Category: Featured

Women Of The C-Suite: Kathy Roberts of Switch Reward Card On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As…

Women Of The C-Suite: Kathy Roberts of Switch Reward Card On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

The first thing I wish someone had told me before I started is to never assume that other people will have the same ground rules or morals as you. During my time in the consumer credit industry, I witnessed the people around me making decisions or conducting business in a way I thought was inappropriate or unnecessary. I had to step back and remind myself that they were not me. So, I can’t expect them to hold themselves to my personal or professional standards.

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

The CEO of Switch Reward Card, Kathy Roberts is a pioneer in the consumer credit card industry with Discover Card and served as President and Chief Operations Officer of Discover Bank from 2000 to 2006. Ms. Roberts now applies those same skills and work ethic to the emerging digital currency market.

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?

After working in the consumer credit industry for over 20 years, I realized how much the world of banking had changed. I recall being fascinated the first time someone sent me a cryptocurrency, and it was immediately deposited in my account. Just witnessing that made me wonder what this new method could do for others who are unable or unwilling to use the traditional banking methods commonly seen in the mainstream.

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

Yes, I recall Scott Touchton, our VP of Sales and Marketing, sending me a video of him purchasing a burrito with the Switch Reward Card, which is currently in beta testing. It was mind-boggling to me because I got to see this project we had spent so much time and effort working on in real time.

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 try hard not to make mistakes, but they have happened in the past. For example, I recall a time when my team and I chose the incorrect vendor for a project. My intuition had told me not to pick them from the beginning, but they were considered the best in our industry. Unfortunately, that vendor did not materialize, and we fared better with the second-best vendor. The most important lesson I took away from that experience was to trust myself and my intuition when it tells me something is wrong or right. That lesson is something I have used in many aspects of my professional life, from hiring new employees to developing a new strategy.

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 are so many people I am grateful for, from family to friends to co-workers, both past and present. But it is my father who, I believe, helped set me on this track. When I was younger, he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I distinctly remember stating that I wanted to be the President of the United States. He didn’t laugh or tell me I couldn’t, but instead, he sincerely responded, “Okay, we’ll work that.” And I am incredibly grateful for the genuine encouragement I received from him then and continue to receive from those around me.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

Yes, when I was deciding on my next steps for my career, I received a job offer from a previous employer to be a C-Suite executive in their Human Resources department. While I was flattered, I promptly declined the position. I remember getting a call from the employer saying, “You know this is a C-Suite level position, right?” But I couldn’t accept it because I knew that was not what I wanted to do and not where I wanted to be.

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 a CEO or 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?

To me, an executive, especially a CEO, is not only a leader but also a visionary and protector. An executive must be able to see years into the future for their company and strategize accordingly. But, in the same vein, they must also be able to protect the people they work with and ensure they have everything they need to succeed.

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

The biggest myth about being a CEO is the belief that it’s this glamorous position where all you do is sit back and oversee the business. And for me, that couldn’t be further from the truth. As a CEO, I am consistently involved in everything that goes on for Switch Reward Card. Being an executive is hard work and requires a level of sacrifice that is anything but glamorous.

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

In my opinion, the biggest challenge for female executives is that we are frequently underestimated. However, I believe that this challenge can also be turned into a female executives’ source of strength. I think that realizing that you will be underestimated, particularly when in comparison to your male counterparts, allows you to surprise people when you are fully prepared for a situation and knowledgeable about your business.

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

For me, the most noticeable difference is the absence of the human element in the post-COVID workplace. When I first started as CEO, I imagined myself attending business lunches and engaging in face-to-face conversations with clients and coworkers alike. But now, everything is done via Zoom or email.

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?

I’ve never been one to cut anyone’s aspirations short, so I believe everyone has the potential to be an executive. However, it is important to state that becoming an executive does require a certain level of commitment and drive that not everyone is willing to make. While being intelligent and self-confident are important traits to have, for me, you need that true passion for your work to succeed as an executive.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

The first thing I wish someone had told me before I started is to never assume that other people will have the same ground rules or morals as you. During my time in the consumer credit industry, I witnessed the people around me making decisions or conducting business in a way I thought was inappropriate or unnecessary. I had to step back and remind myself that they were not me. So, I can’t expect them to hold themselves to my personal or professional standards.

Second, do not let your nerves get the best of you, and do not focus too much on every little worry you have. I know this can be especially hard not to do because, as an executive, you are responsible for so much. But it is essential to be kind to yourself and remember you’re not always going to be perfect or have the correct answer.

Third, put your health and well-being first. I think it is easy for executives to become workaholics and neglect themselves for the sake of the job. But the greatest way to ensure you’re doing the best job you can is to ensure you are in the best place you can be physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Fourth, have faith in yourself no matter what. In the executive position, it becomes second nature to doubt yourself and your work, but self-doubt will not help you improve, but believing in your skillset will. So, I think remaining as your biggest supporter even when you make mistakes.

The fifth and final thing I wish someone would have told me is that you don’t have to sacrifice everything to be successful in the C-Suite. I feel like many executives, especially women executives, must place everything else in their life on the back burner in order to climb the corporate ladder. Nevertheless, I think it’s crucial for executives to understand the value of a healthy work-life balance.

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 want to inspire people to be kind. No matter what a person looks like, where they come from, or their beliefs, be kind because you never know what someone is battling, and your kindness can make a difference in their life. I remember one time when I was out with my son, and I saw this man with a giant rainbow mohawk, and I said, “I love your hair!” And the way his face broke out into a big smile just from that small comment is something I’ll never forget.

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

Andrea Merkel is someone I would love to sit down and talk with. The way she conducts herself and does her job with such determination and grace is something I find exceptionally admirable.

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

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Alexandra Kathryn Mosca & Doris Amen of The Morte…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Alexandra Kathryn Mosca & Doris Amen of The Morte Girls On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be gender neutral. By that we mean, don’t blame your lack of immediate success on your gender. It’s easy to fall back on that, but that’s likely not the reason. Such self-limiting excuses as “I didn’t get hired because I’m a woman,” no longer cuts it.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alexandra Kathryn Mosca and Doris V. Amen, known as “The Morte Girls” are two high-profile New York City funeral directors. Alexandra is the author of three books and writes regularly about funeral service. Doris has been the subject of numerous documentaries, and in 2015 she self-published a compendium of some of her lighter moments spent in funeral service.

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 childhood “backstory”?

We were each raised in a suburb of New York City. A well-rounded education was important to both our sets of parents. In addition to the required curriculum, Doris studied music and art, and discovered she had an aptitude for both. My days were filled with ballet, French, Greek, and creative writing lessons. Looking back, we were clearly being prepared for careers in the arts, or at least more traditional (read: female) careers. Interestingly, for Doris, the art lessons came in handy later in her work as a funeral director. “I’m a frustrated artist. In that respect I use my aptitude for art to embellish and personalize funerals.”

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

We’d like to tell you that, as little girls, we buried our Barbie dolls in shoeboxes (laughs) but that’s not the case. Funeral director, as a career choice, was definitely not on our radar.

Still, we both vividly remember the first funerals we attended. For me, it was my grandmother’s, when I was nine. The image of her lying in a gleaming metal casket, dressed in her favorite blue dress, remains indelible.

Doris recalls, at the age of 11, attending the wake of her teacher’s six-year-old daughter who died from meningitis. “The whole school attended, “ she recalls. “I’ll never forget the small white casket holding a child younger than me. It was a little surreal.”

Years later, those first experiences came to mind when, tangentially at first, funeral service entered our lives. Doris got engaged to a mortuary student; helping him with his studies sparked her own interest in becoming a funeral director. In my case, it was an after-school job as a receptionist in a funeral home that put me on the path to becoming a funeral director.

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

I turned my early negative experiences into a book. My 2003 memoir, Grave Undertakings was cathartic and now serves as a reminder of how far women have come.

Doris bought a funeral home and became one of the few female funeral home owners in New York City, and the only one in her immediate area. All these years later, the business she is still going strong.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Resilience. No matter how many times we got knocked down — and we often were — we didn’t let that stop us.

Empathy. In our line of work, empathy is paramount.

Sincerity. If you’re not sincere, people will see right through you.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

If ever there was a male-dominated industry, surely it would be funeral service. When we began our careers as funeral directors, it was rare to see other female faces, and we were left to our own devices –and instincts — to find our place within the industry. The perception alone that women could not be funeral directors was a huge obstacle. In the early years of our employment, families would come into the funeral home and ask to speak with a funeral director. Upon explaining to them that we were in fact funeral directors, they were not convinced. It was not only our gender that worked against us, but our age as well. In funeral service, youth is not the asset it may be in other fields.

Merely getting hired was an exercise in frustration. Funeral home owners were primarily male, and the reasons they gave not to hire us ranged from: you won’t be able to do the required physical work, you would be a distraction to the male employees, and my wife would not like it if I hired you.

Additionally, there were a dearth of female images and role models. The ad campaign “If you can see her, you can be her” was years away. Female funeral directors were not generally depicted on television or in movies.

In those days, our choice of career was challenging, and we were discouraged at every turn. Still, it was a challenge we were determined to meet

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

Above all, we worked with our male colleagues, not against them. Ours was never an adversarial relationship; something we can’t emphasize enough. Early on, we realized that we were entering their territory, and if we wanted to earn their respect and show that we were up to the tasks at hand, we’d have to get down in the trenches with them. In funeral service that translated to embalming bodies side by side, traveling to morgues in dangerous neighborhoods late at night, and navigating roads in storms to make a removal at a deceased’s family residence. We were not looking for –and never asked for — special treatment or accommodations. If you say you are there to do a job, you can’t fall back on your gender when things get tough.

As for female co-workers, we had none. What’s more, there was an unfortunate lack of camaraderie and support from the few other female funeral director’s we encountered. We hope that is no longer the case.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

In funeral service, it’s not so much a question of recruiting more women -–it’s about recruiting the right women. There’s a holy host of young –and not so young — women on social media who seem to think working in funeral service is one big Halloween party, and they want to join the party. It most certainly is not, and that perception does a great injustice to the families we serve, and the industry at large. It is obvious that these women, making light of a very serious subject, have no sincere interest in funeral service.

We need to attract serious-minded women who want to be of service to others, and who have the necessary selflessness. This is a 24/7 lifestyle, and not an easy one to adapt to. You don’t just walk into a funeral home and declare your career intention without getting a true picture of what the business is about, and what it requires of a person.

To that end, we believe it’s vital that those contemplating a career observe a day (or more) in the life of a funeral director to get a true picture. Some who express an interest turn out to be ill-equipped to deal with the reality of a career in funeral service.

“There’s a perception that funeral home owners sit around and make phone calls, delegating the most difficult parts of our work to others,” Doris has said. Of course, that’s simply not so. It takes tremendous dedication, sacrifice, and commitment.

Ok thank you for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

Be gender neutral. By that we mean, don’t blame your lack of immediate success on your gender. It’s easy to fall back on that, but that’s likely not the reason. Such self-limiting excuses as “I didn’t get hired because I’m a woman,” no longer cuts it.
Believe in yourself and your abilities. Don’t let anyone tell you can’t do something.
Respect your colleagues. Do not disparage or backstab others in your field.
Follow the Golden Rule. There’s a lot to be said for treating others with the same kindness and concern you’d like to be treated with.
Have a thick skin. Don’t take things personally; they usually aren’t meant that way.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

We’d tell her to go for it as she was doing it for the right reasons. By that we mean: because it’s a field that truly interests her. It’s doubtful that embarking on a career just to prove something would result in much job satisfaction. Choose a career that is rewarding and feeds your soul. If it also breaks ground and paves the way for other women (as our careers have ) then that’s a bonus.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

We have seen drastic changes in funeral service. Women now outnumber men in mortuary schools across the country. Curiously, however, some women new to funeral service continue to see themselves as novelties. It’s unclear if that’s an excuse for not moving ahead, or a bid for attention. Whatever the reason, we believe that such a mindset holds one back. Unfortunately, the Press is often complicit in this misconception. Newspaper articles abound in which women are covered as if their employment status is unusual and astonishing. Such articles frankly strike us as ignorant and anachronistic. What’s more, they do all professional women a disservice.

These days, Being female is non-traditional industries is no longer the impediment it once was. It’s rare, if at all, for a woman to be held back by gender, at least in our industry.

Hands down, we choose Judge Jeanine Pirro. She’s a formidable and highly accomplished woman who had held her head high during personal and professional crises. A straight shooter, she holds her own with her male colleagues and clearly has the respect of her peers.

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Alexandra Kathryn Mosca & Doris Amen of The Morte… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Kristen Shirley of La Patiala On The Five Things…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Kristen Shirley of La Patiala On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be social and friendly. Being a woman in a male-dominated business can be intimidating, but I’ve never been shy about walking up to people, introducing myself, and finding a way to connect with them. Once you make a connection, it’s easier to get to know more people, find allies, and build your relationships and reputation.

Kristen Shirley is an expert on luxury goods and travel. Her comprehensive writings have appeared in many of the world’s top print and digital publications, including Forbes.com, Bloomberg Businessweek, Travel + Leisure, Departures, Robb Report, Nobleman, Iconic Life, The World of Fine Wine, BusinessInsider.com, Watchonista.com, and Editorialist.com. Now as the founder of La Patiala, Kristen shares the knowledge she has accumulated through years of experience in an easy-to-understand way, so that luxury is accessible to everyone.

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 childhood “backstory”?

My family moved around quite a bit when I was growing up, which was a wonderful experience. I was exposed to so many different places and cultures at a young age, which instilled a sense of curiosity about the world. I went to high school outside of London, and it was the first time I was really immersed in fashion and luxury. It was then that I knew I wanted to work in the luxury world.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

I started my career as a fashion assistant at ELLE magazine in New York, which I loved. I worked there as an editor for several years, then moved to Elite Traveler, a luxury lifestyle publication. There, I began to cover different markets, including travel, wine, spirits, watches, and jewelry. I quickly became fascinated with the craftsmanship and stories behind these experiences and products. Now, I’m most passionate about luxury goods, which is why I launched La Patiala, the luxury encyclopedia. I love educating people about luxury, helping them find more beauty in the world, and giving them the confidence to enjoy luxury experiences and products.

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

I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the world, which has been amazing. One of my most unique experiences was catching a lobster with a lasso while scuba diving in Nevis. I also went skiing with Bode Miller!

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I’m passionate, detail-oriented, and curious.

I am extremely passionate about what I do and always strive to put out the best product possible. Being so passionate about my work elevates everything I do to the highest level. I will do whatever it takes to become an expert in my field and create the best product I can. While I strive to have a good work-life balance, at times, I know that’s just not possible, and I’ll be working early in the morning or late at night to get things done. If you want to be successful, you need to do whatever it takes (within reason, of course).

In the luxury world, details matter. I’m extremely organized, a bit of a perfectionist, and I notice the little things. If an image is not sized or positioned correctly, it can ruin an entire feature. It might seem like a little thing, but all of the little things add up. Creating a luxury environment is all about the details.

I have always been a curious person. I ask tons of questions, and I’m known for asking questions that stump people. As a journalist, I need to thoroughly understand the topic I’m writing about to provide a valuable service to the reader. I find that asking questions opens the door to even more questions, and finding the answers to all of those questions has helped me become an expert in my field.

In some male-dominated fields, it can be difficult to get men to take you seriously or to believe in your knowledge and capabilities. In the early days of my career, I was interviewing a watch executive who felt the need to explain the basics of watch movements to me. As a watch journalist, it was insulting. He would never have said that to a man. But things have thankfully changed for the better since then. There are far more women writing and in executive roles, which has made a big difference. Today, I let the quality of my work speak for itself.

Once they understood I was passionate about the industry and knowledgeable about it, they were very welcoming. At first, I really had to advocate for myself. But it’s a small industry, and there aren’t a huge amount of journalists working in luxury watches. After you break into it, it’s really welcoming.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

I was shocked to learn that some major watch companies have terrible or non-existent maternity leave policies, so you can imagine what that means for paternity leave too. I find it disappointing that these international brands don’t offer the same benefits to European and American staff. Offering equal pay, flexible schedules, and good benefits are the best ways to recruit more women.

1. The talent and knowledge to succeed in the industry. I wouldn’t be taken seriously if I didn’t have a deep knowledge of the industry. Remember, no matter the industry, no one is born knowing everything about it. Everyone has to learn. So put in the time, learn your craft, and work hard.

2. You need to be confident in your talent and abilities and advocate for yourself. If you aren’t invited to a meeting or event you think you should have been at, reach out to the company and nicely request an invitation to the next similar event explaining your credentials and why you think you should be there. But remember, no one owes you an invitation. Be polite and use good judgment in your requests. If it’s a celebrity-filled event, the only guests are executives, and you’re a junior reporter, you probably aren’t at that level yet.

3. Be social and friendly. Being a woman in a male-dominated business can be intimidating, but I’ve never been shy about walking up to people, introducing myself, and finding a way to connect with them. Once you make a connection, it’s easier to get to know more people, find allies, and build your relationships and reputation.

4. Find what makes you unique. I speak French fluently, which has definitely given me a leg up because I can interview Swiss watchmakers and executives who don’t speak English, and many of my colleagues find it impressive. Who knew my college major would be so important to my career?

5. Make female friendships within the industry. I have a lot of amazing female friends in the industry who have supported me since I started. They can advocate for you to their executives, take you under their wing, and help show you the ropes. These relationships are truly invaluable, and have turned into wonderful friendships outside of work as well.

I started my career in the fashion industry, which was mostly women, so it was a shock when I started to work in a male-dominated industry and experienced sexism in the workplace. It definitely upset me. But I had a lot of work experience and was confident in my abilities, so I didn’t let it stop me. It actually inspired me to break in and become successful. I also have a very supportive family, including my dad, who was a business executive before he retired. He helped me navigate tricky situations and gave me confidence when I needed it.

If I had started in a male-dominated industry and was put down or wasn’t given equal opportunities to succeed, I don’t think I would be where I am today. For these reasons, I would be cautious about starting your career at a young age in a male-dominated industry unless it’s known to be very supportive and offer women advancement opportunities or if it’s your dream. Don’t let anyone stop you from pursuing your dreams.

However, if you’re just looking for a job and your options are a male-dominated field that’s known to be toxic or a female-dominated industry, I would pick the latter. Starting your career is scary, and there are so many unknowns. Working with women can be a more supportive environment. Of course, these are just generalizations. I’ve also worked with terrible women who didn’t want to help anyone succeed and wonderful men who have mentored, supported, and championed me.

Even in the past five years, I’ve seen a big change. There are more women working in male-dominated industries, and I see that trend continuing. As these industries become more gender-balanced, I think the work environment will improve for everyone.

Amy Griffin from G9 Ventures. I really admire her approach to business and the companies she has invested in. Starting a new business is challenging, and I would love to have lunch with her and pick her brain about La Patiala.

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

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Kristen Shirley of La Patiala On The Five Things… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Mariko Sampson: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I’d say for those looking for new experiences, take on a project that will get you out of your comfort zone. Don’t let the “what if’s?” stop you from taking on a project. You might never know what great lessons would be had, and what great opportunities may lead you next.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mariko Sampson.

Mariko Sampson, Founder of The Apartment Designer, is expert at breathing life, style, and functionality into lackluster rooms. Her renowned design methodology is loved by clients because unlike “the big guys,” Mariko doesn’t select furnishings from a stocked warehouse of mass-purchased, cookie-cutter inventory. Every piece she incorporates into a design plan is custom, and curated to achieve the full aesthetic potential of that unique space.

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

So for me, it started when I was kid. Growing up I would rearrange my Barbies’ spaces and arrange them in the most colorful way. I would also rearrange my furniture in my bedroom — This drove my parents crazy!

Then, as a young adult working as an accountant, I would constantly organize and decorate my co-workers office spaces instead of doing my duties as an accountant. Being an accountant to me was boring, but I LOVED decorating my co-workers’ spaces. You don’t want to hire me as an accountant!

Fast forward to when I was a leasing agent for a luxury end apartment building. I would give tours to prospects, and then I would quickly start talking to them how “I” would decorate the space. You know, “set the bed this way in this area so that you face the window that overlooks the pool”, or “I’d get a velvet purple sofa, and a gold floor lamp, and add in a few vases on top of a wooden side table”. After being a leasing agent for about a year, I was saving money for my nest egg, so that I can become an interior designer. I accumulated clients and relationships at the property, which started me off with a list of referrals to start my business from..

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

My most interesting story comes when a woman reached out to me for design services for just her room. She told me she’d lived in her apartment for her entire life until her parents passed away. She confined herself to one room and every other part of her apartment was left in the condition before her parents passed.

Her one room she wanted me to design was dark, dreary and held sad memories of her , so it was important for me to come up with a realistic and fun design plan for her. A big challenge for her project was I had the idea to get rid of her old school carpet in her room. Just doing that would be a big game changer. It was not easy, as she had to ensure she had permission from her landlord to make flooring changes, but she pulled through and was able to convince them it was ok to do so. With that approval, I had free range on my design thoughts. I created a game plan with my team, and went to work to get it all done in 1 week. Out went the yellow-ish walls, and in came the powder blue paint with white paint on the trim, and out was the old school carpet, and in came the nice upgraded wood-like luxury vinyl floors. All that compiled with new hip decor and art, and new yet with charm curtain rods and curtains to keep her own style in play while the rest of the place shows signs of improvement.

Her reaction on the reveal day is one that warms my heart every time I think of her. I could physically see the joy enter her body. That for me was the best day. Better than any high-end multi million dollar property I have ever worked on.

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’ll start by saying this…if my fiancee was not on the job with me, the client would’ve found their sofa still on level one of the complex!

Doing a project virtually is a great lesson for all of us designers. You have to think much more than just a design plan for the space, you have to think about things you wouldn’t necessarily think about if it were in person. For example, who would consider a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall would be an issue? We just think, “oh for sure, that media center (already built) will fit in your apartment, you have so much room in there?!” Uh, yea…you need to consider spatial planning.

So here’s the quick version of my funniest mistake story: my client’s apartment was located on the 2nd level of the complex, and at the top of the stairs, their apartment shared a landing with their neighbor on the right. Well, that space in between was not enough room to allow for the sofa I ordered. I knew the sofa would fit in her space, but it never crossed my mind to ask the client “what does your outside look like?”

We deliver the sofa to the complex, unload it, and take it to the beginning of where I thought my client’s space was. I saw the flight of stairs, looked at the sofa, took one more look at the flight of stairs, then I looked at my fiance, and told him “ Nope, I’m not getting that sofa up there. My client will find her sofa here (on the first level of the complex)!!”

He convinced me that my option is not the solution, and yes, I knew that, but I wasn’t in the mood to figure out this puzzle. After some thoughts, I figured the only way to get the sofa in was by having the adjacent neighbor’s door to be open to allow for the extra room we needed. I’m glad the neighbors were nice and understanding of the circumstances at that moment. My fiance and I took a breather, relaxed, and got the sofa in…FINALLY!

Now I know when working virtually, to measure, measure, and re-measure for assurance! Don’t assume every building will fit a standard size sofa.

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

Definitely decorating models for apartment complexes. We had a chance to do 4 units at a complex in San Diego. It was so much fun. Very scary though. We currently reside in Seattle, WA, so I had to really sit down and consider how I was going to tackle this project from Seattle before making a commitment to take this on.

This project took me out of my comfort zone for sure, but there were plenty of new lessons learned. I learned how to design many style-guides that can be easily interchanged to create new designs, but keep the core of the design simple enough to complete 4 model units quickly. I learned to give up control and give trust to my team on the ground to execute my game plans. I also learned to create guide templates with detailed instructions on where things will go, how they’ll go, and alternative solutions in case something went wrong. I usually don’t put that much pre-work into projects, since I’m always on the ground with my team working our way through projects. So this time around, it was “different’ to say the least, but in a positive way.

I’d say for those looking for new experiences, take on a project that will get you out of your comfort zone. Don’t let the “what if’s?” stop you from taking on a project. You might never know what great lessons would be had, and what great opportunities may lead you next.

I can’t wait to do more of them in the future.

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

This quote may not be the way other people have heard the lesson, but for me, it has personal meaning to me since the life lesson quote comes from my dad in his own unique way. My father’s quote is “Never mind if the horse is blind, just load the wagon”. I take this to mean: You can’t control everything, just do what you can. I am a big control freak and trying to follow this simple life lesson is challenging for me, but I’m able to confide in those closest to me and trust them.

My parents are very influential in my success. I watched both of them own and operate their own businesses. They have had pitfalls along the way but both continue to get up each morning and do it again. That strength and determination has been passed down to me and I am overly grateful for that.

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

Here are my “5” things to help spark more joy in your living space.

Plants
Color
Uniqueness
Something old
Something new

When these 5 pillars are combined from the person giving aspiration, the space becomes truly unique and alive!

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

I believe that everyone deserves to have a well designed space. That being said I would love to have more designers (including myself) give our free time to help design tiny homes for the homeless. I love the idea of these tiny homes giving people a second chance at 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 see this, especially if we tag them 🙂

I have great admiration for a designer that I follow on IG. Her IG page is @blessedlittlebungalow, and her name is Amber. I recently have started following her. Her page is so colorful and full of life. I love her style and the daring way she approaches design. I would love to one day collaborate with her and soak up as much flavor that I can from her.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I’d say check out the website –you’ll find my social media links there. Plus, you’ll get to check out my story and how Mariko Interiors- The apartment Designer came to be.

Instagram: Mariko interiors

Website: marikointeriors.com

This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!

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

Women Of The C-Suite: Melissa LuVisi of tab32On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior…

Women Of The C-Suite: Melissa LuVisi of tab32On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

There’s always another opportunity.” I recently had to miss out on an executive meeting because I had family stuff, and while I was frustrated with it, my CEO said “there’s always another opportunity” which is absolutely true and something I think we can all benefit from remembering more often.

As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa LuVisi of tab32.

Melissa LuVisi is an entrepreneur, advocate, and the Chief Strategy Officer at tab32, a cloud-based practice management, data warehouse, and technology platform solution for dentists. Melissa drives corporate strategy across account management, sales, marketing, and R&D. She is the recipient of the 2022 Sacramento Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business award.

I started my career “slinging salads” at a restaurant start-up in Los Angeles named Tender Greens, right out of college. They were seeing 100% growth year after year, and it was a fast-paced environment that I was excited to be a part of. Very quickly I found myself working directly with the c-suite where I got to observe and learn the skill of executive decision-making. Tender Greens ended up selling for $100M and I went on to start my own marketing firm. While I was running the firm, I eventually met my current CEO. Let’s just say he gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse and I joined tab32.

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

We’ve always taken a patient-centered approach to building our software. The retail nature of dentistry requires it. How else will we get patients in the chair if we don’t meet them where they are at? What is interesting is I’ve become acutely aware of my experience as a patient. I’ll never forget filling out paper forms outside of my dental office during the pandemic thinking to myself, “If you were on tab32 you could have just texted me these forms.” It made me question the efficacy of the practice; if they aren’t tech forward what kind of dentistry are they practicing? Experiences like this only reaffirm how important our work is. We were the first in the industry to include things like two-way texting because we know that contemporary patients expect an elevated tech-forward experience.

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

As a woman in tech, I like to always make sure that my clients and colleagues see me in a professional light. When you are demoing software, it’s important that you keep your desktop clean and I once demoed a practice and forgot to clean up my desktop which had a very large and swoon-worthy photo of a local musician on it. I was embarrassed but we laughed it off and I will forever have a professional clean desktop for future demos!

tab32’s CEO and founder, Kiltesh Patel, has been an amazing mentor and friend. I recently had my first child, and while most people keep their pregnancy to themselves for a while before telling their workplace, Kiltesh was one of the first people I told and he was also the most excited. Heck, he knew even before my parents! As a company we are committed to supporting female leaders in all stages of their lives and I’m thankful to work with leaders like Kiltesh.

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?

Outside of the obvious, it’s the right thing to do. Studies have countlessly shown that diverse teams are the highest performers in organizations. I truly believe that diversity is a cornerstone of innovation. Working in tech we are developing, creating, and solving problems constantly. We can’t have that high-level critical thinking if we all share the same background and think the same.

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.

We have a long road ahead of us but I think the first step is simply acknowledging who’s in the room and inviting those inside who would otherwise not have an opportunity to be there. Then, it’s our job to support and back them.

One of the initiatives we are implementing at tab32 is creating clear career paths with soft skills training, and with actionable goals so that the opportunity to grow has a clear and unbiased path. It will take time but we have an amazing and diverse team who are currently helping us build it.

Chief Strategy Officer is a relatively new role for the c-suite. I’m responsible for providing oversight, implementing strategies across the organization, and helping the CEO execute their vision. Executives make a lot of decisions and the responsibility of whether or not those are executed across several departments falls on their shoulders. Executives are responsible for people’s livelihood and it isn’t something to be taken lightly.

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

I think the popularity of tech CEOs like Steve Jobs painted a grim picture of the c-suite. In my experience, I’ve found that CEOs who are more compassionate and kind tend to be the most inspiring.

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

I can only speak to what I’m experiencing now. While I work for a company that is wildly supportive of my career, I’m still also a new mom. Work, travel, and pumping has been rough. This year I had to take a step back and decline some amazing opportunities to speak on-stage or to meet with clients. On the other hand, it has allowed me to lift up our team members.

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

So many meetings. This post-covid world has shifted the way we work with our teams and I don’t think any of us could have predicted it. If there is one thing I’ve learned as an executive it’s that we must always be nimble.

I would never tell someone to avoid their aspirations but I do think self awareness is important. In my experience, executive work requires a lot of grit, flexibility, and systematic thinking. It requires strong relationship and communication skills. Executives are constantly working with all parts of the company and have face time with colleagues, clients and new employees.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

The Dunning- Kruger Effect. It is so valuable to listen, ask questions, and absorb information as it comes in. You have to always be learning in order to innovate and many of the wisest people know that there is always more to learn. It’s easy to get defensive when others share information or opinions that might go against your vision when you’re solving for a large problem, but it’s important to understand where others are coming from and that you do not have all the answers because you do not have all the perspectives, just your own.
The importance that technology plays in healthcare and dental. Technology has evolved dramatically in the past 10–30 years, and I wish that myself and others understood earlier on just how large a piece it is to solving for disparities in healthcare and dental treatment. I’m glad we’ve finally caught up!
There’s always another opportunity.” I recently had to miss out on an executive meeting because I had family stuff, and while I was frustrated with it, my CEO said “there’s always another opportunity” which is absolutely true and something I think we can all benefit from remembering more often.
When to let an employee go. It’s okay to fail fast and to understand that not everyone is a fit for your organization. It’s important not to hold on too long and to allow both them and your organization the to freedom to find something that fits them better.
Self-awareness. One thing I’m really good at is understanding if I’m choosing the path of least resistance and making sure that I keep my ambition. It’s important to have soft skills like knowing when to have boundaries with a client and knowing when I need to bend over backwards in order to get something done. These are the differences between making and breaking growth. It’s important for everything to have a self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses.

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 such complex and vulnerable conversation. As a millennial woman who was raised in the shadows of Victoria Secret’s unrealistic expectation of what a woman should look like, I certainly believe there is too much pressure on young girls and leaders to look a certain way. I’m probably somewhere in the middle, I do follow that credence of ‘dress for the job you want,’ but I also try to be self aware. We are programmed to judge other women based on this ideal set by the male gaze. What’s really beautiful is leaders and women dressing for themselves, feeling beautiful not for the sake of anyone else but themselves.

I truly believe that diversity is the cornerstone of innovation. In order to truly help people, we need to have an understanding of how generational wealth impacts our communities and how we can lift everyone up.

Yes, I have a few inspirational women that I would love to connect with!

Poet and Activist, Amanda Gorman

Designer and Activist, Aurora James

Founder and CEO of Black Girls Code, Kimberly Bryant

Painter and Visionary, Kara Walker

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

Women Of The C-Suite: Melissa LuVisi of tab32On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Modern Fashion: Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan of Taelor On The Five Things You Need To Lead a…

Modern Fashion: Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan of Taelor On The Five Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today

An Interview With Candice Georgiadice

When thinking about building a company, people tend to think of building solutions, but the most important thing is actually making sure you are solving the right problem — Are you building a pain-killer or a vitamin? Is the pain point you are solving big enough? Finding the right problem to solve is an iterative journey.

Many in the fashion industry have been making huge pivots in their business models. Many have turned away from the fast fashion trend. Many have been focusing on fashion that also makes a social impact. Many have turned to sustainable and ethical sourcing. Many have turned to hi-tech manufacturing. Many have turned to subscription models. What are the other trends that we will see in the fashion industry? What does it take to lead a successful fashion brand today?

In our series called, “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today” we are talking to successful leaders of fashion brands who can talk about the Future of Fashion and the five things it takes to lead a successful fashion brand in our “new normal.”

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan, Co-Founders of Taelor, a men’s clothing subscription box for busy men to look good without having to buy clothes.

Anya Cheng is a Taiwanese American technology executive and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley. Before launching her artificial intelligence (AI) startup, Taelor, she helped build Facebook Shop, a social commerce initiative where people can explore and purchase products directly on Meta (formerly Facebook) and Instagram. Before that, she led the go-to-market for Facebook’s Wi-Fi Tech and Innovation team where she improved digital literacy by bringing the Internet to countries without fast connections. As Head of Products, she transformed eBay Classifieds’ emerging business and built Target’s mobile tablet eCommerce app. As McDonald’s Senior Director of eCommerce, she launched their global food delivery apps from scratch.

Cheng is currently Founder & CEO of Taelor, an AI-powered menswear rental subscription platform for busy men to rent styles and for brands/retailers to test products and predict trends. Taelor is an award-winning sustainability startup that has won various competitions hosted by accelerators including Draper University, University of Chicago Polsky Center and SPARK Accel.

Cheng is also an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University and 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups) where she teaches software product management and marketing. She is the author of a best-selling career book, a TEDx Talk speaker, and a social media influencer.

Cheng was named a Girls in Tech 40 Under 40 recipient in 2018 and nominated as Marketer of the Year by Min Magazine U.S. in 2013. Her work has won 20+ awards, including the Webby Award Best for Shopping App, The Communicator Award and the Rising Star Award of Social Network Category by Mobile Village. She is a volunteer career coach who has inspired thousands of young professionals and currently serves on the volunteer boards for the North America Taiwanese Engineering and Science Association, Taiwan Tech Arena (a non-profit supporting minority founders) and STUF United Fund (a non-profit supporting charitable causes.)

Cheng received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. Visit her LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/

Phoebe Tan comes from a humble family in Malaysia. Phoebe Tan has achieved all of her American dreams. She has held several leadership positions, including becoming a finance and operations executive in Silicon Valley. Before she launched her artificial intelligence (AI) circular fashion startup, Taelor, she held the VP/Director position in finance, procurement, and operations strategy for one of the largest airline food companies in the world, with more than 80 of the world’s leading airlines as clients. Her clients also included Amazon Go and Starbucks.

Known for her persistence and ability to solve problems, she has led many ambiguous and complex operations optimization and improvement initiatives. As the VP of procurement, she transformed the company’s supply chain technology and operations and also established sustainable sourcing standards.

Phoebe is currently the Founder of Taelor, an AI-powered two-sided circular fashion platform for busy men to rent styles and for brands/retailers to test products. Taelor is an award-winning sustainability startup that has won various competitions organized by accelerators, including Draper University, University of Chicago Polsky Center, and SPARK Accel. Phoebe lives a minimalist life and is passionate about mindful living and saving the environment. She believes the future of fashion is circular, which will benefit consumers, businesses, society, and the environment. Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment by extending the life of garments and supporting sustainable fashion, as well as simplifying lives by owning less clothing and sharing more styles.

Phoebe is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and received her MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University.

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

Anya: Let me set the scene. It was fall, as I remember walking under an array of maple trees at my high school. It was what was known as our “Student Club Exhibition Day,” where students set up booths to attract first year students to their respective clubs. Members of the dance club were showcasing their street dance, but unfortunately for me, I have two left feet, so I visited the reading club booth instead. The members seemed to be all introverts — still not a great fit for me. Neither the science nor the mathematics clubs were in my wheelhouse, as made evident by my mom’s reaction to my earned ‘D’ in math. I was craving something that felt media-centric, yet there was no such thing as a marketing or communications club at the time. I thought to myself, can I create a club? Unfortunately, the director of the office of student affairs rejected the idea immediately.

Keep in mind, growing up in Taiwan is vastly different from the U.S.. Instead of creating something new, people tend to follow an existing setup there. A small thing like creating a club may be common in the U.S., but it sounded crazy in Taiwan 20 years ago.

Unsure if I was simply going through a teenager’s rebellious stage or just being who I am, I read a few hundred pages of the school handbook and found that students could create a club by having 10 percent of the student body sign the petition. So that’s exactly what I set out to do. “Hi, I’m Anya. Please sign this petition.” My voice wavered with nerves while I presented hand-drawn posters in other students’ classrooms. Success. A few weeks later, the Marketing and Communications Club was born.

Phoebe: Growing up I would cut my young brother and sister’s hair and shop for my friends. I would always get compliments about my sense of fashion and beauty and was known as the ‘stylish’ one in class. With my natural talents, I grew up dreaming of being a fashion designer. However, raised in a traditional Asian family, I had to follow a different path — one in finance, thinking I could at least get rich and pursue my dreams then. As I grew older, a bigger passion of mine became wanting to play a part in saving the environment. At a young age, I always had many business ideas. I started making and selling friendship bracelets and necklaces, even snacks, to my classmates at age eight. I never would have imagined I’d start a fashion-tech company that revolutionizes the industry and be able to realize my bigger calling — saving the environment.

However, it did take me a long time to finally start my own company. Before working on Taelor, I worked my way up and became the VP of a leading food company in Chicago that supports operations for Amazon Go, Singapore Airlines, and Starbucks. Through the years of leading complicated airline food operations and finance, I became an expert in offline operations and optimizing margins. I realized these experiences absolutely prepared me to start Taelor.

Being a minimalist, I value everything I have and don’t want to own much stuff. I’m an optimizer by nature and hate wasting resources. As an optimizer, I value my time a lot. I don’t really like to shop anymore, but I’m picky when it comes to fashion and I always want to look great. I have been using Rent The Runway on and off for the last 6 years. Rent the Runway is the pioneer of the clothing rental model in the United States. The idea is you can rent and wear unlimited styles without having to buy anything. It’s a brilliant idea, and fits my lifestyle. So we started looking into the rental and secondhand space. The environmental impact of the clothing rental circular fashion and secondhand models is eye opening. Being an eco-friendly advocate, I want to change the way people think about fashion and also help fashion brands and retailers better predict trends and reduce apparel waste. That is why I started Taelor.

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

Anya: Back in 2007, I came to the U.S. for the first time to get my master’s degree in marketing at Northwestern University in Chicago. In December of 2008, I graduated in the midst of the Great Recession. There were no jobs anywhere.

Before going to Northwestern, I had been a newspaper reporter in Taiwan. I didn’t have much marketing experience and my English was terrible, so, naturally, I didn’t get any interviews through my school’s on-campus recruiting.

To improve my English, I visited three places a week where volunteers helped me with my writing. To save money and time, I brought two bento boxes with me each day to school. As I walked through snowy Chicago to get to my appointments, the spoon would click against the empty bento box in my backpack, and somehow, the sound made me feel less lonely.

Desperate, I started to do anything I could think of to get hired. I would wait outside the door of another school’s campus recruiting event and give hiring managers my resume as they walked to their cars. I cold-called alumni. I reached out to all of the teachers in my school’s department, teachers in other departments, and talked to everyone they referred me to.

Still no interviews. People told me that networking was the best way to find a job. But my English was so bad, I wasn’t able to really chat with people. To practice English for my networking chats, I volunteered at a senior care center near my school. I did puzzles and chatted with Connie, a 93-year-old woman who had moved to the U.S. from Japan 50 years earlier. I was a poor student at this point so I was always thrilled when she invited me to stay for dinner at the senior care center. And whenever I practiced my interviews with her, no matter how bad my English was, she would always smile at me.

One day, a professor invited me to attend a panel he was hosting. One of the speakers was Peggy, the CEO of Vance Publishing, a small publishing company that produced trade magazines for salon owners and farmers. She said her company wasn’t hiring, but she agreed to introduce me to someone on her team for a networking chat.

I met with the vice president of digital marketing at Vance. I thought I was the perfect candidate for the company. It was a media company with a digital marketing initiative — perfect for my background. When I walked out of the hallway, I thought, “This is it! I am going to work here!”

A few weeks passed, and no one called me. I called the HR representative, and she informed me that she was just let go.

So this led me to my next step. “Bigger cities have more jobs. Maybe I should go to cities that are bigger than Chicago,” I thought. In January of 2009, I went to New York for a month to try to contact larger media companies. I printed out a list of all of the alumni from my school’s department — about 2,000 names — and reached out to anyone who lived in New York.

I met with as many people as I could possibly find. I wore an old-school black suit with high heels in freezing New York, an approach that, looking back, definitely revealed how inexperienced I was at the time.

One day after getting another rejection, I walked into a Chinese restaurant and saw pork over rice, a cheap, basic dish in my hometown in Taiwan. It was much more expensive in New York, but I decided to order it anyway.

As soon as the waitress served the pork over rice, I began to cry. I had been a reporter covering city hall in Taiwan where people respected me. “I was powerful! Why am I here, where I had to think twice before ordering a simple meal, and begging for a job?”

But I didn’t stop. I bought newspapers from the newsstands on the street in New York City. I called the ‘Advertising? Call this number’ phone number and asked for a meeting with their CEOs.

I ended up meeting with a lot of executives — the CEO of the New York Times, vice presidents at CNN, NBC, and more. I met with hundreds of people but they all told me, “Sorry, we are laying people off. Actually, if you hear of someone hiring, please let me know because I’m worried about my job.”

After New York, I spent a month looking for jobs in Los Angeles, still with no luck. I went back to Chicago in March. This time, instead of looking for a job, I decided to make my own.

I thought of Vance Publishing, the small magazine publishing company that I had visited a few months earlier. I put together a business plan for Vance using everything I had learned from the hundreds of informational interviews I had in New York and Los Angeles.

I called Peggy, the CEO of Vance, and pitched her my business plan. After my presentation, she asked if I would be willing to be a contractor. My English was so bad that I didn’t know what contractor meant at the time. I Googled “contractor” and didn’t understand why she wanted me to be a plumber. But I said yes.

I worked my way up at Sears, Target, McDonald’s, eBay, and Facebook. You may think that I became confident after I got my first job. The answer is no. There were many days where I woke up and felt just like I did the day when I walked into the office of the CEO of the farmers’ magazine — scared that I didn’t know what I was doing and that I wasn’t ready for the day’s challenge.

Over the past ten years, I have mentored hundreds of people who are all looking to achieve their own personal goals. Along the way, I’ve realized that I am not the only one who has struggled with feeling confident. Through my mentoring, I’ve learned that feeling confident is essential in being successful. And usually, all people need to feel confident is a little help.

That’s where the idea of Taelor came from — a men’s clothing subscription box created to help people look good and achieve goals.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

Anya: The principle of “contributing what I know and learning what I don’t know” led me to my career path. I started my career as a reporter in Taiwan. I love to talk to and learn from various types of people. I came to the U.S. to get my master’s degree at Northwestern University. I chose to major in Integrated Marketing Communications because I already knew about “Communication” and wanted to learn more about “Marketing”. After that, I leveraged my marketing degree and reporter background and got a marketing job at a magazine company in the U.S..

Then Sears approached me and wanted me to apply my magazine company’s “media-selling” experience to lead “media-buying.” I leveraged what I knew, which was media, to learn about retailers. At Sears, I led advertising projects. Quickly I found that the most effective advertising is data-driven and personalized advertising. I then drew from what I knew about advertising to learn about big data. I found that personalized ads were effective but customers still didn’t buy because when they landed on our website, they saw the same thing instead of a personalized homepage. Building on my personalized ad experience, I started to learn how to be a Product Manager and build personalized websites. I realized that I needed more knowledge in leadership, finance, accounting, and operations, so I got my second master’s degree — an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Leveraging Sears’ product management experience, I joined Target and became leader of product managers and started learning how to lead a large team. I then joined McDonald’s and brought the experience of building apps for Target in the U.S. to learn how to build McDonald’s global food delivery app globally. eBay approached me after and wanted me to mobilize my global experience to help them launch websites and apps in emerging markets such as Latin America, Africa and Asia. I again built on my “leading global tech” experience in retail with a tech company. As someone who doesn’t come from a technical background, I felt pressure from leading tech teams in a leading tech company. I decided to register for some coding courses at U.C. Berkeley. After that, I utilized my experience of leading tech teams in a tech company and my past marketing experience and joined Facebook to lead its tech and marketing teams. Later on, I helped Facebook launch its shopping platform by drawing on my past retailer background.

Today, I use my retailer experience, marketing knowledge, product management expertise, AI learning in tech companies, connections from big companies and my MBA as I launch my startup Taelor, a menswear rental subscription service. I never thought of becoming a founder but inadvertently realized I had been preparing my entire life for this job.

Use the stone in a river as an analogy: most people, including myself, want to be a stone. I want to be thrown up high and far and reach my goal in one shot. However, I think most of the time, overcoming a challenge is more like rolling a stone. It rolls slowly, one side at a time, and most of the time, you are leveraging what you are good at and learning something new in order to roll ahead. When you look back, you will realize that you have achieved a lot.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Anya: Three of my strongest character traits are my abilities to think logically, plan strategically and problem-solve.

One thing I learned from working for Meta is “logical thinking.” At Meta, almost all employees are ivy league school graduates who are smart overachievers. They have their strong points of view, and it is almost impossible to convince others without logic. Most of the time, they don’t trust your “idea” but you can convince them to understand and support your “logic.” I call it “logical thinking.”

When talking about “ability to think”, most people feel that’s very abstract. In fact, it’s not hard.

Let me give you an example. You are an owner of a small fruit stand. You asked your worker to make more money by putting heavy fruits such as watermelon outside of the store and put light-weight fruits, such as strawberries, inside of the store. Now, you gave your worker a few pieces of information: Our objective is to increase sales; Our strategy is to reduce the theft rate; Our principle is to put heavy fruits outside of the store and put light-weight fruit inside the store; Our tactic is to put watermelon outside of the store and put strawberry inside of the store. Now, imagine your worker disagreed with you. She said, “I think we should put watermelon inside of the store and next to the freezer where we sell watermelon juice because the margin of juice is higher.” The worker agreed with your objective, but she didn’t agree with your strategy. Instead, she came up with another strategy — increase margin. The principle she proposed was, “put juice-related fruit next to the juice section,” and the tactic she proposed was to put watermelon next to the freezer. We all have experienced having conflicted points of views with others. I think this logical-thinking ability helps me analyze which part of the situation we are discussing and get to a resolution quicker and easier.

The second character trait that’s been instrumental to my success is strategic planning. We all have too many things that we want to do and having a strategy helps to prioritize. For example, when I joined Target in 2013, my responsibility was to hit one million dollars of revenue per day from users shopping on Target via their tablets. Moreover, this marketing objective needed to be accomplished within 10 months, right before the next holiday season began.

At the time, I found out there was an iPad app that was outdated. There were a few decisions I had to make: Should I spend time reducing the crash rate, updating existing functions, or adding new functions? If so, what kind of functions should I design? I decided to begin with business strategy. Target’s brand position is “Expect More, Pay Less.” In this business context, I started to search for the right product strategy.

A well-rounded product strategy lands in the perfect spot between three basic criteria — what your consumers want, what your competitors don’t/can’t do, and what your company is good at. I conducted three analyses to find the right strategy — consumer analysis, competitor analysis, and company analysis — and they all start with the principle of listening to your customers.

After tons of analysis, I found that Target’s differentiator was “Inspiration,” and our key customer segment were young moms. The intersection was clear. Young moms love looking for inspiration online and on social media, an area where our competitors were neither interesting nor strong.

The strategy came naturally — bringing the in-store inspiring experiences to the lean-back moments on the living room couch through the app. I focused on three key elements: 1) “browsing” to deliver inspiration through the app; 2) easy-to-shop “account, cart, and check-out” functions to achieve eCommerce sales; and 3) updating all basic flows and fixing crash issues to ensure a seamless online shopping experience. My team launched “shoppable Instagram”, which made us one of the first big companies to connect social media to eCommerce. Our product was launched right before the holiday season. The revenue tripled and users wrote four star reviews. Meanwhile, we received satisfying media coverage as well. As a result, we won 11 awards and were featured on the Apple store and Facebook’s annual conference, “F8.” Making hard decisions via strategic planning– prioritizing things that only make 100 percent sense for your persona and company strength — was instrumental to my success.

The third character trait that was instrumental to my success is the ability to problem-solve. Many people do well with solving problems, but I think what was instrumental to my success is 1) identifying the right problem to solve and 2) solving problems starting with validating hypotheses.

As a Mentor at 500 Global, a top accelerator in the world, as well as an MBA faculty member at Northwestern University, I see many entrepreneurs focus their energy on “finding a solution.” However, I noticed success starts by “solving the right problem.”

For example, Google, “organizes the world’s information,” Facebook, “brings the world closer together,” YouTube, “allows everyone to share videos and find audiences,” Amazon, “helps people get good products with reasonable prices fast,” and Coursera, “provides access to world-class learning by partnering with world-class universities and companies.” They all solve a clear and big problem.

But if you solve the wrong problem, then the solution won’t be useful for the customers no matter how awesome it is. For example, when I was working for Target, one of my coworkers heard the insight, “People realized that they forgot to buy something on their way out of a store,” so Target decided to build a feature for “in-store GPS.” The feature allows Target customers, who are mostly moms, to create a wishlist before going to the store, and when moms are in the store, their Target app becomes a GPS to guide them to “turn right, turn left.” The Target team spent six months building the feature. When they finally launched, the usage rate was very low. Why? Because moms are mostly going to the store as a “get-away” from their busy day and kids — they want to wander and enjoy being “lost”, and they don’t want an app to navigate for them. Yes, they do forget one thing when they shop, but that wasn’t a big enough pain-point for them to solve. In addition, they certainly don’t want to give up the “value proposition,” which is the “inspiration of finding interesting products” to solve the pain point of “forgetting one item I want to buy.” In fact, forgetting one thing gives them the excuse to go back to the store again the next day!

All entrepreneurs spend a lot of time building a product, but I notice successful entrepreneurs build “minimum viable product (MVP)” to validate key hypotheses before building a real product. For example, when Zappos started their business, their key hypothesis was, “people buy shoes online.” Therefore, instead of buying shoes beforehand, they set up a website and purchased shoes from other stores after people placed orders. They validated the hypothesis, “people buy shoes online,” because if people won’t buy shoes online, then there was no point in launching the business in the first place!

A similar story is when Rent The Runway started their business, their key hypothesis was, “people rent party dresses.” Therefore, instead of buying dresses, building apps, or renting warehouses, they sent an email to a group of students going to a party with dress photos from a department store’s website. By having students respond to the email, they validated the “people rent party dresses” hypothesis.

There are five common ways to build MVP. First, the landing page. For example, when we started our menswear rental subscription service, Taelor, we built a landing page on Shopify with the, “join the waitlist” feature, and we signed up 400 people in a weekend. This gave us the confidence that busy men want a service to help them look good without having to buy clothes. The second way to build MVP is to use product demo videos, which are commonly used by more complicated technology such as Dropbox. Third is the Concierge Test, which is to deliver a service manually to the customer, but with the same steps and value as the full product. For example, when Groupon started, they manually found coupons for customers. Fourth is the Wizard of Oz Test, which is building something that looks real on the front, but manual on the back. For example, when Taelor first started, we didn’t have enough data for our artificial intelligence, so we used human stylists. Amazon Echo also had real humans behind the machine to answer questions. The last very important step is to use crowdfunding to validate people’s willingness to pay.

Phoebe: Work ethic and integrity –

I take my responsibilities very seriously and make sure to bring the best results in every task I’m responsible for.
Obsessed about customers — I read and personally respond to almost all customer emails and texts. Lead by example. Set as an example a customer-obsessed culture. Team members are inspired.
Self-aware and motivated –
Know your passion and create meaning in what you do. Starting a new business is exciting and can be rewarding but challenging at the same time. To me, it’s at least a decade long commitment full of perseverance. I know I can’t just resign when things get tough. Finding what speaks to my heart everyday is what keeps me motivated. At Taelor, it’s about our mission of disrupting the fashion industry with our circular fashion model and algorithms. It’s about changing how people think about fashion, inspiring them to embrace sustainable practices such as rental and resale clothing and partner with sustainable brands. Together, we can reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry and create a better world for all. While the mission is my driving force, I also find meaning in the progress we make and the new things I learn daily. And we celebrate even the small wins! Ask yourself, WHY you started the journey–what impact do you want to see in yourself and others? What are you trying to change?
Resourceful and think outside the box –
Hiring is tough for all companies but in particular for startups. When we first started, I ran the operations in my townhouse and it was difficult to hire people to work at my home. I did most of the packing, laundry and order processing myself early on because we were not ready for a warehouse. I needed to offload my work and find someone to handle fulfillments, merchandising and order processing. And I needed someone I felt comfortable with working in my home. It was very difficult to find the right person who was flexible and able to perform all functions quickly. (I can’t really outsource these tasks online;). I posted a flexible part-time position for an operations helper and went through a few people, but it didn’t work out. Meanwhile, I was hiring part-time stylists. Two candidates I interviewed are still in school getting their fashion and merchandising degrees. The program is online and they are looking for part-time fashion related roles. I was impressed by their passion in changing the fashion industry and why they were interested in joining Taelor. Although they are not qualified nor ready to be stylists yet, I convinced them to join the team and learn other aspects of the operations first while learning styling and merchandising on the side. They now are responsible for all operation tasks and are motivated to learn styling and merchandising aspects. As we scale and grow the team, my plan is to train them into the role that they are passionate about and hire others to fill the gaps. At the early phase of any startup, I don’t think we should simply look for candidates who meet the requirements of the job description. Rather, we should focus on finding talent who are motivated and align with our vision. The roles can be fluid and developed overtime as we continue to grow, pivot at times and find a product market fit. There are many freelance platforms where we can find experienced talent to help us get things done and make progress.

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

Anya: When we think of fashion, we tend to think about people who really care about fashion, but we don’t think enough about men who value saving time and mental energy when they are busy achieving goals. That’s where Taelor comes in — unlike most fashion companies which intend to make people stylish, Taelor’s mission is to help people to look good to achieve their goals. Taelor helps people look good, but as female immigrants who achieved our American dreams, our mission doesn’t stop at just looking good — we want to help people look good to achieve goals, such as getting a date, closing a deal, or getting their dream jobs. Helping people to live better and reach their full potential is our end goal.

Taelor was started because of inspiration from a friend, Guan. Guan is one of the nicest people I know. He is an honest, nice and successful engineer. A true gentleman. He has been single for years. He is looking for true love and he deserves it.

My friends and I knew that Guan’s problem wasn’t his personality. It was his clothes. He dressed like a nerd — and not in a good way. One time, a group of us took him to stores and did a makeover for him. He looked totally different and confident. However, that wasn’t sustainable — after a few months, he went back to his old style. I realized that a service like Taelor could really help tons of great people like Guan reach their full potential.

I teamed up with Phoebe, a classmate of mine from University of Chicago’s business school, and we got a group of Silicon Valley executives to join us.

We named the company Taelor. We believe Taelor is just like you and me — normal, everyday people who have a dream. Taelor is a service to help people achieve their goals. A company born because of friendship. A story of American dreams.

Phoebe: We address the underserved customer population — aspirational, busy men who want to look good but don’t know how and hate to shop. They want a seamless experience to look good without the commitment of buying clothes, while also playing a part in saving the environment. With a fixed monthly subscription fee, our AI and stylists pick the perfect outfits for them. They can wear the clothes for weeks. When they are ready, they can simply return the dirty clothes and get new ones. One of our earlier pilot customers was interested in learning more about our startup and had a potential interest in investing in us. He mentioned he would never want to “rent” clothing. “Can’t imagine guys would want to do so,” he said. He usually wore custom-fit clothing. To test out our service, he decided to sign up. Today, he is still a happy customer. In a recent customer feedback session, he shared that he is actually surprised that the service helps him expand his styles and allows him to try clothing he would have never tried before.

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that was relevant to you in your life?

Anya: “Failure is part of the process of success.”

When we started Taelor, no one had heard of us. We were interested in getting some media coverage, but no reporter was interested in interviewing an unknown startup. A few months later, we got on ABC news. How?

After starting Taelor, I volunteered at the North America Taiwanese Engineering Association, a non-profit organization, to get to know more people. One day, the organization hosted a startup pitch event. At that time, Taelor was just a very rough idea, and we didn’t even have the name yet. But in order to prepare for the event, I put together a business plan and a detailed pitch. A month later, TechCrunch Disrupt, the largest startup convention in Silicon Valley was live. We didn’t have money to join the conference, so I used the previous month’s pitch event to apply for a free TechCrunch Disrupt ticket through a non-for-profit organization. I got a ticket. At the conference, I interviewed 500 people and met a reporter from WWD, the largest apparel trade media in the world. I pitched Taelor’s story and the reporter emailed back, “Not interested.” A month later, he emailed me saying his coworker was interested. After days of preparing for the interview, including finding volunteers to model for our photoshoots, we got the interview. However, a month went by, and the story still wasn’t published.

Later, we joined a startup competition and we won the west coast championship. I thought that was a great opportunity for a press release but again, no reporter was interested. As an immigrant from Taiwan, I pitched a media company in Taiwan. They wanted to publish the story! After that story was published, I wrote another pitch to a Chinese newspaper in the U.S., and they published it too. Then, so did an English newspaper for Chinese people in the U.S.. I took that publication and pitched it to ABC7 News in Chicago, and they said yes!

After the ABC news segment, I pitched back to WWD and they covered it. The next day, a Canadian clothing brand [REESEDELUCA] emailed us and became our first clothing partner in North America.

Phoebe: The power of now. It is actually a book I read, authored by Eckhart Tolle. This book started my “awakening” journey and changed the way I think and live my life. Some of my old friends would say I’ve changed and am 100x happier and more confident thanI was in my twenties and early thirties. Understanding my personal blueprint, becoming aware of my emotions and thoughts and the past and the future and the now are all important tools to live a conscious life.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Do you see any fascinating developments emerging over the next few years in the fashion industry that you are excited about? Can you tell us about that?

Anya: There has been a huge shift in the fashion industry as younger generations favor and practice minimalism and sustainability when it comes to their clothing.

Millennials and Gen Z, in particular, have exhibited behavior that has shifted our culture in so many ways, whether due to the influence or dependence on technology, or life experiences — i.e. COVID-19 — that have altered perception and priorities. We are seeing a huge demand within every industry to observe sustainability by implementing environmentally-friendly practices. Today, the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, second only to the oil industry. Even worse, the damage is only increasing as the industry grows. It takes approximately 15,000 liters of water to grow the cotton required for just one pair of jeans.

Young adults are taking a vested interest in practicing sustainability when it comes to fashion, but the trend expands far beyond what they wear. We are witnessing an evolution in lifestyle, one that values accessibility over ownership. DVD and VHS collections are being traded in for Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, homes are being listed for rent as families refurbish large vans or buses and embark on mobile adventures in a ‘tiny home.’ All of these changes seem to be driven by this new sharing economy and minimalistic trends.

Brands like the aforementioned ThredUp have already collected enough data to document a positive impact on the environment. Over a ten year span, renting or purchasing used clothes, or circular fashion, has displaced over one hundred pounds of carbon emissions. This alone is a huge selling point for younger generations, as they are actively looking to play a part in mitigating climate change.

It would also be naive to ignore the impact of the global pandemic on the fashion industry. Several brands weren’t able to survive, and as we are witnessing, many that did are rethinking their distribution channel or business model. It seems all are catching on to the circular fashion trend. The pandemic has accelerated this adoption and we now see the circular fashion models as part of a brand’s emerging growth strategy.

While more traditional individuals anxiously awaited the opportunity to return to the office, younger generations embraced a new remote work culture that offered more flexibility — not only in dress code but autonomy in general. The concept of ‘back to normal’ seems less likely as the days go by and companies and individuals alike continue to champion these changes. And the fashion industry is taking the initiative to follow suit. Patagonia, Lululemon and GAP, among others, have already launched resale programs of their own in an effort to play a role in sustainability. It’s hard to imagine they aren’t also innovating to keep up with the growth of fashion rental brands.

Companies are now able to acquire new and younger customers as consumers, as these generations are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothing. Reportedly 65% of Gen Z individuals are considering the resale value of an article of clothing before purchasing it for themselves. Based on these trends, it’s estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold one million recycled or second-hand items instead of manufacturing new ones, it would displace over four hundred pounds of carbon dioxide. For context, that’s the equivalent of 380 billion miles of driving.To state the obvious, the impact is major!

There is an abundance of arguments and research that back the importance of a circular, sustainable fashion industry for the benefit of both the planet and people. But to put it simply? The up and coming generations are putting their money where their morals lead, and the result is a powerful demand from the environment and young adults to move towards a minimalist lifestyle. One that values accessibility over ownership, sustainability over abundance, and experience over assets. So now, the responsibility shifts to the industry, to make the proper changes as consumers continue to hold them accountable in the pursuit of a cleaner, more simplistic and ethical world.

Phoebe: According to global data, consumers will spend a lot more in the resale, rental channels and a lot less in fast fashion and traditional department stores. Resale and rental combined is the fastest growing segment and the secondhand market is booming. It is expected to reach $77B with a 23 percent growth rate by 2025. That’s 11 times faster than the retail clothing sector. No wonder a lot of investment funding is pouring into the space from big names like Softbank and Kering. A lot of studies have revealed that the new generations are embracing these sustainable practices and care more about the planet.

The sharing economy and minimalism trends are another driving force of this change. The next generation of shoppers want to own less. They want to simplify their lives. They have more circular fashion habits. They want to save money — and make money. The younger generations are more likely to consider the resale value of clothing before buying and would even consider reselling their clothes. They also want to save the planet. They support sustainable practices and would buy second-hand clothes. The millennial and Gen Z populations want a better way to look good effortlessly and play a part in saving the environment.

On the other hand, the current business model for apparel brand retailers is broken. It is difficult for them to predict trends and know what’s going to sell. This problem created the fast-fashion model that leads to massive overproduction and waste. In order to meet consumer demands, fast-fashion brands must manufacture new trends quickly and get rid of old items quickly to make room for incoming trends. That’s why fast-fashion items are made cheaply and have low quality. This model is not sustainable. In fact, around 85 percent of textiles in the U.S. go directly from factories to landfills. 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year globally and 95 percent of these textiles could be reused and recycled, but is discouraged because of the fast fashion model. 20 percent of global untreated wastewater is from fabric dyeing and treatment alone. It is responsible for 10 percent of the global carbon emissions. 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon is released due to fast fashion alone! This massive waste is polluting our environment and poisoning our ecosystem. It’s causing global warming at an alarming rate!

Those numbers sound depressing. However, some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast-fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. The pandemic changed the clothing retail world. Some couldn’t survive and many are forced to rethink their distribution channels. Clothing brands and retailers know circular fashion is the future and they want to get into the secondhand and rental channels. Brands like Patagonia that are focused on sustainability took an early interest. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and they see the circular fashion models as part of their emerging growth strategy. They understand that they can acquire new and younger customers as consumers are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothing and they will drive more revenue. They can be more sustainable and make an impact on the environment. It is estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold 1M items used instead of new, it would displace over 400b lbs of CO2. That’s equivalent to 380B miles of driving! However, the circular fashion model is quite complex. Many are not set up to handle the resale/rental logistics. This creates a new opportunity for resale and rental companies such as ThredUp.

Taelor is Good For The World

Can you share how your brand is helping to bring goodness to the world?

Anya: Rental subscription and recommerce, both central to Taelor’s mission, play important roles in sustainability because it significantly extends the garment’s lifetime.

According to the The Future of Circular Fashion Report by Fashion for Good (here), circular fashion, which includes rental, rental subscription, and recommerce, have a high impact in sustainability, while a typical subscription box potentially leads to higher waste.

According to Le Tote, people only wear 20% of what they buy; the remaining 80% is worn less than 3 times and according to Ellen MacArthur Foundation, just 1% of clothing is recycled back into clothing; 73% goes to landfill.

According to the British Fashion Council, there is up to a 10% reduction in a garment’s carbon, water, and waste footprint by extending its lifetime by just three months.

According to Farfetch, QSA, ICARO and the London Waste and Recycling Board, compared to buying new, one pre-owned purchase is said to save, on average, 1kg of waste, 3,040 liters of water, and 22kg of CO2.

Can you share with our readers about the ethical standards you use when you choose where to source materials?

Anya: At Taelor, we offer over 200 brands. When we partner with brands, we evaluate if their mission is in line with Taelor’s — help people look good to achieve goals while saving the environment. We also evaluate if their production process is ethical and how sustainable the materials and processes are. We also don’t accept items that require dry cleaning because dry cleaning is much less eco-friendly than laundry. We have a lot of partners who are pioneers in this sustainability space.

For example, we partner with Koup, an innovator in performance-wear brand that is made by recycled plastic bottles and infused with cinnamon extract. Koup’s initial idea for the cinnamon-infused athletic shirts came to the founder after he started storing textiles in a warehouse that housed cinnamon owned by a Chinese herb company. After the herb company moved out, he realized that the textiles had an anti-odor function because of the impact of the cinnamon. Koup t-shirts are designed to be recyclable because they are made from 100% recycled polyester without any spandex or blends such as polyester cotton, which make recycling difficult.

Koup chose recycled plastic bottles as their core material so they could help reduce the impact of single-use plastic. It’s estimated that over 35 billion plastic bottles are thrown away in the U.S. each year. However, only about 25% of this is recycled. By using 100% recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic, we are keeping plastic waste from going into landfills or becoming ocean plastic. Moreover, recycled polyester can save up to 58 percent in energy costs and 45 percent in greenhouse gas emissions.

Another example among the many sustainable brands Taelor’s platform offers is TRANZEND. The brand’s Ultra Suit is made from recycled plastic bottles and recycled coffee grounds. The material is stretchable, waterproof, machine washable and wrinkle free. This sleek-looking, comfortable shirt is not only motion-adaptive, but it also has thermal regulation and is designed with magnetic cuffs, laser cut vents, ultrasonic sewing and many advanced technologies.

Another sustainable brand on Taelor is Shixi, which is known for its “Bu-Yie,” clothes hand-made with lined and cotton coloring with natural dye, which gives each item their unique color and also helps with sustainability.

Besides sustainability, Taelor also partners with brands that focus on doing good for the world. For example, the Founder of Shixi, Hui-Chun Cheng, is an advocate of art. He sponsors many theatrical events. Celebrities like the late Kobe Bryant took notice and wore Cheng’s apparel.

Another one of Taelor suppliers, Landway, was awarded by the Ukraine government for its contribution to Ukraine refugees. Landway works with the World Taiwan Foundation to fundraise from the public to donate ambulances, money, and living supplies. Every donor gets a jacket donated from Landway. They were previously known for their donation of jackets helping Syria referees and building sewing factories in Africa to help homeless women.

Phoebe: We also understand that everything we source has an impact on the planet. We source clothes that are designed to last and sustain rigorous wash cycles. We avoid clothes that are cheaply-made altogether. All of our clothes are machine washable. We limit clothes that require dry clean operations that use toxic chemicals and contaminate water supplies, making them dangerous to our ecosystem. We ensure the brand partners we work with embrace ethical sourcing and sustainable practices. Our latest partner, Wise River, is an eco-friendly outdoor clothing brand. Wise River is committed to the exclusive use of organic cotton and recycled polyester. There are almost too many good things to say about hemp. One of the strongest, most durable fibers around, hemp is also exclusively grown without the use of any pesticides. In addition, it requires very little water and can grow in a wide variety of soils. Furthermore, hemp can produce more than twice the amount of usable fiber in the same plot of land when compared to cotton. While an incredibly durable fabric, hemp is also naturally temperature regulating, anti-bacterial and odor controlling. With its light hand feel and ability to manage moisture, you’ll feel cool and comfortable, no matter the occasion. A unique texture that becomes softer with each wash, our hemp blends are not only sustainable in an eco-friendly sense, but will also be a staple of your wardrobe for years to come. Recycled nylon is often derived from commercial fishing nets and other industrial scraps that would normally end up in a landfill. While not an easy process, we have partnered with some of the most advanced fabric mills on the planet to produce this eco-friendly performance material. While the process of creating recycled nylon requires less petroleum and lower emissions than virgin nylon, reclaiming waste from our waterways also helps to produce healthier, more sustainable ecosystems. For us, well that’s something we can get behind.

Fast fashion has an advantage, that it is affordable for most people, but it also has the drawback that it does not last very long and is therefore not very sustainable. What are your thoughts about this? How does your company address this question?

Anya: The reason that retailers and clothing brands consider fast fashion is not because they want to create production — it’s because they want to have quick feedback from the market so that they know what to produce. At Taelor, rental enables us to have unique and rich data, which can help retailers and clothing brands better predict what’s going to sell.

Our business model makes our AI unique and powerful. First, we know people’s true preferences, which are not impacted by the purchase price of the items (with a flat monthly fee, people can rent 8 clothing items per month), much like how you decide what to watch on Netflix.) In addition, the consumer feedback cycle is much more efficient than fast fashion: two weeks instead of months. It’s faster than fast fashion while being a lot more sustainable.

I worked for Target, Sears, Kmart, eBay and built Facebook Shopping by working with all major retailers and brands. I know the importance of predicting inventory. Here at Taelor, we are not only devoted ourselves to circular fashion, which extends the garment’s lifetime, but also believe that we need to fundamentally stop retailers and clothing brands from producing items that people don’t want by offering them unique and rich data to make better predictions for the future.

Phoebe: The current business model for apparel brand retailers is broken. It is difficult for them to predict trends and know what’s going to sell. This problem created the fast-fashion model that led to massive overproduction and waste. In order to meet consumer demands, fast fashion brands must manufacture new trends quickly and get rid of items quickly to make room for incoming trends. That’s why fast-fashion items are made with cheap materials and have low quality. This model is not sustainable. Around 85 percent of textiles in the U.S. go directly from factories to landfills. 92 million tonnes of textiles waste is created each year globally. 95% of these textiles could be reused and recycled but it’s discouraged because of the fast-fashion model. Fast fashion is responsible for 10 percent of the global carbon emissions. 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon is released due to fast-fashion alone! This massive waste is polluting our environment and poisoning our ecosystem. It’s causing global warming at an alarming rate. Those numbers sound depressing. However, some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. What is Circular Fashion? It is simply a circular fashion model that’s designed to eliminate waste and pollution in all stages from design to material selection to ensure clothes last longer and can be reused and recycled. From production to consumption, manufacturers follow ethical practices that are not harmful to the ecosystem so that consumers can use an item as long as possible and adapt sustainable practices like renting and buying secondhand clothing. Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment through our circular model that accelerates clothing brands and retailers to adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers and then customers can discover new brands and styles without having to buy much.

Thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand”. Please share a story or example for each.

Anya: I think five things you need to lead a successful fashion brand are having a strong mission, solving the right problem, delivering value to customers, embracing technology, and building a diverse team with one common goal.

I think no matter what kind of brand you are building, the first thing for a successful brand to have is a mission. Mission is not a slogan in the HR handbook — it illustrates WHY we do what we do and impacts how we do things. Take Google and Facebook for example. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and Facebook’s mission is to bring the world closer together. Both of them built a “shopping” business, but Google Shopping is mostly listing items by organizing them based on search result and price, while Facebook Shopping is using influencers and Facebook Groups for community to sell items to each other. Both of them are building the “shopping” business but because of different missions, they grow the business very differently.

Here at Taelor, the idea started a few years ago, when I was leading large tech teams at eBay. As a female tech leader who came from a non-technical background, I had imposter syndrome — sometimes I didn’t feel ready for my day. “No matter how nervous I am, at least I need to look like I am ready for my day,” I thought. I wanted to look good, but didn’t want to chase after clothes. Therefore, I considered Stitch Fix’s styling service, but you have to buy something from every shipment and I didn’t want to own that much stuff. I tried Rent The Runway, but without a styling service, I had to spend lots of time browsing through thousands of items. I realized all of those services are for people who are into fashion. They are not for people like me — I just want to get ready for the day and be successful. Therefore, part of Taelor’s mission is to help people achieve their goals by bringing out the best of themselves.

On the other hand, I used to be a head of products at Target and Sears, and I know for clothing brands and retailers, it’s difficult to predict what’s going to sell. I know guys buy the same brands again and again, so it’s hard to acquire new customers. As a result, 30% of clothes go directly from the factory to the landfill. Brands know circular fashion is the future but are not sure where to start. As a SAAS data company, Taelor helps them test products, find new customers, and discover consumers’ true preferences. That’s why another part of Taelor’s mission is to help save the environment.

The second thing needed to lead a successful brand is to solve the right problem. When thinking about building a company, people tend to think of building solutions, but the most important thing is actually making sure you are solving the right problem — Are you building a pain-killer or a vitamin? Is the pain point you are solving big enough? Finding the right problem to solve is an iterative journey. For example, when Taelor started, we thought that the reason that clothing partners partnered with us was to monetize their unsold inventories by renting them out. It turns out that clothing partners would send us their latest collections because, compared to making money from past inventories, they care even more about getting real customer feedback on their latest collections. The pain point of not knowing what customers want in the future is bigger than making money from past collections.

The 3rd thing needed to lead a successful brand is to provide a solution that delivers value. When we started Taelor, we told people that we are a “menswear rental subscription service,” but then quickly realized that what people care about is not WHAT WE DO; instead, it is the VALUE WE DELIVER. Therefore, we changed our introduction to “We help people look good to achieve goals without buying clothes.” Oftentimes, we focus on the output that we generate, not the outcome — the “so what” behind those output. At Taelor, our customers love our styling service, and they also love the fact that there is no commitment to buy our items. The real value we provide behind those two things is that customers don’t need to think about what to wear anymore. We save them mental space and give them a peace of mind as they get ready for their day.

The 4th thing needed to lead a successful brand is to embrace technology. At Taelor, we consider ourselves a fashion tech company, not just a fashion company. Nowadays, every company is partially a tech company. Technology increases the efficiency of operations and enables a better user experience. From my background as a Head of Product at Meta and eBay, I know the importance of technology. We think artificial intelligence won’t replace humans but it can help us work more efficiently. For example, at Taelor, rental enables us to have unique and rich data. We know people’s true preferences, which are not impacted by the purchase price of the items, just like how you decide what to watch on Netflix. We believe that sustainability should be implemented both from the supply and the demand — yes, each clothing item should be worn as many times as possible, but also we should leverage those unique data points to help clothing brands predict what’s going to sell and only produce items that customers truly want.

The 5th thing needed is a diverse team with a common goal. Earlier in my leadership career, I wanted to hire all the best talents. Soon I realized that the job of a leader is like a NBA coach — our job isn’t to build an all star team, instead, it is to build a championship team. On the all star team, everyone is a super star but each player doesn’t complement or collaborate with one another. As a result, usually the all star team doesn’t perform well as a team. On the other hand, not everyone on a championship team is a rockstar, but some people assist, some people score, and some people defend. As a whole, the team works together like one team and wins the game. When I was at eBay, we had a Product Manager who had strong product management experience. However, I noticed that the sales goal was the key factor for the team’s operation — if the team hit the sales goal, they had a large budget and freedom to do things; if they didn’t, all projects would be put on hold to focus on driving sales. I also noticed that Mexico was one of the fastest-growing markets we had. Therefore, I hired a Product Manager with Mexico market experience and another Product Manager who had a finance background and was passionate about advertising products. Although neither of them had strong product management experience, by having three of them work together, they could put their product management, market knowledge and sales expertise to use and build a great product. In the end, we doubled sales in Mexico in six months. Building a team is like assembling puzzles. You don’t need everyone to be the swiss army knife; instead, you want people who have different expertise and work together as one team.

Every industry constantly evolves and seeks improvement. How do you think the fashion industry can improve itself? Can you give an example?

Anya: I think the fashion industry can start trying circular fashion by partnering with rental and recommerce companies such as Taelor. We believe that the future of menswear is access, not ownership. The sharing economy and minimalism trends continue to grow and guys hate shopping and laundry. My time working for Instagram taught me that the younger generations are a lot more fashion-conscious because of social media. Gen Z also supports sustainability and buying second-hand clothing. Especially after COVID, 70% of the U.S. population gained or lost weight and needed new clothes.

Big brands are building out their own rental and resale businesses, but it’s a big investment. Mid and small brands know circular fashion is the future — high 23% growth rate and $66 billion dollar market — but are not sure where to start. I encourage them to start participating in circular fashion by partnering with circular fashion platforms. Partnerships are usually easy — start by renting out a few SKU of items with a small proof of concept with almost no cost. They can use those platforms to test products, acquire new customers, monetize unsold inventory and get rich data to predict fashion trends for the future.

For brands and retailers, testing products is costly and time-consuming. They test with employees, which isn’t always accurate. Research is expensive. Fast fashion is wasteful, and they don’t have much data to predict future trends. For user acquisition, retailers are dying and direct-to-consumer eCommerce isn’t easy to build. Therefore, a new circular business model is needed — brands and retailers get feedback and find new customers, and customers discover new brands and styles.

Phoebe: Some positive trends are evolving in the fashion industry where fast-fashion is offensive and slow fashion and circular fashion become the new buzzwords. There’s a shift: less is more in sustainable fashion. What is Circular Fashion? It is simply a circular fashion model that’s designed to eliminate waste and pollution in all stages from design to material selection to ensure clothes last longer and can be reused and recycled. From production to consumption, circular fashion ensures manufacturers follow ethical practices that are not harmful to the ecosystem and that consumers use an item as long as possible and adapt sustainable practices like renting and buying second clothes.

Taelor’s mission is to play a part in saving the environment through our circular model that accelerates clothing brands and retailers ability to adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers and the customers can then discover new brands and styles without having to buy much. We believe a viable circular fashion business model requires a collective effort from both the supply and demand side of the industry — clothing brands and retailers adopt sustainable practices, predict demands, find new customers, and customers discover new brands and styles without having to buy much. Together, they extend the life of garments and save the environment.

Clothing brands and retailers know circular fashion is the future and they want to get into the secondhand and rental channels. The pandemic has accelerated the adoption and they see the circular fashion models as part of their emerging growth strategy. They understand that they can acquire new and younger customers as consumers are more likely to shop with a brand that offers second hand clothes. They can be more sustainable and make an impact in the environment. It is estimated that if apparel brands or retailers sold 1M items used instead of new, it would displace over 400 lbs of CO2. That’s equivalent to 380B miles of driving! However, the circular fashion model is quite complex. Many are not set up to handle the resale / rental logistics. Some famous brands are already in the resale market. Some launched their own resale program and many have partnered with a third party platform such as ThredUp. At Taelor, we offer both rental and resale channels to our brand partners.

Anya: #weardirty. For some people, the thought of using secondhand items is uncomfortable, but actually, “circular economy” is everywhere — the silverware you use in a restaurant and the towel you use in a hotel. Look at your closet, you probably realize that you only regularly use 20% of what you bought — you wear the same thing again and again and most of the items in your closet are just collecting dust. Instead of holding on to what you own, focus on “access” and start renting clothes!

Phoebe: #usedisgood. Imagine a new hotel that practices replacing towels and bedding with brand new items every time. And a new restaurant that uses only plastic disposable cutlery or replaces them with new silverware after each use. Most people would agree that that’s wasteful and unethical. We don’t expect these things to be brand new and we know that these things are used and commercially cleaned even in the 5 stars hotels and 3 star michelin restaurants. These are objects that we put in our mouths and sleep on! I often challenge people, including my boyfriend, who are against renting clothes with this analogy. How about the wedding party that rents fancy clothes for one use? Similarly, buying new clothes and letting them sit in the closet collecting dust is wasteful and unethical.

#fashionlifeexpectancy #fashionutilitization: What’s your fashion utilization rate? I have a pair of jeans I received as a gift when I moved to the states from almost 18 years ago. I have worn them a countless number of times until the back logo came off. I continued to wear the jeans anyway, until the flyover button fell off. I plan to get the jeans repaired though. My most comfortable PJs are the ones that have been worn a countless number of times. It gives me a lot of joy when they are torn because I’ve used them to the maximum amount of their lifetime. The circular fashion model can be part of all of our stories.

Let’s remember these numbers! It takes 75 lbs of carbon emissions to produce the average pair of jeans and 700 gallons of water to make one new T-shirt. A survey shows that people really only wear 20 percent of what they buy. That means they have a lot of unworn clothes collecting dust in their closets. So when you get home today or if you are already home, check out your closet. You might be shocked to find out how many unworn items you have, some with brand new tags. You can donate or resell them. If you really want a new outfit, consider renting or buying used instead of buying new. And do consider high-quality, sustainable brands that last longer over low-quality fast-fashion brands and clothing.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Anya: Rent men’s clothes monthly instead of buying new by subscribing for Taelor’s menswear rental membership. Use code “AUTHORITY” to get 25% of the first 2 months at https://taelor.style/pages/membership. Limited time offer. Ends on Oct 31, 2022.

Learn more about Taelor at https://taelor.style

Partner with Taelor at hi@taelor.ai

Connect with Anya Cheng on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/anyacheng/

Connect with Phoebe Tan on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-tan-b6a3166/

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

Modern Fashion: Anya Cheng and Phoebe Tan of Taelor On The Five Things You Need To Lead a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ann Ranson: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These Anxious…

Ann Ranson: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These Anxious Times

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be kind to yourself. My newest habit is thanking myself when I remember something that I had just forgotten. You know the drill — you walk into another room only to blank on your purpose for being there. Now, instead of berating myself when I make a mistake or forget something, I thank myself. I love the way it feels to have that small win.

As a part of my series about the things we can do to develop serenity and support each other during anxious times, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ann Ranson.

Ann Ranson is a teacher, facilitator, and coach guiding nonprofits and individuals to powerful breakthroughs. Her passion for helping others live life to the fullest has helped countless clients dig deep into the root of their situations and find ideal outcomes for happiness and success. As a two-time TEDx speaker, an Accredited Advanced Transformation Game Facilitator, and volunteer advocate for AARP Texas, Ann expertly tailors her strengths to any audience and gains insights that help provide solutions for strategic progress.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

In 2005 as my son and I prepared to move back to Texas from Northern Virginia I was visiting with a few friends I’d made during our time living there. Reflecting on the many spiritual and life truths we’d discussed, one of them asked if I would work as her coach. In response, I heard myself say, ‘of course!

Later, I wondered. Was something new trying to emerge for or in me? For a while, I had questioned the value of my work as a radio marketing executive. Was helping sell more cars at GM going to make the world a better place? Probably not! Yet, that was my greatest desire.

It was becoming clear that I should pay more attention to the voice within. And while it was the first time I ‘heard myself say’, it wouldn’t be the last.

I came to realize that this voice would be a big part of my new life. Listening, then acting on that inner urging.

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

My work as a coach, consultant, and facilitator is actually my 2nd career. Before starting this business, I spent almost 30 years in the radio industry as a sales and marketing executive. I loved it. We worked hard and played hard. I met great people, some of whom were champions to me throughout my career. I was very blessed. But that urging I mentioned before was growing. I wanted to make the world a little bit better place. I needed a new purpose. Now seemed the time.

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprised then when, a few weeks later, in a conversation with the CEO of one of my marketing partners, she said, “you’re really good at coaching. Would you like to work with us?” Again, I heard myself say, “of course”.

At that moment I was not a trained coach, though I had always been that one in the office that people came to when they had problems or needed help. But it was obvious to me that I was being given a message, and while I’m not usually an ‘early adopter’, I felt it was right to jump in with both feet. Within weeks, I had quit my successful career, and begun researching coach’s training programs.

The best news is that I’ve never looked back, though I do miss all those great tickets.

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

Have a touchstone; something that’s a foundation on which you can build your life. For me it’s my spiritual belief that things are always happening FOR me. I believe that in every situation there is a higher or spiritual truth, often hidden from plain site. My job is to find the unseen lesson within.

When you’re struggling or feel burnout, sit quietly, and contemplate the possible reasons for the difficulty. Consider that there are other, perhaps more positive explanation for the feelings. What if this ‘situation’ is actually a gift? What would be the surprise inside? Relax into that possibility.

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

Be positive. Share Hope. Use strengths. Be open and authentic. Help people learn and do what they love. Create team values, then work every day to exemplify them. Engage everyone in creating a great work culture. Don’t make the mistake of setting a top-down strategy without contributions from the whole staff.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

Most recently, Love + Work by Marcus Buckingham. Together with Don Clifton, Marcus wrote the book Now Discover Your Strengths, the beginning of the Strengths Psychology movement. It’s the belief that when we identify and live life through our strengths, we are happier, more productive, and can more easily find inner peace.

I’ve been a fan of Marcus from the beginning. He is considered the world’s most prominent researcher on strengths and leadership at work. When Love + Work came out in Spring 2022, it felt like a gift. I was literally in the process of launching a new brand designed to integrate my work as a strategy consultant for nonprofits and my work as a coach and facilitator helping individuals live a more rewarding life. This integration exemplifies the Love + Work philosophy.

Marcus offered a series of webinars sharing a deeper dive into the wisdom the book offers. I ate it up! It seemed like it was written specifically to give me the courage to share my story. Marcus even shared that he sought Harvard Business Review as the publisher specifically because he felt it would add credibility to a topic that for some organizations might seem too ‘soft’. I was encouraged that even big guns like Marcus seek credibility.

So, I decided, if Marcus can do it and get HBR to publish it, then surely my blended offerings would reach more mainstream acceptance than I had feared. Check out my website and let me know what you think. (www.AnnRanson.com).

From your experience or research what are five steps that each of us can take to develop serenity during such uncertain times? (Please share a story or example for each.)

These are the steps that I use to find more peace.

Sit. Ask myself questions. Listen for answers.

It may sound weird. It may even feel weird the first few times you try it. After all, we’re living in a time where FOMO is rampant, making quiet and alone time seem quaint. But I’ve found that the more I sit, the more I want to sit. I was someone who flipped on the TV after work automatically. During covid, it was hard for me to turn it off. I was sure there was something I needed to know or enjoy. Now I’m finding it easy to turn it off not even missing the adrenaline rush I was used to get. Instead, I’m learning to relax and more often now, letting the tension go.

I have found more peace and comfort from quiet contemplation that almost any other thing I’ve done to get through tough times and to expand my capacity for love and joy. It doesn’t have to be a long time. Sometimes 10 minutes is enough to break the negative energy. I’ve even found that pausing for a minute or two can reset my feelings, especially if those minutes are spent affirming something positive that I know to be true.

As you explore this practice, ask yourself for answers and insights. Ask, “what do I need to know about this situation?” Then sit and listen. Ask, “why has this event happened and what is it trying to teach me?” Then sit and listen. And, importantly, don’t judge the quantity or quality of what you hear. Remember, it’s a practice. Just develop the habit of quiet listening. Your gut will start revealing its musings. And if your critical judge shows up, politely tell her to go away.

Feel the presence and goodness of The Divine. This has taken me a lot of practice. When my mother passed in 1985, I was furious with God, convinced that he had taken her from me, as if to deliberately cause me pain. A few years later I met a woman who showed me what it was like to love God. She taught me about God’s goodness and that this Divine being was always working for my best, never against me. Never punishing. Rather, the best champion a person could want. A far cry from the fire and brimstone God that I’d known growing up.
Be kind to yourself. My newest habit is thanking myself when I remember something that I had just forgotten. You know the drill — you walk into another room only to blank on your purpose for being there. Now, instead of berating myself when I make a mistake or forget something, I thank myself. I love the way it feels to have that small win. In the beginning it was hard to be nice to me. Over time, it’s become easier. If I start obsessing over some supposed infraction, I give myself a limit of time to throw a pity party, then after that, it’s ‘be quiet’ or figure out how to do it differently next time. I’m grateful to be learning that it’s healthy to feel the full range of emotions, even the ones that make me uncomfortable. I just don’t have to wallow in them.
Use heartfelt affirmations and intentions. To keep myself focused on my ideal outcomes, I use affirmations and intentions. By repeating them to myself every day, I’m opening my heart and training my mind to expect that achievement. For example, I’ve recently had rotator cuff surgery. To facilitate my recovery, I began to affirm and visualize me playing golf again. While at this moment I can barely lift a club, thinking about my backswing will help me manifest my dream to play. This intention of me hitting balls at Top Golf motivates me to do all the physical therapy even when I’m past ready to quit.
Look for the good. There’s a saying that what we focus on expands. I’ve proven this to be true in my life. Instead of having negative thoughts about what’s wrong in society, or with my family, I focus on the good that I see around me. At least that’s my goal. I can’t always, but it is a habit I’ve worked hard to build. When I’m feeling anxious or stressed, I pause to look around for something that brings me joy, or that I like seeing. It can be two squirrels chasing each other in the yard, or a piece of art that I admire. It doesn’t matter what it is, only that you like it, and that it makes you feel good. And as a bonus, the more you look for the good, the more good you’ll see. It’s called ‘reticular activation’. There is good everywhere when we take a moment to look for it.

From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to effectively offer support to those around us who are feeling anxious? Can you explain?

I often share these 5 steps with other people who tell me they too have been helped by practicing them.

What are the best resources you would suggest to a person who is feeling anxious?

Create a custom playlist of songs that make you happy or help you relax. Or choose one that’s already built. For quiet times, I’m partial to the playlist PEACE on Spotify.
Read inspiring books or poetry. Consider The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, the Bible, or The Presence, a chapter in Power Through Constructive Thinking by Emmet Fox.
Download my Self-Discovery Workbook to learn more about what makes you tick. (https://annranson.com/free-tips-tools-self-discovery/)

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

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” -Dr.Seuss

This lesson is the journey of my life. I am just now learning to live this truth and I’ve never felt so free.

Use your power for good. Have hope. Look for the positive possibilities that surround you. Learn to see the good.

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

www.AnnRanson.com
www.ByTheGraceOfTea.com
Twitter @AnnRanson: https://twitter.com/annranson
FB: https://www.facebook.com/AnnRanson
https://www.facebook.com/ByTheGraceOfTea
https://www.facebook.com/TheCivilityPledge
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annranson/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/annranson/_created/
Instagram @annranson https://www.instagram.com/annranson/
TEDx Talk, “Celebrating Age” https://youtu.be/cMhPOiuDzBc
TEDx talk, “No Regrets” https://youtu.be/8_5OUE2bd2s

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

Ann Ranson: Five Things We Can Do To Develop Serenity And Support Each Other During These Anxious… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Helen Peterson On How To Thrive Despite Experiencing Impostor Syndrome

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Honesty: If a client asks for you to do something, be honest and confident that you are learning the program or platform but you are confident you can figure it out. Honesty is powerful in letting that go but still being able to build.

As a part of our series about how very accomplished leaders were able to succeed despite experiencing Imposter Syndrome, I had the pleasure of interviewing Helen Peterson.

Helen Peterson is a work-from-home mom in Bend, Oregon who has established herself in the online business industry as a Virtual Assistant & Launch Strategy Specialist. Along with helping her clients with launch strategy & successfully creating & selling their online courses, she also coaches other women in starting their own Virtual Assistant business (regardless of their current career path).

Her passion stems from guiding women into living the life they’ve always dreamt of with no financial boundaries & the flexibility to live & travel the way they want to.

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

I started out as a virtual assistant when I was a mom to my newborn daughter. I knew I did not want to go back to an office job, so I began to learn more about starting my own business. This is where my time as a virtual assistant began. I started to serve multiple clients and even now I have branched into launch strategy as well. I then realized that so many business owners wanted support in starting their launches, more than I could serve, so I placed my knowledge into my course and I began helping others in this way as well!

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

One of the most interesting stories is when I started out, even though sometimes I felt like an imposter, I reached out to a client with a large following that I really wanted to work with. I gave her ideas on how I could serve her and she actually hired me on and I worked with her for a long time!

I learned that even though I sometimes felt like I wasn’t at the level I wanted to be, others saw the value in my work.

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

I love to think that I bridge the gap between motherhood and entrepreneurship. There doesn’t have to be one or the other — but we get to have both. I have a mentee who took my Virtual Assistant Bootcamp when she was strictly a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM). She started making enough of an income to pay off their family’s debt and take a vacation with no credit cards. I remember when she emailed me and told me how proud of it she was — I was so proud of her too!

These life-changing scenarios are what I believe make my company stand out. I support entrepreneurs and I also support aspiring entrepreneurs and it’s something I really enjoy doing!

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?

My husband is so supportive of my business. He helps me when I need extra time without the kids. He’s my biggest cheerleader and brings me a glass of wine or a snack if I’m in a busy season. He has always been there telling me to try a new branch of my business or take on the new client.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the experience of Impostor Syndrome. How would you define Impostor Syndrome? What do people with Imposter Syndrome feel?

Imposter syndrome is when people ask themselves questions like, “Who am I to think I can do this?” This is when we feel like we aren’t capable of doing something that others in the industry are doing. But it could also simply mean we are learning and building as we go.

If you struggle with imposter syndrome, you may feel scared to move forward or think you aren’t good enough.

What are the downsides of Impostor Syndrome? How can it limit people?

The downsides of imposter syndrome are that people are constantly in a place of scarcity. They feel like at any moment everything that they have can disappear. People make decisions from this mental space instead of focusing on their vision and goals.

How can the experience of Impostor Syndrome impact how one treats others?

When operating in imposter syndrome, you may start to feel inferior to others instead of feeling confident in your abilities.

You may also start to put on a false front and be stuck in this thought that you won’t reach the potential you were hoping to and push off opportunity from others.

We would love to hear your story about your experience with Impostor Syndrome. Would you be able to share that with us?

In the beginning, I felt so insecure that I didn’t have years of experience. I would be afraid to reach out to larger clients, or wonder if I could complete a job. Finally, I faced this by pursuing a client with a large following and she responded with a yes! This taught me that I had no reason to feel like an imposter. We’re all learning, always. There’s no reason to feel less than because you are learning!

Did you ever shake the feeling off? If yes, what have you done to mitigate it or eliminate it?

You will always have seasons of it! You get better at shaking it off by looking at the evidence of what you have done and anchoring yourself to truth. I think in every season there is a new feeling of imposter, but the level is just raised.

Find what is true and use that to rewrite your mental script of what you actually are capable of.

In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone who is experiencing Impostor Syndrome can take to move forward despite feeling like an “Impostor”? Please share a story or an example for each.

Honesty: If a client asks for you to do something, be honest and confident that you are learning the program or platform but you are confident you can figure it out. Honesty is powerful in letting that go but still being able to build.
Evidence check in: The check in is so you can anchor in the evidence of what you do know and what you are good at. This shows our brains the truth in a logical way.
Challenge: Challenge yourself in a way that combats imposter. Try for something you think is out of your league!
Inspire: Chat with others about this and inspire them in the journey to help it be bigger than you.
Track: keep a journal to track your business. In tough times, look back on what you’ve experienced and this journal can be evidence!

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

The power of one referral can transform a business. If everyone shared their friends’ business with one person, this would turn into a snowball effect that allowed more small businesses and service providers to be visible. Think and referral within your network first — reach for the small biz owner and support those who you love most! This could bring so much good to the women who are just getting started or trying to put themselves out there 🙂

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

I have really looked up to Jenna Kutcher as I’ve been building my business! She’s a mom of two as well — and that makes her even more inspiring to me! I would love to have breakfast or lunch with her! 😉

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can follow me on social media on Instagram @petersonvirtualassistant

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

Helen Peterson On How To Thrive Despite Experiencing Impostor Syndrome was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Meghan Hayden of 1AND1 On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support…

Women In Wellness: Meghan Hayden of 1AND1 On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Goal setting and data tracking: Setting goals keeps you organized, accountable, and allows you to set realistic expectations throughout your journey. Having a plan dramatically improves the chance of achieving your goals, as well as verbalizing these goals to someone who will help you reach them.

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

Meghan Hayden is a 1AND1 Expert Trainer, specializing in mobility, dynamic movement, and athletic strength and conditioning. As a Division 1 soccer player turned athletic strength and conditioning coach based in NYC, Meghan does not only strive to help people reach their goals, but also strives to educate and guide people at a high level. She believes everyone should train to be able to do the things they love, for as long as possible and she makes it a priority to educate people and provide them with tools to optimize their movement, spatial awareness, and performance.

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

I was a kid that lived and breathed athletics. I was the only freshman on three varsity teams in a school of over 3000 students. When I wasn’t studying in school, I was in practice or traveling for a tennis or soccer tournament.

Tearing my shoulder during my junior year in high school was my first significant injury and derailed my dreams of playing tennis in college. It sparked my interest in learning how to rehabilitate the body back to health. That summer, I signed up for an internship at my local sports medicine facility and learned how to rehab 100 shoulders, and immediately I was hooked. I played Division 1 soccer while studying Exercise Physiology and loved applying everything I learned to optimize my performance on and off the field. Retiring from competitive sports upon graduation, I moved to NYC to be close to my parents.

I believe I was always destined to be a coach. At 16, my first real job was as a junior tennis pro at a local summer club. In college, I helped develop local high school teams. Through being coached by mentors across multiple sports, I always wanted to spread my knowledge to anyone willing to learn. I didn’t want just to be the best on my team; I wanted everyone around me to elevate as well. I learned from my mother at a young age that purpose is always greater than self, so I only won if my team won.

A very influential time in my life occurred in 2016. My 85-year-old father was bedridden in the hospital with an infection. After four days, the doctors prescribed my father rest and medication and told him to accept that he was getting older and would have to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. As a senior studying how incredible the body is at healing, I did everything I could to aid his circulation and help keep his body moving. After a few hours, I had him standing and walking by the next day. On that day, my father, the nurses on his floor, and I learned the power of movement as medicine. Thinking about how many people have lost their loved ones because modern medicine failed only strengthened my passion for helping others improve their quality of life through movement.

I quickly realized that NYC was not filled with competitive athletes but hard-working people glued to a desk all day. In a city that never sleeps, my goal shifted to being able to provide people with effective training programs so they could reach their goals efficiently and live their life to the fullest. I have been in the NYC fitness industry for over six years and have experience training in big box gyms like Equinox, and independent training all over the city, directing training programs, group fitness, and now owning my own brand and working with 1AND1. No matter the modality, my focus has always been to provide quality coaching so my clients can enjoy their training journey and build a body that will help them pursue their passions and fulfill their potential. Currently, I run my own fitness brand, Take Off with Meg, a Master Trainer for Technogym’s digital coaching platform, fitness model for globally recognized brands, and I cruise around New York City to my various private clients on my fixed gear bike. I am also a 1AND1 expert, where I produce articles on different wellness, fitness, and health topics and create organic and paid social media content with brands that align with 1AND1’s mission. Additionally, I’m a lead instructor for 1AND1 events such as MORE LIFE and ProtectHER, a self-defense workout event for women of all ages and fitness levels, welcoming a community of women interested in working out, learning self-defense techniques, and networking with like-minded peers.

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?

Besides my father’s story, a pivotal moment in my career was when I quit my first big job. I walked into my first NYC personal training job, hungry to sink my toes in and be the best trainer I could be. After completing the education program and being consistently a top performer, I sought a new opportunity to elevate my career. I approached my managers to provide options but was only given opportunities to work more hours or move laterally in the company. When I realized these options wouldn’t elevate me in the industry, I scheduled a meeting with my boss and mentioned the idea of leaving to start my own business. My managers responded with scare tactics and criticism, saying that I wouldn’t be successful on my own, that I’d be crawling back in the door soon enough, and how embarrassing that would be. Once I gave my two weeks, they tried to find ways to fire me before my full term. Funny enough, that made me want to leave more — that moment changed my entire life. Within three months, I made10x what I was prior, studied under incredible mentors, and managed a successful book of business on my own.

This story’s most important lesson is do not let someone create a ceiling for your success. You will never know where you land if you don’t jump into the unknown. Believe in yourself and work to make the future you know you can have. That same boss was fired soon after I left, and I haven’t heard of him since.

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

The biggest mistake when first starting out was thinking everyone I worked with was my friend or wanted the best for me. Growing up in Hawaii, I learned that everyone is your “ohana,” aka “family.” Friends of the family are your aunties, uncles, and cousins. My parents had to scold me when we moved back to Connecticut because I greeted the plumber with a hug when he knocked on the door (his first time at the house). I’ve always over-trusted people and thought they had my best interests in mind because that was the community I was raised in, but it does not reflect the real world. I’ve been used, taken advantage of, backstabbed, you name it, in my 6+ years in the industry.

Being friendly, caring, and empathetic are beautiful qualities not only of a trainer but of a person. Never lose that sparkle in your eye. However, no one at work needs to know about your personal life, how much money you’re making, who your friends are, or what you do outside work. Stay focused on who you want to be in a professional setting, and have your trusted friends and family do the rest with you.

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

The health and fitness industry is oversaturated with BS information, gimmicks, quick fixes, etc. There are plenty of certifications and continuing education available for trainers and health practitioners, yet not enough trusted sources of information for the general public to reach their goals. My mission, along with 1AND1’s, is to simplify the information and provide clear education for someone not in the industry to consume so they can live their life to the fullest in a sustainable yet effective way.
My coaching style is influenced by my knowledge and experience in high-level mobility, athletic development, and strength and conditioning practices. My clients can expect not only to be guided in their health and fitness journey but to become educated along the way to learn how to take control and be more involved in their journey.
As a 1AND1 Expert Trainer, I share my passion for fitness with our wellness events that cater to mind and body. For instance, I host a women-focused workout event where fitness meet self-defense, providing women with a safe space to exercise, learn techniques and share experiences.
The great thing about working with 1AND1 is that we have a goal to promote overall wellness. While coaching with the other 1AND1 Expert Trainers, we engage with our audience by focusing on both fitness and mental health and how they are codependent factors we should address.

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.

Hydration: Being just 1–2% dehydrated can drastically affect the body’s performance. Staying hydrated is essential for cellular function, weight management, and hormone balance. The body sends the same signal when it’s hungry and thirsty, so ensuring you’re properly hydrated can significantly impact calorie consumption. It can also help you feel more alert. After 8 hours of rest, a tall glass of water is a perfect start to the day.
Fuel yourself efficiently! Consuming high-nutrient meals can reduce cravings, reduce the need for vitamin supplementation, and help you perform your best. The day’s first meal can determine what kind of day you have. Take advantage of a clear digestive system by consuming nutrients that your body can immediately absorb and use as fuel to power the start of your day. I love starting my day with a protein shake filled with protein, vegetables, fruit, and fiber. Being in smoothie form allows the nutrients to be easily and quickly absorbed in the body. Starting the day with vegetables and fruit provides me with essential micronutrients my body cannot produce. I’ll also include some seeds or nuts for quality fats. Having a quality, balanced meal allows me to get a head start in consuming my daily nutrient needs with natural ingredients from whole foods in my diet.
Goal setting and data tracking: Setting goals keeps you organized, accountable, and allows you to set realistic expectations throughout your journey. Having a plan dramatically improves the chance of achieving your goals, as well as verbalizing these goals to someone who will help you reach them.
Sleep and Rest: You can only perform as well as you recover. This is not only physical preparedness but mental as well. You can only pour from your cup if you have something in it. Make sure it is overflowing so you can serve others and take care of yourself. Your body will always tell you when it needs a break, and it is crucial to listen to these signals before harm is done. Limiting screen time, meditation, journaling, breathing, and proper eating schedules are all practices that can improve sleep performance.
Efficiency: As a species, we have evolved to want overconsumption — more food, work, social plans, drinks, etc. Analyze certain areas of your life, like your morning/nighttime routine, how long it takes you to do specific tasks, calorie consumption, and how much rest time you have in your days. Find ways to simplify these things to reduce stress and gain control. Having control of your mental being reduces the chances of getting distracted from things taking you away from your goals.

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

To want to shift the focus of associating health and wellness from aesthetics to the purpose of improving quality of life.
The current social environment has created a flawed definition of health fueled by unrealistic body image, quick-fix trends, supplements not approved by the FDA, and “popular” opinionated columns with no factual evidence.
There is no better feeling than living in a pain-free body that feels good and allows you to live a life without limits. If you can get past the BS and find a sustainable way to integrate a healthy lifestyle that works for you, it will elevate every aspect of your life.

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

Knowledge is power — The more knowledge you have, the more involved you can be in your health journey, and the better you can process and understand new information and efficiently work towards your goals.
Stay organized — Having everything organized will help you stay on top of your fitness journey and allow you to effectively scope in and out.
Drop your ego — There is a lesson you can take away from every encounter. Always be willing to be the student.
The journey is more rewarding than the result — You will never be happy with your results, as there will always be new sights to set. Think about how long you’ve lived a certain way, then think about how quickly you want to see change. The quicker you realize that your health journey is life-long and not just a 10-day vacation will help you set expectations and be more patient with seeing results. Learning to love the journey will keep you in the game longer, get off the yo-yo cycle, and give you a better chance for success.
Have mentors you can trust — You don’t need to do it alone. Find experienced specialists that you can go to for direct, honest answers. They will help you remove the BS and efficiently work through the information.

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

To be passionate about human performance and the general future of humanity, you must be aware of the environment we live in. The health of our planet determines the health of everything on it. Most directly, our health is impacted by nutrients and water quality and availability, air quality, and climate. If we aim to improve human quality of life, our efforts must be aimed at how we can reverse climate change and the human impact on our environment. Even though the company leaves a zero-carbon footprint, trees are planted with every investment in Take Off with Meg, whether through a training session, Take Off Kit, or a community event. I also regularly host community events that raise money towards an environmental project or cause and promote sustainable brands to help make a positive impact. Donations have been given to causes and organizations such as The Ocean Clean Up and Only One Ocean Conservation.

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

Instagram is @Meghan_Hayden_

TikTok is takeoffwithmeg

Follow along with 1AND1 on Instagram @1and1life and check out the website www.1and1life.com.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Meghan Hayden of 1AND1 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.

Female Disruptors: Allyson E Cote On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

Don’t stalk competitors. A business partner had told me that back in 2008. Of course I’m paraphrasing it to simplify it! But the crux of the sentiment was during a discussion about another company (who later acquired the company we were at), the CEO said “ I don’t follow our competitors, it impedes my own progress”. What I took from that is there is a lot to be said for remaining true to your vision and not allowing it to be diluted by outside influences which may not fit your business model or customer base.

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

After twenty award winning years in the Saas and Med-tech space with acclaimed startups, Allyson has decided to pioneer into the skilled trades. She’s now a Woman Machinist and Welder who is poised to disrupt a male dominated industry.

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

I have had an incredibly diverse career since I started my entrepreneurial journey. Although, I definitely was a “late bloomer” having worked for large technology companies as a Systems Analyst during my twenties and early thirties. I felt I needed a challenge without a defined set of expectations, and launching a startup definitely shifts you into high gear. I have spent the better part of the last two decades in the Health & Wellness and Global Public Health spaces. It was very rewarding work, and I was fortunate to garner a good amount of recognition for my work in media such as Forbes, Mashable, NPR and others. When the Pandemic really hit home in the US back in early 2020, I totally shifted my focus to finding Public Health solutions for my community. COVID19 took an enormous toll on businesses, schools, and families. I lost my Father due to COVID related pneumonia and was determined to turn that loss into something inspiring.

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

In my experience, sometimes it’s the twists you really didn’t anticipate that are the most interesting. My company, OSS, LP, emerged as a designer and producer of great innovations like the only fully fire-code and ADA compliant heavy duty dining igloos. We’re also working on the development of a new air filtration system with UMASS Dartmouth, my Alma-mater, who has been remarkable to work with.

I did notice though, that despite my CV, I wasn’t always being taken seriously by manufacturers I was working with. Also, the pandemic severely shrunk the skilled-trades workforce here in RI, and there simply aren’t enough trained people for the amount of work. Rather than continue to be pushed to the back of the line, or taken advantage of by materials suppliers, I enrolled in a Machinist Training Program at the New England Institute of Technology in collaboration with a State agency Polaris MEP (Manufacturers Extension Program). I graduated after full time on-site class participation in July of 2022. I’m also doing a Welding Apprenticeship with an incredibly talented local small business in Tiverton, RI. After that, I’ll be dabbling in 3D printing, too!

My focus has now been influenced and refined in the wake of my experience with a dual objective. I realized how underrepresented women and minorities are in these vocations. I’d like to help change that. Plans for the future involve creating a collaborative workspace and learning facility to engage with these populations, and offer them a different career trajectory than they might have considered viable.

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?

There’s almost too many to list! I could say nearly accidentally self-immolating recently but that is only funny in hindsight to me. Yes, one of my funniest stories involves double checking and rechecking your work before you hit submit! My business partner and I from my last company Maternova were trying to win a contest sponsored by, I believe, Fedex. We had to include photos of our field partners. At the time we were working in several middle income countries to save the lives of Mothers and newborns. We clicked submit, confident after an exhaustive application process we would emerge victorious. Not this time, though. It turned out, we had accidentally uploaded a photo of a random stock image! Making things worse, the people in the photo saw it online. Apparently the global public health space is much smaller than we had expected. After realizing our incredible fumble, all we could say was “ We’re sorry we do not, in reality, have a Laotian field team!”. It was a lesson to both of us that your enthusiasm has to be tempered with a good amount of restraint. Needless to say, we did not win. But, looking back it will always make me laugh. The key takeaway is few things in life are permanent, except the Submit button.

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?

There have been so many people who have influenced and mentored me, it’s tough to list them all. First, I have been blessed to work with those I consider ‘Giants’ in their fields. My CoFounders are all highly respected innovators in their fields. I believe in keeping a counsel of Advisors as well. I work with a team of Mentors through RI Hub, and also my Sustainability Advisor at GoViably. OSS recently earned our Certificate of Sustainability this past Spring. It’s very core to my mission to practice ethical sourcing and reduce our consumption of resources as strategically as possible. I’m investigating the newest ‘Green Welding’ practices now to implement moving forward.

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

I think it’s always good in the sense it catalyzes conversation. Change usually occurs when people are either made aware or uncomfortable about a given situation. On a positive note, trying to disrupt a heavily male dominated industry is inherently positive because of the ripple effects on productivity and progress. Rosie the Riveter has endured as an icon for Women’s empowerment for decades. But it’s definitely time to move it from the pop-art world into reality.

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

Yes, don’t stalk competitors. A business partner had told me that back in 2008. Of course I’m paraphrasing it to simplify it! But the crux of the sentiment was during a discussion about another company (who later acquired the company we were at), the CEO said “ I don’t follow our competitors, it impedes my own progress”. What I took from that is there is a lot to be said for remaining true to your vision and not allowing it to be diluted by outside influences which may not fit your business model or customer base.

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

That’s an excellent question! I’ve shifted a lot of my focus from simply inventing and manufacturing towards wanting to do more to engage with the community. I have been given a rare opportunity to see more sides of our business ecosystem, having just been in immersive training for an entirely unexpected skill set. There is a huge gap in addressing viable career paths for women, immigrants, and those re-entering the workforce after being released from incarceration. There’s several new initiatives offering employment in both the private and public sectors, but there are also a strict set of criteria candidates must satisfy (i.e.: Minimum security versus Medium/Maximum security). My work to date has put me in the rare position of being an effective evangelist for these marginalized populations.

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

Finally, an easy question to answer! I would immediately offer the challenge of ‘labeling’ your disruptive work or efforts. It’s become a bit repetitive that I am constantly referred to as a “Badass” because of the new skills I am trying to perfect. I can comfortably say that it’s a safe assumption no men are being referred to with stereotypes if they pursue goals outside of the traditional gender norms. I know it’s meant in a positive light, but in my opinion, I’m not being a “badass”, I’m being authentic. We should be more open to celebrating the risk takers who fall outside our usual silos.

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

I’m always listening to or reading something, but I jump around a lot! I try to digest my intake in small bites so fifteen minute podcasts are fantastic. I really like The Accidental Creative, and The Daily Boost. I belong to an amazing women entrepreneurs group, Dreamers & Doers. I try to take advantage of all of their educational sessions when I can.

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’m really into the sustainability mindset the past few years. I would have to say encouraging other entrepreneurs and people in general to review their current consumption or resources, and their business practices. In the pursuit of success, it’s easy to go with the easiest option for production. While that may be the most profitable, it’s often not the mark you ultimately want to make. With the impact of climate control mounting a formidable challenge, it’s a legacy of conscious business I’d like to leave and encourage. The good news is that I’m part of a very large movement in that direction. The other movement would be directed at encouraging everyone to be willing to reinvent yourself without fear. It’s a mindset which has allowed me to live several lifetimes in this one. I’m excited for what comes next!

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

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear” by Jack Canfield. I love it because it reminds us that sometimes you just have to forge ahead, and overthinking any situation can sabotage your progress. I know that caution is an admirable trait to implement in good measure, however, in my experience fortune really does favor the bold.

How can our readers follow you online?

@oceanstateshields on Instagram is definitely the easiest

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

Female Disruptors: Allyson E Cote 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.