Category: Featured

Women In Wellness: Mariko Hill of Gencor On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support…

Women In Wellness: Mariko Hill of Gencor On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

To achieve success, you must be incredibly committed and dedicated at doing the all the small things right — even as monotonous or boring as they can be;

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

As an international athlete at the age of 12, Mariko Hill has always looked to gain a competitive edge in the areas of health, performance, recovery and mindset. As an undergraduate research fellow at the University of Oxford, she Co-Founded Athena Nutrition — a platform where women can learn about latest research in performance nutrition to enhance their game on and off the field. She is the Global Innovation Manager at Gencor, where she looks to integrate science, consumer trends and regulations to help underpin innovation in the dietary supplements industry. Mariko is also a professional Cricketer for the National Women’s Hong Kong team and FairBreak Global.

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 am an English-Japanese born and raised in Hong Kong and started playing Cricket at the age of 11. At an early age of 12, I was selected to represent the National Hong Kong Women’s Cricket team — the youngest ever female to have represented the country. Since then, I have competed in number of international and franchise tournaments, including the Asian Games (also known as the ‘Olympics of Asia’), and have Captained the side from 2017 to 2019.

Beyond my sporting achievements, academics was always priority for me and I graduated from The University of Hong Kong with a BSc Exercise & Health and BSc Nutrition. Being the top of my class, I was fortunate enough to have received a scholarship at The University of Oxford to conduct research and further my experience in the scientific field. With a passion for nutrition and sports performance, I have always wanted to pursue a career in the area of health & wellness and therefore managed to get a job in the nutraceutical industry. Now as a Global Innovation Manager of Gencor Pacific, I help brands develop unique, science-backed dietary supplements to support the health & wellbeing of individuals. Having contributed to two scientific publications, I also present at global conferences and summits to educate the industry about ingredients new and unique ingredients.

Lastly, as a professional athlete, I have always looked to gain a competitive edge in the areas of health, performance, recovery and mindset. Yet, from doing own research, found that there was a lack of nutritional information that catered for the needs of female athletes. I therefore Co-Founded Athena Nutrition — a platform where women can learn about latest research in performance nutrition to enhance their game on and off the field.

So all in all, I am huge advocate of sports, nutrition, and travel, and use sport as a vehicle for social change to voice out the crucial issues of gender equality and further my mission of creating opportunity and equality for all.

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

I am very fortunate to be in the position I am in now — travelling the world for international Cricket tournaments and business trips — and am incredibly grateful of all the people that influenced me in my life. In fact, I received my first internship at Gencor from a conversation I had with an umpire (also known as ‘referee’) after a cricket match in 2017. The umpire just so happened to be the Managing Director of Gencor and five years later, I am still working under him — only this time handling the European market and Sports & Active Nutrition portfolio. The takeaway from this is that you never know what is around the corner and by connecting with people, you may stumble upon new and unique opportunities.

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

When starting Athena Nutrition, we didn’t think creating a brand was going to be as difficult than it was. Little did we know the amount of time and effort it takes to build a brand from scratch — from designing a logo, to developing a website, to researching and writing blog posts and more; however, it was all worth it when we saw the final product and impact we made on individuals. The biggest lesson I learnt from this startup was to make sure I have a timeline in place of all the small tasks that need to be completed in order to reach the long-term goal (pro tip: a GANTT chart will help achieve this).

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 work I am doing is making an impact in the world in numerous ways. Firstly, with the lack of research catered for the needs of female athletes and specific to their physiology, Athena Nutrition provides a platform where women can learn about latest research in performance nutrition to enhance their performance on the field and the workplace.

Secondly, as a Global Innovation Manager at Gencor, I look to innovate products in the dietary supplement industry to support females health & wellbeing. I develop these formulations solely based science in order to ensure the products provide the full clinical benefits as they are marketed under.

Lastly, as a professional female athlete, I use sport as a vehicle for social change to voice out the crucial issues of gender equality and further my mission of creating opportunity and equality for all.

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.

Consistent, daily habits is key to better mental and physical well-being. My top five ‘lifestyle tweaks’ are:

Wake up early — by getting up early, you are able to get a head start over the competition and gain more hours in the day for productive tasks. For me, waking up was essential in order to have a good work-life balance and go to training before work;
Exercise frequently — we all know the importance of exercise and by getting involved in regular physical activity, you will not only feel better but function a lot more efficiently on and off the field;
Choose healthier alternatives — by making simple dietary swaps (e.g. brown over white rice, lean over fatty meats, low-fat Greek yoghurt vs sweetened fruit yoghurts), you are able to consume more micronutrients whilst lowering the total caloric intake;
Sleep 8 hours — sleep is essential for mind and body and without enough sleep, your body can be negatively impacted such as your performance, recovery, mood, energy levels, immunity, and cognitive function;
Supplement daily — supplementation can be benefit you in a number of ways: (i) optimizing your health & wellbeing; (ii) enhancing performance & recovery; & (iii) helps you get you into a healthy routine. Of course, only supplement if you need to.

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

By broadcasting more women’s sport on tv to inspire girls and women to play sport and/or get involved in a more active lifestyle.

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

To achieve success, you must be incredibly committed and dedicated at doing the all the small things right — even as monotonous or boring as they can be;
Failure is part of the learning process — learn from it and move on;
Go out and do the things that you are fearful of as it allows you to grow and overcome any obstacles;
Reading industry articles and newsletters is a great way to stay on top of the latest trends and scientific research;
Don’t hesitate to reach out when you need help — whether that is outsourcing companies to help with projects or asking colleagues to offload with work.

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

Mental health is the topic most dearest to me as I have noticed in recent years an increase in prevalence of anxiety and stress levels amongst friends and family. Job uncertainty, social media, and the pressures of sport, are only a handful of known factors that influence this and we are seeing an exponential rise in mood disorders after the pandemic. This is where it is important to raise awareness, educate and support those around us on how to reduce stress and anxiety levels.

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

Instagram — mariko.hill

Twitter — @MarikoHill

LinkedIn — Mariko Hill (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariko-hill-7249a5b7/)

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

Women In Wellness: Mariko Hill of Gencor 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 Founders: Raina Kumra of Spicewell On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Raina Kumra of Spicewell On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I love being a co-founder, but damn it is lonely and I wish someone had told me how important it would be to find my people and community to journey with. I remember sitting in front of my laptop nearly in tears from stress and then getting a funny text from a friend who was in the exact same boat. We started doing regular weekly walks and calls and it has been transformative.

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

Raina is the founder of Spicewell, a food-as-medicine company that helps fill nutrition gaps without changing habits. She also runs a successful consulting business, Juggernaut, and is Partner at The Fund LA, an early-stage venture fund where she leads healthcare and consumer technology deals.

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

Absolutely — thanks so much for having me! I have had a long and winding career. I started out as a video editor and documentary filmmaker, then went into advertising where I had a 15-year career ultimately leading digital at Wieden+Kennedy New York, and then I started my own agency, Juggernaut. I’ve worked with clients spanning every industry from Burberry to Nike to Coke to Facebook and Alphabet, a current client. Then, I just got tired of selling things — and decided I needed to do more for the world. I pulled a 180 and started a solar non-profit in Africa, then joined the Obama Administration working on innovation across the State Department and eventually leading innovation at 5 television networks under the US Agency for global media. Then I had a venture-backed startup called Mavin, which was focused on app growth and internet access in India. After we shut down the company, I moved to Omidyar Network where I worked as an investor and helped build a movement around Tech Ethics. After that, moved to LA and helped raise The Fund LA, continued investing, and continued consulting until mid-pandemic, when I started Spicewell — where I’m bringing all my previous skills to focus on taking on Big Food.

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

Yes! Before I even launched I had the opportunity to sit down with one of my biggest heroes: Dr. Mark Hyman. He’s so knowledgeable and intuitive about how health and food and our farming practices connect — and is just the best person and author to turn anyone on to learning more about functional medicine. He was a major reason why I started this company. And I was able to share the product and story with him, and he immediately signed on as an advisor and has been the best help a new founder could have ever dreamed of. I felt so lucky and blessed!

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?

What I loved about going into food coming from tech is that literally nothing is the same when it comes to production. For me, it was SO MUCH FUN to formulate and learn about food production, my brain was just so turned on to the science, the nutritional aspects, and the flavor profiles. What I really needed to do, however, was focus on measurements — because I did accidentally order 800 pounds of salt when I only needed 400. Measuring twice and checking the numbers are vital in food production and I learned that lesson fast. Also, I never thought I would be ordering that many pounds of salt in my life, so this also made me chuckle.

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?

Yes, the Mark Hyman story above is one! The other people that I’m so grateful to on this journey are my advisors: Radhika Tandon, for smart strategies and ways to just get things done, Megha Desai for being a constant cheerleader and support and helping me in ways I didn’t know I needed, Anjali Bhargava my executive coach for helping me get out of my own way, my medical advisors Shailendra Chaubey, Jennifer Lang and Anthony Padula and Ann Veneman for being a guiding light at the highest strategic level.

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

It’s funny because when I decided to become an investor, I was dead set on giving checks to as many diverse females as I could find that had a backable idea — but indeed, week after week, most of the pitches were not from women or people of color. At the Fund LA, 30% of our founders are either women or minority-led. We continue to strive for 50%.

I was born in an entrepreneurial household, so making your own way and not working for someone else were definitely modeled if not the default. I think if you don’t see that growing up, especially with women in your life, it is hard to make that leap. Most of the female entrepreneurs I know had some early exposure and encouragement to the simple fact that is not only possible for them to start a business — but to outperform most men on how they do it. I think that could be a missing piece of the puzzle.

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

Yes, we have made some changes, though it won’t be fast. The things that could help the most include: Media showcasing more female investors and entrepreneurs (not just like The Dropout obviously). I think cultural change is the fastest, and I’ve seen more and more women jumping into Web3 because of the efforts of movements like BFF that Brit Morin and Jamie Schmidt started and World of Women, so those are all really positive signals! The other piece of the puzzle is Community — BFF is one and there are several others like The What where we all come together, ask questions, teach each other, and help each other grow. I’ve never seen community being as important as it is now, especially for women.

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

Yes! I would just pose it as a question to any women reading this: If you don’t pursue this idea you have or focus on building your business, think about how you will feel when you see it out in the world, and most likely from a male founder who didn’t have the authentic experience but saw the market opportunity? If you don’t do it, think about who will and will they do it better than you.

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

The biggest myth is that everything is an overnight success. Businesses take years of care and feeding before they can cross over to that overnight success moment. It’s all behind the scenes, while the Instagram version of founding a company is incredibly damaging and discouraging.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

This is tough because I genuinely think anyone could be a founder if they find the thing that lights them up the most, the thing that they would never tire of pursuing, day in and day out for years, and the thing that they want to see change the world. But, if you don’t have that thing, and that feeling, I would recommend not doing it because to be a founder requires you to be a little crazy — a little psychic and very very brave to pursue your vision of bringing something new into the world that hasn’t existed before.

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

I love being a co-founder, but damn it is lonely and I wish someone had told me how important it would be to find my people and community to journey with. I remember sitting in front of my laptop nearly in tears from stress and then getting a funny text from a friend who was in the exact same boat. We started doing regular weekly walks and calls and it has been transformative.

When I had my first startup, I really wish someone would have sat me down and told me that taking investor money was just about the same as getting married to them! With Mavin, we had a really interesting ending that could have been so different if we didn’t have one investor involved.

Packaging: I wish someone had told me how ridiculous the packaging industry is and how awful it is for the planet — I didn’t realize just how much plastic was being pushed at me until I really began searching for plastic-free packaging options. It took me 12 weeks to find the right packaging that was also compostable /recyclable and using Post-consumer waste plastic — by far the biggest surprise in this business.

Retail buyers don’t really care about your story: only what you can offer them. I didn’t start to have success until I figured out that this was really much more strategic than just ‘selling’.

That you don’t have to keep one career identity. I had a 25-year career in tech and media behind me, and I completely got in my own way when I was founding Spicewell — because it was food. And I kept telling myself, “well I’m a tech person, and shouldn’t I do a startup in tech?” It took some work, but I finally released that from my brain and had one of the most creative, vibrant times in my career launching Spicewell.

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

I know I have made an impact throughout my career, and I have loved being able to reflect on all of the industries: In advertising, I launched messaging and campaigns that influenced culture and were seen by millions and millions of viewers, in the non-profit sector I put together multi-million partnerships benefiting health data and data privacy, during my Government service I impacted millions of lives across the globe with my strategies, ideas and creativity, and in tech, I founded an ethical company and my ideas have impacted millions of people here too — to have a better understanding of their role in technology. I was asked to create a course on LinkedIn about technology ethics which is now used by Universities and consultancies all over the world and has now been completed by over 10,000 students. As an entrepreneur, we launched a data service in India that over 5 million users accessed for a free mobile data plan. In my board service I have helped steer organizations like the Ad Council and many others to bigger and better strategies. In the venture capital industry, I have deployed more checks to women, immigrants, and people of color founders than most early-stage funds in LA at the time. In finance, I got my Series 63 and 82 licenses to become one of the very few women of color private placement agents in the state. And just wait and see what I do with Spicewell — taking on Big Food and Big Pharma and creating demand for better, cleaner, healthier pantry products.

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.

Great question: Spicewell of course! I think once you see what we have been fed all of these years, the poor ingredients and the toxic elements, you better believe you can not unsee it. I’m here to fight for what I believe in, for my family’s health and to improve health outcomes for everyone, through food and nutrition, and by eating more plants. We can reduce chronic disease. We can reduce climate change. We have the knowledge and we have the ability — we just need to make a few small changes and shift norms. And I definitely know how to do those things. My advisor, Mark Hyman also leads the Food Fix campaign, which is helping to create new norms around our farming practices and lobby interferences. Definitely check it out and donate if you can.

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

I’d love to have lunch with Padma Lakshmi. She’s a hero as a South Asian woman working in food, and I just love her no-BS attitude to politics and culture. She’s so badass! And one day, I hope to meet my hero in finance: Mellody Hobson — I’ve never seen a woman reach the heights of an industry that she has with the style, pace and elegance that she has. Also a complete and utter legend.

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

Thank you so much for the opportunity to spill the tea!

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

Female Founders: LaKendra Smalley of The Global Institute for Coaches & Entrepreneurs On The Five…

Female Founders: LaKendra Smalley of The Global Institute for Coaches & Entrepreneurs On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Hire a business attorney- it’s important that when you do business with anyone that you understand your legal obligations and other people’s legal obligations to you. If you hire a business attorney they can tell you what contracts you need for protecting your Intellectual Property. It also helps you have a different kind of posture as a business owner.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Master Coach LaKendra Smalley.

Master Coach LaKendra Smalley is the CEO and Founder of 7-figure earning life coaching school: The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs. The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs specializes in certifying, training, and hiring life coaches, and intends to employ a life coach in all 195 countries around the globe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once business started picking up with certifying life coaches, it was hard to keep up with everyone’s names. After you certify your first 100 coaches, it can be easier for things to become a blur.. Sometimes, you forget names.

I had a coach fly in for certification that asked me if I knew what her name was, and I realized then and there that I didn’t know anyone’s name. Being a CEO with ADHD, it’s harder for me to learn and remember names, so now everyone wears a nametag.

My mother and my grandmother.They were my highest example of what entrepreneurship looked and sounded like. They taught me about resilience, consistency, and discipline– I learned that through them.

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

Mindset and that big word I don’t agree with: balance. It’s the guilt women feel for having to choose family over business or business over family, instead of choosing what lights them up.

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

1: Hire a life coach.

2: Society not putting so much pressure on a woman having to choose between one or the other, family over business.

3: Government having more resources to help women start a business without having to sacrifice taking care of her family. If the government does this, she won’t have to make that sacrifice because she will have those financial resources.

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

It will extend her legacy and give her a greater purpose. It’s not only men that can leave a legacy of wealth to their families- women should be able to do that too. Becoming a female founder will allow her to leave her name in history.

My grandmother was the first black woman to work in the assembly line at Texas Instrument- her name will forever be in history.

My mother was the first black flight attendant student that graduated in her class.

I am the first black woman authorized by Medicaid to hire qualified life coaches to offer mental health services.

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

That entrepreneurship is glamorous.

The glamor comes at the end- it is never at the beginning.

It’s long hours; it’s a huge sacrifice of your time, family, and sometimes your own health, but if you can survive it: it’s all worth it in the end.

You have to be a visionary. And not just that, you have to be able to see the vision and execute the vision.

You have to have resilience, innovation, and passion.

You also need to know your weaknesses and not hide from them. When you know your weaknesses and don’t hide from them, you won’t have the fear of putting people in place to help with your business. Self-awareness is key to being a successful female founder, and part of that self-awareness involves knowing what you need to pass off to those that are more qualified.

You also have to be responsible for doing your “inside” work. Your desire for personal development needs to be as strong as your desire to make money.

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

Your personal growth and/or lack thereof can affect the growth of your business
Outsource earlier- I know many people feel they aren’t in the position to do that yet, but you can. There’s never not a way. Instead of saying “I can’t do it”, say “how can this be done”. You can find interns, you can barter, give gifts and exchange services. You need to come into business thinking “we” not “me”- think team.
Hire a business attorney- it’s important that when you do business with anyone that you understand your legal obligations and other people’s legal obligations to you. If you hire a business attorney they can tell you what contracts you need for protecting your Intellectual Property. It also helps you have a different kind of posture as a business owner.
Legal advice is also needed before starting your business.
Redefine the word “hustle”/ work-life balance- I would have personalized what that word meant for me instead of running myself into the ground. Redefine it to fit your business and yourself as a CEO.

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

I am working to have a Certified Life Coach represented in all 195 countries.

If there’s one radical Change-Agent, Thought-Leader, Influencer, or Decision-Maker represented in every country with the heart of a Life Coach; the expansion of their heart will infinitely penetrate one child, one person, one family, and one community at a time, and what a better place this world would be.

My vision for The Global Institute for Coaches and Entrepreneurs has always been to have one one million life coaches around the globe.

I was given this vision of bringing the entire world together to expand love and compassion into the hearts of leaders wanting to make our world a better place. I had no idea how I could do that until I found life coaching. I found that in order to make the world better, I had to become better. I needed to be more responsible for the life I was living by limiting my suffering, which expanded more to loving myself better. I am the “better world” I was looking for all of this time. Now, I am teaching others how to become their “better world.” Life coaching is God’s profession. It teaches you how to love through the expansion of self, which makes you responsible for helping others to do the same.

Jay Z, Puff Daddy, and Jay Shetty.

Jay Z- to me, Jay Z really represents what’s possible for me. Him coming from poverty to being a billionaire and expanding himself beyond just rap- it’s just amazing and captivating for me.

Puff Daddy- to me, he is freaking radical. He is the example that you can reinvent yourself however many times you want to, and I love how he unapologetically expresses love.

Jay Shetty- in my late 20’s I was mentored by a monk, and I would love to be able to sit down with Jay because he’s transitioned over into a new platform. I’d like to be able to be enlightened by him and hear his takes on healing world suffering.

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

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

Female Disruptors: Mitchella Gilbert of OYA Femtech Apparel On The Three Things You Need To Shake…

Female Disruptors: Mitchella Gilbert of OYA Femtech Apparel On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t take negative decisions or bad news personally. I am sensitive and I’m hard worker. So, when I get back news it’s easy for me to feel defeated or angry. Not taking things personally is a reminder that not everything is in your control and that sometimes people are just going through things, and they can inadvertently harm you. It doesn’t mean that they always intended to be hurtful.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Mitchella Gilbert, CEO of OYA Femtech Apparel.

Mitchella “Mitch” Gilbert is an inclusive product designer who is obsessed with women’s health and sportswear. She attended the UCLA Anderson School of Management after earning a full scholarship to build her startup, OYA Femtech Apparel, a sportswear company fighting feminine health issues (i.e., yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, and UTI’s) with patented designs and textiles. Mitch started OYA because she loved exercise, but suffered from recurring feminine health issues. Her OB/GYN explained that her issues were because of her tight, non-breathable, non-moisture absorbent leggings. Research has shown that leggings and other spandex-based women’s sportswear create environments for pathogens to thrive, and after seeing that no sportswear company was addressing this issue, she went to work on a solution: a new legging that had a breathable, replaceable pad and panels that promote ventilation around the inner thigh. Our legging is now patent-pending. We are on our third collection of tops and bottoms that absorb moisture, decrease bacteria, and increase natural ventilation

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 am an inclusive product designer who is obsessed with women’s health and sportswear. I attended the UCLA Anderson School of Management after earning a full scholarship to build my startup OYA Femtech Apparel. OYA is a Nigerian goddess of rebirth, fertility, and storms. I thought OYA was a great name for a sportswear company fighting feminine health issues (i.e., yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, UTI’s, etc.) with patent-pending designs and textiles.

I have 6+ years of experience in tech/product design/retail across Deloitte, Nike, and Lululemon. I am also a UCLA John Wooden Fellow who graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy.

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

OYA Femtech Apparel is sportswear that fights feminine health issues. Our patentable designs and fabrics absorb moisture, reduce bacteria, and increase natural ventilation. Our patent-pending leggings are the first to be designed with doctors to combat the $21B that US women spent last year dealing with feminine health issues (e.g., yeast infections, urinary incontinence, bacterial vaginosis, and urinary tract infections).

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

The funniest mistake is hard because I am type A and mistakes hurt my spirit. That said, in our first collection we launched a Prussian blue legging. When picking out the color, my production manager gave me a very firm lesson about the differences between the colors Prussian blue and teal. The lesson involved a color wheel, strongly Russian accented English, and vigorous pointing. At the time I felt attacked, but looking back I realize how ridiculous the entire scenario was.

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?

OYA is the birth child of many mentors. Our most active mentor has been Kyrie O’Connor Stillman. She’s a very proud, thoughtful, and detail-oriented marketing leader. She helped us think through our initial branding. She attended pitch competitions and drove sales. She gave me pump up talks and even went as far to help me pick out my groceries when I was too focused on work to eat.

Kyrie helped us raise our initial round of funding (which is hard for women of color) and create the OYA spirit.

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?

Femtech and the impacts of femtech research on women’s health is a positive “disruption”. Women are often overlooked in medical research and product design, so we often suffer the consequences.

Conversely, the latest SCOTUS ruling on Roe vs. Wade is an example of a negative disruption. Women are working so hard to gain equality in the workplace and to have control over their bodies. This ruling “disruption” was an attack on the progress women have made over the past few decades since the initial Roe vs. Wade decision.

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

#1 — Don’t take negative decisions or bad news personally. I am sensitive and I’m hard worker. So, when I get back news it’s easy for me to feel defeated or angry. Not taking things personally is a reminder that not everything is in your control and that sometimes people are just going through things, and they can inadvertently harm you. It doesn’t mean that they always intended to be hurtful.

#2 — Seek stability in your relationships and #3) establish clear boundaries when relationships threaten your stability. The strongest brands are typically made of the same strong teammates who have stayed together across time. This low teammate (or employee) turnover requires proactive communication, expectation setting, giving generously, and establishing efficient processes. Stable, long-term relationships will hold you accountable while helping you grow.

That said, certain relationships in your life can lead to a lot of bad feelings. It is your job to own up to those feelings and establish boundaries so you can protect your stability and mental health. For example, sometimes in the past, I automatically cut people off who threatened my stability. Now I have realized that I could still salvage a relationship as long as I was able to manage how they interacted with me in the future.

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

I’m going to build a tech solution that helps make domestic manufacturing an easier process.

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

Society wants to put people with less power (i.e., women, people of color, disabled people, people from lower socioeconomic classes, etc.) into boxes. When people who traditionally have less power seek to break out of those boxes, they are “troublemakers.” Society then builds a lot of systems (including shame, limited access to capital, racism, sexism, etc.) to keep “troublemakers” in their boxes.

Women “disruptors,” unlike their male counterparts, must first fight our internal dialogue that we are we are supposed to stay in our boxes and that we are “troublemakers” if we break out of our boxes. Then we are supposed to fight society’s systems to keep us in our boxes. These are difficult feats, and it requires a lot of education, communal support, and capital to break women “disruptors” out of our boxes.

Some women don’t make it out because the lift is too great. Conversely, men are often rewarded for being “disruptive,” because they are considered innovative and aspirational.

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

I love the Jocko podcast. He’s a retired Navy Seal instructor. His biggest teachings are that discipline equals freedom and decentralized command.

I love to actually listen to the same Jocko compilation video every morning when getting ready. It reminds me that I am heading into the battle of my day and that I will win because I control my mind and I attack problems with a team.

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. 🙂

If I could inspire a movement, it would be to honor vaginas with love, care, and respect because vaginas are more often dishonored with indifference and shame.

Honoring vaginas would lead to good because everyone is attached to a woman. And lifting up women to be healthier and happier would lead to a happier and kinder world.

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

I heard this from a motivational video, so I am not sure of the speaker. But the quote is:

“I just knew in my heart to just go. So I did it, no questions asked. And it was not a picnic. The rise up is tough. But it’s who you become in the process when you’re chasing that unknown. When you eliminate fear. So my offering is to go analyze what you love to do and to go chase it. Because making money should not be your focus. To do something that you don’t really love to make money. Because all that is is a transference of stress… The money will come when you are really good at something… When you really have an effect. Because that will create a polarizing effect in people. They will be drawn to you. And you cannot be really good at something if you don’t love what you’re doing.”

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellagilbert/. You can follow our IG and TikTok @WearOYA

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

Female Disruptors: Mitchella Gilbert of OYA Femtech Apparel On The Three Things You Need To Shake… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dr Anjali Agrawal of Back In Balance: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your…

Dr Anjali Agrawal of Back In Balance: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Practice gratitude daily. Pick your top 3–5 things that you are most grateful for in this moment. If you can’t think of something, start with gratitude for the basic essentials- air, food, water, shelter, and clothing. Like other muscles that need to be exercised, the more you express gratitude, the more you will find to be grateful for.

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

Dr. Anjali Agrawal is a non-cracking, non-popping chiropractor who helps families navigate their journey from conception to adulthood, holistically. She uses gentle chiropractic adjustments, functional nutrition, ergonomics, and unique diagnostic testing to identify the root cause of one’s symptoms rather than simply covering them up. Dr. Anjali is the founder and owner of Back In Balance.

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

Of course, and thank you for having me!

Since childhood, I had decided that I wanted to become a doctor. However, after volunteering in various departments at a world renowned hospital throughout high school, I began to feel like there was a disconnect. I still entered undergrad with a pre-med focus, but I was really looking for something more natural and holistic. I was ultimately introduced to the chiropractic profession while in undergrad, and after that, I knew that I had found my path.

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

Well it may not be the most interesting, but it certainly remains a story that has stuck with me all these years: After graduating from chiropractic college, I had joined some colleagues in Mexico for a clinic trip. We were working with hundreds of people a day, and we had translators to help us understand what the issue was, as well as to then explain the basics of what we were doing. So on day 4 of our trip, a lady comes in to the area where I was working and hands me a cake. My translator helped explain that this lady is a professional baker, but for years, she had experienced low back pain every time she went to open or close the oven door. However, since her first chiropractic adjustment two days prior, she was finally able to move freely, without any pain! She was so happy that she wanted to bring me a cake! I had certainly seen some awesome changes for people prior to that day, but this brief encounter helped remind me of the body’s amazing potential to heal if we can simply provide a nudge in the right direction!

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

While I was an intern in the outpatient clinic at my chiropractic college, a man came in complaining of left shoulder pain. I did my evaluation and I started adjusting the right side of his neck. When I started doing some soft tissue work to help relax the muscle tightness on his right side, he stopped me to remind me that his pain was actually in his left shoulder, not on the right side of his neck. It was a valuable reminder to me to communicate with people as I am working on them that just because we have pain or symptoms in a particular location, it doesn’t mean that the root cause is coming from that same area. The humorous part was that when I met my husband years later, he mentioned that he was having some low back pain. When at first I mentioned that he may also want to have his neck checked out, he thought I misheard him. That made me smile, because even though he wasn’t my patient, I was reminded once again of the importance of educating the general public about what chiropractors do. =)

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

This will sound biased, but I truly believe that chiropractors are already unique in the field of wellness. While there are a number of amazing ways to work on the body’s musculature, chiropractors are uniquely trained to correct the alignment of the spine and other bones in the body, thereby directly impacting the nervous system.

However, there are four main aspects which make my personal contribution unique:

First of all, I personally adjust people using low force techniques, which means no popping, cracking, or sudden movements, allowing the adjustments to hold for a longer period of time. Many people are often very nervous about having their neck adjusted, so I find the low force techniques are very effective at getting past the already tight muscles. Second, I work primarily with women throughout their prenatal/postpartum journey along with working with children starting from the newborn stage. While many women are aware of prenatal massages, many don’t realize that chiropractic adjustment have been shown to be extremely effective with optimizing fetal positioning, helping with sciatica, and even addressing issues such as growing pains for kids. I truly appreciate the opportunity to help families create a strong foundation from the start, so that we can raise a new generation of kids who can start shifting the needle away from the current trend of health challenges. Third, I integrate functional nutrition to optimize the communication pathway along with optimizing the function of the organs in the body. Lastly, I have spent over a decade going to various companies to perform ergonomic assessments. What we do the bulk of our time will have the greatest impact on our body. Just as we cannot out-train a bad diet, we similarly cannot undo eight hours of daily static poor posture with one hour of exercise. Helping people understand how to optimize their movements and posture throughout the day helps set the stage for success.

I have so many people to be grateful for, but I’ll go back to the beginning of my professional journey and express gratitude to my Dad. The majority of my childhood was spent with me declaring that I wanted to become a doctor, and we all (myself included) assumed that I meant medical doctor. When I was later introduced to chiropractic, I told my parents that I wanted to switch gears a bit, and instead of having M.D. behind my name, it would be D.C.. This pivot made my Dad really skeptical as we didn’t actually know any chiropractors, so this led to a lot of uncertainty as to whether or not I was joining a legitimate profession and ultimately, whether or not I would have financial stability. He asked me to explore various arenas of medicine and to talk with a variety of practitioners to help make a more informed decision. After doing so, I knew definitively that I wanted to pursue chiropractic instead of medicine.

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

I think we often strive for perfection, trying to incorporate too many changes too quickly which is ultimately overwhelming. I often tell people that there’s ideal, and then there’s reality. Let’s try to make reality more ideal one step at a time. Even if it’s a small step, that’s progress. If we can stay consistent with a small goal, we can celebrate that and that motivates us to keep going. But you have to stay the course and trust the process.
We have self-created limiting beliefs, like “it will be too difficult”, or “it probably won’t work”, or “it’s normal to have more symptoms as we get older.” So we have already convinced our brain that what we are about to do isn’t going to work anyway and then we become destined to fail.
Following a cookie-cutter approach. We’re all amazingly unique individuals, so while there are general concepts which are more universal (such as the things you’ve mentioned in the question), we have to look at what is working and right for us. I had a new practice member come in years back, and she was frustrated because she had been making great efforts to start eating very healthy six months prior but wasn’t losing weight. So we looked at what she had been eating before her change of diet, and did some evaluations to ultimately determine that while her diet was now good, her digestive and endocrine system needed a lot more support. Within two weeks of working together, she was very excited to see the changes in her body.

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

Chew your food. Ideally if you can break the food down in your mouth until it liquifies, then the enzymes in our saliva can start working on digesting our food right away rather than leaving the burden of the work on our stomach and the rest of the digestive system. Trying to count the number of chews (ideally approximately 32 times for most foods) will allow you to slow down and give your brain a break from work as well.
Get to sleep before 11pm. Your liver needs to start detoxing from the daytime activities, so getting to sleep before 11pm sets the stage for optimal rest and repair.
Take a 2 minute water & stretch break every hour. I’m a firm believer that micro breaks throughout the day help break up and retrain our muscle memory patterns much more effectively than focusing on a 30 or 60 minute workout once a day. The micro breaks also then allow for us to have movement and get hydrated in regular intervals. Ideally if you’ve been sitting, I would suggest standing up, drinking water and doing a stretch while standing. If you have a couple of minutes to march in place or walk, great! But if not, that’s ok too! If you’ve been standing, sit down, drink some water and do some stretches while sitting. You can rotate through various stretches throughout the day or even just repeat the same one or two stretches, whatever feels better for you! My husband still sets an hourly alarm on his phone to help remind him to drink some water and stretch. Even if he misses an alarm here or there, he has still gotten in the bulk of his water intake for the day rather than trying to catch up right before going to sleep.
Practice gratitude daily. Pick your top 3–5 things that you are most grateful for in this moment. If you can’t think of something, start with gratitude for the basic essentials- air, food, water, shelter, and clothing. Like other muscles that need to be exercised, the more you express gratitude, the more you will find to be grateful for.
Visit your chiropractor! Chiropractors work to help your nervous system function more optimally by correcting structural misalignments, typically in your spine. Since your nervous system literally controls every aspect of your body, wouldn’t it be great if you could have an optimally functioning nervous system?

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

Use it, or lose it! People often ask me if arthritis or degeneration in their joints is just a normal part of aging. The short answer is that, no, we are not destined to have arthritis simply because of age. Actually what happens is that if we have too much mobility in a joint (like if you try to “crack” your own neck or back), or if you are a pro athlete and using that joint in fairly full capacity often, your body perceives that as an area that needs to be stabilized, and ultimately starts to create extra bone growth to limit the movement in said joints. Conversely, if you have static postures all day and don’t move much, your brain interprets that to mean that you don’t really need to move those joints after all and again starts to create extra bone growth to stabilize the area. For muscles, let’s say that you are in a cast for several weeks. When the cast is removed, most likely the muscles will have atrophied a bit from lack of use during that time. If you take effort to correct that, you can certainly build muscle again. However the longer the period of lack of use, the more time it takes to build the muscles back up.
Better sleep — I love the feeling of being physically tired and falling asleep with ease! Sleep is when our cells can rest and repair. With so many people having challenges with falling and/or staying asleep, wouldn’t it be great if you could assist the process by getting a little more movement in your day?
Improved mood — Besides the endorphin release and the chemical reactions which take place, I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I’ve completed my workout. Regardless of the length or the specific activity, I feel like we should take time to recognize and appreciate these wins!

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

I believe that the best exercise is one which you can be consistent with. So while that might look different for each person, here would be a couple of concepts which I would suggest to keep in mind:

Cross body movements, i.e. walking without holding anything (or holding equal weights in your hands) where your right arm can move forward along with your left leg and vice versa. This allows our brain to reintegrate the connection with the rest of our body. However, if you hold a water bottle in one hand, for example, the bottle will limit the movement in which your arm can move so the reintegration on that side becomes limited. In that situation, I would suggest switching your bottle to the other hand halfway through your exercise.
Push Up — against the wall, on the ground, on your knees, single-handed, etc. — pick whatever position feels right for your body and gives you a bit of challenge. It’s a great whole body workout that can be done anywhere!
Stretching — Many people often think of strength training or cardiovascular workouts when it comes to exercise, but often overlook the importance of stretching, particularly after a workout. I’ve taken many different exercise classes over the years, and even in the various sporting events in school, the emphasis of stretching was always placed at the beginning of the class. While you want to make sure to warm up your muscles, I think it is extremely important to stretch the contracted muscle after exercise so that you can regain your muscle length after strengthening. As I mentioned earlier, even if you can take a micro break and stretch for one minute every hour throughout the day, that will make a significant difference in your circulation, flexibility and overall musculoskeletal system.

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

There are so many amazing books to pick from, but I’ll actually share two of my favorites, if that’s okay: The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton, PhD, and The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne. Dr. Lipton was a pioneer in showing the scientific connection between the mind, body and spirit and the cellular impact of our thoughts. Regarding The Secret, while many people have talked about the law of attraction, I really appreciated the examples which Ms. Byrne shared — it made it much easier for me to start implementing those concepts into my life.

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

Oh wow! My dream is to redefine “health”care by creating wellness centers providing integrative, (w)holistic care for families focusing on preventative, long-term wellness physically, mentally, and financially.

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

“The body achieves what the mind believes.” I feel like this quote accurately sums up the essence of the two books that I shared above. Whatever the topic is, be it health, wealth, love, etc., I feel that if we can stay out of our own head (in terms of overthinking, overanalyzing, etc.), that there really are no boundaries to what we are capable of! I haven’t shared this story much, but when I was 17, I was preparing to perform my solo South Indian classical debut dance performance. The night before the performance during the rehearsal, I started experiencing some ankle pain out of the blue! In all my years of dancing, I had never experienced anything like that. We all decided that we would carry forward with the show and my teacher told me to just go home and visualize the entire performance in my head, exactly as I had been practicing it, going through each piece mentally. The next day was the big performance and besides the standard performance nerves, everything was going smoothly until my final piece where the bandage I had wrapped on my foot started to unravel. I could feel something was odd, but otherwise felt fine. Since in my head I felt that I was okay, I continued dancing and it was only upon completion that I was able to see the bandage had started unraveling. I am grateful that in that moment, my mind stayed calm, allowing my body to complete my performance, albeit with a little dramatic flair for the audience. =)

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

I’ve always admired Deepak Chopra’s work. I think he has done a phenomenal job to bring spiritual wellness into the foreground.

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

The best way is to follow me is on LinkedIn (Dr. Anjali Agrawal) or via my website BackInBalanceHealth.com.

Thank you so much for this opportunity!

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

Dr Anjali Agrawal of Back In Balance: 5 Lifestyle Tweaks That Can Dramatically Improve Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Helen Whait of ActivOT On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Don’t let fear hold you back!” I’ve really learned to feel the fear and do it anyway. I love Henry Ford’s quote, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you’re right…”. It’s all in the mindset and self belief. A lot of it comes down to acknowledging and understanding where the fear comes from — it’s a sign that something is important to you! However, in those moments of fear, it’s always about what you choose to do next. You can give into that fear, be paralysed by it. Or you can take the leap. I’ve learned to leap!

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

For more than a decade, Helen Whait has been disrupting the way occupational therapists work in Australia. As the founder of Australia’s first occupational therapy franchise business, Helen gives occupational therapists the tools and support to build incredible businesses that provide life-changing services to over 4000 clients. Helen is an award-winning occupational therapist and franchisor, and above all else, she is passionate about practising occupational therapy the way it was always meant to be practised– with a focus on the whole person– without the unnecessary bureaucracy, KPIs, and paperwork that achieves nothing for the client.

My career began 30 years ago after I graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Occupational Therapy. After a decade of experience working as an occupational therapist in a variety of settings, I founded my first private practice in 2002. In the ten years that followed, I learned about the many opportunities and pitfalls of private practice to provide work-life balance and prevent burnout– as well as improve client care. In 2012, I founded Australia’s first and only occupational therapy franchise business– ActivOT– as a mum with three young sons. I wanted to offer a business model that would empower occupational therapists to achieve true work-life balance and the tools, systems and support to succeed in their own practices without burning out. In November 2022, ActivOT will be celebrating ten years of franchising.

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

In 2012, franchising in allied health was virtually unheard of, but I was convinced it was the answer. Not only could it provide much-needed support and guidance for occupational therapists, but it could deliver better outcomes for our clients. Ten years later, ActivOT has more than 45 franchisees and is growing rapidly.

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?

To be honest, there isn’t a one single, standout moment that comes to mind! Like everyone jumping in and starting a business, it’s been a real learning journey. Starting up Australia’s first occupational therapist franchise, there was no play book to follow and those mistakes did cost some time and money — so I’ve (finally!) learned to laugh at some of those mistakes along the way! When you’re shaking up your industry and forging a new path, a good sense of humour and a positive mindset is a serious must-have!

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

I’ve struck some serious luck when it comes to finding my people along the journey.

A key mentor has been Tamsin Simounds, an incredible people strategist and executive coach. I often say that I asked the universe for a sign and, in Tamsin, the universe really delivered! Back when I was juggling paying bills, feeding kids and a lot of consulting work, I happened across one of her leadership courses. Naturally, I couldn’t afford the course — let alone the time off! — so we agreed that if Tamsin couldn’t fill the last spot then I could have it on a reduced rate and on a payment plan. Lo behold, a spot was free, I got in and it changed my life — and, more importantly, my mindset! I faced some serious fears, refined my performance and, from there, everything just took off. Having Tamsin in my corner, still today, is invaluable.

I’m a big believer in surrounding yourself with the best and brightest. And I nailed that in bringing our marketing guru, Danae Sinclair-Jones, into the ActivOT team. In Danae I found someone who understood me and the ActivOT brand and values. Put simply, our business wouldn’t be where it is without her expertise, insights and passion for what we do. Danae makes magic every day and I have complete trust in her judgement.

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’ll admit it, I love a bit of disruption! Before I started ActivOT, my industry was stuck in a complete rut with the same old systems and approaches. By switching it up and helping occupational therapists to become successful business owners, we’re creating change for therapists and clients alike. We’re creating business owners that are advocates for their community and clients, not simply healthcare practitioners bogged down in paperwork and bureaucracy.

That said, the values that underpin our work in the health space — our commitment to client care and wellbeing — should never face disruption. Client-centred care should always remain the foundational pillar of our work. Through our franchise model, I believe we’re better supporting occupational therapists to support their communities.

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

“Don’t let fear hold you back!” I’ve really learned to feel the fear and do it anyway. I love Henry Ford’s quote, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t you’re right…”. It’s all in the mindset and self belief. A lot of it comes down to acknowledging and understanding where the fear comes from — it’s a sign that something is important to you! However, in those moments of fear, it’s always about what you choose to do next. You can give into that fear, be paralysed by it. Or you can take the leap. I’ve learned to leap!

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do” — This is a gem from the one and only Steve Jobs. I read this quote a while back and it really stuck with me. As ActivOT has grown and expanded in the most incredible way, it’s my north star when it comes to my team and potential new business owners. I’m big on bringing the right people on board, it’s the key to create a culture, and it’s foundational to the success of ActivOT.

“Don’t be limited by how others do things — bring your own vision to life!” Although I’ve created an incredible, Australia-first occupational therapist franchise, I don’t neatly fit into the franchise world and I’m doing something very different from the traditional healthcare service model and franchise model. If I’d constrained myself to the way it’s always been done, none of this would be possible.

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

There are no signs of slowing down, that’s for sure! Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we’re continuing to experience significant growth, with more occupational therapists choosing ActivOT and becoming business owners, as well as significant increase in client referrals.

In fact, after the Great Resignation, we’re seeing more and more health professionals who want to take control and start their own business. So we’re making sure we can capture that demand and scale our business in a sustainable way, while continuing to provide the tools and support to our business owners and their clients.

Ultimately, it’s about the people we bring into ActivOT and the values we live by — honestly without those two things, we’d have nothing.

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

Where do I start?! Although our industry is largely female-dominated, with women making up roughly 90 per cent of occupational therapists, we still face challenges. Certainly our time is still not valued as much as men, we know that women-dominated industries often earn less. As women in a ‘caring’ industry, we’re expected to behave in a certain way — there’s an expectation that we’ll be giving which isn’t placed on our male counterparts. On top of that, I feel that women still often face wildly unequal domestic labour. Often, I believe we feel like we’re trying to prove ourselves. That whole mindfield doesn’t leave a lot of time for disrupting!

Prior to starting ActivOT in 2002, I often faced the ‘boys club’ in my previous workplaces. It was a huge roadblock and I was left no option other than to totally step away to continue on this journey outside of that environment. Certainly in ActivOT, I’m working hard to give women the freedom to shake up the game as they see fit. It’s a huge part of our values.

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

Without a doubt, Janine Allis’ Super Women We Ain’t podcast. It’s one of those podcasts where you find yourself actually nodding along!

Janine’s approach definitely made me feel less alone — and a little less scary! I laughed out loud when she shared that she hid in the bathroom to escape children and get those last few emails out. As a single mum with three young children once upon a time, I honestly thought I was the only one who had taken it to those extremes!

Janine’s focus on health and commitment to self care after her own health scare is also hugely inspirational. It’s something I take seriously myself — having been diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenia in 2015 — and I believe it’s a need, not a want. I take it seriously with my franchisees too, ensuring that we’re there when they need to take a break and checking in if something seems wrong. The health and wellbeing of our franchisees is everything.

I can’t leave out Emma Isaacs’ incredible book, Winging It. It made such an impact that I wrote to her and she wrote back! Her stove-top analogy — where each burner represents an area of life, like family or business — was a total light bulb moment. After all you can’t have all burners on high heat all at once! It’s always been a strong reminder to give my high-achieving tendencies a little break! Her tips on networking were also a total god-send. I recommend her book to anyone!

Fundamentally, the movement I’m most passionate about is kindness. As an occupational therapist, working with people from all walks of life, I know firsthand that a little kindness can go a long way. My email signature reads, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind”. It’s about showing kindness to others and yourself.

I encourage my franchisees to be kind to themselves too — after all, well people help make other people well. Our therapists need work-life balance and flexibility. There is a natural kindness in giving yourself that.

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

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right” from Henry Ford is my tried and true go-to quote for life.

For me, at times throughout my business journey, mindset has been my worst enemy and my best friend. I’ve often got stuck in my own head, it happens to the best of us! Once I realised I could get out of my own way, everything changed.

So now I always come back to this quote as a not-so-subtle reminder that if it’s to be, it’s up to me — to borrow another one! Whether I’m facing challenges or jumping on crucial opportunities, tackling things with the right mindset is the real game-changer.

How can our readers follow you online?

Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit ActivOT’s website to read all about our work.

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

Female Disruptors: Helen Whait of ActivOT 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.

Female Founders: Vera Oh of VOESH New York On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Vera Oh of VOESH New York On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them. This is something I learned from the book “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Sometimes, we are busy making new products and assume people understand, but it doesn’t work that way.

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

Co-CEO and founder of Voesh New York and glowoasis.

Thank you for having me! My career started off at Samsung as a heavy equipment designer. I was actually the very first female heavy equipment/machinery designer at that time. In this role, I had to find a way to succeed during my first career in a male dominated space. Mixing the safety and technologies with the understanding the needs from the machinery drivers made me approach the design from a very different perspective. Next, I was also a Principal at Design Continuum-Design, a strategy and consulting firm. It was a blessing to join the firm to learn design strategy, innovation and its impact for business overall for some key industry leaders like BMW, Philips, Samsung Electronics and more.

Then, my career led me into my own business, which grossed to about $80 in revenue from $0. I actually came up with the idea during a business trip to Berlin on the plane! However, despite the business growing, I struggled with an autoimmune disorder and my health worsened. From then on, naturally I felt I wanted to create something which can make people healthier and safer. That is how Voesh was started.

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

In the fall 2013, my partner, Joseph and I realized we had spent all of our savings to develop our products, patent applications, and purchase inventory. For our two revolutionary pedicure products, we only had a few customers in New York and the New York weather was getting too chilly for pedicures.

One chilly morning, we knew something had to be done but we were speechless the whole morning. In the afternoon, Joseph told me “Give me a week, I need to go somewhere where snow never falls”.

With that statement, Joseph made his way all the way down to Florida. Trunk full of samples and head full of determination, he stopped by every state and every beauty supply store he possibly could. Along the way, he met people and made connections

with respectful people, who couldn’t be more excited about our products, believed us and were willing to help us. That’s how we could start distributing our products to all states, not just locally. We couldn’t agree more about the famous quote “when one door closes, another door opens”.

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?

Before we officially launch our products, we acquired a tiny booth at our very first trade show in Chicago. We were faced with tough questions and tougher critics, as not knowing what to expect and unprepared for any basic technical questions. One customer asked me “What preservatives do you use”? I had no idea and I could only answer “I do not know”. At that moment, reality struck and I realized this is not right. Starting that day, I slept and woke up with a pile of chemical research next to me and had daily meetings with our labs. The “I don’t know”s became knowledgeable answers. I made sure questions were not left unanswered.

We are grateful to all of our customers, who are our best critics. They helped in many ways to improve our products and services. I start my daily routine by carefully reading our customers’ feedback about our products and our services.

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

There are multiple obstacles holding women back from starting companies. First, women are generally unfairly disadvantaged in the business world due to less opportunities given. True equality is long overdue. Second, when women reach their prime in their careers, many women get to a place where they have to choose between work or having children. For decades, it has been a choice of work or having a family. I have seen some high-level women having to cut their maternity leave to a few weeks and working non stop even during their short leave, which is not ideal at all and holds them back. Third, there is a misconception that entrepreneurship is a male occupation. Equality is better off than ever in history but still women need to put more effort to prove themselves as leaders of an organization because the vast majority of the leaders are still men.

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

I think individuals, especially women founders, should mentor and offer fair opportunities FOR other women. At VOESH, we are a female-dominated company and equal opportunities are very important to all of us. We encourage our team to take full maternity leave and our team does a fantastic job stepping up and supporting each other when a team member is on maternity leave. Plus, thanks to the evolution of online and virtual work, our team works from home and has the flexibility to take care of their families. We’ve been working remotely for 2 years and 7 months, and we haven’t seen any reduction in productivity.

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

Yes, absolutely! From some statistics, women grow their businesses faster and create more jobs than men. According to women-owned businesses statistics, female companies have increased revenue by a good 84% since the beginning compared to men’s businesses of 78%. Female founders or owners bring different perspectives to the business and make an impact on the community. Based on this report, female entrepreneurs are often less motivated by financial gain and more likely to prioritize corporate social responsibility. With more female entrepreneurs and founders, our world can be a better place to live. However, definitely any coalition must also include everyone — men, women, and anyone in between.

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

We have lives outside of work. Our brains may work longer, but we’re regular people, too!

From my experience, many successful executives are insightful. Business environments, customers’ behavior, and business tools are evolving on a daily basis. Without continuous learning, it will be hard to lead a company in the right way. The successful executives learn not just skills, but they understand the deeper level of the information. It gives them the confidence to make proper decisions with flexibility.

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

1. You will pay the tuition fee. Your mistakes are the tuition fee you will pay. It’s better to experiment earlier rather than later.

2. Competitors are not your enemies. Good competition is actually a blessing for your business.

3. Finding good people is hard. You should invest a lot of time and effort to find the right people that fit your company needs and culture.

4. It’s okay to make mistakes. But never leave them unfixed. Also, try to learn from every experience and don’t make the same mistakes twice.

5. Never assume people understand how your brand can change their lives. Tell them. This is something I learned from the book “Building a StoryBrand” by Donald Miller. Sometimes, we are busy making new products and assume people understand, but it doesn’t work that way.

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

Several years ago, I was invited by one of the board members to be a part of a foundation called Binchae. I had the opportunity to contribute my time and money to help feed hungry children in developing countries. They recently reached 54 million meals that they have provided to children in Nepal, India, and Africa. VOESH New York constantly donates 2% of our e-commerce sales to the foundation. In the last year, we started supporting Charity : Water, an organization that helps bring clean drinking water to impoverished areas by building biosand filters to eliminate harmful bacteria.

If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, it would be “Believe in yourself.” Love yourself and accept yourself as you are. Just be authentic.

Tim Cook! Steve Jobs is one of the most famous CEOs ever. After Steve Jobs, many people thought Apple’s innovation would be gone. However, Tim Cook showed his leadership by trusting people around him and truly understanding the core of Apple

(not just about the products, but more about the customers and his team). He has shown his leadership very differently from Steve Jobs in such an amazing way!

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

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

Female Founders: Felicity Evans of IMBIBE On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Felicity Evans of IMBIBE On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

I wish someone had told me to get a good accountant from Day 1 as it costs a lot more to unwind a bad accounting error than it does to create the right process from the start.

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

IMBIBE, a global source for wellness, inner and topical beauty was founded by CEO Felicity Evans through an urgent need for a personal lifestyle and wellness shift. After being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that had affected all parts of her inner and outer health — her gut, her skin, her hair, Felicity had reached a point where she didn’t know which way to turn. Following the diagnosis, the determination to radically change her lifestyle, diet and routine was ignited and IMBIBE Living was born. After spending countless hours scouring the web and struggling to find clean, effective and clinically performing products, she decided to make it her mission to create her own range of bio-available, probiotic, antioxidant collagen elixirs, and powders as well a growing topical range that looks to nourish and support all areas of your body for a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

I run a Byron Bay based Beauty company called IMBIBE, which was founded very humbly in 2014 at my kitchen table with my two-year-old at my heels, and my second daughter strapped to my chest. I was at the breaking point in my journey to wellness after being diagnosed with an autoimmune condition that affected nearly every part of my life. I knew I needed to find a way to bridge the gap between my depleted health and the vitality I knew I needed to keep up with the demands of being a mum. I searched far and wide to source clean, effective products that would help me on my journey, but everything I found was packed with fillers and excipients which didn’t have the science and high-performance product profile I was looking for. So, I decided to make my own.

There was no clean path, in fact everything about my career path to date has been non-linear. I have followed my obsessions and gut instincts and let the rest unfold.

Since IMBIBE’s inception, we have been fuelling the clean beauty industry with high quality formulations, clinical results and delivering our customers the natural luminosity they deserve, from the inside out. Driven by efficacy, naturally-sourced ingredients, clean design, science-backed formulations and sustainable choices, the company has now grown into the supplements, skincare and sexual wellness powerhouse it is today. We pair sustainable business practices with science-backed product formulations.

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

There are so many experiences and pathways that I never imagined myself to be in, that lead to the launch of IMBIBE. However, I would say my autoimmune diagnosis, as terrifying and daunting as it was, was the lifestyle change and ignition moment for me that led to creating the company. I had to change my lifestyle, my habits, my routine — everything. Without this, IMBIBE would have never been born. I guess this was a pure indication that everything in life truly does happen for a reason!

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

The funniest mistake I made when I was starting out — well it wasn’t that funny at the time, but in hindsight it is — I started out fermenting drinks in my kitchen to make probiotic drinks, which have since evolved into our Probiotic Concentrate, Beauty Renewal.

In the process of fermentation, loads of bubbles and effervescence are created and I therefore had so many exploding and burping bottles — sometimes they would explode in the fridge of the shops I was retailing at.

The lesson I learned is that your own homemade drinks are great — but to scale and get a footing in the commercial space, the product needs to be consistent every time for the consumer to trust you. That is the difficulty going from a cottage industry to scaling up — there are so many steps to take along the way to get it right and many processes to learn to lead to a commercially viable product.

Yes, my husband has been an immense rock of support since Day 1. We would put our young daughters to bed and work on our business plan, develop the products, and hand bottle our range in the early days. Now he is our CFO/COO and guides our company to the next stage. Through all the challenges and high points, he has been there steady as a rock to keep the ship sailing smoothly.

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

There is a myriad of reasons. I think predominantly there is not enough support for women balancing a family coupled with the demands of starting a family. Both take a lot of effort and time, and both are extremely challenging. For example, if we could follow the European lead and have affordable / free quality day care for children to allow women to get back to work when they feel ready, that would enable the space, freedom and time to create business.

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

There are too many to note, but I would say free or affordable childcare is what immediately springs to mind.

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

I don’t necessarily think that more women should become Founders. I think that women need to be able to be given choices over their career and have encouragement from partners, family, and the system to support them to generate income and make a difference in the world.

If a woman has sights to stay home and be a Mum to her kids, then that is just as important and valuable as a woman who would like to go out and create a company.

However, if a woman decides that she wants to create and run a company, then it’s a welcome addition to the world! We need diversification in corporate structures with women in positions of power and influence to help bring balance to the world of work, something that should be the norm and not the exception in this generation.

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

That you get to walk in late and leave early. This is sadly not the case, especially not in the early days where you are wearing multiple hats every hour.

Another myth is that it’s a glamourous life of business lunches and networking! While I wish that were the case, for me as a Female Founder it’s all about work and defining goals and objectives and pushing forward and eating challenges as if they are granola bars!

No, not everyone is cut out to be a Founder. And there is absolutely nothing bad about being an employee!

The specific traits are solid tenacity, ironclad will, patience, absolute trust and belief in your product, service, and extreme resilience. If you don’t have this, I think success will be difficult to attain in the long run. As a successful founder you need to be able to pivot and flex constantly as no two days are the same. You need to have the foresight to know when to pivot and when to stay the course.

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

I wish someone had told me to get a good accountant from Day 1 as it costs a lot more to unwind a bad accounting error than it does to create the right process from the start
To work to get your product to commercial level as quickly as possible. We spent so much time organically producing the product, but to scale you need to invest with a commercial mindset at the forefront.
Set your business goals upfront and don’t let yourself be distracted to what you are trying to achieve as your end goal!
Understand your budgets well and learn to forecast, essentially indulge in the idea of continuous learning because new challenges pop up every day!
Being a Founder of a business, means that sometimes in can feel a little lonely — a strong support system around you is key and so necessary.

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

I am extremely proud of the sustainable and environmental efforts we have put into place from Carbon Neutral Couriers to Certified Organic ingredients to Glass packaging with compostable refill bags. We have invested heavily into the R&D in our packaging choices and by paving the way for other brands to be sustainable we are making the world a better place.

Our products are designed with the busy woman in mind, to give her the confidence in her skin every day to go out into the world and kick major goals, this is something I am extremely proud of.

To care and nurture our planet, every day by investing in sustainable choices in business. To know that there is no profit or business without a planet, so care for it, in the biggest way you can. To make sustainable business practices is just part of doing business — especially for the big polluters.

Sara Blakely. What a pioneer and champion for women!

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

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

Women In Wellness: Hilary Coles of Hims & Hers On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support…

Women In Wellness: Hilary Coles of Hims & Hers On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Lean into your strengths until you are the best at them, instead of spending your time trying to make your weaknesses into your strengths. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you do need to understand what you don’t know and make a plan to address it.

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

Hilary Coles is co-founder and SVP of Brand & Innovation at Hims & Hers, a multi-specialty telehealth company that connects customers to licensed healthcare professionals, enabling them to access high quality medical care for numerous conditions related to primary care, mental health, sexual health, dermatology, and more. With a passion for creating impactful, thoughtful brands and a natural adeptness in product development, brand management, and marketing, Hilary has played a critical role in the fast growth and success of Hims & Hers. Prior to Hims & Hers Hilary worked at venture studio, Atomic, and managed marketing specifically for Ever.com, one of the top iOS productivity apps. In the past, she also led marketing and business development for True Patriot Love Foundation, a national, Toronto-based charity. Hilary is originally from Toronto, and holds a B.S. from the University of Toronto and a M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

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

My name is Hilary Coles, I’m the Co-Founder and SVP of Brand and Innovation at Hims & Hers. I grew up in Canada, which is where I received my undergraduate degree. When I graduated, I started working at a nonprofit that helped Canadian veterans and it was through this work that I became interested in business. I decided to get my master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in America (which is where I reside today with my husband and soon-to-arrive baby). I co-founded Hims & Hers — a multi-speciality telehealth company — with its current CEO Andrew Dudum. Our business has helped millions of people access treatments for a broad range conditions, including those related to sexual health, hair loss, dermatology, mental health and primary care.

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?

Looking where I am now versus who I was and what I valued growing up is so amazing to me. When I was younger, I was always obsessed with physical products, specifically beauty products and packaging, and would pore over magazines and shelves just learning and absorbing. It’s always been something I’ve loved, and what’s so cool about it is that I’m truly living out what I had dreamed for myself as a kid, as it’s a key part of the innovation work I lead at Hims & Hers. My biggest learning from this is understanding that you really can do anything you set your mind to. It doesn’t matter what your passion is, but if you work hard and push through the hard stuff, your passion could become your career!

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?

To this day I still have bouts of imposter syndrome, but I didn’t recognize it in myself when we were starting out as a company. At the beginning when we started lifting off and seeing success, it was incredibly exciting to realize people were finding our brand to be revolutionary when it came to health and wellness care. It was easy to get caught up in the excitement and start using other people’s advice and recommendations to act as your North Star, especially when you’re getting guidance from really confident and experienced business people, super smart agencies, and so on. When I should’ve been listening to myself and my close colleagues regarding next steps for the business, I sometimes followed what external people suggested to do and some of those decisions weren’t right. It all worked out in the end, but I learned to trust my instincts (even if advice is coming from someone you really admire). In the end, as a founder, you live it every day. You know your customers. You know what your mission is, what you want the future to look like, and you should be driving decisions yourself.

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?

Day in and day out, the people at Hims & Hers work to help people feel good by providingaccess to personalized health and wellness care. More than that though, we’re pursuing a social movement to destigmatize health issues and concerns, educate the masses, and ultimately empower people to be active — not intimidated — about addressing their health concerns. Instead of dreading the cold, sterile waiting room at a doctor’s office for example, we are shaking up what “healthcare” means by enabling people to feel good about taking care of themselves — this is what powers every decision we make as a company.

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.

While I’m not one of the amazing licensed medical or mental health experts people can access on the Hims & Hers platform… I do have some suggestions that have worked for me in terms of bettering myself and helping me to live a more present and active life.

Put your phone down at least a half hour before you’re in bed. In fact, spend less time on your phone overall. Have to say this too — be cognizant about how much time you’re spending on social media… when you’re scrolling through your Instagram feed, sometimes 20 minutes go by — when that happens I am distracted and not present and it doesn’t make me feel good!!
On a related note, get outside! Even if it’s just a five minute walk. Looking a further distance than the screens and walls in your household can do wonders for your outlook. Even if you only have time (or energy!) for a five minute walk, do it. You won’t regret it.
Think about how much caffeine you consume… it’s so easy to just keep refreshing that coffee when you need a pick me up, especially when you feel like you’re slugging through the day! Cutting down on these have helped me sleep better and feel less anxious.
Avoid what I call fear-based wellness. For example, if your workout really stresses you out, or you are spending more than you are comfortable with to get the latest skincare regimen… take a step back to prioritize your feelings. You want to create a safe space for yourself and when it comes to wellness, you can find ways to take care of yourself and heal without any negativity.
Make sleep a priority. I used to only sleep six hours a night, but since I started to be super disciplined about consistently trying to get 8 hours it really has made a world of difference in terms of mental clarity and energy.

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

Women’s health is always top of mind for me and has been even more so with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Access to abortion and then contraception coverage for all women would be a result of the the movement of my current dreams.

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

As you’ve probably gathered, I’ve learned a lot along the way as co-founder of a growing, public company. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t change a thing. Sure, some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way were tough, but I’m a better leader because of them. Here’s my humble advice:

The things that make you different are your superpowers. Don’t compare yourself to anyone or anything. Be unapologetically you (you’ve got this!).
Don’t rush decisions. Often the more urgent something seems, the more it requires you to take a beat, step back, and think it through
People are thinking about themselves more than they are spending time thinking about you.
Lean into your strengths until you are the best at them, instead of spending your time trying to make your weaknesses into your strengths. You don’t need to be good at everything, but you do need to understand what you don’t know and make a plan to address it.
Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Is it getting you closer to your goal? If not, re-evaluate.

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

Mental health — not only due to personal reasons, but because there is a mental health epidemic occurring right now. As a nation, we need to figure out a better way to help those in need of mental health care.

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

Keep an eye on what we’re doing at Hims & Hers by following our social channels! Instagram/TikTok: @hims @hers

Women In Wellness: Hilary Coles of Hims & Hers 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.

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With ‘Lovepreneurs’ Demetrius and Dhayany Walker

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be a team — Teamwork will make your dreams work, the more the two of you are on one accord, the more life you will get to enjoy together. “No one-man band ever makes it to the big stage.” ~Demetrius Walker

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Demetrius and Dhayany Walker.

Business moguls Demetrius and Dhayany Walker have coined themselves “Lovepreneurs.” The millionaire couple created the aptly name Lovepreneur, as a platform teaching entrepreneurial couples the importance of having both net worth and love worth. Unlike other relationship platforms, Lovepreneur combines the elements of love and business as success tools in entrepreneurship. The Walkers have bragging rights in the relationship industry: 88% of the married couples with memberships remain successful to this day.

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

While dating in 2007 Dhayany decided to invest $10k in Demetrius’s automotive business. Demetrius was already a pioneer in real estate, but Dhayany was eager to help and learn the game, so with the return of the $10k investment from the car business, both Demetrius and Dhayany opened a daycare center in Philadelphia and purchased their first real estate property together to fix and flip.

We realized that working and building our business portfolio wasn’t easy, but it was completely worth it. Establishing businesses in real estate, automotive, childcare, consulting, philanthropy, and digital real estate, we became an unstoppable force. We recognized for us to continue building, we needed to be surrounded by other like-minded couples that are doing the same. Commitment lasts longer in community, so we created a community of like-minded entrepreneurial couples to help support and keep each other accountable. That later became a mission to help 1000 couples build and grow their business.

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

As we scroll through our mental Rolodex of all the stories, we were able to create through our amazing 12 years of marriage, there is one story that sticks out the most. After about 8 years of being together building our businesses, we were in a season of high-level decision-making. During the 8 years prior, we stayed focused and hustled our behinds off working towards our financial goals. During this season, we had choices to make. We were in a great financial position and had to make some tough decisions. Do we go and buy our dream house and get new cars, or do we continue to invest in the next level of our business goals and dreams? It’s one thing to have to make hard decisions because life is forcing you to, but it’s a totally different feeling when you have the freedom of choice. We’ve always been the type of couple that focused on the R.O.I for every decision we’ve made. After constant discussions and prayers about our future, we decided to keep reinvesting our money into our real estate and business portfolio. During that season of our lives, we had 2 young children, so now our decision wasn’t just about our marriage, it was also about our family. As a result, God has enlarged our territory where we now own businesses and real estate in a few different states throughout the US.

A few things we’ve learned throughout our journey together is

Have patience in well doing
Fake it till you make it
You’re destined for greatness if you are disciplined and courageous
Choose impact over income
You will never succeed past your level of belief
Fear and faith can’t occupy the same space

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?

We are boaters and one day my wife and I were coming back into the marina to dock our boat, and as I was backing the boat into our slip at the marina, as normal, my wife jumped out onto the dock with the lines to tie down the boat. Amidst me almost completely docking the boat, I noticed how strong the tides were and it was pulling the boat away from the dock and towards the neighboring boat. Currently, my wife is grabbing onto the side of the boat to pull it to her. I didn’t realize it initially, but when trying to avoid hitting the other boat and my wife holding onto the other side, she fell into the water. I had to let go of the steering wheel, hurry, and catch my wife from going completely into the water. Luckily, I was able to save her and get back control of the boat. What an experience!

The lesson we learned through this experience is communication doesn’t have an expiration date. Docking the boat is something we’ve done countless times and created a system for it, but what we realized was there will be times that the tide in your love and business, can be counterproductive. Balancing it all will cause you to have to pivot and if you’re not in constant communication with your partner, something catastrophic could happen and set you back. Communication is the key to victory!

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

“Lovepreneur” is the name of our company and the first and only community that serves as a safe haven for like-minded couples to come and be vulnerable. A community to be transparent bout their relationships and business challenges while seeking guidance with no judgment. Lovepreneur is a lifestyle; it’s something that doesn’t have an off button, it represents the pursuit of starting or scaling a business, all while pursuing a deeper level of love and commitment with your partner. We are more than just a community of mentees; we are a family. We hold each other accountable and share resources to help our love and business growth happen simultaneously.

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

Our annual “Lovepreneur Retreat Experience” is our next event. It is a trip with couples collaborating on business and relationship strategies. It is exciting for us and our community. The trip will consist of other like-minded couples, influential and successful guest speakers, luxury stays, and events.

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

As CEOs and aligning with our mission, it is worth investing in employees’ romantic relationships and marriages as equally as investing in their self-development. Studies have shown that a supportive spouse at home positively influences their partner’s performance in the workplace. Having a conscious spouse contributes to workplace success. Therefore, promoting partner consciousness, and cultivating a support system for employees can have a direct impact on work performance and the bottom line.

If your employees can start and end their days feeling loved and supported at home, there’s a very good chance that their attitude and productivity level throughout the workday will be highly productive because they’re not at work all day dreading what they have to look forward to when they get home. Even though happiness is a self-project, the environments and support systems that are attached to an individual matter a lot, and a person’s self-performance normally show based on how happy they are with their life, family, and career.

This model can also work for individuals that are not in a relationship with anyone, encouraging them to join small groups outside the workspace based on things they have a high interest in and enjoy. Everyone needs a support system and wants to feel loved and accepted.

How do you define “Leadership”?

Leadership is about being the first to act while vividly explaining the vision and goals of the overall mission to the team. It’s about having the ability to motivate, create, communicate, delegate, and celebrate with the group that entrusts you as their leader. Leadership is to influence through consistency and sacrifice. It is the first layer of commitment, even if it means executing alone.

So often couples are quick to seek outside the home for resources, guidance, and accountability. What a lot of couples don’t realize is that their partner is also equipped to provide that support. Couples overlook each other when should be learning more from one another first. Who better to keep you accountable to your goals than the person you spend the most time with? Your partner.

We are grateful for each other. The moment we read in the Journal of Sociology, that married couples experience a 77% higher net worth per-person than single people when they support each other at home and in the business, we were eager to take the steps necessary to have these results in our partnership/ relationship. We realized early on, that the more we invested time into really getting to know each other, we were able to find out just how resourceful we were as individuals. We also contribute our success to God, our parents, our spiritual advisors, and our business mentors. Throughout our journey, we’ve spent thousands of dollars on masterminds and high-level coaching, understanding that we had to sow at the levels we wanted to grow into our love and business. We made an intentional decision to be more “partner conscious” in our relationship.

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

We use our success to bring goodness to the world through our nonprofit HIMIO (How I Made It Over), where we have entrepreneurship programs that we teach in high schools throughout Philadelphia, PA. Students that have come through our program, are now adults and full-time successful entrepreneurs who travel the world. HIMIO helped expose them to the endless possibilities of entrepreneurship. Because of the efforts of our team over at HIMIO, we are on a quest to create 10,000 new entrepreneurs.

As we built HIMIO we realized there was another community of people that also needed to experience our gift of teaching and cultivating safe spaces to learn. That’s when Lovepreneur was birthed. Learning from our own experiences as a married couple and having our fair share of ups and downs, we learned that other couples were experiencing the same thing. It grew into a community of like-minded entrepreneurial couples. With hundreds of case studies and members since 2012, Lovepreneur is the first and only platform to answer to the calling for couples in business together looking to build success in both.

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

We created a “Love & Business is Worth it Devotional” with our 12 commandments to help couples stay aligned and grow rich together. However, our top 5 are:

Similar values — For a partnership and relationship to work, it’s imperative that both partners share similar values, this will heighten the chances of a successful relationship and help with tough life decisions.
Forgive and let go — As a couple, it’s very important to remember that we grow through what we go through. Every one of our experiences is a teachable moment. Those moments should bring us closer together rather than push us apart. It’s very important to learn the lesson as quickly as possible, forgive, and let go. That way we can grow and go to the next level of love and business together. Constantly reopening the same wound won’t help heal it.
Be a team — Teamwork will make your dreams work, the more the two of you are on one accord, the more life you will get to enjoy together. “No one-man band ever makes it to the big stage.” ~Demetrius Walker
Know your role — It is very important as a couple to agree on roles. Where there is clarity, it lessens the chance of scarcity. You should respect each other’s role in the vision.
One vision, different positions — It’s important that you have one vision in your home and businesses. It’s ok if one partner has a business that they oversee daily, and the other partner has a different one. There still needs to be one vision that is agreed upon in the partnership and home. Even though there are two different positions played by each partner daily, you’re both still playing on the same team with the same goal to win. The moment you are not on the same page, there is DI-VISION and division leads to DI-VORCE. We all can agree that divorce and having to re-establish your business and family structure is not the goal.

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

The Lovepreneur community is a movement. With the divorce rate at 44% and higher than 50% amongst small business owners, creating a community that exposes couples to a foundation that helps support their relationship will have a direct impact on these statistics. All while increasing their personal net worth by 77%. Overall, the Lovepreneur community encourages love, stability, and empowerment to achieve personal and business goals.

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

“People spend so much time preparing to land, that they miss their opportunity to fly”- Demetrius Walker. This quote was so relevant to our lives because we had a season in our business where we were waiting for the “perfect” time to activate certain elements. Then one night that quote came to Demetrius and woke him out of his sleep. From that day forward, our mission became to operate on purpose, with precision, swiftness, and not wait for the perfect moment to show up.

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

A great representation of what a “Lovepreneur” couples are, is Oprah and Stedman. They are a perfect example of supporting each other’s goals, visions & dreams. They didn’t allow success to push them apart. It would be an honor to connect with them.

How can our readers follow your work online?

Instagram: @LOVEPRENEUR, @dhayany, @meettheemperor

Contact: Text “Love” to 215–461–3589

Email: [email protected]

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

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With ‘Lovepreneurs’ Demetrius and Dhayany Walker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.