solidifies the need for this work and motivates me to keep going.

How can our readers follow your work online?

On Instagram follow @doyouknowblack on Tiktok follow @doyouknowblk on Youtube Subscribe to House Party Entertainment.

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

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Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Darnell & Alyssa Gilet of House Party Entertainment was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

If you have a small amount to invest, do it. Prepare a business plan with the help of an expert to avoid glaring mistakes and find yourself in big debt. Remember: no matter how long the road is, many steps will take you to the goal and reduce the margins of error. Working towards small objectives allows you to keep expenses under control and increases your self-confidence.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Paola Farina. Paola Farina is a personal and event stylist and a certified image consultant who collaborates with individuals and companies. After graduating from classical studies, she won a scholarship from Image Fashion & Communication, the first Italian institute for training professional editors and stylists. In 2018, she launched Paola Farina Styling, a company that specialized in personal and event styling. She is also the official supplier of Fiera Milano, a public body responsible for the development of projects totally dedicated to fashion and design. She fell in love with the United States and specialized in image consultancy at the FIT in New York. She lived in Amsterdam and Dublin before deciding to come back to Italy.

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?

There isn’t a time when fashion was something out of my life. Since I was a child, I played with “Fashion Wheel”, a game that allowed you to create the most unlikely outfits. Even if I came from a humble family, my dad was a simple worker and my mom an employee, I have always dreamed of catwalks’ sparkle and fashion magazines. During the university, I graduated in Communication Sciences, I won a scholarship to attend Image Fashion & Communication, the first Italian school for stylists and fashion journalists. My career began from there. I felt “at home” only in the world of fashion, only there I felt I could be who I really am, with all my weirdness and neuroses. Let me explain better, the period of primary and secondary school was very exhausting for me. I tend to be very visual in learning, but the Italian school is mainly based on the listening method, so I found it very hard. I was terribly bored because I weren’t stimulating to listen to a series of notions without being able to exercise a sort of critical spirit and some form of creativity. In addition, I was very shy, reading a book and working with imagination was more stimulating for me than participating in parties or evenings at the disco. For this reason, I have often been isolated and laughed at by my classmates, who also considered my way of experimenting with colors and clothes odd. Having few friends helped me to cultivate my most creative part, paradoxically my loneliness allowed me to develop a very rich inner world and facilitated my career.

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

When I opened my own company specialized in styling, we deal with ordinary people, events, artists and emerging brands, I came from a very difficult period. After a long career as a fashion stylist, I moved to corporate communication and training and in 2013, because of the economic crisis, I lost my job. In Italy, being a 35 years old without a job is equivalent to a death sentence. You are too qualified for a market that is looking for young people to be underpaid. One day, I was zapping on TV and I stumbled upon a TV Show, The Rachel Zoe Project: I devoured all the episodes. Looking at Rachel Zoe, but I could mention so many other professionals, I realized I had to go back to my roots.

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 mistake made at the beginning is to believe that you can do everything on your own. For example, I had launched myself into the creation of my website. It seemed beautiful to me, but the others’ gaze betrayed a mixture of perplexity and terror. It served me as a lesson; now I focus only on my skills.

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 had to be honest, when I decided to go back to school (first I attended an image consultancy course at FIT in NY and then a styling course at UAL in London), I didn’t tell anyone. My parents, humble and old-fashioned people, have never fully understood my passion for fashion and my husband is a very rational man, with his feet firmly on the ground. He deals with financial advice. I knew they would try to dissuade me, surely in good faith. I just jumped in. However, I certainly owe this perennially optimistic spirit, sometimes on the verge of unconsciousness, to my dad. He had always been a person in love and enthusiastic about life. Nevertheless, from a professional point of view, I have to thank Titti Meloni, director of Fashion, and Ines Monti, director of Domina Sposa, because they were the first to believe in me and offer me a chance. I can assure you that, unfortunately, it’s not easy to enter the world of fashion.

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, there are a psychological and a strictly practical factor. As for the first, I believe that many women have the bad habit of underestimating themselves and believing that they necessarily need the male presence to give meaning to their personal and professional life project. They also have the unhealthy habit of sacrificing themselves first for their partner and then for their children. On the contrary, they should spend much more time cultivating healthy selfishness and focusing on who they really are and what they want. Only if we first realize ourselves as individuals, we can succeed in our couple and professional life. However, as for the practical factor, there is always the economic difficulty. Women too often earn less than men for equal jobs and are not taken seriously enough when it comes to applying for a loan or pursuing a certain type of career. I believe that we have self-sabotaged ourselves for too long: it’s time to reverse course. But change has to come first on a personal level and then on a community one.

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 have to leave what I call “The Red Cross Nurse’s vocation” and begin to assert our priorities. In terms of society, the school should support gender equality and changes the human-centered paradigm on which the prevailing narrative has been built. Women ca do everything from doctor to astronaut, from scientist to construction engineer and even become successful managers or entrepreneurs. It’s enough to learn to dismiss the sense of guilt for not being able to be as society would like us to be. The media also play an essential role: they should insist on promoting virtuous models instead of unlikely characters just because they have followers on social. They have the task of proposing to the youngest stories to reflect on and points of view with which they can confront themselves. Better examples promote a better society. I know, it’s more difficult because the spectacularization pays off immediately, but it’s the quality that produces long-term effects.

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

I would say that among the reasons for becoming a founder there are: the desire to improve and create value, the satisfaction of achieving certain goals, psychological and economic independence and the possibility to feel fulfilled. For me, deciding about my job and choosing who to work with is precious and priceless.

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

In Italy there is this idea, especially among the youngest, that the founder is the one who fools around in Maldives while his/her staff works. Social Media have amplified this idea. So, the guys think that taking a couple of photos or spending the day making videos is the key to success. Unfortunately, lasting success requires talent, intelligence, insight, patience, tenacity, efforts and a good dose of luck. Another myth is tied to time: it is believed that the founder disposes of time as he/she wishes. Nothing more wrong! The entrepreneur is the first to arrive and the last to go home, often skipping holidays and weekends. It’s the company that has time (NB. I mean the founder’s time), not the 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?

In my opinion, there is a dose of ambition in all of us. However, in some people, it’s more pronounced than others. It’s no coincidence that we are leaders or wingmen. If a person is afraid of failure, he/she doesn’t like risk, doesn’t want problems and plans weekends months in advance, then maybe a regular job is the best solution. Even though I’m also convinced that we are all programmed to achieve great things, it’s fear, the social and family context that block us. I believe that school should help young people to enhance their talents, help them understand their potential, how to express them best. For example, I would create ad hoc study paths in order to explain entrepreneurship, as if it were history or geography, so that everyone can have the information to make an informed and rational decision.

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.)

Honestly, I chose not to share my decision with anyone in order not to be influenced by others’ thoughts. I’m sure that if I had shared what I planned to do with my parents, friends, relatives and even my husband, they would have dissuaded me. They would have instilled me with a thousand doubts and these doubts would have overwhelmed me. Doubts are holding us back; the fear of failure is what never really makes us start anything. If you want to do something (legal), just do it. Whether it’s good or bad, others will always find a way to criticize you, you might as well let yourself be put in the wheel later and not before. I didn’t even ask for advice because what works for one activity isn’t always good for another. I’m not saying that confrontation is wrong; in my case, I know that confrontation would have paralyzed me. However, I want to share my personal “5+1 tips” with the readers:

1. Think (but not too much) and take action. If you get wrapped up in thoughts and doubts, you will never start. I know people who are still deciding what to do, even after years!
2. Work on your project but don’t wait for it to be 100% perfect to put it into action. You can always correct the shot along the way. For example, I changed the website several times before getting to the final version.
3. Choose a market niche, this will allow you to better target communication and make you even more attractive, especially if the niche is little explored. I made the mistake of starting with a very generic message, but this didn’t allow me to differentiate myself from other professionals and it penalized me.
4. If you have a small amount to invest, do it. Prepare a business plan with the help of an expert to avoid glaring mistakes and find yourself in big debt. Remember: no matter how long the road is, many steps will take you to the goal and reduce the margins of error. Working towards small objectives allows you to keep expenses under control and increases your self-confidence.
5. Follow your intuition, let yourself be led by passion, don’t be afraid to fail, be ready to get up and change course if necessary. Only those who never get involved are never wrong. I’ve taken several wrong paths, but I’m still here.
6. And finally: play hard but honestly. There is nothing personal, it’s just business. You will find polite or bad people; you don’t lose your fair play and always respond with irony.

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

I also work with many ordinary people: from the guy needs a massive dose of self-esteem to the housewife who finally chooses to take time for herself. I help them show others who they really are and what they are capable of through clothes, colors and accessories. Many people arrive shy, maybe victims of bullying or verbal violence and in the styling process they discover themselves lions, they bring to the surface a strength they didn’t think they had. I only help them to their own “sparkle”, that flame which, over the years, we end up hiding under a blanket of dust and conformity. We turn off for fear of judgment, in order to conform to society or trend of the moment for the quiet life. However, every time we compromise, we lose a little of ourselves. I’m working with a psychologist on a beautiful project, paths that combine therapy with personal image, to improve the perception of the self and convey a real, positive and non-objectified representation of one’s body. I would like to be able to take it to schools as well.

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.

It would be the movement of spending less and better with the aim to develop greater attention and respect for the planet and nature. According to several studies, it seems that an average of about $ 6,000 a year is spent on clothing and accessories, 80% of the products purchased lie at the bottom of the wardrobe. The fashion industry is the second most polluting one on the planet. I think there is enough points of reflection.

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.

The list is quite long. In America I would have lunch with Michelle Obama, because she plays to change the rules and with AOC because she is so tough. I would have a coffee with Anna Wintour, for her long career in the fashion world. I would have dinner with Rachel Zoe and Samantha McMillan, because they are a source of inspiration for me. I would like to meet Gwyneth Paltrow thanks to her entrepreneurial skills and Julianne Moore, because I would like to dress her. I worked for a few years in NewsCorp and I would like to meet James Murdoch because, with his founding, he is carrying out very important projects. I would spend time with Elon Musk, because he is a visionary and with Richard Branson because he gives me such positive vibes. In Europe I choose Sanna Marin, because she has given me confidence in politics again; and Volodymir and Olena Zelensk’kyj, because they have shown me that nothing is impossible and that we must never be afraid of bullies.

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

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

Female Founders: Claudia Jones of MORE Latinoámerica on The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Embrace a growth mindset. I wish someone would’ve told me to always believe that it is possible to develop new skills, talents, and gifts over time. What you need is willpower, commitment, and dedication.

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

Claudia Jones is the founder and Presidents of MORE Latinoámerica, a non-profit organization whose objective is to achieve gender equality through training. She is also being honored this year as a Points of Light Inspiration Spotlight for her continued contributions to financial equity.

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

I grew up in a small city in Mexico and in 2001, I obtained a scholarship with the Global Student Leadership (GSL) program at Manhattanville College, New York which empowered me as a young woman to advocate for gender equity. In 2009, my first marriage fell apart which led to losing my business and my home and I was in a deep depression. However, I decided to take control of my life and pursued another degree. This is why strongly believe that through education and empowering women, we can achieve great things.

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

I live in a small town in Alaska, and I always say that I live at the end of the world. Though it is a beautiful place to live there are few opportunities for growth in our population given that there is only one large university in the area (University of Alaska Anchorage/Mat-Su College). It was difficult to launch a program like GSL in the area, but I wanted to make a difference and find purpose in our community. I knew that I wanted to create a free program online to reach more people. A lot of people told me that this was a dumb idea, and I would not be able to launch a whole non-profit online. They told me that it wasn’t going to work but I followed through with my convictions and after two years of operating online, we are now virtually present in 11 countries including the United States (Spanish-speaking), Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.

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 would say that they were more barriers than mistakes. My first language is Spanish and there was a language barrier when I first moved to America, but I continue to learn English each day. Another barrier when I first launched was having to understand American laws and procedures around launching a non-profit. I had no idea how to legally establish a non-profit organization. The best lesson I learned was to ask for help from my friends, family, and collaborators.

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 were so many people that helped me along the way including Michaela Walsh, Raysa Castillo, and Chase Jones. In 2000, Michaela Walsh started the Global Student Leadership Program that I participated in in 2001 with the main objective of empowering young women around the world. In 2017, Ms. Walsh organized a reunion for past students and invited all the participants from each generation to participate in an event. At this reunion, the GSL-Network was born. The GSL Network is a group of female leaders from countries around the world with the commitment to support each other and to empower other young women leaders. This is also where I reconnected with Raysa Castillo, we founded MORE Latinoamerica as spinoff of the GSL Program and the GSL Network. Chase Jones, my husband, has always supported me through this journey and provided much-needed moral support on difficult days. He made our first website and also helped with unpacking the legal jargon to launch MORE Latinoámerica.

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?

It is difficult to maintain a “balance” between my professional and personal career, but what I’ve learned is that I will always put my family and son first.

I experienced a miscarriage in 2018 and since having my son, I have really focused on cultivating my family. My priority is my son and I think the non-profit would be much bigger if I dedicated more hours each day to MORE, but that’s a part of the balance that you have to achieve as a founder. The advantage I have is that I can delegate within the organization which allows me to prioritize my family. I always want to be present at my son’s classes and events, so I juggle my time. Another example is that I was invited to attend The George H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards Celebration in New York. My biggest concern was not being able to go because I have no one to leave my 6-year-old son with. Fortunately, my husband supported me and said, “Well, the three of us will go to New York together and spend time together as a family.”

I think what gives most women pause from starting their own companies are the responsibilities that we have as women. We are often playing different roles at once such as a mother, wife, daughter, friend as well as professionals.

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 building sisterhood amongst women should be encouraged more. Networking is important but building a group of women that support you in your personal life is just as important, if not more, than the professional network of women that you build. I have a group of friends I can trust and if I am feeling a bit under the weather, one of them takes care of my son, or provides meals. I do the same when someone finds themselves in a difficult position. That’s why it’s so important for MORE to not only empower women but to create sisterhood through networking.

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

The UN United Nations (UN) has 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Number 5 focuses mainly on gender equity. According to the UN, it is proven that women’s empowerment stimulates productivity and economic growth. I believe that if more women were in key positions (business, political, non-profit organizations, etc.), we would have a more egalitarian world. Therefore, that would bring with it a more peaceful and sustainable society.

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

1. Founders do not have a personal life. I live by the phrase “Work hard, play harder”. It’s a myth that founders cannot have a personal life but I can have a flexible schedule that allows me to focus on both my family and MORE.
2. Founders take a lot of risks. When we founded MORE Latinoámerica, we did it without capital. To register it legally, we only invested about $300 dollars. The continued funding for the organization has accumulated over time and donated by collaborators and supporters.
3. Founders generally are only motivated by economic profit. MORE is a non-profit organization and the services we provide are centered around helping others, not profit. I believe that if you do good, money comes one way or another.
4. Founders have unique and great ideas. MORE Latinoámerica merged two great ideas that already existed for many years: education and the internet. You do not need to be a great innovator, just find a need and solve it. We realized that to achieve gender equity, training was needed. In Latin America, there are few opportunities for women. We decided that our courses would be delivered free of charge and virtually.
5. Founders must be very young. I founded MORE Latinoámerica in my early 40’s. You can undertake any big adventure in your 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, etc. There really is no age limit to what you can do.

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?

Regardless of your position in a company, we can all do our part to make this world better. That sense of community is beyond the boundaries of hierarchy. We need more collaboration, more teamwork and more trust among each of us. At MORE Latinoámerica, we are ALL part of the project. Everyone contributes ideas, and pulls from their personal experiences. That’s why I love MORE — there is no organizational chart. MORE has more than 120 collaborators (lawyers, entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, psychologists, architects, engineers, stay at home moms, etc) around the world and 90% of them are women.

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

1. Embrace a growth mindset. I wish someone would’ve told me to always believe that it is possible to develop new skills, talents, and gifts over time. What you need is willpower, commitment, and dedication.
2. Find a balance between your professional and personal life. I am passionate about MORE and although I say that it is my other “child” and I am 100% committed, my personal life is more important. As women, it’s important that we don’t forget to prioritize our happiness, family, and friends.
3. Set short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. Being clear about your goals is key. They must be SMART: S: Specific, M: Measurable A: Achievable R: Relevant and T: Time-bound. As we’re climbing the professional ladder it is easier to remain on track if we focus on the first step and then on to the second and so on until we reach the top.
4. Always surround yourself with people who share your vision. Your team of collaborators must be as passionate about the work as you are. As you build your team, look for people with the same values and enthusiasm for creating a better world. Teamwork is the key to a growing organization.
5. Be flexible and resilient. The world is constantly changing at a rapid pace. You have to be willing to pivot and explore new ideas. For my first 20 years as an activist, we were in person and building a community was more accessible and readily available. When MORE was founded, we had to adapt to the limitations of COVID-19 and pivot our strategy virtually.

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

Our mission at MORE is to achieve gender equity through online training. We offer women a variety of programming and topics to choose from including emotional intelligence, nutrition, homeschooling, marketing, leadership, self-esteem, business, assertive communication, social entrepreneurship, ASD, personal finance, empowerment, gender equality, recognizing gender violence, and more. The objective of our programs is to develop women’s potential, self-confidence, leadership skills, and entrepreneurial attitude that will allow them, through various tools, to develop transferable skills and become more capable people with a vision of positive impact on themselves, society and their environment.

What gives me the strength to keep going are the messages MORE receives daily from people who are grateful to receive free, quality education. The common denominator of these messages is that we have changed people’s lives for the better. We’ve heard from a number of people who went through the workshops and internships who said they developed skills that prepared them to face professional challenges from a global perspective, strengthen their self-esteem, understand life from a multicultural and diverse perspective, discover an inner potential in areas they were unaware of, and create a community.

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

I would like to continue to grow the MORE Latinoámerica global network and spread the word for our organization so other collaborators who share our same mission and are passionate about the empowerment of women around the world join our efforts. I would also like to grow our philanthropic network in order for MORE to continue growing and providing FREE virtual training programs that are accessible to everyone. The approximate cost for each student to participate in a single masterclass is $10 and the approximate cost of creating a 7-week training class (Diplomado in Spanish) is $100 per student. We want to help as many people as we can to learn more about us, please visit Www.more2020.org.

If you’re interested in donating, you can support our org in the following ways:

• Paypal Link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8HZ2ZGDD6U798
• GoFundMe Link: https://gofund.me/c97df257

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 have always said that “education along with sisterhood are the best tools to increase female leadership.” One of the people who inspires me the most is Malala Yousafzai. Her story encourages me to move forward, I would love to meet her in person.

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

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Female Founders: Claudia Jones of MORE Latinoámerica on The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Establish which cortisol diurnal curve you have so that you know what to fix, especially if you’re trying to get pregnant, solve mental health issues, or cope with menopausal symptoms. Cortisol inhibits both estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. And, it affects every other biological process in your body

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

Wibe is the Founder & CEO of Pardigm.com, serial ntrepreneur, and pioneer in mobile and AI technology. He was the first in the world to build an AI bot and an online video game on mobile in 2003. His most recent company, Huuuge Inc., made its IPO in 2021 for $1.2 billion.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the story about how you first got involved in fitness and wellness?

In the former century, I used to be an amateur road racer in Europe. Shaving the legs, 8,000 calories, RHR low 40s, and BMI<20. Those were the days. It took a while to write my first health & wellness book: Cortisol: The Master Hormone.

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

My first day working at Canon HQ in Tokyo, they put all the new employees in the same dorm. In the morning, I went down to the washroom in the basement and found myself sitting next to a dozen colleagues shaving and washing on a tiny stool in front of yards of fogged-up mirrors. My colleagues didn’t think it was funny, but it felt like a moving sushi belt or a 組み立てライン ‎(kumitate-rain) in a factory.

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

At the Canon office in Tokyo, I was asking a young lady — who was a few years my senior and graduated from Waseda — why she was serving green tea to the honbuchou. BIG MISTAKE! Never question seniority and honor code in Japan. Even though she more than likely agreed with me.

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

After reading thousands of scientific papers, I know I’ll never be an authority, since there is always a lot more to learn. However, by connecting the dots between various medical disciplines, I feel I have a lot to contribute, especially because that’s most scientists focus their work on a narrow discipline. They stick to their own silo and don’t look at the big picture.

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 parents have always been hands off but very supportive. They helped me stay grounded, although they’ll probably tell you that even talking about it means I’m still not down to earth enough.

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

1. Understand that most of us are addicted to both carbs and have elevated cortisol levels. This drives a dangerous enzyme called 11-beta HSD2 to store cortisol in our adipose visceral tissue. The result is a vicious cycle of insulin and cortisol which is hard to break out of.
2. The taboo of talking about being overweight and prediabetes.
3. Lack of peer support, which means you need a personal coach, which most people cannot afford.

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

1. Measure your cortisol levels. This will be at least as eye-opening as Continuous Glucose Monitoring, because it’s not predictable
2. Establish which cortisol diurnal curve you have so that you know what to fix, especially if you’re trying to get pregnant, solve mental health issues, or cope with menopausal symptoms. Cortisol inhibits both estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. And, it affects every other biological process in your body
3. Control your cortisol pattern by exposing yourself to (indirect) sunlight when you wake up in the morning. It acts on recently-discovered photoreceptors in your retina.
4. Skip breakfast
5. Skip Melatonin supplements and fix your cortisol first, because high cortisol inhibits melatonin production

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

There’s not much scientific research showing that exercise leads to weight loss and keeps it off. One reason is that you usually only burn a few hundred calories and you easily make up for that with energy bars and Gatorade, not to mention the cravings after you’re done.

There are plenty of benefits though

1. Weight loss only if you work out a few hours every day, which is not very practical for most.
2. Immune system improvement. Exercise acts as a pre-oxidant. Cortisol and inflammation increase right away but come down significantly afterward.
3. Happy hormone levels increase, including endorphins and dopamine, making you feel good while maintaining memory, focus, and concentration.

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

Based on your cortisol curve, which I discuss in detail in Cortisol: The Master Hormone) you want to focus on

1. Time of day, as some people would really benefit from exercise right after waking up, while others do in the late afternoon.
2. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) a couple of times a week if your cortisol is not elevated — could be as simple as running the stairs in your hotel a few times.
3. For elite athletes, it’s important not to overtrain. I’ve measured elevated cortisol levels in Olympians and they changed their training. The effects are pretty immediate, both physically and mentally, with a national title to show for it.

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

Jason Fung’s The Obesity Code (2015)

I started experimenting with 120-hour water fasts to reset my body when he was one of the few in the world who provided guidance. After 72 hours, I was sick of it and ready to give up, but then I woke up on day 4 feeling like Superman. I’ve been doing it every quarter since.

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

The “Control Your Cortisol” movement. Every. Single. Biological. Process. In. Your. Body. Is. Affected.

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

William Blake ‘The road of excess leads to wisdom”

I interpret it as the more information the better and to safely test the limits of your body and mind once in a while to understand and appreciate its plasticity in everyday life.

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

Paul Krugman He’s not always right but he sticks his neck out and has an unearthly ability to combine both math modeling and language.

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

Pardigm.com or follow me on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/wibewa/

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

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

Women In Wellness: LaKendra Smalley of The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…Marketing and niching down- a lot of people are afraid to be specific in their niche because they fear they may be missing out on people and potential business. But what they don’t realize is that if what you do is too broad, no one knows what it is you actually help with. It creates more questions than answers with people. It’s like telling someone you are a doctor but not specifying what kind of doctor you are. People tend to keep scrolling when things aren’t clear.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing LaKendra Smalley. Coach LaKendra Smalley is the CEO and Founder of 7-figure earning life coaching school: The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs. The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs specializes in certifying, training, and hiring life coaches, and intends to employ a life coach in all 195 countries around the globe.

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

Growing up, I remember feeling like I had all these things that were supposed to count me out from success. One, I’m from inner city Dallas and was born with an Attention Deficit Disorder where I struggled with focus and academics earlier in life. Two, I had to repeat a grade and graduated on my 19th birthday.

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

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

Despite my challenges, I am the founder and CEO of a 7-figure-earning company, The Global Institute for Coaches & Entrepreneurs, Inc. The Global Institute for Coaches & Entrepreneurs, Inc., a school dedicated to training and certifying one million life coaches around the globe. As a certified life & business coach, I’ve made it my mission to help leaders with their self-healing.

Too often, those who have not done their inner-work transfer their suffering onto others and inadvertently contribute to problems they are trying to solve. Affectionately known as ‘The Heart Expert’, I help my clients and coaches substitute the suffering in their lives with love via the institute’s iCARE model.

Due to the impact I’ve had in the lives of people I’ve touched around the world, I gained the following accolades: Top Executive Female — Addison Magazine, Pioneer — Nationally recognized SOS Award, Home-Town Hero — Radio One, 10 Shades of Success Dallas- Elite Award of Growth, and Community Service Award — Sons Of Light Grand Council, and A.A.S.R.M. & Seraphina Grand Chapter, O.E.S.

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

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

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

Not having legal business aid and representation. I’m considered a heart-centered business, so for me, I automatically trust people to do what they say they are going to do. And sometimes, with that you get burned.

What I learned from my experience is to ensure there are contracts in place, in addition to proper documentation of any and all agreements.

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 want to certify one million life coaches around the globe. I want to certify the people that are in charge and have the capacity to change lives because that is how I can help the world to be a better place. I want The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs to be a part of change and for this company to be known for doing its part in transforming lives and making greater people. That is my biggest ask of the Universe and God: to position me so that I can be a part of change for all of humanity. That is how the work I am doing is making an impact on the world.

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. Learning to disconnect/unplug from every-day life: take mini- staycations and fully pull away from obligations- kids, spouse, and work- for a day or weekend. I would recommend doing some form of this once every month.
2. Make time for relaxation- dedicating uninterrupted time for yourself. I have an app that when I don’t have time to go to a masseuse, they send a masseuse to me.
3. Taking time out to journal- expressing gratitude, writing feelings about how things are going in your life, aspirations, and documenting progress.
4. Grounding- connecting to the Earth’s energy to replenish your own energy. That could be taking your shoes off and walking in the grass, having a picnic, and re-centering your energy.
5. Hire a coach- sometimes you need accountability. A coach can help you continue to see massive growth in yourself.

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

It would be my goal to have one million life coaches around the globe and to have a Certified Life Coach in all 195 countries.

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

1. Your personal growth and/or lack thereof can affect the growth of your business
2. Outsource earlier- I know many people feel they aren’t in the position to do that yet, but you can. There’s never not a way. Instead of saying “I can’t do it”, say “how can this be done”. You can find interns, you can barter, give gifts and exchange services. You need to have to come into business not thinking “me vs we”. Think team.
3. Hire a business attorney- It’s important that when you do business with anyone that you understand your legal obligations and other people’s legal obligations to you. If you hire a business attorney they can tell you what contracts you need for protecting your Intellectual Property. It also helps you have a different kind of posture as a business owner. Legal advice is needed for starting your business.
4. Redefine the word “hustle”/ work-life balance- I would have personalized what that word meant for me instead of running myself into the ground. Redefine it to fit your business and yourself as a CEO.
5. Marketing and niching down- a lot of people are afraid to be specific in their niche because they fear they may be missing out on people and potential business. But what they don’t realize is that if what you do is too broad, no one knows what it is you actually help with. It creates more questions than answers with people. It’s like telling someone you are a doctor but not specifying what kind of doctor you are. People tend to keep scrolling when things aren’t clear.

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 have to say sustainability because life coaching is recession-proof.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

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