Category: Featured

Women In Wellness: Tania Malan of Uniskin On the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Really understanding nutrition. Not the bits and pieces we get from media, influencers and fad diets. There is so much more behind nutrition. Every process in our body depends on the correct order of amino acids (building blocks) in our body, which must be performed if we are to survive. If one of the amino acids are missing from our diet our body will scavenge from itself to provide that building block. However, the area it scavenges from (hair, skin, nails, veins etc.) can only replicate and replenish a finite number of times before it becomes depleted. The result is senescence (cellular inflammation) or cell death. Following diets blindly without understanding and considering your body’s specific needs can eventually lead to accelerated ageing. We diet because we want to look and feel great, but we need to understand that nutrition is so much more than weight loss.

As part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tania Malan.

Tania Malan is the founder and clinician director of Uniskin — a UK-based wellness clinic with a global vision. She has thirty years’ experience in trauma and medicine in South Africa and the UK. An eternal student, she has four degrees, three of them at Master’s level, as well as diplomas in midwifery, psychiatry and general and community nursing. Tania has a deep appreciation of what it is to live well and strives to support everyone to enjoy balance, gain hope and feel ageless. Her new book, ‘Ageless — the cellular secrets to looking and feeling your best’ is due for release in June 2022.

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

I am a South African and grew up in very turbulent times during the Angolan war and apartheid. We grew up witnessing horrific violence and atrocities in our daily lives peppered with regular drills on managing it, including safe evacuation, search and rescue, and caring for wounds from an early age.

We also shared our habitat with wildlife which further required us to remain vigilant to animal attacks and treating injuries, specifically snake bites and venomous stings from spiders and scorpions. I mostly grew up on a farm in the Soutpansberg which falls in a conservation area teeming with wildlife, and it is normal waking up at night hearing a leopard grunting in our garden or catching one of our dogs or life stock. The baboons were a constant pest, ravaging our crops and orchards while the bush pigs ate through our water pipes and various deer destroyed our garden. Living in Africa, you know that no two days will ever be the same. An adventure and drama would unfold around you every single day.

Growing up, many dreamed of becoming game rangers, but the oceans beckoned me, and I desperately wanted to become a marine biologist. Unfortunately, just as I finished school and planned to commence my studies, my father’s business went bust, and we lost everything except our clothing.

My family comes from a long line of medical professionals, and like in most countries, nurses are always in demand, and training is free. I was immediately accepted into a nursing college and started my four years of in-service training in a big hospital bordering several game reserves, Mozambique and Swaziland. Our training included midwifery, community nursing, psychiatry, and general nursing, and we had to work as part of the numbers and learn as we went. We chose the direction we would like to settle in during our third year, and I decided on trauma medicine. The need was great, and there were never enough doctors or nurses, which meant we worked exceptionally long hours, often up to 24 hours at a time, and took on roles and responsibilities usually associated with doctors. Working in trauma in that particular part of South Africa is indescribable; we used to treat up to 30 stab wounds a day, especially on weekends, including gunshots, stepping on landmines, motor vehicle accidents, crocodile and hippo attacks, venomous snake bites, poisoning to name a few. Between these violent events, we still have to see and treat the usual medicine such as heart attacks, asthma, and strokes etc.

Many traumatic events in my work and personal life culminated in immigrating to the UK for better work opportunities and more peace. Little did I know that I would be completing four degrees, lecture at several universities, continue research and ultimately set up my practice and become an author.

Although I did not choose to nurse, I am so thankful for the serendipitous opportunity that opened a whole new world that changed my life significantly and continues to do so even after 31 years. I continued to work in A&E in the UK but what was missing is the whole patient journey. We used to stabilise them and then never knew what happened to those patients and how things turned out. As a result, I moved into GP practice for 15 years. Whilst working in GP practice I felt frustrated with the system. We are mostly reactive even though we aim to be proactive and prevent worsening chronic disease. However, we are fighting a losing battle and especially trying to see and treat patients within 10-minute appointments. My final stint in a GP practice was on a busy University campus where we used to see and treat a large cohort of young students. It struck me how life-tired, depressed, and lonely they were and that our only means to support them is either refer them to an over-full mental health system or give them anti-depressants. Something needs to be done.

I started out in aesthetic medicine because it allowed me to build funds, impact people more positively whilst building a new business around agelessness. My life experience, research, studies, and work has led to this point. We need to find a solution to improve health and wellbeing without medication to improve the burden on our economy and medicine. As it is, it’s no longer fit for purpose. Specifically where it relates to the well patient.

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?

Working in trauma medicine in South Africa, drama filled our daily lives. They range from being held hostage and shot at while recovering injured patients, to working during extreme rioting. Patients running in with their arms hacked off, machetes embedded in their heads, dragging bodies out of boots of cars, to drowning insects embedded in eardrums, snakes curling out of bed clothing, and so much more. Each of these patient journeys formed me into the type of person I am and continue to become.

However, the story that changed my life and set me on my current course is the one I tell in my book called Ageless, and it is the journey of Mr. H, the crocodile, and me. I was privileged to experience his whole journey from start to finish which led to significant insights and a determination to continue understanding the human body and how life events impact ageing. The importance of balance for wellbeing and how physical, social and emotional wellbeing are linked, and if one of them is out of kilter, the whole person can implode. I have learned that trauma of any kind causes significant cellular ageing. Still, it is possible to reverse cellular deterioration through nutrition in high doses of vitamins and minerals.

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?

I was a pretty hot-headed, angry, strong-willed selfish young adult who strived for independence and to do things my way. I would verbally lash out at my parents, storm off and continue to pull in the opposite direction in everything. I would argue to look for a fight, especially with my mother. I learned that my anger is caused by frustration and that the life events are there to mould and shape me and that mistakes do not define me and dictate the rest of my life. I am the eldest, and my parents did not receive a manual when I was born. Life is complicated, and catastrophic events occur all the time. We can control it somewhat by choosing how we will respond to it and learning coping mechanisms from the outset, or allowing it to overwhelm us and destroy us a little bit at a time. If not for mistakes, we would still be in the same place. I choose the moral high ground in any mistake because no one plans to make it; it happens because of our actions. Mistakes form us and are necessary on this journey of life.

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

I stand on the shoulders of many giants, even those who made my life a misery. I would not have jumped and changed career trajectories if not for the discomfort from some of these negative people in my life journey. Many people helped me achieve success, but my parents and my husband are the most profound.

My parents encouraged me in everything I do, and it could not have been easy for them when I left South Africa to settle in the UK. My father taught me to drive and ride motorbikes when I was around nine years old and expected me to learn and understand engines when I was a bit older. So, we had a lot of chores as they both worked long hours, which made us self-sufficient and independent with a strong work ethic. My father was an irrigation engineer, which meant we moved around a lot, and that experience created this wanderlust and sense of adventure.

My husband is the ball catcher and my rock. He is as solid as they come, and I would not have reached the top of this particular mountain without his patience and continuous support.

Ok perfect. Now 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?

Ageing is a disease, and it is time to overhaul thinking about ageing and create a paradigm shift in treatment and management of ageing. We now live longer but not necessarily better. Instead of treating the consequences of ageing, it is time to address the various causes of it. This is possible by bringing diverse knowledge, skills, and expertise together and combining it with scientific innovations using technology (tech) and diagnostics under one roof.

Staying healthy and free from disease for as long as possible has now become a compelling factor for many individuals. The way medicine is practiced no longer serves individuals because one size does not fit all, and the focus is on treating existing problems when it is already too late. Mediocre medical treatments that take a long time to improve function is now addressed with greater precision, faster results utilising tech. The focus is now on personalised precision medicine, understanding your unique body, its predisposition to certain disease, inflammation, loss of hormones, intolerances, and deficiencies to name a few. Clients can now undergo specific personalised assessments using DNA, blood, and hormone testing with great accuracy and have access to various specialisms and tech focused on them and their unique biology to fully optimise their health and wellbeing.

We no longer accept ageing as a reason for pain, inflammation, hair loss, hormone changes, weight gain, reduced mobility and whatever else. We can and want to do something about it now and prevent living longer but in misery, with bodily decay. Ageing impacts health, social care and the global economy. Ageing is expensive and a whole health economy has formed around ageing such as care homes, pharmacy, rehabilitation, to name a few.

Early identification of your specific genetics, deficiencies in nutrition and hormones means you can prevent and even reverse early cellular ageing and improve your health span. Speedy recovery of a person means fewer sick days, greater productivity, better energy, and immunity. Greater longevity free from disease equates to better quality of life removing the strain on the NHS, and greater economy.

Our greatest aim is to work with researchers to measure our patient outcomes and track progress which will further attract attention, support the ongoing development of our service, and measure the economic impact in our local community. The aim would be to use the research which could be written into policy and roll this out over the UK and eventually globally. When we can provide robust evidence, we can potentially start to rewrite the medical books and affect change at a much greater scale.

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

1. Early identification of hormonal imbalance and treating deficiencies with bio-identical hormones. Ginny is a 48-year-old woman suffering with fibromyalgia, impinged rotator cuff syndrome, mood fluctuations, brain fog, weight gain, loss of libido, extreme tiredness, poor immunity and becoming “life tired”. She is constantly dieting but nothing helps. Her GP provides scripts for depression, anxiety and pain which only exacerbates her symptoms. She had hormonal blood tests. In the NHS we can only test and treat oestrogen and progesterone and base our findings on a patient’s symptoms. When working with bio identical hormones we test and treat much more and include hormones such as DHEA, testosterone, progesterone, oestrogen and vitamin D. Low Vitamin D affects the absorption of hormones.
   We corrected Ginny’s levels which took around a year and resulted in her thriving and experiencing a new lease on life. She is feeling much more like her old self, and is thriving. She lost over two stone and hasn’t had a fibromyalgia flare up for a year. The muscle pain in her shoulder has resolved and she has much more energy. What is not yet visible is the fact that the hormones are protecting her bones, improving her energy levels, protecting her brain and improving her general wellbeing. It improves immunity, protects her heart and forms muscle which in turn results in increased energy. The list goes on.
2. Nutrigenomics in the form of a Nutrigen Test (Genetic test for nutrition). I experienced significant hair loss and were told by my doctors that it is due to me ageing and approaching menopause. I had a Trichotest (genetic test for hair loss) and discovered that I have very poor blood flow to my scalp caused by a specific enzyme and that my body lacks cysteine and zinc. I supplemented with over-the-counter cysteine and zinc and my lustrous full thick mane of hair returned. The success of this experience triggered me to look into my genetics concerned with my nutrition and I made further important discoveries about my health and wellbeing.
   I learned that I am genetically predisposed to being overweight and that I have a very low metabolic rate and the test identified that the cause of my poor weight is my intolerances in food and the deficiencies within my body. Knowing my vitamin and mineral deficiencies identified the specific supplements I need to take and saved me a lot of money by guessing. I have been taking supplements that my body did not need, and effectively been throwing money away for all these years. I also learned that I am predisposed to diabetes and will need to change my habits and lifestyle. The test gave me an early warning long before it actually happened.
   The Nutrigen test is comprehensive and provides a detailed 120-page road map of my body and the types of food I need to take, as well as accurate nutritional supplements to prevent future chronic disease. Changing my diet and taking the right supplements resulted in increased energy, wellbeing and improved immunity. I now have a road map to remain optimised based on my specific DNA.
3. Nutraceutical — Vitamin and Mineral Infusions. Caroline is in her 50’s and wears many hats. She is an athlete and exercises daily, whilst also running a business and household. She has flare ups of irritable bowel disease which was later diagnosed as Crohn’s which affected her lifestyle significantly. On top of this she had an unexpected traumatic event which resulted in the death of her partner. Caroline was struggling with her burden and presented to the clinic. She wanted something to make her feel better and face the world and thought that some Botox or fillers would do the trick. She looked dreadful when she arrived. I convinced Caroline to consider a nutraceutical infusion and there are a variety available based on the clinical symptoms and patient’s needs. I infused her with Modified Myers with a glutathione push. This means she received high dosages of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. She fell asleep whilst the drip was running in and whilst I was monitoring her blood pressure, I noticed how her body was responding in such a short period. Her colour returned from pale grey to pink, her skin improved and when she woke up, she reported improved energy and a sense of wellbeing. A few days later she started to run again and reported that she had much more energy and could cope better with all her stress and anxiety.
4. Aesthetic Treatments. I can literally write books about the positives of aesthetic treatments. I treat an average of eight people a day. The majority of my clients are over the age of 45 and attend the clinic because they do not like what they see in the mirror, and it is affecting their confidence. The facial changes are caused by nutritional and hormonal changes which impacts on the skin, bone, and fat pads on their face. The result is that their anatomy as they know it is changing.
   By restoring and regenerating their skin and fat pads, we are able to restore them to their former self and give them their confidence and self-esteem back. Most of the women do not want to look younger they just want to look better and the outside to match the age they still feel on the inside. Restoring hair, skin, bone, and fat pads significantly changes a person and empowers them at many levels which is not well documented or described in the press. Unfortunately, it is the bad news that makes the headlines and the older women tend to keep things more private and out of the public eye. The positives of aesthetic medicine and wellbeing is still poorly described especially in the public domain.
5. Cosmeceutical Skincare (Skin care that contains pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients). Beth is a 58-year-old woman who presented to the clinic looking and feeling tired. She did not like what she saw in the mirror, and it was affecting her confidence and impacting her wellbeing. Beth is like so many of us in our 50’s from an era where we did not really know as much about sunblock and the impact UV rays have on the skin. Her skin was dull, lacklustre, lined, burnt with pigmentary changes and uneven skin tone and texture. During her examination she still had good fat pads, very little bone loss but her skin made her look aged.
   Using the correct skin care regime can be as effective as any cosmetic procedure. I have researched and tried a variety of products over the years but there is nothing as good and impactful as Obagi especially the Nuderm range. It is developed by dermatologist Zein Obagi, and it follows a program that allows the skincare products to change the behaviour of skin. It impacts the skin at cellular level where it changes the pH so that products can penetrate deeply. It then uses products such as hydroquinone 4% to reduce the production of melanocytes responsible for skin colour and pigment changes. The impact is that the skin tone becomes the same all over.
   Other products include alpha hydroxy acids which increases and accelerates skin turnover and removes old dead skin from the surface. This allows the skin texture to even out and improve the general look and feel of the skin. The cherry on the cake is of course Vitamin A in the form of tretinoin. It is a product every woman should have in their pocket. It allows improved skin turnover, protects against UV rays, controls oil but most importantly stimulates the production of collagen. We lose 30% of collagen when we go into menopause, but the reduction already starts around 1% from the age of 28. Collagen is what gives our skin its structure and improved elasticity. Treating Bev with Obagi Nuderm resulted in a clearer, brighter, more even complexion and improved her self-esteem and wellbeing. She became ageless.

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

Agelessness!! We need to strive to remain ageless at cellular level. Understanding how our bodies work and that nutrition is not only for weight loss and immunity, but actually to combat ageing.

Knowing and understanding your specific DNA, your nutritional needs and hormonal changes and taking the right supplements reduces bodily decay. Really invest in your health and take responsibility. With personalised diagnostics especially in genetics we can obtain an accurate road map of what our body specifically needs and what we should avoid. This way we can slow down DNA damage, improve our immunity, prevent chronic disease, strengthen our bones and improve our muscle, which in turn improves our energy. Striving for agelessness affects us all and it needs to start now. It will reduce the pressure on the NHS and the economic burden on society.

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

1) Really understanding nutrition. Not the bits and pieces we get from media, influencers and fad diets. There is so much more behind nutrition. Every process in our body depends on the correct order of amino acids (building blocks) in our body, which must be performed if we are to survive. If one of the amino acids are missing from our diet our body will scavenge from itself to provide that building block. However, the area it scavenges from (hair, skin, nails, veins etc.) can only replicate and replenish a finite number of times before it becomes depleted. The result is senescence (cellular inflammation) or cell death. Following diets blindly without understanding and considering your body’s specific needs can eventually lead to accelerated ageing. We diet because we want to look and feel great, but we need to understand that nutrition is so much more than weight loss.

2) Supplementation: There is currently a lot of trends, information and views on supplementation which makes it difficult on make the right choices. However, we need to look at supplementation from various angles which includes experts in immunology, endocrinology, nutrition, and functional medicine. It’s argued that we need to supplement above the daily recommended dose because we are not concerned with chronic disease, but with ageing, and that a larger percentage of the population do not even have the enzyme which allows them to absorb the daily recommended allowance adequately. A case in point is for instance — Vitamin D and also Vitamin B12. This is a rapidly evolving area and difficult to keep pace, but it is better than doing nothing. I am learning something new every day.

3) Balancing hormones: I have had a difficult time with premenstrual tension which not only made my life a misery but also those around me. We are often quick to write it off as “that time of the month” and again accept the status quo. I wish I knew about hormone testing and regulating with bio identical hormones much earlier. It would have saved me a lot of trouble and apologies but improved my wellbeing significantly.

4) Sunblock: I am from an age where we did not use sunblock and did not have much understanding of it. Living in South Africa without sunblock accelerates ageing due to UV rays, increases the risk of skin cancer, and pigmented skin is likely to occur. Just using sunblock from the outset would have saved me a lot of money on skincare and reduced my ageing process significantly.

5) Entrepreneurship: I wish I stared this journey much sooner and were not so locked into the belief that I need to have a steady income and a secure pension. I could have saved myself a lot of pain and heartache trying to conform and becoming increasingly frustrated that I can see the solutions but have no power to make the changes. That pain eventually drove me to set out on my own and it is the best thing I could have ever done. It is fulfilling living so close to your own truth and impacting the things that you believe, making a difference.

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

All of these big topics are dear to my heart but the one I can impact the most and understand the best is mental health. Mental health is a fine balance between physical, social, and emotional. Those three areas are key because when one of them are affected the other soon follow.

There are many examples of this but imagine a waiter carrying a tray on which three full glasses of water are balanced. If you just take one glass off the tray it will become unbalanced. It’s important to understand which part is affected. For example, if there are physical changes such as hair loss, pain or illness it can very quickly impact a person’s mental health which means they become withdrawn, turn inward and as a result impact them socially. It is very rewarding when you can improve someone’s mental health and see how they blossom and thrive. When they are better, others feel better around them which then causes a chain reaction. The opposite is also true but that is why it is important to keep someone in optimal wellbeing so that it can benefit the person, but also society.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

The best way for people to find me is via my Facebook page or my website — please see below:

(6) UniSkin Wellness Clinic | Facebook

Aesthetic Clinic Belper (@uniskin) • Instagram photos and videos

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tania-malan-personalised-medicine-biohack-dna-hormones-577794b2

www.uniskin.co.uk

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Tania Malan of Uniskin 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: Rahel Bayar of The Bayar Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Take the time to care for your mental and physical health. Daily exercise or meditation, walking outdoors or focusing on you, even for a few moments, can have a huge impact on your success.

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

Rahel Bayar, Founder and CEO of The Bayar Group, is a former sex crimes and child abuse prosecutor who works with organizations across the country on implementing effective and impactful abuse and harassment prevention policies and training. She built her career on creating safe spaces and facilitating change in workplaces globally. Prior to founding The Bayar Group, Rahel was a Managing Director in the Sexual Misconduct Consulting & Investigations division of a security and consulting firm, and an Assistant District Attorney in both the Child Abuse/Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence Bureaus at the Bronx District Attorney’s office. Over the past decade, Rahel has consulted with organizations across the country and conducted many highly sensitive investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and boundary crossing behavior. She has developed and delivered customized interactive key notes, workshops, lectures and training across the country to diverse workplaces. She is a sought after and widely renowned speaker for her engaging workshops on the topics of sexual misconduct, abuse prevention & detection, safe social media and electronic communication practices, boundary guidelines, and consent.

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?

It is a pleasure to be speaking with you! I grew up the daughter of educators, and for as long as I can remember, I had the value of “adding your own value to the world” as part of the fabric of my childhood. I had always been drawn to advocacy and to using my talents and voice to make impactful change. It became clear to me that law school was an opportunity to find a way to use my voice, which led me to pursue employment at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office–a place where I could seek justice and add value.

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

I think the most interesting interactions are when people are expecting this rough and scary former prosecutor and share with me that after an initial consultation call or conversation, they were taken aback by my ability to listen and to process with them. I think people hear “former Bronx sex crimes prosecutor” and expect what they have seen on an episode of Law and Order!

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?

Having started my company during the pandemic, much of the first year took place on Zoom. I also have three amazing kids–and I neglected to share clear directions as to when I could be interrupted on Zoom vs. not. Navigating a pandemic, a new business, and parenting meant that I had to learn quickly that many conversations would be interrupted by my kids. There were some really great Zoom kid moments, so I had to start the beginning of every conversation with, “Because I have asked my kids not to interrupt–they totally will, we are just going to go with the flow!” It became apparent that communication on exactly what to expect from a home-based meeting was necessary–and also alleviated any of the anxiety I felt from balancing home and work.

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

It would be impossible to name just one. In making the decision to start my own business, I leaned heavily on both my family, friends and colleagues to help me with both the emotional weight of going off on my own, but also on the technical pieces–something I knew nothing about. Founding a company requires legal, technical and financial wherewithal, and I am so thankful to have people with their own expertise who shared that with me.

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

All people, irrespective of gender, have a voice. It is important that we acknowledge that, empower each other, build each other up to make our marks and add value where we can. We have to support each other in the ways that are needed for that person and realize it is not a one-size-fits-all approach, and that small moments matter. Empowering people can add true value and it is something every single person can do. I still remember prosecuting one of my first rape trials and mid-trial I suffered a miscarriage. The sincere kindness of every person in that courtroom — judge, my co-counsel, defense attorney, court stenographer–upon my return to the trial after a few days off, was the grace that I needed to continue that trial. To have something so personal happen at a moment of tremendous stress could have made me walk away from my profession completely. But the grace and professionalism of every person helped me find the balance I needed–even if I didn’t realize I needed it.

What has helped me build a business as a female founder is finding a balance and looking to the people around me for the support I need when I need it (and sometimes when I don’t even know I need it). We need to do that for each other, we need to work to create spaces where individuals can thrive–as people first and as builders of value second.

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

As mentioned earlier, enabling everyone to achieve work/life balance without judgment is going to encourage more women to take the leap to become founders and take the reins of their professional destiny. Being a parent doesn’t mean you can’t be an amazing business owner (or employee), quite the contrary.

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

Because being a successful founder adds value to the world. Every single person, irrespective of their gender identity should have their time to channel that value into the world.

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

I think the biggest myth is that you can’t do it. The fear in creating and building something is palpable, and that fear leads so many to believe that they cannot build something.

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

I truly believe in the ethos that if we raise the bar, we can rise to the occasion. Every single person has something about who they are that makes them unique–there is no one way to be a founder and there is no one personality trait. If you have drive, passion, creativity and a desire to change something–surround yourself with people who are smarter and know more than you, and pursue that passion.

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. It’s ok to fail and pick yourself up and try something new.
2. Take the time to care for your mental and physical health. Daily exercise or meditation, walking outdoors or focusing on you, even for a few moments, can have a huge impact on your success.
3. Put your phone down. There will always be more work to do–or a fire to put out, but attaching yourself to your work 24/7 will benefit no one.
4. Outsource the things you do NOT excel at and embrace other people’s talent as a huge win.
5. Eat breakfast. Nourish your body, Walk away from work when you need some space. It will still be there when you return.

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

I hope I am doing that! My goal in starting The Bayar Group was to make abuse and harassment prevention impactful and doable and to shape workplaces around the world. I truly believe in the ripple effects of conversation and communication. I believe that those ripple effects–if they can keep even one child or one person safer–are worth the tough conversations.

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.

End child sexual abuse. End workplace harassment. To end the secrecy around abuse and harassment and to ensure that every single person has the opportunity to thrive without being victimized. Just a small thing!

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

Claude Silver — her leadership from the heart is inspiring, her message and presence have been a guiding force for me.

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

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

Female Disruptors: Kelsa Blaine of Highline Boudoir & Erotica On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Don’t compare” — It’s not quite a quote, but it’s something I live by. Once I started venturing out into the world when I was in my early twenties, I realized so many different people exist. How odd is it to compare this friend’s beauty with this other friend’s undeniable beauty? I stopped comparing my looks, my clothes, my expectations, and my life and instead started leaning into the question, “Do I like this for me? Does this feel good to me?”

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

Kelsa Blaine is the founder of Highline Boudoir & Erotica, a luxury boudoir and erotica experience in Pittsburgh, PA. As an established industry leader with years photographing hundreds of women, couples, and people of all identities and with work published in dozens of publications, Kelsa uses the power of the camera to capture vulnerable, healing moments of awe when clients see themselves like never before. The owner of multiple six-figure businesses by her mid-twenties, Kelsa also blends a background in law and extensive business education to empower other women seeking to build something for themselves.

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

I grew up very conservative with little education or knowledge of cultures and disparities outside my own, and with LOADS of shame surrounding sex and sexuality.

When I started associating with people outside of the white conservative bubble I grew up in, I realized the vastly different lives other people lived. It also opened my eyes to the fact that we all experience sexuality on some level. Why on earth aren’t we all talking about it? Why is sex stigmatized and shameful when it’s part of our humanity?

I began asking a lot of questions. Was I “ugly” or had society convinced me what beauty was? Was I “fat” or was my body exactly what it’s meant to be? Was I “too much” or could the wrong people just not handle my authenticity? Reevaluating my life led me away from my religious upbringing to pursue law school. I didn’t know my identity, but I knew what I stood for and that it was time to find myself again.

I started a wedding photography business on the side to get me through law school. Through that, I met a lot of brides who wanted “sexy” photos for their new husbands, which serendipitously led me to try boudoir photography.

Every woman (and I mean EVERY woman) would want boudoir photos for their partner and would leave feeling incredible for themselves instead.

I ended up positively falling in love with everything sexuality meant or could mean — connectedness (we ALL have sexuality), familiarity, beauty, art, and strength. Boudoir became an easy way for me to demonstrate my desire to provide women opportunities that help them explore their sexuality in a safe and empowering environment, away from shame or expectation.

I left the wedding business to shoot boudoir full-time, eventually opening my exclusive studio in Pittsburgh where we offer monthly themed sessions, a full client closet, hair and makeup by local professionals, and other luxe items so every human leaves their experience pampered and empowered just the way they deserve, and feeling closer to who they are.

I added the erotica experience to help clients become sexually enlightened and enlivened by exploring their deeper personal desires and capturing that art on camera. The vulnerability and pure magic that happens in an erotica session are what drew me in, and to see how the power of erotica (and boudoir) reverberates through people’s lives and healing journeys beyond the camera adds deeper meaning to everything I do.

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

I like forcing people to have uncomfortable, meaningful, and life-changing conversations and experiences that they think about, but never speak out loud. People shy away from the slightest uncomfortable topic because of a pursued wrongness when meanwhile, our bodies, our expression, our sexuality, and our sensuality are a deep part of ALL of us. People would (and do) find such freedom and awareness from speaking and living these truths. Is it scary? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes, without question.

I’m disrupting the norm locally by having established Pittsburgh’s only female-founded and female-led erotica studio with a fully-female team. I’m trauma-informed, and both my boudoir and erotica experiences have proven to offer therapeutic healing to my clients on their empowerment journey (capturing pre- and post-coitus can be very healing and vulnerable for some, and others find deep joy in capturing life’s delicious reward on camera).

We are also an inclusive studio actively highlighting minority and LGBTQIA+ humans and couples.

Because of my love for seeing people thrive, it’s a passion of mine to also blend my law degree with my empowerment practices to support and help educate people (particularly women) on how to start and scale businesses. LLCs and lingerie go hand in hand.

We’re disrupting the norm by bringing stigmatized topics to the forefront and turning them into modes of expressive empowerment.

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?

My very first day of paying clients, right? I’m jazzed. I got up early that morning, had my coffee, and got my cameras prepped and ready for action. I have gourmet snacks from local female vendors, champagne, and berries — the works. I’m beyond excited. The women coming in are pretty nervous, but I talk to and reassure them as they get their hair and makeup done. We sip light champagne and talk about life.

Well.

I noticed one of the women had an apple juice bottle she brought with her that smelled A LOT like strong alcohol.

And it was.

Soon enough, she was intoxicated beyond comprehension and unable to follow directions. We ended the session having not given her the experience she came for, and I made her stay while I cleaned so she could get sober.

After that, it went in the contract that NO OUTSIDE ALCOHOL OR BEING DRUNK was permitted. But it goes beyond safety. Do you know why? Because while boudoir can be nerve-wracking for a lot of my clients, it’s an experience and investment made to be FELT. I don’t want my clients to numb themselves and simply get by. I want them to safely and fully move through their experience and savor every moment, so they can take those feelings with them into the rest of their lives and have their moment captured on camera. I want them to look back and say wow, that’s ME.

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?

Matthew Madison, a professor in law school, always encouraged me to adventure the unbeaten path.

Rachel Rodgers, author of We Should All Be Millionaires: A Woman’s Guide to Earning More, Building Wealth, and Gaining Economic Power, for teaching and providing me so much education about women, wealth, and why it’s important.

Emily Nagoski, author of Come As You Are, for educating us that everyone is the same, just organized differently.

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’m of the influence that being disruptive is usually the thing to take notice of a bigger issue that needs to be resolved. Disruption is the spotlight that highlights issues and draws needed attention. I believe systems and structures need to evolve. Almost all systems and structures have an expiration date as humanity evolves and educates itself. It would be a sad community in which there were no growth or “disruptions.”

So overall, I would say disruption is almost always needed for growth and education. I’d also add though, that disruptions can be done diplomatically. For me, I see myself challenging people (women specifically) to ask questions about their sexuality and begin to explore a safe space they can adventure around in their sexuality. The disruptions that are needed are the ones that point people to resources and education, inspiring them to become better and kinder humans.

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

I can share two pieces of advice that have vastly impacted my journey.

“No one cares as much as you do about your flaws.” This is something I’ve learned firsthand from photographing now hundreds of different women from all backgrounds, shapes, and sizes. We tend to be our own worst enemies when in reality, we’re the only ones seeing things that make us who we are as flawed. The things that make us unique are the things that make us powerful.

“You are your own best advocate.” As women, it comes naturally to us to be considerate of others, especially those we care about. But learning to be considerate of me FIRST has been life-changing. When I advocate for myself, I found a lot of other issues disappeared or freed me up to be a better partner, friend, and family member.

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

As of 2022, I’m currently working with another woman to create a magazine that reclaims the word “MILF” in an empowering and uplifting way.

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

Oh my. Where do I even start? The biggest challenge I think is women and men are raised differently in western culture. Men are expected, or at least it’s not surprising, to be opinionated and loud and to be “natural leaders.” But women are taught to be kind, sweet, and “nice.”

So naturally, women have to retrain themselves or just be ok with having a lot of haters if they voice their opinions. Even for me, I find it a daily practice to let my voice not just be heard, but to be impactful.

It’s something I have to think about every day — not closing up and being small just because it’s “comfy and I’m used to it.” But instead, to use my throat, use my vocal cords, to articulate the bigger and better thoughts and feelings I have to share.

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

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. It’s all about efficiently working, and making money work for YOU instead of you working for your money. It changed my life in regards to making me understand that I was going to build my life by investing in people to be a team to work for me.

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

It would be for women to own their voices, own their strengths, and vow to stop playing small. It’s amazing to me how many extremely talented women I meet who purposely play life small because they’re concerned about what it would mean for their partner, children, or families. But then the women I see who flourish and are happy are the ones who finally wake up one day and say “forget this” and begin to live their ONE LIFE for themselves for the first time. It’s beautiful. I wish every woman would vow to use their voice in advocating for themselves.

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

“Don’t compare”

It’s not quite a quote, but it’s something I live by. Once I started venturing out into the world when I was in my early twenties, I realized so many different people exist. How odd is it to compare this friend’s beauty with this other friend’s undeniable beauty? I stopped comparing my looks, my clothes, my expectations, and my life and instead started leaning into the question, “Do I like this for me? Does this feel good to me?”

I quickly learned that my superpower was JUST ME BEING ME. And other women, when they started letting go of comparisons, would become super powerful beings that were uniquely themselves, too.

So overall?

Stop comparing.

Stop comparing social media feeds and talents and bodies and instead lean into what you like, what you enjoy, and learning how to love yourself.

How can our readers follow you online?

On my website at https://www.highlineboudoiranderotica.com/

On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/highlineboudoiranderotica

On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/highlineboudoiranderotica/

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

Female Disruptors: Kelsa Blaine of Highline Boudoir & Erotica 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.

Female Founders: Kirsten K Harris of Eavolu On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

First, and ideally, begin your business while you still have a job and an inflow of income. My situation happened during the pandemic, so in my household the financial situation has been a bit unstable. It would have taken a lot of pressure off me (and my family) to have my income and benefits while starting a new business. I know this isn’t always possible. In my case, prior to the pandemic, I was traveling 85% of my time. That would have been a difficult situation in which to balance travel, work, family and starting a new company.

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

Kirsten K. Harris assists apparel companies in becoming more sustainable. She leads by example with the eco-conscious brand Eavolu. Kirsten has 25+ years in the active apparel industry including: product development, commercialization, marketing, leadership, sales, design, sustainability, eco-conscious apparel, building brands, ecommerce, consulting, contracts, fabric development, strategic planning, budgeting, supervising, and chief sustainability officer.

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 began my career in the active apparel industry after graduating from the University of Texas with a BS in textiles and clothing. During my time in Austin, I spent a semester in London and Paris studying design and participating in couture fashion shows. In the early 90’s, concern regarding overseas labor practices was heightened. Addressing these concerns became the topic of my senior thesis.

My professional journey started at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. From day one, I knew that I had found home, no matter where my career might take me. It took 12 interviews to become an Apprentice Product Developer! Nike takes seriously the hiring process, always working to ensure they hired team members to fit within its unique culture. April Floren was a wonderful first manager who, as I managed NCAA basketball product, pushed me to be my best at every step in the development process. I made mistakes, I learned, and I moved forward. It is the Nike way. I still live by the original 11 maxims Nike incorporated into our daily work life. They continue to keep me efficient, organized, and never let my ego get ahead of me.

From Nike, my path led to Nordstrom’s private label group, where I oversaw Callaway Golf, and worked and traveled with an amazing mentor, Jack Irving, EVP of Nordstrom, in charge of the French brand Faconnable. I met regularly with the elusive, brilliant, and eccentric designer, Alber Elbaz. It was my first glimpse into the true life of French design. As I was still early in my career, it was invaluable to travel globally and learn my craft with top level executives.

Life, it seems, leads me back to Nike, repeatedly! Team soccer, volleyball, track & field, NASCAR, and NFL retail jerseys were a few of the categories I managed. It was during my last stint at Nike that I was introduced to one of the biggest influencers in my life, Morgan Fisher. She was levelheaded, strong, brilliant, and kind. This time, I learned more deeply that in the apparel industry, relationships are everything. To make a supply chain work really well, you are always intentional and honest as you choose and grow with your partners.

After my second and third Nike stop, I had a brief stint with Eddie Bauer, overseeing outerwear and active and gear. Then, I was back to Nordstrom (notice a pattern) to manage women’s active product development. When Amazon started their private label business, I had the opportunity to educate a team on the basics of apparel commercialization (things I hadn’t thought of in years and yet are simply second nature in the industry). I built sourcing matrixes, implemented testing standards, audited factories. I loved the opportunity to work with another strong woman, Gwyn Wiadro, who had started UA’s women’s program years prior as their VP in charge of women’s product. She challenged me at every turn and helped me learn to think on my feet in a way I had never done before.

From Amazon, NILIT (the world’s largest supplier of Nylon 6.6, the premium nylon in the industry) asked me to become their Vice President of Marketing in North America, and an integral part of NILIT’s Sensil Global Marketing Team. It was here that I met with over 200 active and apparel brands (both power brands and boutique next-gen brands), all struggling with the same question: What is sustainability and how do we define it to our customers? I spent much of my time forming collaborations and close relationships. I worked closely with companies developing additives to make Nylon 6.6 biodegradable.

It was at this time I became aware of my true calling in the apparel world. I would walk with apparel companies on the journey to become more sustainable, in an authentic way (not just for a label), and create my own brand, one which provides transitional apparel that is eco-conscious, focused on ethics and sustainability and works well with comfortable sports bras and leggings. This is where the roots of eavolu were planted.

As I wore (daily) incredibly comfortable leggings and sports bras from premium apparel brands, I felt I needed a professional (and extremely comfortable) layer to easily wear on my commute to work, remove quickly for a mid-day yoga class, pop back on to wear in meetings, and to be that perfect top for happy hour with friends. My idea was to create an amazingly soft, incredibly comfortable, minimalistic outfit that is absolutely eco-friendly, and could be paired easily with premium bra tops and leggings. After all the above, eavolu was born. The Evolution of You.

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

Finding a brand name and logo was one of the first most important steps. I had lists and lists, and I finally set my heart on a Finnish word that cannot be translated into English. It is Sisu. It means self-determination, strength, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness. These were all characteristics that I found my brand’s customers could relate to. Unfortunately, after many weeks of work, I found Disney had many, many, many trademarks submitted for that name — as Sisu was set to become a new Disney character. My journey for a new name began anew.

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

I have worked in the apparel industry for 30 years, so I felt confident regarding my skills in most areas from concept to market. With all that experience, I wondered how hard it would really be to start an apparel brand in which I believed. I forgot, though, that as I moved up in the corporate world, many of my original tasks became delegated to others. As a result, I no longer knew some of the simplest formulas, processes critical to product creation, and the humble, day-to-day tasks. It was a sobering experience (it still is). I relearned many tasks critical for my daily work, and I continue to relearn more each day. However, it is also one of the joys of starting your own business.

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

I mentioned quite a few of my mentors in my bio above. However, I would say another one of the most influential people along my career path is my dear friend and colleague, Scott M. Darlington. He and I managed separate divisions at Nordstrom’s Product Group together. I went on from Nordstrom to build the Active apparel division at Amazon and then to Nilit to oversee all of the marketing for North America, before creating EarthFirst Consultants (earthfirstconsultants.com) and Eavolu. Scott left Nordstrom to broaden his horizons by joining the large apparel manufacturer, SanMar, to lead teams, create factories and continue his incredible career path.

Even though our paths and careers are very, very different, we trust each other’s experience in the industry, the authenticity of the other to always be honest, and the gift of offering sound advice when asked. I recently experience a situation I found extremely challenging, and I needed a very quick motivational talk to go on stage to present. I texted Scott immediately, and within minutes he had the perfect response that made me laugh and describes our friendship. Leaving out the supporting expletives about the specific challenge, he jokingly said, “If I needed someone to help me bury a body, you would immediately show up at my doorstep with a shovel.” It made me laugh, and he is right. No matter where we are in our careers or the world traveling, we are there for each other with moral support. My presentation was a success because his words snapped me out of my negative state and put me in a beautiful frame of mind, full of self-confidence. Everyone deserves a friend and colleague like Scott.

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?

Self-Confidence and Opportunity. Women have been held to different standards for so many years that it begins to sink into our souls. You begin to accept the negative and outlandish frameworks the world wraps around your aspirations and story. I am so thankful for all the trailblazers out there, each of whom have been knocked down and continue to get up and speak honestly for the experience and capacity of women (and many others who are underrepresented in industry).

I greatly respect women who speak against stereotypes, for social equality, for real promotions, and for access to difference-making financial resources. I hope one day to be in a position where I can make a real difference to help more women take a deep breath, jump off the corporate ladder, and dive into what can be rather dark and scary waters. As women, we must remember to keep swimming and support one another with each and every stroke we take.

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?

Have financial and governmental institutions create and offer more grants, along with simple, long-term, low-interest loans. These must be offered through an easy to access, one stop, consumer-oriented platform. Also, regarding benefits, medical insurance and social security are two expenses that add up very quickly when you are not used to paying the full amount. Further simplifying the system to purchase medical insurance would be wonderful.

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?

For one, I truly believe that society functions better when there is greater diversity among the empowered actors and decision makers. Women offer new perspectives, unique insights into all types of consumers, are often more intuitive and practical than their male counterparts, and are very used to multi-tasking, which is critical for being a founder.

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

The first myth is that education trumps experience. While a good education is important, experience provides the key framework through which education can be applied to daily business life. If you have worked in a business field from soup to nuts — you will know the ins and outs more than someone who read a textbook and passed a course.

The second myth is women can’t balance a family, home, and a new business — it’s too much! It is a lot (I won’t lie to you about that), and it is achievable, especially with a supportive family and some good planning.

The third myth is women aren’t natural, born leaders. Well, I don’t even have an answer for that one; it is simple nonsense. I daily experience women as excellent leaders and founders. Every day more women are becoming CEOs, becoming Founders, and the truth is we are succeeding in a spectacular manner.

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?

Yes! I believe every person can become a successful founder. I do believe, though, there are certain traits that make the journey less painful. It is helpful to be comfortable taking calculated risks. It is helpful to be comfortable with ambiguity. It is helpful to love adventure and the journey, while not quite knowing for sure if things will work.

It is helpful to be comfortable learning from your failures (believe me, I have failed a lot this first year). Yet, If I am learning, then I believe I am moving forward. Become comfortable with reaching out for help; Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask. If I can’t figure something out, I will find someone who can.

Be comfortable with very long hours. When you get to a certain point in your career, you get accustomed to perks, to set hours, and being able to take your foot off the gas now and then. When you own your own business, the old benefits, paychecks, and perks disappear. New ones do appear, and they can sometimes be more difficult to recognize, but they do appear. Your working hours also get much longer. However, you can determine your own schedule for the most part.

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.)

First, and ideally, begin your business while you still have a job and an inflow of income. My situation happened during the pandemic, so in my household the financial situation has been a bit unstable. It would have taken a lot of pressure off me (and my family) to have my income and benefits while starting a new business. I know this isn’t always possible. In my case, prior to the pandemic, I was traveling 85% of my time. That would have been a difficult situation in which to balance travel, work, family and starting a new company.

Second, find mentors. Find the people who are doing what you want to do and are doing it very well. I am thankful for the Massing Group in LA. They are fabulous partners for me as I continue to create Eavolu. Even though I have spent 30 years in the apparel industry, I wasn’t aware of the significant difference between owning my own company and being part of a large corporation. Find people to help you fill in the gaps of your knowledge and practice base.

Third, don’t overspend. It is so easy to do. There is great temptation to “try a little bit of this and try a little bit of that”. It does take money to figure out what works and what doesn’t. However, be disciplined! Capital does disappear quickly, especially when building an apparel brand. On top of that, creating a brand that is truly sustainable takes more money for research, for vendors, and for implementing newly emerging processes. Focus on utilizing your funds for what makes your company unique. “Helpful” businesses and agencies come out of the woodwork when you start a new company. Most of what you hear is expensive and seems too good to be true. Most of the time, it is, so ask a lot of questions and trust your growing wisdom.

Fourth, create a supportive network (in addition to your mentors). Find friends you can turn to for honest advice and support as you start your own business. The process of building a business is hard enough. There will be plenty of folks saying you can never do it. Tune out the negative and focus on the positive. What you focus on is where you go. This includes the voices of the people with whom you surround yourself.

Finally, focus on the results. To-do lists can become overwhelming very quickly, as having your own business means there is always something that “needs” to be done. 20% of the work gives you 80% of the results you need to succeed. Create action items in order of importance, AFTER you have determined what result you are working towards.

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

During the pandemic, I (like many people) looked long and hard at my career. I love the fashion industry, but how was I helping the world? I came to strongly believe that I need to be the change I desire to see. That is how EarthFirst Consultants began. I vowed to help apparel companies become more sustainable. I vowed to share my experience by writing articles about sustainability. I vowed to help educate people about greenwashing, about what is the truth and what is not.

That is also why I started eavolu. I wanted to lead by example. I thought the best way I could do that was to create my own small company and start on day one with a focus on sustainability. Eavolu products are made locally in Los Angeles, with workers that are treated very well and earn a fair wage. The fabric comes locally from Lenzing, which is known for their commitment to sustainability and creating innovative products to help improve the apparel industry. In addition, I have eyes on the ground with the Massing Group in LA. They are fabulous and know that everything that goes into Eavolu must be sustainable. My garments are all packed and shipped in compostable packaging. I work to keep my carbon footprint as small as possible, and I am willing to grow, change, and innovate to become even more sustainable. This has helped me realize the challenges that so many companies can run into as they try to figure out how to become more sustainable. With a great team, solutions are much easier to find. Great relationships, trust, and collaboration are key.

In addition, eavolu gives a portion of our profits to three key non-profit organizations that focus on sustainability, female empowerment, and helping women with children who are experiencing homelessness.

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

I want to help the world become more sustainable in all areas of business, yet it is easy to forget that none of us live, work, and play in a silo. I am familiar with a woman living in India. She goes on her own to landfills every day. She picks out garments that have been disposed of. She cleans, mends, and gives them away. It is her way to promote upcycling. I very much support upcycling. If everyone took a moment, before they purchased a garment, and began to understand how its creation effects our planet as a whole (as well as so many overseas workers), we could create an amazing movement. Like the woman above, we could all contribute to having long-lasting, premium (yet affordable) upcycled apparel. As apparel consumers, just a little different look at our clothes might change habits, might change the world.

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.

Rita Wilson — She inspires me every day. She also looked at her life and realized that she needed to make some changes to live out her passion. I listen to that passion every day at my desk, and it motivates and inspires me to be the best person that I can be every day.

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

Female Founders: Kirsten K Harris of Eavolu 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: Sarah Almond-Bushell On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Allow yourself some compassion — Sometimes you might slip up and say in your children’s earshot “my tummy looks big in this dress” or “I’d better not eat that pizza if I want to fit into my bathing suit” and when you catch yourself you might feel bad. But don’t, changing the way you act is going to take time, there is a whole lot of unlearning that has to be done. Follow up with: “Sometimes I’m not very kind to myself I’m grateful that I have this amazing body that gave me you”.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sarah Almond-Bushell.

Sarah Almond Bushell is an award-winning Registered Dietitian, ex NHS Consultant child nutritionist of 22 years and founder of The Children’s Nutritionist™ who is working to reduce the stress around mealtimes for parents and is passionate about helping them think differently about how they feed their children as well as how they were fed as kids, and in doing so cutting the ties of generational eating habits, fueled by misinformation and desperation tactics.

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

Growing up I was always a fearless foodie. From growing veggies in my grandad’s allotment to baking with my mum, to hosting dinner parties as a teenager, food has always played a huge role in my life.

Sharing a meal was our family’s way of showing how much we loved and cared for people, an everyday luxury made extra special with guests around the table.

It was no surprise that at school I had a flair for cookery and being good at the sciences led naturally to a career as a nutritionist. But being highly ambitious I wanted to train further to become a Registered Dietitian, a step up from a nutritionist because I felt the intuitive pull towards helping people manage their health conditions through food.

After graduating with a BSc in Nutrition & Dietetics I specialised in paediatrics where I got my masters degree in children’s nutrition and worked for the NHS in a busy London teaching hospital and later at a specialist children’s hospital on the South Coast till I left 22 years later at the top of my game as one of a handful Consultant Dietitians in the UK.

I’m now self employed and my business called The Children’s Nutritionists is how I help families.

My aim is to prevent children developing feeding problems by helping parents get the right information about food and feeding from the very start, through my large online information hub which is free of charge. And I also use my clinical expertise to help those families whose children have fussy eating or challenging eating habits so that they can help their children learn to like new food.

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?

My journey into helping parents whose children have challenges with food and eating began while living through my own experiences of despair struggling to feed my own children. I truly embraced ‘responsive feeding’ with my first child (which was the new concept in child feeding at the time), but he had a stubborn temperament and was incredibly demanding. The result was iron deficiency anaemia because I was too ‘responsive’ caving in, to his frequent demands for milk.

My second child grew up learning that food hurt her. She vomited continuously from day one and failed to thrive. It transpired that she had an undiagnosed egg allergy which was only picked up at 9 months but by then the damage had been done, she had developed a feeding aversion and whenever food came close, she would clamp her mouth shut, turn her head away and cry.

I felt helpless, and despite being a senor paediatric dietitian with over 10 years of experience at the time, both my children had feeding problems. I knew exactly what to feed them, but I just couldn’t to get them to eat.

Moreover, I discovered that none of my NHS professional colleagues could help. I realised that despite our extensive medical education and years of experience, there was still something missing.

And so, I did what anyone in this situation would do, I turned to Google. I found a child psychologist and feeding team in Colorado USA and studied with them to become a SOS trained feeding therapist and set about implementing what I learned with my own kids.

The results were remarkable, especially when applied to my food phobic daughter. My child went from being frightened to even look at new food to wanting to order takeaways so she could experience food from new cultures. She’s 13 now and she wants to be a chef when she grows up!

Now, I use my skills in nutrition as a Paediatric Dietitian, my knowledge of positive food parenting and my SOS feeding therapy skills in combination, when I work with families who are also struggling to feed their children.

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

When I first qualified, I went to work in the NHS because that was ‘expected’ of me as a new graduate Dietitian.

I loved my job and got immense satisfaction from knowing I’d helped children with their health needs through my nutrition and feeding advice.

However, the NHS red tape, rules and restrictions meant that I was limited to who I was allowed to help and who I had to turn away. And I actually felt that my career following the NHS path was a mistake.

I was frustrated, I felt I had a really important message to share that went beyond the walls of the NHS and I just couldn’t share it.

It was actually this frustration that started me blogging. I learned about search engine optimization and suddenly I’d found a way that I could help parents simply by answering the questions they typed into google.

4 years later I have a thriving online business called The Children’s Nutritionist where I can help families across the globe and I’m reaching around 90K people each month. That feels amazing.

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?

When we become parents, we bring with us our own unconscious bias around food, and unwillingly we pass is on to our children simply by doing what we’ve always done.

Think about how you were brought up around food and eating, many of us heard phrases like “clean your plate” or “no pudding till you’ve eaten your dinner” or our parents pre-plated our food rather than letting us decide how much we wanted to eat.

This is cultural, it’s not based in science and many of us never question how we feed our children and yet these food parenting practices have a profound impact upon our children’s relationship with food. Often a negative impact.

We talk about certain foods being good-for-you or healthy, and other foods being bad or unhealthy, but what our children understand is that eating ‘bad foods’ is wrong, and this can lead to feelings of guilt and shame when they do indulge in those foods. And not eating enough foods that are ‘healthy or good’ can make our children feel like a failure.

We know from the psychology research that there are 4 food parenting styles, three of which can have negative consequences for children.

Parents who display the controlling food parenting style, such as restricting certain foods, hiding goodies, pressuring children to eat “2 more bites” or even rewarding them with ice cream for pudding when they’ve eaten well, have children with poor appetite regulation, often overeating and carrying extra weight. They have a preference for the reward type foods and devalue other foods and can feel unworthy when they eat those reward foods if they feel haven’t earned it.

Parents who display the indulgent style of food parenting are more likely to cave in to the demands of their children, saying yes to requests for snacks, or catering to their likes over and above what they want them be eating to ensure good nutrition. Kids parented this way are more likely to have nutritional problems, their diet it limited, they tend to carry extra weight and have a poor sense of appetite.

Parents who display the uninvolved style of food parenting tend to have little structure or routine around eating and children grow up feeling insecure about food availability. They tend to be very focussed on foods, overeat due to scarcity fears and as a result often carry extra weight.

In addition, as adults we often talk negatively about our weight, our shape, our bodies or even our children’s bodies, our kids link this to our messages about food and eating which can have a profound negative effect on their relationship with food and even cause disordered eating.

My mission is to raise awareness around how we parent our children around food. I want people to stop and consider how they feed their kids rather than just continuing to do what they’ve always done.

I want to end this cycle, to help parents get the right support so that their children develop healthy eating habits which they pass on to their own children invoking generational change, and children’s mental and physical health for the better.

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

1.Take note of how you currently ‘food parent’

You don’t have to have all the answers right away, it’s hard to raise children to not only be happy, healthy eaters but also to have positive body image and self esteem.

Begin simply by starting to notice how you talk about food in front of your children, not just at mealtimes but when you’re grocery shopping, at the cinema or even happen to notice a picture of food in a magazine. Food is everywhere.

Notice how you serve food at home, how you respond to your children’s requests and does this change when they are being demanding and short tempered?

2.Question where you get your food and feeding information from

Early childhood experiences often set the tone for how we interact around food as adults, but this can be altered by where we get our information from. Sadly, there is a lot of misinformation online and in the media with unhelpful advice from names that we trust such as TV chefs or celebrity influencers.

Doctors, health visitor and even school teachers are all professionals who you might approach to get help on food and feeding but as amazing as they are, actually none of them are nutrition professionals and they don’t have expertise in the psychology of feeding. Only Registered Dietitians are educated to the right level and their practice is governed by law as a quality assurance marker so you can trust their advice.

3. Allow yourself some compassion

Sometimes you might slip up and say in your children’s earshot “my tummy looks big in this dress” or “I’d better not eat that pizza if I want to fit into my bathing suit” and when you catch yourself you might feel bad.

But don’t, changing the way you act is going to take time, there is a whole lot of unlearning that has to be done. Follow up with: “Sometimes I’m not very kind to myself I’m grateful that I have this amazing body that gave me you”

4. Role model at mealtimes

Children learn from watching what their family members do. If they see parents and siblings sitting around the dining table, sharing a meal, and happily eating family foods, they will learn these social skills and value mealtimes too.

Use this as an opportunity to role model how you would like your children to behave at the table, show good table manners and positive conversation.

If eating dinner with the children is impossible due to work commitments, make breakfast the family meal. It doesn’t really matter when children see you being a positive role model, they just need to see if often.

4. Appreciate your role and your child’s role in the feeding relationship

There are two of you in the feeding relationship, the parent and the child. As a parent, it is your responsibility to make a decision on what food is on the menu, rather than asking them what they want to eat. Children will always ask for their favourite, easy to eat foods. They don’t have great nutritional knowledge!

As a parent it’s also your role to determine where you will eat the meal or snack, and when your child will eat, so their routine or schedule across the day.

And that is all.

Your child’s role in the feeding relationship is to be in charge of their own body, they need to be autonomous and decide what goes into their body, which can mean whether to eat or not, and if so and how much and when to stop.

Acknowledging each others roles in the feeding relationship is respectful and prevents worried parents from overly encouraging fussy children to eat. This is important because young children interpret this as pressure, and pressure switches off appetite, resulting in less nutritious food being eaten at mealtimes.

Children are extremely good at self regulating their food intake and stopping when they are full providing they are being ‘food parented’ in a positive way.

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

Children are our future, and we have an opportunity for generational change if we can just get this important message out to parents. My plan is to create an awareness week and a huge campaign with people of influence in support, so that my message has global reach.

I’m also teaching my fellow Registered Dietitians all about positive food parenting, something that is missing from our university curriculum.

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

1. You don’t have to work in the NHS when you qualify as a dietitian.
2. Food and nutrition is only half the story, to help families properly you have to learn the psychology of feeding and food parenting.
3. Rumors that being self employed means that you get no sick pay, holiday pay and is isolating and lonely are just rumors and are absolutely untrue.
4. You can help parents and children just as effectively in the online space as seeing them face to face in real life.
5. Working so publicly and in such an emotive arena means you will get negative comments or online hate, that’s OK. Food, feeding and raking up past experiences can be triggering for some people. Remember negative feedback is often a reflection of your troll’s own psyche

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

They are all linked to food and nutrition, but I’d have to say mental health is the most dearest to me and that’s because children’s mental health can suffer from the way they are parented around food.

We know that restriction of goodies leads to children feeling guilty and shameful when they eat them. We also know that children who have been brought up where food was scarce can be obsessional about it. Foods that are labelled as ‘treats’ make some children feel they aren’t worthy of them or that they haven’t earned it, it can really affect their self esteem and in some cases we see disordered eating as a result.

I think it’s fair to say that none of us want this for our children.

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

My online information hub has a wealth of free advice, blogs and recipes: www.childrensnutrition.co.uk

Instagram as @thechildrensnutritionist https://www.instagram.com/thechildrensnutritionist/

Facebook Group called The Children’s Nutritionist’s Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheChildrensNutritionistsCommunity

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Sarah Almond-Bushell 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.

Women In Wellness: M’lou Walker of LifeStyles Healthcare On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

There are jerks in this world and you will encounter them in business — — but don’t be one of them and don’t let them get you down. I’ve learned that I can’t change someone else’s behavior or attitude, but I can change how I can react. And as I’ve gotten further along in my career, I’ve had the freedom to choose who I work with — — I avoid the jerks.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing M’lou Walker.

M’lou Walker is the CEO of LifeStyles Healthcare, a leading global sexual wellness company and the owner of the SKYN brand, among many others. With 30 years’ experience marketing and managing OTC healthcare and personal care products and raising 4 children, M’lou has become an expert in optimizing personal and professional well-being. M’lou balances her work with rounds of golf, tennis games, good books, and time with her family.

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 grew up” in brand management, working on a number of well-known household brands (Listerine, Benadryl, Lubriderm, Mucinex, among many others). I loved this work as it allowed me to get a deep understanding of any number of different ailments, treatments, and paths to wellness, whether through the brands under my stewardship or by other means. All this background led me to create my own brand of personal care products that were formulated without any potentially harmful chemicals but were clinically proven to be effective. In 2008, this combination was a rarity but based on my deep desire to bring efficacious products to market with formulae that were better for our bodies and our environment. As a mother of 4, I’ve thought a lot about how to optimize human health as well as the health of our earth. Following this, I was the CEO of the company that makes and markets Zicam brand of homeopathic cold shortening products, and I have been the CEO of LifeStyles Healthcare since March 2020.

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?

Distilling down 30 years of a career to one single story is a tough one. Some fun stories include the times I was on the Rosie O’Donnell Show while leading the Listerine mouthwash business and the first time “Mr. Mucus” debuted on the Ellen show (in a commercial pod) for the launch of the Mucinex consumer campaign. The Listerine — Rosie O’Donnell Show relationship started on Valentine’s Day 1997. Listerine’s main branded competitor, Scope, had conducted a survey of the “most kissable/least kissable” celebrities as a PR stunt. It backfired on them when Rosie O’Donnell discovered that she was on the “least kissable” list. At the time, her show was the #2 rated daytime talk show. Rosie raised it on her show and announced (unprompted by us) that she preferred Listerine. She held our large bottle up to the camera and essentially read the entire front label to her audience. Upon discovering this, we swiftly placed full page ads in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today to thank her. We followed up by shipping Listerine for her studio audience the next week. She repaid our actions with a full week of product mentions on her show. We went on to collaborate with her to raise funds for her For All Kids Foundation while getting an additional 3 months of daily Listerine mentions on her show. This experience reinforced that I should trust my convictions, act swiftly, and think big. Had we not moved quickly (and without the approval of my senior leadership at the time), we would have missed the opportunity. I also knew that Rosie O’Donnell spoke often of her children so a partnership with her that benefited her charity would benefit everyone.

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

When I was an assistant brand manager, I was charged with making sure that all of the details of our promotions were handled. This included in-store display programs. I needed to work with the Sales Operations team in order to get this done and time was often quite tight. In trying to keep one particular project on track, I needed the swift cooperation of a career Sales Op manager. He had decades of experience while I only had 2 or 3. He was clearly uninterested in the needs of my timetable, and when I pressed him, he raised his voice and made it clear that my success or failure was in his hands and at his discretion. I had clearly offended him by trying to “direct” someone with so many more years on the job than me, and he was going to hold my project hostage. It was a great lesson in the importance of everyone in an organization regardless of career trajectory or supposed “importance”. All deserve the utmost respect for their contributions and none should be considered “less than”, ever.

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?

Our work at LifeStyles Healthcare is all about health and wellness. First, we’ve been in the sexual wellness business since 1905 when the first condom was introduced. We now offer a broad range of condoms, lubricants, devices and other sexual wellness products that enable the joy of human connection. Sexual wellness, or intimate wellness, is an important part of overall adult wellness and self-care. This is true regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, orientation, or identity. Sexual wellness has been shown to contribute to a strong sense of well-being through higher serotonin levels, better overall health, and better connection to others. We have also always played a big role in improving sexual wellness literacy and promoting safe sex through our partnership with government and healthcare agencies, NGOs and charitable organizations. We believe that knowledge is not only power but it leads to safer, happier, more fulfilled lives 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.

1. I could hardly be the CEO of a global sexual wellness company without putting the joy of human connection at the top of the list! Taking the time to build, maintain, cultivate true human connections is vital to our overall well-being. For many, this will take the form of a loving, intimate relationship with another. However, we can develop intimate relationships with others that don’t involve the bedroom. These are just as important to our overall well-being. And don’t forget that self-love is the most important love of all and self-pleasure is an excellent way to support wellness.
2. Put the social media feeds down and intentionally limit consumption of daily news. For years, I consumed the news nearly 24 hours/day. I’d find myself going down Twitter “black holes” or “doom scrolling”. I still stay on top of the daily news, but I do it once a day and limit the amount of time I’m exposed to news and social media. I found myself slipping back into old habits during the pandemic, and it affected my overall well-being. I realized that I cannot convince anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, insurgents, or anti-abortion voices to change their perspectives by pummeling them with facts on Twitter. Better to take a step back and make sure that I show up on Election Day.
3. Exercise daily. It doesn’t have to consume a lot of time or be much more than a walk in the sunshine. I’ve been active all of my life, but exercise really took a back seat when I was commuting across the country each week for a job and then running a global company from my home office during the pandemic. With direct reports in nearly every time zone, it was too easy to be online from 5 am until 9 pm and let exercise fall down on the priority list. I’ve discovered a great service called “Future”. Through Future, I have an actual trainer (across the country) who provides me with regular work outs, tracks my progress via an app, and checks in with me. I have always known what to do but having another human hold me accountable has made all the difference. And that brings me to
4. Guard your sleep. I try really hard to get 7–8 hours of sleep each night. My team knows that I’d prefer to engage with them in the early morning than late at night, and we schedule accordingly. I put my phone on “do not disturb” from 9 pm to 5 am every day and try to stick to a regular sleeping schedule. The exercise (#3) helps make the quality of the sleep better.
5. Intentional eating. It can feel overwhelming to try to figure out the right balance of macronutrients every day. So we’ve got 3 or 4 “go to” meals that we make nearly every week. We know that these meals give us all we need and not too much (in terms of fat/calories). The other meals are more flexible, allowing us to go out to dinner, visit with friends or order in pizza without feeling like we’re out of control or crashing because we’re not getting all of the yummy nutrients that fuel our busy lives. By having some go to meals, we take a lot of the work and guess work out of healthy eating and leave room for enjoyment.

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

I would set a time of day, or maybe 2 times of day, when the world stopped, stepped outside and greeted our fellow humans. Think of it as a global fire drill without the loud blaring sounds and lack of predictability. The best part of a fire drill is that it makes you look up and step away from whatever you’re doing, head outside (hopefully into the sun) and chat for a moment with those around you. If we did this every day, at the same time no matter where we find ourselves, we would connect with millions of new people over a lifetime, absorb some extra vitamin D, check in with each other and breathe a bit easier. I’m convinced that the break would help with respiratory and cardiac health (though I haven’t done the clinical studies yet) and build joy through human connection. The entire world would build wellness, step by step, each and every day while connecting with each other. I can’t think of a more sustainable way to promote wellness.

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

1) There are jerks in this world and you will encounter them in business — — but don’t be one of them and don’t let them get you down. I’ve learned that I can’t change someone else’s behavior or attitude, but I can change how I can react. And as I’ve gotten further along in my career, I’ve had the freedom to choose who I work with — — I avoid the jerks.

2) Set a list of things to do in a day that is achievable during that day. And then complete the list. I had a tendency to create overly ambitious lists and then end up either disappointing myself or burning myself out. With more reasonable expectations of myself, I’m able to focus on the highest priorities and achieve them with minimal self-flagellation.

3) Being a working mom can make you a better mom and a better worker. Sure, it’s a tough juggle and very tiring. But I know that my children have benefited from seeing me get it done every day. They saw me when it was a struggle to get through the day, and they saw me during moments of triumph. Most importantly, they saw me plan, think, execute, and face every day, whether good or bad. And the experienced how we could all have fun while we were figuring it out together. When they were small, there were many days when they were my help-mates in getting all of us out the door in the morning and getting settled again in the evening. They learned responsibility and the importance of helping each other out.

4) Seek to understand where everyone, at every level of the organization, is coming from. We all have a backstory, and our backstories color how we greet the world. Having some idea of the human side of work colleagues enables us to adapt our style and connect better with our teammates. This has been particularly helpful in my role at the top of a global corporation. It’s in my nature to be interested in the non-business side of people, but the myriad cultures represented in our organization has made it even more important that I “seek first to understand”.

5) No leader becomes a successful leader on his/her own. LifeStyles Healthcare is the 3rd company I’ve led as the CEO. It is really clear to me that I don’t actually do the work. I lay out the direction, strategy and goals, but we would not advance a single step without the daily efforts of our team around the globe. I may be at the top of the corporate food pyramid, but the best ideas come from others and the execution of those ideas is always done by others. We can only succeed together.

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

Which one? Oh boy. I’m going to cheat and combine them — — as they are all, in fact, interrelated. Veganism (I’m not currently vegan) is not only great for our health, but it can help reduce the impact that we have on the environment. It, therefore, helps with environmental change (producing animal sources of protein is damaging for the environment and not good for sustainability). Sustainability and environmental changes are 2 sides of the same coin. The more we embrace sustainability, the greater chance we have to slow the acceleration of global climate change. And mental health is both the outcome and the input for managing the others poorly. We have never done a good job helping those with mental health issues. We see this with appalling clarity every time there’s a mass shooting, excessive police violence, consumption of conspiracy theories, a report of a celebrity drug overdose or any number of horrific tragedies. Our disinformation, intentional misinformation, news as entertainment, and polarizing politics combined with the pressures of global climate change combine to make it somewhat miraculous that mental health issues aren’t an even bigger problem. We should look, however, at our younger people and see what we are doing to them with all of these issues. I don’t think this is a legacy that anyone is eager to claim.

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

I’m on Twitter (@MlouWalker1) and LinkedIn

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: M’lou Walker of LifeStyles Healthcare On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

In step one, I’d focus on self-awareness. I struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time, but I didn’t realise it, and that’s common; we believe the thoughts in our minds and don’t realise they aren’t true. It’s easy to go through your day being unconscious of the thoughts you’re having. Start to tune into what you’re thinking and feeling. Notice what these are, how you respond to them and if maybe you’re experiencing imposter syndrome. For example, I felt like I didn’t belong at Uni, so I’d go and buy things to make me feel similar to other students. I’d been taking action without linking it to the previous thoughts, so I never appreciated or understood what was happening; I just kept doing it. You have to have the self-awareness to notice what’s happening so you can step in.

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

Michele Ivory is the founder of The Serene Lifestyle; a business which centres on guiding driven individuals to remove stress from life and work so they can say goodbye to inner turmoil and hello to inner freedom. Having made this transformation herself after burying deep emotional trauma, which manifested in physical illness, she is now on a mission to empower others through the tools and techniques she has learned. You can find out more about her at www.theserenelifestyle.com.

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

I grew up in the South of England and moved to the Island of Jersey for a year or two, twenty years ago :-).

I always wanted to be a Psychologist and graduated with a psychology degree but because of my imposter syndrome I ended up training as a chartered accountant.

After becoming unwell ten years ago, I decided enough was enough. While healing my physical body, I also transformed my mindset and finally released emotions that I’d suppressed for years. The experience reawakened my passion for psychology, and I decided to return to my original dream career 21 years after graduating.

For the past five years, I’ve led my business and worked with incredible clients to guide them to believe in themselves and their abilities and create their dream life without inner turmoil or stress running the show.

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

When I worked as a chartered accountant, I was given an audit client that my colleagues told me was ‘very difficult’ and ‘challenging’ — I loved working on the audit. The client was direct, said it how it was, and I liked them.

It taught me to always be open-minded. Listening to others’ opinions is important because you can learn so much from them but ultimately you should make up your mind based on what you believe.

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

Before retraining as a therapist, I worked as a chartered accountant for a big four accountancy firm, I also worked for a FTSE 100 company. As a result, I understand the practical challenges both my corporate and business clients face and how this impacts how they think and feel. My company focuses on blending deep inner work with practical changes that I learned from my career as an accountant and from my own healing journey so my clients can experience long-lasting results.

One of my earliest clients had created a financially successful business but was considering closing it down because the stress of leading it felt too much. However, by the end of our work together, she told me that she’d fallen in love with her business again. We’ve kept in touch, and her business is still thriving but notably, she is too, which is what the serene lifestyle is about — creating a life you love to live.

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

I have a family, so leaving a well-paid job and setting up my business didn’t only impact me; it also affected my partner and daughter. I’m incredibly grateful and appreciative to both of them for seeing my vision, continuing to encourage me and being unafraid to say it how it is.

In the first few years of my business, I’d make progress and then retreat to the point of stopping. My partner noticed and kindly shared that every time I started to make a success of my business, I seemed to change my plans or go in a different direction rather than stick to my vision. I was aware I was doing this, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself, so I’d try and justify my actions. It’s part of imposter syndrome because the self-doubt and feelings of being a fraud take over, so you backtrack. Finally, hearing it from my partner hit home and confirmed that I was doing this and needed to address it.

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

Imposter Syndrome is when you have a negative view of yourself compared to the truth of who you are, i.e. there is a distortion between your self-image and reality.

You feel that you don’t belong, as if you’re a fraud to be in the environment that you find yourself in. You believe your peers know more than you, and at any moment, people will realise you don’t know as much as they think you do. You believe that all your success is a fluke or down to luck which leaves you feeling under pressure because you feel you can’t replicate your success as you’re not sure how it happened in the first place. You don’t feel your work is worthy of its praise because you believe you didn’t do a lot; you wonder why you receive glowing appraisals or excellent reviews. You can also feel like you have to work harder than others to ‘justify’ being in your role.

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

As well as creating inner turmoil, it can also hold you back from reaching your potential or prevent you from enjoying the success you’re having.

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

Imposter Syndrome leaves you feeling like you don’t belong and doubting yourself, which means you can put others on an imaginary pedestal. This makes it harder to connect with others because you’re not seeing them as equals. You can allow others to ‘lead’ when you’re just as qualified. You may also find you ‘retreat’ inside yourself when around your peers or clients because the imposter feelings create inner turmoil that makes it hard to focus on the other person. You’re too busy dealing with the thoughts and feelings coming up to be fully present. You can also ‘overgive’ to others because you’re trying to make up for your perceived shortfalls and risk over-working.

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

I came across imposter syndrome a few years ago, and straight away, I knew I was experiencing it and had done so for all of my career. So it’s impacted me in several ways.

I grew up in a family on the breadline, and I was the first member to go to University. However, I never felt like I truly belonged at Uni, and to try and fix that, I started buying clothes, shoes and bags. By the time I graduated with my Psychology degree, I was in considerable debt because of this spending. This stopped my dreams of becoming a psychologist because the next stage was a costly 3-year clinical course. So instead, I chose to become an accountant hoping it would help me be more responsible with money and provide a stable income to clear my debts. So at the start of my career, imposter syndrome took me in a different direction.

I worked as a chartered accountant at one of the big four accountancy firms. My colleagues were warm, friendly and great to work with. Yet, I felt like I didn’t belong again. It was as if I believed they’d sat different exams to me and I’d been given the easy papers. I thought they knew more than me, and I felt out of my depth. I’d be in client meetings wondering how I’d ended up with them trusting me as they did. Then, I received an outstanding appraisal from the senior partner and rather than celebrate; it put me in a spin. I felt under pressure that now others would have high expectations of me that I couldn’t live up to. I felt as if there were two parts to me: one side believed in me, knew that I did know what I was doing, and encouraged me to go for it. But then there was the other side of me who’d have me questioning what I was doing, highlighting differences between me and others and generally made me feel less worthy. Looking back I see that how I felt meant I avoided putting myself forward for opportunities to progress.

Later in my career, I fell ill and to regain my health, I focused on my physical body and my mind and emotions. I learned so much about fear, anxiety, and resilience during this time, which reawakened my love for psychology. So I decided to retrain, and I created my own business to guide others to remove stress from their life and work. But the imposter syndrome raised its head yet again.

On one occasion, I did a talk for Barclays Bank business customers on how our internal state impacts our pricing, billing and cash collection in business. Barclays loved my talk, but the next day, I felt awful. The imposter feelings were rampant: ‘Who are you to talk about finance and psychology?”, ‘What do you know?’, ‘Let’s hope no one at that talk contacts you for help?’, ‘What did you think you were doing?’. The inner voice was brutal, and I listened to it because I thought what it was saying was true. I took down my Facebook business page and retreated. The feelings were overwhelming.

My partner noticed that I was taking one step forward and then taking one step back and shared his observations with me. Then, fortunately, I came across an article about imposter syndrome, and the light bulb went off. My thoughts, feelings and actions over the years suddenly made sense. And I knew that if I didn’t address my imposter feelings, I’d struggle to get my business off the ground.

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

Yes, I have made a monumental transformation with imposter syndrome, and for the last couple of years, I’ve been guiding others to achieve similar results. I came to see there were a few root causes, and I massively reduced the imposter feelings by focusing on addressing those. As a result, I feel completely different about myself and my abilities compared to a few years ago. Of course, I have the odd wobble, but I can spot it and know how to move through it. It doesn’t dominate my life as it did.

I focused on improving my self-worth, trusting myself and my abilities, and my stereotypes of what a ‘successful’ person was.

Taking self-worth first, a lack of this can lead you to have a distorted lens through which you see yourself. For example, I felt confused about why I was highly regarded in my work, a typical self-image distortion; what you see and the truth are different. In my case, I realised that because of my background, I felt ‘poor’ and therefore didn’t belong in the world I was operating in. Low self-worth is about beliefs rather than your thoughts. So, I worked on changing my beliefs about myself to feel more worthy, believing that we are all equal and that I was worthy of the success I was experiencing. I also focused on acknowledging all of my experience because I realised I had a tendency to dismiss achievements as not relevant or being nothing.

I also looked at lack of self-trust because I doubted my skills despite excellent appraisals over the years and glowing client testimonials.

I knew you can lose trust in one area of your life and extrapolate it to other areas too. So, I focused on the different ways I could have lost trust in myself from the past but also how I was possibly doing things today that still led me to doubt myself.

For everything I uncovered, I worked on letting it go so it wasn’t causing me to stay stuck and reframing situations so I saw them as lessons as opposed to examples of failure.

And lastly, I looked at stereotypes that I held about ‘successful’ people and those in my field. We’re constantly creating an internal data bank about ourselves and the world as we grow up, and we’re not always aware of that. So on the face of it, you may believe you can go for it and be successful in your field, but do you match the deeply held beliefs in your subconscious mind? Are you the same as the ‘stereotype’ you hold? I realised that my subconscious views of a successful person were different to how I viewed myself: they looked and sounded different, carried themselves differently, and came from a different background. It was quite a revelation because my deeply held beliefs differed from my conscious thoughts on the matter. For example, I was taking some action as if success was available. Yet, my deep beliefs were that people like me weren’t successful, which triggered imposter feelings and constant inner turmoil. So I had to challenge these beliefs and turn them around, so I believed that I could be successful as ‘me’ and that I was good enough.

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

In step one, I’d focus on self-awareness. I struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time, but I didn’t realise it, and that’s common; we believe the thoughts in our minds and don’t realise they aren’t true. It’s easy to go through your day being unconscious of the thoughts you’re having. Start to tune into what you’re thinking and feeling. Notice what these are, how you respond to them and if maybe you’re experiencing imposter syndrome. For example, I felt like I didn’t belong at Uni, so I’d go and buy things to make me feel similar to other students. I’d been taking action without linking it to the previous thoughts, so I never appreciated or understood what was happening; I just kept doing it. You have to have the self-awareness to notice what’s happening so you can step in.

For step two, when you become aware of an ‘imposter’s’ thought, ask yourself, ‘Is this true?’ and sit with what comes up. So, for example, when the voice in my mind told me that I couldn’t help any of Barclays’ Business customers, I could have asked myself, ‘Is this true?’. If I’d used this simple but powerful question, I would have realised that I wasn’t a fraud and could support them even if I was still downplaying my skill set.

Moving onto step three, become intentional about your actions. Before you take action, focus on why you’re taking it and your intention behind it. I’ve found that when I tune into my intention and check that it is pure and from a good place, it helps take the pressure off, and I feel less of an imposter. Instead of focusing on those around you whom you’ve put on an imaginary pedestal and are triggering imposter feelings, you focus your intention on what you want to say or do and why. For example, in group settings, imposter feelings can rear their head, and you start focusing on being rumbled by those around you instead of what you want to say. When you refocus on your intention and why you want to speak up, for example, to help provide a solution, you move away from focusing on being an imposter and onto what you’re trying to achieve.

Step four, for one testimonial, appraisal or review, write out why the person gave you the feedback they did. They said what they did for a reason; what is that? Was it what you did? Was it how you made them feel? Spend the time to develop the details of why you believe they wrote what they did. As you do this, notice when imposter feelings come up, and you start dismissing your work. If this happens, go back to step two and ask, ‘Is this true?’. Once you’ve done this, put it in your wallet or save it on your phone. Have it somewhere to hand where you can easily access and ponder on it whenever you realise you’re going down the imposter rabbit hole. For example, I used to carry just one sentence a client had said to me that made me feel my work was worthwhile and more than good enough.

And finally, step five, be aware of the ‘aftermath’ of success. Imposter syndrome differs from a pure confidence issue in that external success can make you feel worse rather than better. The imposter syndrome means you feel under more pressure because you don’t understand why you’re getting the success you are or why people write such glowing appraisals or reviews. Whilst other people may want to celebrate a milestone you’ve just achieved, the imposter feelings make you want to do the opposite. Please don’t allow this to stop you from taking action; recognise it when it possibly rears its head and understand this is part of the imposter feelings. This will prevent you from taking detrimental action during this period when you experience this dip in your emotional state. As I mentioned earlier, I deleted my Facebook business page after my successful talk because I was experiencing the ‘aftermath’ of success; this action wasn’t good for my business:-). Being aware of this ‘aftermath sensation’ means you can keep moving forward instead of being stuck in the one step forward, two steps backwards scenario.

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

That it’s healthy to express, not suppress, our emotions and how we can safely and mindfully do this. If we learned at a young age that it’s safe to feel our emotions and we’re taught how to do this, our mental health would soar.

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

Russell Brand for his openness and humour.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

https://www.instagram.com/the.serene.lifestyle/

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

Michele Ivory of The Serene Lifestyle On How To Thrive Despite Experiencing Impostor Syndrome was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You belong here. There is so much to discuss when it comes to diversity and equity in our industry to the point where people don’t feel a sense of belonging. Coupled with saturation of some markets, those wanting to explore entrepreneurship can feel like there’s no place for them in cannabis. Bring your brands, ideas, healing, perspective, experience. No one can do it like you. You belong. We need you.

As a part of my series about strong women leaders in the cannabis industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing TaJanna Mallory.

TaJanna Mallory, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at CannAssistants TaJanna Mallory is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at CannAssistants, a virtual assistant (VA) agency that provides administrative support to mid-size cannabis companies, founders, and business executives. CannAssistants works with a curated team of VAs and consultants to bridge the gap between administrative support, customer solutions, and a business’s bottom line. At the core of her work, TaJanna believes the foundation of every strong organization is a steady and seamless support staff that excels in daily operations and exceeds client expectations. In 2016, after spending over a decade providing administrative support, human resources, and talent recruiting for large teams and C-level executives in both the for-profit and nonprofit space, TaJanna launched on her own with a focus on providing these much needed services to the cannabis industry. TaJanna’s expertise spans startups, technology, finance, education and hospitality. She’s worked with national, multi-national, and Fortune 500 companies like Comcast, Chick-Fil-A, Deloitte & Touche, The National Football League, Fiserv, and Oliver Wyman. TaJanna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Florida State University and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Liberty University. She resides in Tampa, Florida with her husband of 14 years and their Chihuahua.

About CannAssistants

CannAssistants is a United States based virtual assistant (VA) agency providing administrative support to midsize cannabis companies, founders, and business executives. CannAssistants understand the unique culture, fast-pace, and nuances of the cannabis industry and will match you and your business with a team of well-qualified VAs that step in and take the extra work off your hands. CannAssistants’s goal is to relieve businesses of administrative load, leaving you with the work that you love. Flexible retainer options and virtual work models reduce the overhead of hiring the traditional way. For more information, please visit: https://www.cannassistants.com

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to the cannabis industry?

I was working in the corporate world as an executive assistant (AE). I was getting burned out by office politics, and I was developing this burning desire to travel the world. After a ton of research and a friendly push from my husband, I quit my job as EA to the CEO of a restaurant chain and I launched on my own as a virtual assistant (VA). My client right out of the gate was in the cannabis industry. I had no idea about the industry and wasn’t a consumer. A whole new world opened up and I’m forever grateful.

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

I identify as Christian and I’m often involved in my local church in one way or another. Around 2019, our pastor at the time asked me to take over much of the church administration. This would have given me unwanted exposure. I wanted to help but I didn’t want any judgy Christians getting on my nerves so I was dodging the pastor like crazy. Let me think about it. Are you sure you want me? Decline call. Ignore email. You would’ve thought I owed him money the way I was dodging him. Finally, I sat the pastor down and told him that I work in the cannabis industry and I’m not sure if he wants that smoke (no pun intended) from the parishioners. His reply was, “The work you do is legal, right? Ok cool. Thanks for telling me. When do you want to start?” All that energy of dodging him. Wasted.

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

My husband Andrew is the reason I started freelancing as a VA. After researching for months, he encouraged me to just start because I was going into analysis paralysis mode. LOWD CEO Jesce Horton was my first client and the reason I’m in the cannabis industry. He didn’t know, at the time, that I was just starting but he did know that I was no cannabis expert. During our first call, he said, “No one is. And if they tell you they’re an expert in cannabis, they’re lying.” He sticks to that motto to this day. He took a chance on me and continued to challenge and mentor me.

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

I’m excited that we are developing content and community for cannabis VAs and freelancers. I think it’s important for VAs to have a place to develop, learn about business, and participate in this industry as entrepreneurs. There needs to be a place that fosters community and enrichment for us. We’re working on that.

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

Among my peers, I’ve found that women tend to suffer from imposter syndrome and have a hard time speaking up for themselves more than men. Aside from therapy (lol), some ways that we can get over this is by sizing up our skills and comparing it with salaries. This takes some internet research and maybe conversations with staffing firms and recruiters as well as people who are in positions that you are in at other companies. This gives you perspective of how you actually compare in the marketplace. As business owners, learn to have value-based conversations with prospective clients and investors. Take the focus off of cost and focus more on how you and your company can be an asset.

Companies can do more to make their pay scales consistent and transparent.

As a society, we have to cease this culture of anticipating someone’s abilities based on what we see with our eyes — things like gender, race, or what may appear to be a disability.

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

1. Serve first. I have found the most authentic entrepreneurs in the cannabis industry are also activists. They have the plant and the people at the core and they build their business around that. Clients and customers can tell the difference.
2. Be flexible. This industry can change on a dime. Those that are surviving are flexible with the changes.
3. Be ready. It’s fast-paced! Be ready for opportunities as they arise, as markets open and as you create new connections.
4. Stay creative. Year over year, I’m evaluating our work at CannAssistants to make sure that we’re always bringing value to the industry and the professionals that we serve. Stay creative to evolve with the industry.
5. You belong here. There is so much to discuss when it comes to diversity and equity in our industry to the point where people don’t feel a sense of belonging. Coupled with saturation of some markets, those wanting to explore entrepreneurship can feel like there’s no place for them in cannabis. Bring your brands, ideas, healing, perspective, experience. No one can do it like you. You belong. We need you.

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

1. I’m excited about the focus and attention on ancillary entrepreneurship. We’re showing another avenue for starting a cannabis business.
2. I’m excited about seeing more and more diverse business owners.
3. I’m excited about the constant conversations happening about how to make this industry better — how we can all serve the plant and the patients better.

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

No, I want cannabis to have a similar status to a lemon. Lemons are natural and have so many purposes from cleaning to healing. Lemons come in many varieties, from different farmers, from different regions. Lemons are easily accessible for people to purchase. No one bats an eye when you buy a lemon. No one tries to tax a lemon. No one is heavily regulating lemons.

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

Keep saying “yes” until you’re ready to say “no.” This is advice that I give people when they’re considering opportunities or business ventures. I’ve told myself this as encouragement to take the next step into the unknown. It’s exactly how I’ve ended up here.

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

Oh man! What a question! I would inspire a movement to remove roadblocks in this country for people to access good health and great wealth. Somehow, this country has managed to capitalize on just about anything a person can use to better themselves than hold people accountable for not bettering themselves. This is an amazing thing for me to think about. I need a plan.

Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you only continued success!

Wisdom From The Women Leading The Cannabis Industry, With TaJanna Mallory of CannAssistants was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It’s not easy to get customers — When you build a product you believe in, especially one that would have helped you immensely when you were in the shoes of the target demographic, you’d think it would be an easy sell. However, building a company isn’t just about the idea. There is so much work it takes that is separate from the core idea that is necessary in a business landscape — marketing, your reputation, building a brand, the list goes on. It took a full year of cold calling, meetings and hard work to get our first customer. The first time doing anything is always the hardest.

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

Shagun is an experienced auditor and process consultant, who designed ART for accountants. She started her career in public accounting and has worked in Fortune 100 companies such as Marriott and Freddie Mac. Her work focused primarily on internal controls and risk mitigation in both international and domestic arenas.

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 studied accounting but was not very interested in the typical accounting jobs. As luck may have it, the first job I secured was in a local public accounting firm to be a part of the audit team. I instantly fell in love with the idea that numbers could tell a whole story and my interest in audit, forensic and investigative accounting grew. There’s this misconception that accounting is boring, but the narrative ability of following patterns and changes in numbers can be so exciting. The average person may not know about the world of forensic accounting — there are actually hundreds of forensic accountants working for the FBI solving cases with the trail of numbers. In fact, forensic accounting was what led to the arrest of Al Capone!

Being on the auditing side of the accounting world, I felt like I was working for the better good by being the eyes and ears of the public, keeping the capital markets honest and increasing trust in the capital markets. People deserve to know the truth of what they are putting their money behind. Auditors are able to uncover fraud and deception, which can lead to consequences for companies that deliberately try to mislead the public. Uncovering fraud was something that was always important to me in my line of work, so naturally it became an integral part of the company I would go on to found. After working with Fortune 50 companies, I was able to see patterns and issues with processes which could either lead to fraud or inaccurate financials — and the month-end close process was the clear winner. Therefore, I decided to create a system that would minimize risk and enhance this process.

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

When we arrived at a CFO conference, we were chatting with someone who mentioned our male team member was already there. That was odd since there were no male employees of ours at this conference. When we brought this up, the person insisted he had already arrived, and was wearing a SkyStem t-shirt. This was even more strange as everyone else was in business attire. We later realized one of our customers was wearing our shirt as a fan! We were so excited and humbled by this gesture. This CFO was a champion of our product and wanted everyone to know how great it is. It was definitely an unexpected surprise.

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?

Lack of preparation is a frequent nemesis in the business world, but it can lead to some pretty funny instances. One time we were not prepared for a conference. This is an environment where potential deals are made and so it’s important to maintain appearances to make sure your customers know they’d be in good hands with your company. One of the ways this is done is by having an impressive booth — cool swag, an organized table and the most important part: the banner which tells attendees who you are. Well, our banner broke and all of a sudden we found ourselves horrified at how we must look trying to prop it up with a tree branch.

To make matters worse, this was our first conference and we really wanted to make an impression. I’m sure we did, although it may not have been the one we wanted! We managed to get through the rest of the show relatively easily, and made some connections who admired our tenacity. We learned that no matter what life throws at you there is always a solution. Even if it’s not the perfect one the answer is in the perspective — either you can panic and ruin the experience or make do and acknowledge human error and have a bunch of fans in the process. It’s all up to you.

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

There were many angels along the way, both my family and my chosen family. My parents supported the idea financially and I will always be so grateful they were able to help get the company off the ground. My brother has been the backbone from the start and supports SkyStem in all ways. And then Nancy, the person who first joined me and has been crucial to the success of SkyStem.

Nancy and I first met online — I read a blog she wrote. We were internet friends for a while who admired each other’s work and eventually decided to meet up in New York. The rest is history. You never know where you will make the connections that change your life! The lesson is to go for it and not wonder what the other person might think about a random stranger reaching out. Always ask — because without that the answer is always no.

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?

Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge how many amazing, hardworking women founders are out there today. It’s certainly more than when I entered the workforce. There’s a famous saying about Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire — she did everything he did but backwards and in high heels. I think that sentiment rings true in the business world. Women in our society are held to different and often higher standards. When a male boss is assertive he is just that, assertive. When a woman in charge behaves the same, she is called bossy.

In my opinion, there’s one main reason why women are a smaller percentage of founders. It’s the level of support women get from their families, children and the entire community to embark on a very hard journey of starting a company. Many times, women have to make other things a priority as they possibly do not get assistance to help overcome those challenges.

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?

The traditional roles for women need to be put aside and the expectations need to change so that they can elevate to whatever path they choose. This means supporting female-founded companies on a personal and structural level. Individuals can do things like addressing their own conscious or unconscious bias, including thoughts and actions which uphold barriers to entry for people without the same advantages as others. The government can pass legislation that targets practices such as the wage gap, bad maternity leave and childcare support and discriminatory hiring.

Sometimes a bias isn’t intentional. This can happen in a business situation like deciding which employee to hire or promote. It’s human nature to want to surround yourself with people you believe are a reflection of yourself, which can manifest in decisions like this. Since there are more male executives, it is likely they will be able to see themselves in those who more clearly match up with their identity. This isn’t always the case, but an example of how unconscious bias can uphold a marginalization of women in the workforce.

As a society, I think these issues start with how different genders are socialized. A study was done where researchers watched parents with a young child trying to conquer a physical obstacle. Boys were more likely to be encouraged by their parents to attempt the obstacle, whereas girls were more likely to be warned or even physically removed from the threat. A big part of starting a company has to do with facing your fears. When you are taught to avoid your fears rather than facing them head on, it takes a lot of work to undo that social conditioning.

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?

Diversity, as we know, definitely benefits the world at large. Around half of the world’s population are women. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s a strong business decision to not ignore women as leaders, who may be able to better articulate and execute what their customer base wants.

However, many companies are unaware or perhaps choose to ignore just how much purchasing power women have. Take industries which have traditionally been male-dominated, like guitar. Research shows half of new guitar buyers are women. Yet many guitar manufacturers primarily market to men. Sometimes with advertisements that are downright offensive to women. If a woman were to found a guitar company, not only would they be able to put out better representation, I would wager female customers would be more inclined to buy from a company that reflects their identity and values. Being a founder is rewarding in its own right. You are a part of a community and able to make your voice and ideas heard. It can also be lucrative if you are able to tap into your target market.

The success of the different genders becoming founders stem from opposite strengths. We can learn from both kinds of leaders.

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

Being a founder is not as glamorous as it seems in the papers. There are a lot of emotional challenges that founders have to face. This can be anything from stress or even impostor syndrome, which is something a lot of successful women struggle with. On top of these challenges, you have to be able to lead a team as well, no matter what you’re feeling inside. You have to be strong for them even if you are struggling. I don’t think any team expects their leader to be emotionless or robotic, but as a good leader you have to keep a clear head in times of turmoil and be a guiding compass for the company.

Founding a company means there are no days off. While it is important to maintain a work-life balance and keep time for rest, you never know when an issue is going to arise. And sometimes it’s something that needs immediate attention. There is a kind of anxiety that develops when you have to be at least somewhat available around the clock. Oftentimes, your personal life can be affected by missing out on time with your loved ones. This can lead to a strain on friendships and other relationships in your life. You have to be able to put healthy systems in place to cope with the heavy demands of founding a company. And most importantly, surround yourself with people who are supportive of your endeavors.

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?

Resilience and being able to accept repeated rejection are the two main traits potential founders need to have. Fortunately, these are skills that can be learned. The question is if you are willing to accept all the failures you must encounter along the way. For some, this is too hard and that’s perfectly ok. The beauty of life is we can choose which path will bring us the most happiness and which lifestyles will best suit our needs and wants. It is a personal decision to decide what you are willing to go through in life to achieve what you want.

It’s also important to distinguish the variety of options available for starting a company in the digital age. There are plenty of people who have a small business of one — freelancers. In today’s economy there are influencers, dropshippers, resellers, artists, designers and everything in between. The old saying “if you build it, they will come” has never been more true if you are willing to put in the effort and accept the self-doubts that will inevitably sneak in. If you feel in your heart you want to be a founder and you are willing to take all the lows that come with the highs, there isn’t one set way to do it.

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

It’s not easy to get customers — When you build a product you believe in, especially one that would have helped you immensely when you were in the shoes of the target demographic, you’d think it would be an easy sell. However, building a company isn’t just about the idea. There is so much work it takes that is separate from the core idea that is necessary in a business landscape — marketing, your reputation, building a brand, the list goes on. It took a full year of cold calling, meetings and hard work to get our first customer. The first time doing anything is always the hardest.

Customers are your greatest asset — There’s a reason why market research is a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies don’t have to guess what their customers want, all they have to do is listen! It is a point of pride at SkyStem that we always have at least a certain percent of our new product features come directly from our customers. You may think something is really useful, but if your customers don’t agree it doesn’t matter. For this reason, you have to put your ego aside and let your users guide the development of your company as well. Plus, referrals are one of the best and most consistent ways to win business.

The world is full of flaky people –

At the end of the day, you are the only person you can completely rely on. I don’t mean this in a jaded way, just that you are responsible for making things happen. In life you have to plan for the unexpected, and be able to roll with anything life throws at you. Prospects will no-show to meetings, vendors will miss deadlines and there will be instances where you’ll have to act on the fly when issues like this arise. What you can do is remember you can’t control other people’s actions, but you can control how you handle it and be proactive to make sure you know what to expect. Always be the one to reach out, and a simple reminder can mean the difference of getting what you need and not. Communication is very important.

You don’t need all the information to make a decision –

Especially when you are first starting out or establishing new processes it’s important to move forward as quickly as possible (without being recklessly uninformed, of course.) In the start up world the concept of an MVP or minimum viable product is important to push a growing company forward. If we waited until we felt 100% ready to do something, nothing would ever get done. Tying into what we were speaking about earlier, women are statistically more likely to wait to make important decisions. While preparedness is never a bad thing, waiting too long to act can hurt your bottom line or cause you to miss out on other opportunities. Remembering to trust yourself and your judgment, it’s ok to take risks and it’s also ok to make mistakes. You learn a lot from your intuition and pivoting to find new avenues of success.

Chemistry with your team is paramount –

Your team is your company just as much as you are. Having alignment between your personalities and working styles is key for a business to run smoothly. That’s not to say differences will never work out, it’s also important to maintain diversity of thoughts and approaches. It’s more of a culture fit, between what your team members need and want in a professional environment and how that matches up to what the job description entails and what resources are available. For instance, at SkyStem, our culture is very DIY. Anyone is able to suggest ideas and implement initiatives that make sense. We put a huge emphasis on learning and growing outside of our comfort zone. This is a great match for team members who thrive when they are left to their own devices and have the discipline and time management to handle the freedom and creativity this kind of environment facilitates. However, some people might prefer a job where there is a more rigid process and less independence, like in a large traditional corporation. Finding the right fit is a two way street and it’s crucial to have that understanding and chemistry between the people you’re working closely with.

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

Giving back to your community once you’ve reached a place of success is so important. I am very passionate about entrepreneurship and to invest my time back into the community. I have participated in panels, judged contests, and spoke as keynote speaker for entrepreneur type events. These are the places where people who are starting out get inspiration and learn how to forge a path forward. Volunteering for the events lets me have interactions with those who will go on to solve more of the world’s problems. It gives me great pleasure to motivate and guide new founders with knowledge I wish I had when starting out.

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

I would love to inspire the next wave of female founders. I think the movement is already happening where more and more women are choosing to give their dreams a try and not succumb to self-doubt and external pressures. It takes a lot of courage to break the shackles of a previous society.

If there’s one thing I want people to take away from this interview it’s to show other women that they will never regret following their passion. It may be hard and at times you may feel like giving up, but I wouldn’t trade this life for anything.

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.

Richard Branson. I’ve always been an admirer of his entrepreneurial spirit. I once read he started his first business venture at 16! To have that kind of bravery and ambition at such a young age is something most people aren’t born with. The Virgin Group is truly a renaissance company in that they have all sorts of industries and business types. I’ve always had many interests and I’d love to pick his brain on what it’s like to have so many outlets. Plus, he might have some extra seats on a flight somewhere tropical!

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

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

Women In Wellness: Gardith Edouard Of Affirm Candle On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Your story has power; share it. My own healing started when I began to talk about my trauma with others. I often felt that I was the only one suffering while others were living their best life. Everyone is a trauma victim; it’s our response to trauma that makes us different.

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

Gardith is a scientist and teacher located in Philadelphia, PA. She created Affirm Candle to raise awareness about trauma, mental health, and holistic healing methods in her community. All of her products are vegan, cruelty-free, and Earth-honoring as she uses recyclable materials and makes most of her materials herself.

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 trained as a scientist and teacher. However, all of the knowledge that I have proved to be futile in 2010 when I experienced immense loss and trauma. That year, I lost my best friend and 4 members of my family died in the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti. As a result, I was diagnosed with PTSD and really had to take ownership of my own healing. Little did I know that as a Black woman, I am predisposed to developing PTSD because all Black people retained the trauma from the Transatlantic slave trade in our DNA. Throughout my healing journey, I’ve learned a lot of information and skills. Western medicine did little in helping to heal my trauma. Thus, I had to turn to naturopathy and other forms of holistic medicine throughout my journey. I am grateful that I am finally at a place where I get to share the resources that have helped me heal with the rest of the world. Aromatherapy is one of them.

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 currently teach biology at a high school in Philadelphia. I’ve taught meditation to adults but didn’t really think about teaching it to my students. However, one day, I decided that instead of detention after school, we would meditate instead. After detention, one of my students went home and told a parent I ‘hypnotized’ him so he would never misbehave again. He enjoyed and benefited from meditation so much that he thought he’d been hypnotized. I had to explain to the parent that I am an actual meditation teacher and I use aromatherapy and meditation to help kids. I work with some of the most challenging students according to our society’s norms and standards. The teachable moment for me is that our students, our kids need healing too. What might be perceived as a child misbehaving could simply be a child who needs a reset. We need to find a way to include our kids in our healing trauma discourses.

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

My biggest mistake was assuming that my reach would simply be local. I have folks ordering my products from all over the world! What I’ve learned from this experience is to never sell yourself short. When you have a good product, be confident and take risks.

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?

Every human being on this planet has experienced trauma. What differs between individuals is the way they respond to trauma. Trauma can lead to anxiety, memory loss, physical pain, depression, and much more. The point is if we don’t practice self-care and begin to heal, our bodies will eventually show the negative effects of our traumas. I want to normalize talking about traumas so that we can heal from them. I’ve tried a lot of resources and spent a lot of money on healing myself. What was shocking to me is that I could’ve healed on my own if I were given the right tools earlier on in life. When it comes to healing trauma, the little things make a huge difference. For example, infusing aromatherapy into my day would immediately change my mindset and mood. Coupling aromatherapy with affirmations daily has been a game-changer for me. I no longer have trouble sleeping and now know how to listen to my body for when I need a reset. Meditation, aromatherapy, and affirmations, are all free resources that do indeed heal trauma.

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

1. Meditation: Science shows that meditation not only slows aging but literally helps decrease symptoms of anxiety, depression, mind-wandering, etc. People benefit from the positive effects of meditation 3 years post meditating. Meditation has been proven to even help our body’s cells who are showing signs of cancer to commit suicide, known as apoptosis.
2. Aromatherapy: Essential oils are undervalued in western society. Aromatherapy is a holistic healing treatment that uses natural plant extracts in the form of essential oils to promote health and well-being. Aromatherapy enhances both physical and emotional health.
3. Affirmations: Affirmations are positive statements that you say to yourself over and over again. Just as physical exercise improves our physical health, mental exercises in the form of affirmations improve our mental health and well-being. In addition, the law of manifestation tells us that what we think, say, and put out into the universe can in fact become our reality. Practicing self-love in the form of affirmations is therefore worthwhile from every angle you look at it.
4. Locus of control: Your locus of control is your perception of the causes of the events that have taken place in your life. Research shows that one’s perception of their locus of control can either be external; believing that other forces control your destiny, or internal; believing that you shape your own destiny. People with a high internal locus of control, as opposed to an external locus of control, are less likely to conform to society’s ideals and expectations of them. These individuals are happier, manifest exactly what they perceive for their lives, and are highly self-aware and successful. It’s commonplace to often want to please others and succumb to their expectations of us. However, focus more on what YOU can do in manifesting what YOU want for YOUR life. If something is not within your internal locus of control, let it go…
5. Physical activity: We live in a society where ‘working and hustling’ are revered as opposed to relaxing and making time to reset and heal. Few people take time to take in the gifts that the Universe has granted us in the form of the Earth. Everything you need to heal both physically and mentally is within your reach. Nature walks and breathing in fresh air is as healing if not more than pharmaceutical drugs. Physics tells us that it’s very hard to stop a body that’s already in motion. If the only thing you can do for yourself in one day is a 15-minute walk or bike ride, then do it! Your body and brain will thank you!

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

I would impose 15 minutes a day of mandatory meditation using either aromatherapy or sound therapy on every human being. 15 minutes a day of meditation not only benefits our mental health but our physical health as well. The data for this is very compelling.

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

1. Your story has power; share it. My own healing started when I began to talk about my trauma with others. I often felt that I was the only one suffering while others were living their best life. Everyone is a trauma victim; it’s our response to trauma that makes us different.
2. Healing is both your right and your responsibility. Some folks spend a lot of time on their traumas without looking for solutions. I want us to of course spend time sharing our trauma stories. However, the bulk of that discourse needs to focus on healing practices. When you shift the discourse to healing, you are claiming back your power and taking your story into your hands.
3. Your trauma is not your fault. Everyone is a trauma victim. This world has both good and bad people. Sometimes, the worst things happen to the best people. You weren’t singled out and targeted to be victimized. That’s why is very important to focus on healing and reclaiming your power.
4. Mindfulness works. Wherever you are in your healing journey, talk to a therapist, and practice meditation, and other mindfulness techniques. Trauma literally silences part of our brain that only meditation and mindfulness can revive.
5. An apple and candle a day will definitely keep the doctors away. When in doubt, eat healthily and exercise. Food plays a big role in our brain’s responses to stress and trauma. Exercise literally helps us release happy hormones. We live in a society that constantly exposes us to trauma and triggers our unfavorable memories. Healing and mindfulness thus need to be inserted into our daily lives. Carve out at least 30 minutes for just you and your body. You more than earned it!

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 dearest to me as I have been both patient and provider. In my own community, there is so much shame about mental illness which has prevented many folks from talking about it. Even seeking help is taboo. My goal is to de-stigmatize mental health conversations in my community and this country. I have chosen to be transparent about my own struggles, story, and healing with the hope of motivating more people to come forward, share their experiences, and begin their own healing.

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

You can find me on the following platforms:

www.affirmcandle.com

Instagram

Facebook

Tiktok

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Thank you for the opportunity!

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