Category: Featured

Women In Wellness: Macy Sarbacker On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

Add intermittent fasting to your daily routine. Intermittent fasting is free and is a great lifestyle tweak. Simply change when you eat, not what you eat. Intermittent fasting can help reduce inflammation, help with weight loss, help reduce insulin resistance, lowering your risk for type 2 diabetes, can help reduce oxidative stress, may help prevent disease, may help prevent cancer, can help extend your lifespan, has many anti-aging benefits and more!

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

Macy Sarbacker is a personal trainer, wellness expert and Executive Editor of MacyMichelle.com. She is an advocate of intermittent fasting and real food. You can see Macy’s writing and media mentions on health and wellness across the internet on these sites such as Women’s Health Magazine. She lives with her fiancé and fur-baby in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

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 on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin and am the oldest of 5. I then went on to graduate from Iowa State University with a degree in journalism and mass communication. When I graduated from college, I had gained weight and was dealing with painful hormonal acne. I was sick of feeling crappy and decided to start taking care of my body. It was then that I fell in love with health and wellness. It’s definitely been an adventure and it took time to figure out what worked for me, but I’m so grateful I got started and found my passion in this area.

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?

One of the most interesting things that has happened in my career was transitioning to working remotely for myself. On social media, being your own boss looks glamours. The reality is that it’s a lot of hard work. You have to show up every day, even when you don’t feel like it. There isn’t a boss looking over your shoulder and keeping you in check. There’s also other things to figure out like taxes, health insurance, etc. Overall, transitioning to working for myself was the best decision I have made. I have learned a lot about myself and how to be productive, even on days when I don’t feel like it.

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 started my health journey, I tried to do everything all at once. I tried to workout 7 days a week and I tried to drastically change what I ate. This ended up backfiring because it’s hard to completely change your life! From this I learned that baby steps toward better health are the best thing you can do. Start slow and take little tiny baby steps forward. What one choice can you make today that will help you toward your goals?

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

The number one thing I hope to teach and share with the world is that being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle is affordable and can even be cheap! There are so many free things we can do to be healthier — like intermittent fasting and spending time outside! Prioritizing real food over packaged food is also more affordable and healthier!

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. Add intermittent fasting to your daily routine. Intermittent fasting is free and is a great lifestyle tweak. Simply change when you eat, not what you eat. Intermittent fasting can help reduce inflammation, help with weight loss, help reduce insulin resistance, lowering your risk for type 2 diabetes, can help reduce oxidative stress, may help prevent disease, may help prevent cancer, can help extend your lifespan, has many anti-aging benefits and more!
2. Consume real food. Start eating real food. Real food is food that doesn’t come in a package. Focus on what ingredients are in your food and strive to recognize those ingredients or have minimally added ingredients.
3. Prioritize sleep. Sleep is a very overlooked part of wellness. Sleeping allows our bodies to repair themselves and our brains to consolidate our memories and process information. Make quality sleep a priority! You can set reminders in your phone to help you get to bed at a decent time.
4. Spend more time outside. Our bodies were not made to sit in an office all day and then sit in front of a television all night. Expose your eyes to sunlight, put your feet on the ground, go on hikes or walks. Spending time in nature is associated with lower blood pressure, less stress and can help reset our circadian rhythm.
5. Switch to low-tox products. Slowly switch to low-tox products. There are so many toxins in our environment. We can make small changes to eliminate and reduce these toxins. One example is using a reusable water bottle. Ditch the plastic disposable water bottles and refill a water bottle. Plastic water bottles contain toxins that are endocrine disruptors.

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 encourage everyone to start intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is 100% free and therefore accessible to everyone. There are so many health benefits of intermittent fasting!

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

1. Weight loss and getting in shape doesn’t come down to eating less and moving more. So often people are told to just eat less and move more. Weight loss is SO much more than eating less and moving more. Weight loss has a lot more to do with hormones and how the body stores energy.
2. The most important thing on a nutrition label is the list of ingredients. We should all be counting ingredients and chemicals in our food — not calories! Eat as much real, whole food as possible and avoid packaged junk.
3. Avoid seed oils at all costs. Seed oils like canola oil, vegetable oil, corn oil, etc. should be avoided. These oils are created, washed with solvents and sometimes even bleached. These oils are very inflammatory, highly processed and bad for our bodies. Stick to coconut oil, olive oil and avocado oil.
4. The water you drink matters. We all know that water is important, but what’s in your water? It’s scary to learn what’s in your tap water. You can find out exactly what’s in your tap water by going to ewg.org. There’s lots of amazing water filters on the market. Take time and do your research to find a filter that is in your budget and can properly filter your water.
5. What you put in, on and around your body matters! Everything that you put in, on and around your body matters! From the makeup you use, to the body wash you use, to the containers you store your food in. All of these items can contain toxins and endocrine disruptors.

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 very important to me. Did you know that the food you eat impacts your mood? The food you eat has a direct impact on your mental health! Good food = good mood! I have dealt with depression and have close family members who also struggle with mental health. It is really empowering to know that we can change our mood and improve our lives with simple choices like what we eat.

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

Readers can find me at my website: www.macymichelle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heymacymichelle

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/macy-sarbacker/

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Macy Sarbacker On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s… 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

Opportunities surround us. Look for the reasons why you can instead of identifying reasons why you cannot. Too often in life, it is easier to say we cannot do something, or we sit and wait for the right opportunity to come along. Opportunities are everywhere, and instead of waiting for what you perceive to be a big opportunity, focus on the opportunities that are available here and now. Value can be created in all situations. Problems can be solved. Improvements can be made. Steps, even if they are small, can be taken in the right direction. This outlook is crucial in the notoriously broken US healthcare industry.

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

Laura Collier is president of Penstock Group, a healthcare payment integrity and reimbursement company that is reducing healthcare costs by finding innovative ways to eliminate billing and payment errors that cause patients to pay more than they should. With two decades of experience in payment integrity supporting large healthcare organizations, Laura joined Penstock in 2021 and the company has thrived under her leadership, achieving profitability and more than doubling the size of the team. Penstock only generates revenue when it lowers healthcare costs for clients, so its success is directly tied to its mission of removing wasted spending from the healthcare system.

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 started my career during my senior year of high school working in investment banking. I worked full time while attending college to complete both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After working for about 10 years in the industry, I was approached with an offer to work as a technical writer for a large IT consulting company.

As I learned more about healthcare and, more specifically, payment integrity, I switched my focus and began working externally with health plan clients to help reduce costs and find solutions to fix some of the issues within the broken healthcare system. This is where I met Jeff Snyder, who is now vice president of operations at Penstock, and Chris Gallagher, who is now Penstock’s vice president of delivery. As we worked together and began to implement lasting changes for both the organization and the clients we supported, my passion for fixing our healthcare system really began to develop. The three of us traveled together to client meetings and began having discussions about the bureaucratic nature of large companies. We talked about how great it would be to start our own company where we are not bound by red tape and distractions and could focus on our true mission of developing healthcare reimbursement policies and practices that are transparent, fair, efficient and accurate for all patients.

Jeff was introduced to, and began discussions with, Mike Waterbury, CEO of Goodroot Inc. He pitched the idea of the company that the three of us had spent so much time envisioning. The company would become Penstock, and its mission and vision are in lockstep with Goodroot. Mike supported this endeavor, and Jeff and Chris both joined the Goodroot organization. After several discussions with Jeff and Chris, I took the leap and joined Penstock in June 2021 as the chief operating officer and was promoted to president this year. The three of us had finally found the right place to allow us to truly focus on fixing our healthcare system and bringing our ideas to life. I could not be happier with this move, and I am so proud to be a part of this amazing group of people who are so supportive and passionate about the overall mission to lower healthcare costs.

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

A leader is only as good as the team that supports her, and I am backed by an amazing group of individuals who are identifying new ways of doing business. We are developing new concepts and industry-leading solutions that create transparency in healthcare billing and prevent medical billing errors that add to the rising costs of care and our nation’s massive medical debt problem. The Goodroot infrastructure and culture provide an environment that allows its companies and individuals to express ideas, develop solutions and implement changes that disrupt the industry.

For people with an idea, a disruptive idea, one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome is having a foundation or infrastructure in place to support the work that needs to be done. All the time spent on the ancillary aspects of a business is time not being spent on solving a problem. Goodroot provides that for its community of companies, so I don’t have to worry about marketing, payroll or IT. My team is able to dedicate its entire focus to reducing wasted healthcare spend and saving our clients money.

At Penstock, we are disrupting the healthcare payment integrity industry. There is a lot of complexity and lack of transparency in healthcare that leads to billing errors that either are never identified or occur repeatedly. Rather than simply finding and correcting errors and collecting a fee (potentially the same fee over and over), we are making a study of chronic problems in the healthcare industry and addressing them at the source to ensure that care is billed and paid for accurately going forward. We’re correcting errors and providing education and training to prevent those errors from occurring again.

For example, in the state of New York, state-level surcharges and assessments are applied to products and services offered by healthcare payors. In 2020, total surcharges collected rose almost 7 percent over 2019 levels. This is the largest annual increase since 2011. Through 2024, the surcharge is expected to exceed $4 billion. At Penstock, we have expert resources that are on a mission to find out why.

This solution is expanding rapidly, having already corrected and recovered over $25 million without impacting plan members or providers. An additional $25 million has been identified and is pending processing. By Q3 2022, the industry will be seeing additional innovative solutions coming out of Penstock in the payment integrity space. We’re focused on end-to-end audit management, an innovative tool to help skilled nursing facilities eliminate overpayments altogether, and improving the way post-acute skilled care is delivered and paid for.

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 don’t really have a funny mistake that I can remember, but I can share a story that helped to shape my career and ultimately resulted in a stronger drive to succeed. I was hanging out with a long-term male friend and colleague, and we were discussing the workplace, advancement, and where we thought we would ultimately end up. He communicated that because I am a woman, I would not reach the same levels that my male counterparts would. This has stuck with me through the years and has helped to fuel my desire to succeed in everything that I do and help elevate those around me to meet their own goals for their future. What this taught me is that if you are passionate about something, and you work hard and go after your goals, you can accomplish anything.

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?

My mom is my biggest mentor. Throughout my life, I’ve watched her navigate situations and overcome obstacles in both her personal and professional life. She never gives up on anything and never stops striving to be the best person that she can be. She is one of the most giving, caring individuals and has taught me to work hard, focus on the positives, look for the best in everything, be humble and be thankful. She is my definition of a true leader and is my role model.

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?

In the healthcare industry especially, disruption is often viewed as unwelcome or uncomfortable for a lot of people. It challenges what they have come to know and are comfortable with. Disruption, however, can be a good thing. It forces us to evaluate the status quo and to identify potential opportunities for positive change.

The advantages of disruption include things like improved business processes and workflows, opportunities for growth, and access to broader resources. For example, Penstock is currently developing industry-leading technologies and solutions to help improve the way healthcare claims are paid. The results of this disruption will be the ability to easily identify overpayments, permanently correct billing errors, and the lowering of the overall cost of care in this country. Our payment integrity tool is designed to help streamline audit management workflows, from the initial data ingestion through claims adjudication. While it sounds complicated, the result is a level of clarity in data currently not available to healthcare payors who can use our tool to assess, track and compare performance.

We are also creating a tool that will enable Medicare Advantage Plans to pay skilled nursing facility claims more accurately. It will help to simplify the complex payment methodology that has led to inaccurate code assignments and improper payments. These tools are examples of positive disruptors, as they are helping us accomplish our mission of developing unique solutions, eliminating unnecessary costs, and creating lasting systemic change with the goal of decreasing the cost of healthcare and increasing access.

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

1. Opportunities surround us. Look for the reasons why you can instead of identifying reasons why you cannot. Too often in life, it is easier to say we cannot do something, or we sit and wait for the right opportunity to come along. Opportunities are everywhere, and instead of waiting for what you perceive to be a big opportunity, focus on the opportunities that are available here and now. Value can be created in all situations. Problems can be solved. Improvements can be made. Steps, even if they are small, can be taken in the right direction. This outlook is crucial in the notoriously broken US healthcare industry.
2. Always do the right thing even when no one is looking. This shows a person’s true integrity. This is more about having a good moral compass guiding my decisions and not expecting acknowledgement or praise.
3. Surround yourself with successful people. As I’ve watched friends and colleagues advance in their lives and careers, it has helped me stay driven to reach my own goals.

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

We will continue to find ways to remove waste from the healthcare system, ultimately lowering the overall cost of healthcare. The biggest achievement for us would be to “put ourselves out of business” because we have fundamentally fixed this part of the healthcare system by creating transparency in healthcare and a fair cost of care.

However, our focus at Goodroot is one system at a time. We know our healthcare system cannot be fixed overnight — instead, as a community of companies, we take it one system at a time and find small ways to fix the system that can add up to big changes. So, because of the support of the Goodroot community and the platform we have, our team at Penstock is always focused on the next piece of the healthcare system we can reform.

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

Some of the biggest challenges faced by “women disruptors” that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts include the following:

• Barriers related to women with families and working spouses
• Stigmas related to working moms versus stay-at-home moms
• Cultural stigmas surrounding working women
• Mentorship programs in male-dominated workplaces
• Personality traits related to gender differences

We’ve come a long way in addressing these challenges, but there is still a long way to go. There are many companies, like Goodroot/Penstock, where women are provided opportunities for growth and advancement.

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

There really is not one specific book/podcast/talk that I can single out. There are many different books that have impacted my leadership style and way of thinking. There are several older books that have stood the test of time, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Leading Change, How to Win Friends & Influence People, etc. I’m currently reading The Price We Pay and Deep Work. A few of the podcasts I’ve listened to lately include The John Maxwell Leadership Podcast, Fierce Feminine Leadership, the EntreLeadership Podcast, and The Best Leadership TED Talks. I always try to read or listen to things that I think will have a positive impact on what I am focused on.

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. 🙂

We are in need of a drastic change within our healthcare system. Too many people are going without the necessary and proper level of care. Too many people are going bankrupt as a result of medical debt. The cost of care is unknown until after the services and procedures are provided and debt has accumulated. We are paying high costs for health insurance with large, out-of-pocket premiums. We need more people to come together to help develop solutions that enable us to overcome these issues. This is what our community of companies at Goodroot is working toward, providing the resources and community of like-minded, passionate innovators and disruptors and bringing new voices to the fold that have the expertise and ideas to improve our healthcare system.

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

“Courage is feeling fear, not getting rid of fear, and taking action in the face of fear.” Fear can be paralyzing for some, but I try to use fear in a positive way that helps me to take measured risks and make positive changes in my life that can be scary at times.

When I was younger, I wanted to try skydiving. The thought of it terrified me, but it was something that I had to do to see if I could overcome that fear. I’m proud to say that I was able to force myself to take action, and I’ve completed two tandem jumps! It was one of the most exhilarating experiences ever, and I would recommend it to anyone!

Changing jobs to join Penstock was another life experience that required this level of courage. It was a big risk to join this startup company with big ideas and an even bigger battle to change our healthcare system. When I joined the Penstock team in June 2021, my oldest son had just graduated high school, and my youngest son had just finished his freshman year. I had some concerns about the timing of the opportunity, and joining any new startup comes with some level of fear. I weighed the pros and cons and understood that this was an opportunity that I could not pass up. I’m proud to say that I am so happy to have made this decision. Our parent company, Goodroot, is a community of companies dedicated to reinventing healthcare one system at a time. The mission and vision of Penstock fits well with the Goodroot’s mission, and we are surrounded by passionate people with the same goals.

How can our readers follow you online?

Readers can connect with me and follow how our mission is progressing on LinkedIn:

• Laura Collier
• Penstock
• Goodroot

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

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…Louis : Business is important, but our main achievement is our children. Anouk is a superpower mother and I make sure that I can bring the kids to school (almost) every day. All our weekends and holidays are dedicated to them.

Anouk: Our children are my everything and multitasking is my best friend.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Anouk and Louis Solanet, the founders of new Paris-based hospitality brand Orso. Convinced that the true art of hospitality was getting lost in an industry that is increasingly leaning on standardized experiences, Anouk & Louis chose to create Orso with a mission to revive its true core values, those that prompt emotion and create memories. A simple smile, a handshake, the desire to share a moment with guests; the small things that hold meaning and transform an enjoyable stay into an unforgettable one. Starting a hotel group during a global pandemic simply cemented those beliefs; sincerity and kindness are the foundations Orso is built on.

Through their six openings over the last two years, including their flagship at the foothills of Montmartre, Hôtel Rochechouart, and their most recent opening in the heart of the 15th, Le Wallace Hôtel & Bar, their goal has been to create spaces that are so rooted in their neighborhoods, and have such a singular identity — each hotel is a collaboration with a different designer to give it its own personality — that both locals and visitors find pleasure in visiting. Their seventh hotel is opening this spring in Paris’ 5th arrondissement, and they have plans to expand beyond Paris, to the South of France and other parts of Europe.

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

Louis: I studied and started to work in finance in London and Brussels. I didn’t love it, hence was not very good at it. Nevertheless, perhaps it gave me a structure and an advantage compared to other hoteliers. My father asked me to work for the family business — a hotel management company — which I was initially against, but he entrusted me to develop the hotel management part of the business, so I gave it a try. That experience enabled me to get to Orso. In a way, both are client focused and I always try to put myself in the client’s shoes to better understand their needs. I’ve always believed I am a guest first and a hotelier second.

Anouk: I am Dutch, born and raised in the Netherlands. I studied Law and European Studies in Amsterdam. When I was 24 years old, I swapped my bike for the metro, Gouda for Camembert and the canals for the Seine, and moved to Paris with a friend to learn French. In Paris, I started my career at various International Law firms. A year later I met Louis and ended up staying. Quite quickly after our encounter I completely switched career paths and integrated Solanet Hotels to work alongside my father-in-law and my husband. I learned everything I could about hospitality and was responsible for managing part of the company’s hotel portfolio. I eventually became a project manager, which is when I started coordinating hotel renovations managed by Solanet Hotels. Two years ago, we founded Orso and much of what I do today involves hand-picking design collaborators for each property and overseeing the work.

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

Anouk: We can start with the fact that we brought three kids into this world, four if you count starting Orso together! We could talk about events we have attended and the brilliant people we have met and worked with along the way but bringing a thriving business to life during a global pandemic has probably been the most interesting and challenging experience since getting married.

Louis: We are also born on the same day, October 4th which means we have similar (read: strong) personalities, so we have an interesting way of interacting and communicating with each other. While we can both be very stubborn, we tend to reach the same conclusion rather quickly. There’s a certain synergy that enables us to easily align on a number of things and makes us stronger partners and collaborators.

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?

Anouk: I don’t know if it’s technically a mistake, but it’s a funny story about the road to finding the name for what is now known as Hotel Ami. Naming a hotel is a difficult task and this one was no different. Our designers are always very involved and Gesa Hansen, who worked on this hotel with us, made several suggestions. She eventually came up with one name but we told her that Timothée didn’t like it. Gesa insisted and said to “just bribe him with ice cream so he approves of the name” which we thought was a very strange way of trying to convince our associate partner. It turns out, we found out a few days later that Gesa thought we were talking about our 3-year-old son, also named Timothée.

Louis: Letting our 3-year-old son make decisions about our business could have been the real mistake! This just goes to show how intertwined our professional and personal lives are.

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

Anouk: We like to think that we are setting a different pace for an industry that’s become so reliant on standardized experiences. We chose to create Orso to restore the lost art of hospitality. Simple gestures, special moments, sincerity, and kindness; small things that hold meaning and take an experience from pleasant to remarkable.

Louis: As mentioned above, we are guests before we are hoteliers, and we drew from our personal experiences to bring Orso to life. For example, we once attended a wedding and the hotel owner let me borrow his wedding shoes because I had forgotten mine. Another time, our three kids tagged along for another wedding in the south of France, and because we couldn’t get a nanny, the B&B owners offered to look after them all day; they had them pick up fresh eggs from the chicken coop, make herbariums, etc. Those are the moments and kind gestures that make a difference. We try to do this in a playful manner because we don’t want to be stuffy or uptight, we want to strike the right balance between laid back and sophisticated.

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

Louis : We have a few exciting projects in the works. More immediately we’re opening our 7th hotel in Paris this spring, Hotel Orphée in the 5th arrondissement, designed in collaboration with architect Eloise Bosredon. We’re also opening a speakeasy-style dancing bar in the basement of Hotel Rochechouart, right below the restaurant, also slated to open early spring. Coming this summer, an oyster bar next door to Hotel Rochechouart called Citrons & Huitres. Long-term, we are beginning to look at expanding Orso, in France and in Europe, diversifying a little bit. We want to choose projects that drive us, where there is storytelling value in the design, the location, the people…

Anouk: As individuals an as a business, we also strive to be socially and environmentally conscious and are still looking for the best ways to implement that on a local and human level. Right now we are banning plastic from our hotels as much as we can and we’re avoiding food waste by offering a very small and curated breakfast spread, working with and supporting the local communities we’re settled in. They may seem like small steps but they’re significant for our industry.

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

Anouk and Louis: Encourage them and offer growth opportunities. Surround yourself with the right people and give them the tools to move things forward on their own. Provide constructive criticism while recognizing their strengths. Own up to your shortcomings, too, so you can be a better leader.

How do you define “Leadership”?

Louis: Leadership is defined by having faith in what you do and teamwork. We show the way and provide a direction while knowing how and when to delegate. We embrace our own strengths and weaknesses and strongly encourage our collaborators to have a voice. We also try not to take ourselves too seriously. We don’t have all the answers, but we surround ourselves with the right people so that together, we can work towards finding them.

Anouk: We follow the Dutch example. The Netherlands has a less formal business hierarchy. When it comes to workplace culture, the Dutch uphold value for social integration. The structure of Dutch companies is often horizontal, where individual executives are considered co-workers. We think it’s very important that everybody we work with feels that we are accessible and that they can easily come talk to us.

From more of a brand and hotel perspective, we strongly believe that imagining the guest experience is the best way to please. Brilliant basics, quality products, a welcoming atmosphere, and friendly and efficient staff will do the trick if it’s done right.

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?

Anouk: There are a few but the one that stands out is Jean Solanet, Louis’ father, for his trust in Louis and for giving him the freedom to do things his way. And for taking me on!

Louis: My father for imparting on me his knowledge of the industry, for leading by example and instilling these core values of simplicity and authenticity that have become Orso standards.

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

Louis: « Success » in the hotel business is a BIG word during a global pandemic! As we were developing our own line of cosmetics (Colomba) to put into our hotels, we decided to donate our existing stock of amenities to organizations that help women in Paris; we collected about 15,000 products to give. Whenever we take on a new project and renovate a hotel, we try to donate what we’re not using to local organizations.

Anouk: Most recently we worked with the French “Secours Populaire” to provide families in need with hotel stays at our various properties across the city.

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

1 — Family first.

Louis : Business is important, but our main achievement is our children. Anouk is a superpower mother and I make sure that I can bring the kids to school (almost) every day. All our weekends and holidays are dedicated to them.

Anouk: Our children are my everything and multitasking is my best friend.

2 — Do not talk about work at home.

Louis : It’s not easy, but I think we manage…

Anouk : We don’t manage at all! It’s all about hotels, all the time. Louis was born into a hospitality family, so he is probably used to it, but I can assure you, we never disconnect for more than a few hours unfortunately, but we make up for it by putting our family first regardless.

3 — Be passionate and take risks.

Louis : Everybody tells us they can’t imagine working with their husband or wife, but I would actually not be able to work without Anouk on many projects. I make mistakes and I’m lucky she’s always behind me to correct them.

Anouk : Be passionate about your work. As your professional and personal lives are so interconnected, you better love every minute of it!

4 — Make your work part of your family.

Louis : Orso is our fourth and last child! Fun fact: we wanted to name one of our children Orso but Orso Solanet didn’t have a nice ring to it…

Anouk: We also ensured that children were a big part of our business by catering to them; all our hotels have “hidden” costume closets with books and various games so they, too, can partake in and enjoy the Orso experience.

5 — Know how to read each other’s minds

Louis: Nobody understands your wishes and ideas better than your spouse. It’s important to have someone next to you who can help spread the word the right way. It’s such a luxury and a time saver.

Anouk: We are very complementary, even if we sometimes disagree!

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

Anouk: It’s difficult to name one movement but if we had to choose it would be children and education. Education is the entry point in life, it determines everything thereafter. Working in hotels remains one of the only social elevators in life for people who did not necessarily have the chance to study. We are very proud of some people that work for the company, who started at the bottom and worked their way up, now managing several hotels.

Louis: A friend who is also a hotelier in Paris gathers money for new educational systems in the suburbs (Espérance Banlieue). This is one to support and follow very closely. It’s very inspirational and sets a good example.

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

Anouk: Nothing is constant except change (Buddha).

Nothing should be taken for granted. There isn’t a unique recipe for success, just hard work maybe. You need to adapt to how the world is evolving, roll with the punches. Our mission to revive and rediscover the lost art of hospitality came to be because we felt that some contemporary hotel brands were missing the mark on very basic aspects of hospitality.

Louis: We have to remind ourselves that we are welcoming guests, instead of servicing clients. It doesn’t mean we live in the past either, we just think of authentic ways to improve their stay.

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

Louis: I would say the American athlete Aimée Mullins, who was one of the inspirations for our daughter’s name. I liked the name and when I read up on her, I was so impressed by her journey, it sealed the deal.

Anouk: The Queen of England because of how elegantly and powerfully she embodies both tradition and modernism.

How can our readers follow your work online?

www.orsohotels.com

@orsohotels

@cheflouisparis

@anoukreceveur

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

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Anouk & Louis Solanet was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Erin Meagher of Beneficial Blends On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Money, money, money. That’s three. But it took a lot more money to get to where I am today than I knew it would. However, I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand because it may have dissuaded me from starting. There is something to be said for being a naïve founder! Nothing wrong with that. Also, owning a business isn’t just all about the business. You’re going to find things out about yourself that you either didn’t know or maybe want to know. I am ever-evolving as a founder, CEO and leader. You can’t just work on your business, you have to work on yourself too.

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

Erin Meagher is the Founder and CEO of Beneficial Blends, LLC, turn-key, certified manufacturer of food, beverage, dietary supplements, cosmetics, aromatherapy and CBD products for food services and retailers nationwide.

As an experienced CPG developer and manufacturer, supply chain expert and SGF practitioner, Erin has led Beneficial Blends’ high growth, ranking top 500 in the INC5000 and named a Fastest Growing Company by Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Erin is active with the Coconut Coalition of the Americas, US Hemp Roundtable and Hemp Industry Association and serves her local community of Tampa Bay through her involvement with Make It Tampa Bay and the Tampa Economic Development Council Board.

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 started off as a high-school business teacher before launching Beneficial Blends in 2009. I’ve always been interested in business and the way things work. Once I found out about the health benefits of coconut oil, I knew that I wanted to share that with others and launch a brand. So really, I’ve been educating about healthy eating and living since starting the company.

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

We don’t have enough time to cover all the interesting stories! There really are so many, from funny to surprising to sad. One story I tell a lot is about how it was the eve of my first ever tradeshow, and we were shopping for last-minute items in T.J.Maxx. It was 2010 at the time, and T.J.Maxx had begun repositioning and including food items in the store. I remember holding up an item and going, “Eww, who buys food at T.J.Maxx?” The next day at the tradeshow, three buyers from T.J.Maxx came by and wanted our coconut oil in their stores. Needless to say, people really do buy food there, and we worked with them as a partner for five or six years, I believe.

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?

A silly mistake my coworkers and I made one time was giving out our real cell phone numbers. We hired an employee for a tradeshow using Craigslist, and she was great the first day, but then we realized she had pink eye. We were serving food and told her she shouldn’t finish her shift or come back the following days. She proceeded to blow up our phone every half hour or more for the rest of the night. It got progressively worse as she was obviously inebriated. We learned about Google voice after that, and it has saved us quite a few headaches.

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 isn’t one particular person, but throughout my career and even before I started the company, there has been a collection of wonderful people who have been so helpful. Recently I had a contract issue with a new group I was working with, and a fellow business owner stepped in to help me navigate the situation. It’s great when you have such a strong support system around you.

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

I’m not sure I can speak for all women and the women who aren’t starting companies, but if I had to guess, I would imagine an aversion to risk holds women back from starting companies. It’s also possible that women are starting companies, but they aren’t seeking traditional funding outside of their friends and family. It makes sense that women want to make sure they can follow through on what they are promising or building and maybe approach entrepreneurship with a more methodical approach than men. If these businesses they are starting aren’t making news because they are on a smaller scale, then it continues the narrative that women aren’t founders — and that may not be true. We just may not be as good at singing our own praises as our male colleagues.

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 a society, we have traditional norms that need to be rethought to open the path for more women founders. We can’t own and run organizations and still be seen as the sole homemaker and childrearer. Representation also matters in all areas of life. Our children need to see more women in leadership roles to help normalize the idea.

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 and innovation. Women have different approaches and ideas than men, but men still run four out of every five companies. What are the advances in tech, health care, education, and more that we are missing out on because women haven’t added their value to the marketplace yet? (in an entrepreneurial sense, not that they don’t add value to society). It’s exciting to think about the advances the world can make as a whole if we have more women founders.

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

You definitely work for yourself as a founder and have more freedoms or say coming and going from the office, but businesses do run you. You may be your own boss, but the company and its employees are your responsibility. You can’t walk away any time you want, like if you were an employee. You must persevere in the face of adversity.

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?

There is definitely a difference between a founder and even a CEO or top-level executive. A founder has built something up and lived and breathed each moment of their company. They are often scrappy, driven, very ambitious and impatient but can get a lot accomplished in a short amount of time. Top-level leadership becomes a different animal because it’s often more bureaucratic. It’s problem-solving, working through the right processes and channels with the right people. Not everyone should be a founder because people should find their key attributes and follow that path.

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.)

Money, money, money. That’s three. But it took a lot more money to get to where I am today than I knew it would. However, I’m glad I didn’t know beforehand because it may have dissuaded me from starting. There is something to be said for being a naïve founder! Nothing wrong with that. Also, owning a business isn’t just all about the business. You’re going to find things out about yourself that you either didn’t know or maybe want to know. I am ever-evolving as a founder, CEO and leader. You can’t just work on your business, you have to work on yourself too.

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

This year, my company made a $25,000 donation to the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer’s Center and Research Institute that I am very proud of. After all, an article about using coconut oil for Alzheimer’s is what first sparked my interest in starting Beneficial Blends. I’m very grateful that we can help further research into cures for the disease.

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 think there’s a big movement around just being kind. I would love to see more of that. I would also love to see educational courses for emotional intelligence be available for young children and teenagers to learn empathy and vulnerability. Why aren’t we actively teaching our next generations how to deal with emotions in a proactive way? Instead, we rely on lots of therapy as adults to work through our previous traumas and issues. Seems backwards to me.

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

I’m not afraid to reach out to others that inspire me. I won’t name names, but I’ve done it unsolicited in the past, and I’ve learned a great deal from those people. If we are naming names, I’d say Sara Blakely because she is also from the Tampa area and has built an incredible brand that she just had a super successful ‘exit’ on. To pick her brain and be surrounded by her positive energy would be a dream come true!

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

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

Female Disruptors: Kerry Song of Abbot’s Butcher On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Stay Thoughtful. It’s easy to fall into a pattern where you live and breathe growth. But growth without being thoughtful about the way you are growing is only going to set you up for greater challenges ahead. It’s important to have an attention to detail and a deep awareness around the kind of company you are building if you want longevity.

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

Kerry Song is the founder and CEO of Abbot’s Butcher. Before Abbot’s Butcher, Kerry spent 5 years as a Brand Strategist for Tony Robbins, worked in finance for both Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, and led a grassroots campaign in Tanzania to develop HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Kerry is a graduate of Princeton University with a degree in Economics.

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’ve followed a vegan diet since my college days and I’ve always felt deep compassion for animals, but it wasn’t until 2017 that I decided to start a plant-based food company. After graduating from Princeton with a degree in Economics, I worked in corporate finance for several years until I realized it wasn’t the right path for me. I longed for a career where I could make some sort of social impact. Following a year of European travels and attending an intimate cooking school in Italy, I relocated to Los Angeles where I worked my way from copywriter to content strategist for several non-profits. I soon joined the marketing team at Tony Robbins. While I was climbing professionally and felt fulfilled in my career, my body presented a new challenge. During this time, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that turned my life upside down. A long-time athlete, I was devastated by this illness that left me feeble, fatigued, and on lifetime medication with an array of side effects. I started searching for a solution beyond medication and realized that while I was eating vegan foods, many of them contained additives, synthetic chemicals, natural flavors, and generally a host of ingredients I couldn’t pronounce and had no idea where they came from. This research led me to adopt a whole food, plant-based diet, and my symptoms went into remission — without medication. While I felt better, I still missed some of my favorite dishes. I couldn’t find any plant-based products that satisfied my cravings for comfort dishes that were made with ingredients I could feel good about, and that is how the idea for Abbot’s Butcher was born.

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

Abbot’s Butcher is the third wave of plant-based meat. We don’t settle for ingredients with questionable sourcing or multiple syllables. We are the only plant-based meat company that is free of gluten, soy, natural and artificial flavors, and preservatives, as well as the only Whole30 Approved plant-based meat. We’re offering a product that is both nourishing and satisfying — a product that tastes as good as it makes people feel.

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?

This is definitely throwing it way back to the early days when we didn’t yet have retail presence. I was intent on getting into a local natural chain called Mother’s Markets, but no one there was returning my calls or emails. I decided to show up at their corporate headquarters in person. I asked the receptionist if I could meet directly with the buyer. She looked at me curiously, then disappeared, and after a short wait, returned with the buyer by her side. Who knows if it was the shock of someone just showing up in person to pitch a product, but the buyer stood there and listened while I told her about our products and why they were different. I asked her if I could bring lunch in for her team, and she agreed. The next week, I hosted a taco bar for their team, which was a huge success, and soon after, the products were accepted into all eight Mother’s Market locations. Part of me laughs about the gumption it took to just show up at an office like that. But it goes to show the importance of being scrappy. We’re a significantly different company now, but there are a lot of times I remind myself of the earlier days, and how important it is to take risks, and to bet on yourself.

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?

One of the most impactful mentors along this journey has been a gentleman named Luke Abbott. Luke has been instrumental from a business operations standpoint by providing invaluable guidance when it comes to sales strategies, marketing insights, and financial organization. But the greatest gift Luke has given me is teaching me the importance of company culture. Culture isn’t about obligatory team dinners or decking out the office with perks — it’s about a commitment to upholding core values. It’s how we interact with each other. It’s how we show up each day. It’s how we treat our customers. It’s how we endure the lows and celebrate the highs. Core values have rooted our team and helped us become more collaborative and more purposeful in everything we do.

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?

Disruption is necessary when the status quo isn’t working. Just because something is accepted or normalized does not mean it’s right. Natural flavors, methylcellulose, and soy protein isolates shouldn’t be normal ingredients in the foods we rely on to nourish our bodies and make us feel our best. For example, certain fast-food establishments have stood the test of time, but they’re also a source of our nation’s preventable health problems. I’d also like to note that disruption doesn’t have to be aggressive or extreme. At Abbot’s Butcher, we meet consumers where they are at. We don’t demand they change their diet to better their health, the planet, and animals — we offer a one-for-one swap for the meaty recipes they crave. It’s not about sacrifice, it’s about finding sustainable solutions.

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

1. Hungry. Humble. Smart. These are the principles established by Patrick Lencioni that have become core pillars of how we show up every single day. It’s about being hungry and having a strong work ethic. It’s about being humble enough to check your ego at the door, roll up your sleeves, and focus on something bigger than yourself. And it’s about being smart, scrappy, and resourceful.
2. Stay Thoughtful. It’s easy to fall into a pattern where you live and breathe growth. But growth without being thoughtful about the way you are growing is only going to set you up for greater challenges ahead. It’s important to have an attention to detail and a deep awareness around the kind of company you are building if you want longevity.
3. It’s about the customers. This company isn’t about our products. It’s about our customers. Our customers are the ones changing the world — we are just part of their journey. And it’s an incredible honor to be part of their story.

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

Right now we’re focusing on becoming a household staple. It’s been exciting to see our foods land in more retailers and foodservice accounts as well, and even more exciting to receive all the positive customer feedback. Because when it comes down to it, improving the lives of our customers is at the core of what we do.

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

There’s no ignoring that I have faced a number of challenges in growing Abbot’s Butcher, and I do believe they were a direct result of being a woman. I’ve been spoken down to, asked to do menial tasks by potential male investors, and felt massive pressure to portray a more masculine persona to gain respect and authority in my own business. But despite these targeted challenges, I’ve persevered. Women may face discrimination when growing a company, but that shouldn’t stop them from going after it. The Abbot’s Butcher ethos is to be smart, hungry, and humble. Whether I face a hurdle because I’m a woman or simply because there’s a global pandemic and massive supply chain issues, I tackle it with the same resolve and determination to overcome the obstacle.

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

I was recently introduced to Patrick Lencioni. His lessons on team building and cultivating a thriving work culture have helped me navigate through a lot of uncertainty.

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

I would continue to spur the plant-based movement and the innovation of more wholesome, cleaner alternatives to animal products.

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

Peter Drucker said, “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

I believe firmly in constant and never-ending improvement. This comes from consistently challenging what you believe to be true, never getting comfortable with the status quo, and cultivating a growth mindset. It’s not about making massive changes overnight. It’s about making a lot of uncelebrated little improvements consistently, so we can get better and better one step at a time.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can find us at abbotsbutcher.com or @abbotsbutcher across all social media platforms.

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

Female Disruptors: Kerry Song of Abbot’s Butcher On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks of ECOS On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

“Believe in yourself” was a phrase I heard from my mother often, and her words were powerful to me. Parents can too often underestimate the power of their words to their children, but my mom understood it intuitively. My mother believed so deeply in my abilities as a young child that I didn’t doubt her. I was very fortunate to grow up in that positive environment. We should give kids the gift of believing in them. From the loving support of your parents comes the internal strength and confidence to lead a company successfully.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks.

Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks is president and CEO of ECOS plant-powered laundry detergents and cleaners that are safer for people, pets, and the planet. She oversees four geographically diverse facilities across the U.S. as well as a European manufacturing platform and has been widely recognized for her leadership and influential voice in corporate social responsibility and sustainable manufacturing. Vlahakis-Hanks has led ECOS to become a Climate Positive company and the first in the world to achieve carbon neutrality, water neutrality and TRUE Platinum Zero Waste certification. As a woman of African American and Greek descent, she has created a corporate culture of diversity and empowerment with a leadership team that is 63% female and 45% BIPOC.

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

I grew up in a small town in Illinois, a town of about 3,000 people. My father was a Greek immigrant who created a cleaning products company out of his garage in 1967, and my mom, who was African American and a single mom, raised me. Although I worked at my dad’s company over many summers, working full-time in the family businesses wasn’t my plan. When I went to UCLA, I followed my passions — art history and exploring my ancestry. I spent semesters studying in both Greece and South Africa. I began my career working in African American art, public relations, and public policy. I was leading the American Hellenic Council, an advocacy organization representing Greek Americans, in 2003 when I got a call from my dad asking me to help him navigate a rough patch at the company, then called Earth Friendly Products. I knew we needed to strengthen our connection with consumers and our relationships with retailers, so I created our company’s first marketing department. Over the next decade, I worked in every aspect of the business and was eventually promoted to Executive Vice President. In 2014, when my dad passed away, I took over the role of president and CEO and have led the company for the past 8 years.

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

I’m demonstrating that business can champion positive change in our world. I’m building a business that addresses some of the greatest challenges that we face — protecting the health and wellness of people and the planet, fighting against climate change, fighting for environmental justice, and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. And we’re doing this by developing green cleaning solutions with the latest cutting-edge green science, building manufacturing facilities with unprecedented sustainability practices, and building teams to lead our organization to reflect the diversity of the consumers we serve.

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 father was incredibly supportive, but he was also one who never missed a chance to remind you about a mistake that you’d rather he forgot about. One time, early in my career at ECOS, we had a retailer that wanted us to make a bottle of liquid laundry detergent in a smaller size for the same price. My father refused, insisting that he would never shortchange the consumer. The retailer said, “Make the change, or we won’t carry you anymore.” Of course, the sales team and I didn’t want to lose the business, so we all flew in to confront my dad and convince him to give in to the retailer. He was livid that we would put the retailer’s request before value to the consumer. He refused to budge, and I had to send the dreaded email to the retailer. But you know what? We never heard back from them on the ask. My father’s argument in favor of the consumer was the winning proposition. And I learned a very valuable lesson: Brands that deliver true value to their consumers are the brands that will win in the long term. We must remain committed to our convictions and have the strength to stand up even when the stakes are high.

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?

When I began my career, I was fortunate to have the support of some wonderful mentors, and that has made all the difference in my success. When I graduated from UCLA, I spent 5 years outside the family business, which I highly recommend to anyone who has a family business; it’s so important to go out and see how the world works and learn from others. I interned at a public relations firm, and my mentor there gave me some invaluable advice when I was hired for my first director of PR role at a swimwear company: “Surround yourself with the best.” That advice has served me very well over the years, and I still surround myself with the most talented, capable people. And I’ve learned that having a very diverse group is the best group — diversity in gender, race, background, and life experiences. Today, our leadership team is 63% female and 45% BIPOC, which reflects the diversity of our consumers and helped us thrive in a very competitive business environment.

Another of my mentors was Professor Paul Von Blum of the African American Studies Department at UCLA. He had a profound impact on my life — he taught me that art is a form of social and political protest. He helped me understand how important my values are and how important my ancestral legacy is in living a purpose-filled life. Aris Anagnos, the long-time president of the American Hellenic Council of California, was also an important mentor to me; he showed me what a true champion of change can be in his generosity to those less fortunate and his vigilant defense of oppressed people throughout the world.

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?

We’re a disruptor because we’re showing the world that cleaning doesn’t mean spreading toxins and that you can have cleaning products that are both safer and effective. Our innovative product offerings, like our plastic-free, liquidless laundry detergent that is environmentally friendly, easy to use, and works great, are changing the game in the laundry industry. We’re also disrupting the traditional manufacturing model by creating a business that’s carbon neutral, water neutral, and Platinum-level zero waste, using 100% renewable energy to make our products here in the U.S. and continuing to grow and thrive. It’s something that our consumers want in the brands they buy, and it’s something that makes sense from a business standpoint too. We want to show other companies that you can disrupt by doing good and do well at the same time.

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

“Believe in yourself” was a phrase I heard from my mother often, and her words were powerful to me. Parents can too often underestimate the power of their words to their children, but my mom understood it intuitively. My mother believed so deeply in my abilities as a young child that I didn’t doubt her. I was very fortunate to grow up in that positive environment. We should give kids the gift of believing in them. From the loving support of your parents comes the internal strength and confidence to lead a company successfully.

“Leadership and Learning are Indispensable to each other.” President John F. Kennedy wrote these words for a speech he was to give on the fateful day in Dallas in 1963 when he was assassinated. This message has always resonated with me, and I experienced this connection first as a student at UCLA. As I grew in my role at ECOS, I decided to go back for my MBA at Chapman University in 2013 and was there when dad passed away in 2014. Despite my grief and the challenges of picking up the reins of a global company as the new president and CEO, I continued to finish my degree at nights and on weekends because I believed in the power of education to uplift and transform my ability to lead successfully. Learning doesn’t need to be confined to a university experience; we can all continue to learn every day through reading, researching, traveling, networking, and listening to the wisdom of others.

“Think like a retailer” is a powerful reminder to me from ECOS board member and 20-year employee Rick Fully that the key to success is seeing the world through the eyes of your customer. It’s so easy to think about your offering from your perspective, but it’s extremely important to always think about what you’re selling from the point of view of the buyer — whether a consumer or a retailer — to grow in the marketplace. Retailers want to carry your brand to improve their margins, differentiate them from other retailers, help them win the consumer, and drive them toward their goals, whether it’s a goal of profitability, sustainability, or diversity. The most successful salespeople are those who can get in the mind of the buyer. Rick’s message is so powerful that I named our ECOS scholarship to USC’s Food Industry Management Program the “Think Like a Retailer Scholarship” to inspire our team members to always follow this important advice.

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

Our evolution is revolutionizing cleaning technology with our plastic-free innovations. Our ECOS liquidless laundry detergent squares have been a huge hit with consumers, but they’re just part of our overall strategy to give consumers more plastic-free options for all their cleaning needs. From liquidless squares to dissolvable pods to new concentrate systems, we’re constantly leading the way to a cleaner and greener earth and a safer home. Ultimately, we’re driven by the mission that we’ve had for over 50 years — to protect the health and wellness of people, pets, and the planet by creating the most authentic, sustainable, and affordable cleaning products for all. As a society, we need to shake up many industries to answer the urgent call of the earth, and we’re doing that at ECOS in the cleaning products industry.

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

When you’re a disruptor, you always have to prove yourself, but as a woman disruptor, you have an extra hurdle to overcome. I think male disruptors are more often taken at their word and aren’t as likely to be seen as irrational. Their out-of-the-box thinking is rewarded, and their innovative thought processes are celebrated. Too often with women, there’s a disproportionate amount of initial disbelief and lack of support. As women, we’re expected to conform and play by the rules, but to be a true disruptor it’s the exact opposite — you have to step out of conventional ways of thinking. This is something that society doesn’t readily accept from women, and it’s a challenge that female disruptors often come up against.

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

Dr. Daniel Amen, one of America’s leading health experts and New York Times best-selling author, said something once that I often think about: “To feel successful, you must be able to be honest about the things that are really important to you.” I’ve read so many of his books, like The Brian Warrior’s Way, which is also the name of his amazing podcast with his wife Tana Amen, a nurse and wellness expert. His teachings have truly transformed my life and the lives of many others around the world. Dr. Amen is a long-time friend, and he has done some fantastic work on brain health and dangers of toxins, which is something that’s central to the work we do at ECOS creating safer cleaning products. Dr. Amen taught classes at ECOS to all our team members about taking care of your brain, your most vital organ. He and his wife Tana are true champions of health and wellness.

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. 🙂

The fight against climate change is the most important movement of our time with the most impact on our global population. It is truly the greatest threat that humanity faces. It endangers our health, our livelihoods, our very existence. I’m very involved in this movement, not only through my work at ECOS making environmentally friendly products using environmentally friendly practices, but also in my role as a board member at the XPRIZE Foundation, which is “leveraging the power of competition to catalyze innovation and accelerate a more hopeful future by incentivizing radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity.” I’m especially excited about the $100 million XPRIZE for Carbon Removal supported by the Musk Foundation, which is funding the next generation of carbon removal innovators to fight climate change and rebalance the earth’s carbon cycle.

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

I’m deeply inspired by Jane Goodall, the famous primatologist and UN Messenger of Peace, who once said, “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” Every day I get to lead a socially and environmentally responsible company and make decisions that help protect people and our beautiful, shared planet.

How can our readers follow you online?

You can follow us at @ecoscleans on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and on LinkedIn you’ll find us at Earth Friendly Products. You can follow me at @kellyfromecos on Instagram and at @kellyvlahakishanks on LinkedIn. Check out ecos.com to learn how you can make wellness, green chemistry, and sustainability a bigger part of your everyday life.

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

Female Disruptors: Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks of ECOS On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Lauren Manaker of Zhou Nutrition on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Keep a bowl of fresh fruit on your kitchen counter. Most of us are not eating enough fruit every day, which can be a concern. Using the visual cue of a filled fruit bowl may help people grab a piece of fruit when they otherwise wouldn’t, helping them meet their fruit intake quota.

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

Lauren Manaker, MS, RDN, LD, Registered Dietician for Zhou Nutrition. Lauren has a professional background that spans from the clinical setting to being a well-known nutrition communicator with her writing being seen in VeryWell, Health, LiveStrong, USA Today, The Kitchn, PopSugar and others. She received her Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Human Nutrition from University of Florida in Gainesville, FL and a Master of Clinical Nutrition at Rush University in Chicago, IL.

She serves on the executive committee member of the Women’s Health Dietetic Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and has been on the Executive Leadership Team of the GoRed for Women Campaign from the American Heart Association in Charleston, SC.

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

I have been a registered dietitian for almost 20 years. I have always been fascinated with how what we put into our bodies can have a profound impact on our health and wellness.

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

When working in a hospital setting, I encountered a patient that was having a hard time healing. Once we started giving the patient some specific supplements and nutrients, the patient recovered quickly and was able to be discharged. Simple nutritional interventions made all the difference.

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

I have a bachelors degree and masters degree in human nutrition. And over my 20 year career, I have worked with people throughout the lifecycle, learning so much along the way.

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

We develop habits over time, and the longer we practice them, the harder they are to break. New habits take a long time to create, so sticking with new commitments for longer than a few days can result in some major impacts.

Can you please share your “5 Non-Intuitive Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Dramatically Improve One’s Wellbeing”?

• Set a bedtime alarm clock to force yourself to go to sleep at a reasonable time. We all know how important sleep is, but we don’t always allow our bodies to get that sleep. Set your alarm clock for 9:30 PM every night and commit to winding down at that time.
• Invest in a SAD lamp. In the colder months, we don’t always get the sun exposure that we need to impact our mental health. A SAD lamp can provide rays that can give your body the boost it needs.
• Start your day with a quality multivitamin. Zhou Nutrition Daily Boost is one that is balanced with appropriate vitamins and minerals to help fill nutritional gaps in a simple way.
• Call a friend. So many of us are glued to our phones, but we are only staring at our screens. Picking up the phone and calling a friend can help maintain social connection and help us improve our well being.
• Keep a bowl of fresh fruit on your kitchen counter. Most of us are not eating enough fruit every day, which can be a concern. Using the visual cue of a filled fruit bowl may help people grab a piece of fruit when they otherwise wouldn’t, helping them meet their fruit intake quota.

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

• Exercise can have a profound impact on your mental health. Exercise can give your brain a “happy boost” that can help you feel better throughout the day.
• Participating in certain exercise programs can be a social experience. Group classes and sessions force people to connect with each other, and in some cases, can foster friendships. Social connection is so important, especially during these uncertain times.
• Exercise can support heart health. Since 1 in 4 deaths in the US are due to a cardiovascular-related event, supporting your heart health should be top of mind.

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

A combo of strength training, stretch, and cardio is the trifecta for fitness.

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

Mindset showed me that we can all have the power to control how we approach all situations in our lives. A growth mindset can help people in their social, professional, and wellness lives in a profound way.

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

They can follow me on social media:

@zhou_nutrition: IG

@LaurenLovesNutrition: IG

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

Women In Wellness: Lauren Manaker of Zhou Nutrition 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.

Women In Wellness: Andrea Trank of Heaven Lane Healing & Creative Arts on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…Spend time every day doing something you love. I love being outdoors. When I give myself that gift, I feel happier. Happiness leads to health. Not only find time for the activities you love, take the time to savor those moments by including them in a gratitude prayer or a journal. What we pay attention to will amplify in our lives. So, if you want to amplify your health and happiness — put your focus on it to amplify its energy.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Trank, Ed.S.

Andrea Trank covered the news for radio and television stations from 1980–1988.

In the early 90s, she decided to do something about the environmental catastrophes she witnessed as a reporter and became an environmental activist for groups such as the Sierra Club and Campaign California, and eventually starting her own environmental organization in Charlottesville, Virginia.

From the streets to the classroom. Andrea Trank received two advanced degrees in education and became a schoolteacher in Charlottesville Virginia.

In 2008 she left the Virginia classroom, moved to Florida to take care of her ailing mother, and continued teaching at the college level until she got sick. At this point, she trained as a yoga teacher, health coach and HeartMath trainer and coach and started working with people with chronic illness, gut issues and anxiety.

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 a family with ten brothers and sisters. We were a “Yours, Mine and Ours” Family and there were lots of issues. However, I think being forced to deal with that many personalities and two religions (Catholicism and Judaism) served me well as I grew up. I felt the need from the earliest days of my life to make an impact on the world and I had such a strong will that I would use every obstacle and setback as ignition to work harder, learn more and fulfill my purpose, although I did not realize what my purpose was until much later in life. I originally thought I was to be a journalist. I spent ten years in that career before realizing it was not good for my health. As a highly sensitive person, I took the problems of the world home with me. They affected me deeply in ways that I did not realize until I started getting bouts of anxiety, serious gut issues and ultimately, autoimmune Hashimoto’s, a disease that affects your thyroid.

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

In my current career the most interesting event happened when COVID hit. I was struggling to get clients and I was unsure of the direction I was taking. I was unclear about my niche — and because of my lack of clarity I was taking on clients that I was not meant to help and teaching yoga to people who were not appreciating me for my skills. I did not realize that I was affecting my own health by struggling so much and being uncomfortable with my path. During the pandemic, I really honed in to what I could do for my health and wellness and how to better serve. I took many training programs in HeartMath and in Yoga — narrowing down my niche until I really understood that all healing is ultimately dependent upon feeling safe. Nervous system regulation was a key component of healing. I entered a flow of both personal healing and work-related success. One big lesson I learned was that once I stopped worrying about all the minute details of my journey and trusted in something bigger than me, the path was laid out for me. I am not saying that I have not had to work hard. But now I work hard and show up every day without the feeling that I must struggle and claw my way toward a goal. The happier I am, the healthier I am. This is a big part of what I help my clients discover — how to feel good about their lives so that their lives and health will improve.

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

The biggest mistake I made when I was starting was to force my ideas of healing on others. I thought I had to just teach them and then they would follow my advice and get better. I also believed that there were “right ways” to heal. Over time I have come to realize that healing is very personal and relational. My relationship with my clients is as big a factor in their healing as the advice I give them. So, developing the trust and learning to listen have become integral for me as I serve.

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

I firmly believe everyone has the divine right and the ability to be healthy if they become empowered and educated on their own thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and choices. Those factors will either lead to wellness or to illness. I am passionate about helping people and I have a great deal of compassion for all people. I also love to inspire people by authentically sharing my own journey.

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

1) Engage in HeartMath tools for emotional regulation. HeartMath uses a combination of breath practices, simple emotional awareness tools and biofeedback to shift our physiology, thoughts and emotions to ones that keep us resilient no matter what we are facing. HeartMath has been shown in more than 400 studies to improve health through creating more synchronization between the heart, the brain, the nervous system, the endocrine system and other internal biological and neurological systems.

2) Get toxins out of your life. Eliminating toxins from all sources you can control like your food, your water, your personal care products, your home, your cleaning products, etc. This is not easy to do. It is expensive and it takes time. So, I advise my clients to start with the lowest hanging fruit. What can you afford and are willing to change? For me, it started with going all organic. Then I changed out my water system. Then I replaced plastic containers with glass ones for food storage. Then I stop using fragrance and hair coloring and over the counter medicines- replacing them with essential oil-based alternatives. One by one, I shifted from a toxic lifestyle to a clean lifestyle. We don’t use pesticides on our lawn even though we live in Florida. We take our shoes off at the door. We changed out our blue tooth electricity meter to the old fashion meter instead of allowing it to be electronically monitored all the time. We put air filters in most rooms in our home. This was all done over the course of ten years as we could afford it. We stopped going out to eat and cooked more both to save money and control the quality of the ingredients we put in our body. We bought local organic vegetables whenever we could. Every lifestyle decision you make impacts your health. However, having said this, I believe that you don’t want to fret over these things because if you get your nervous system feeling unsafe, this will hamper your health.

3) Practice yoga or some other breath-based mindfulness practice as often as possible. These practices work on you in multiple ways — through your mind, body and your spirit. Breath is the most accessible way to change your nervous system and your physiology. Mindfully breathing also focuses your mind and gives you greater access to your Heart’s intuition which many believe is the window to your soul. I have been involved in some sort of yoga practice since I was first diagnosed 35 years ago with gut issues and anxiety. Through these practices I have been able to successfully stay off medicines and live a more fulfilling life.

4) Eat real food. The word diet means something very different to me. A diet is eating the food needed to thrive. This is different for most of us, depending on your health conditions, your genetics, your cultural biases, your age and goals. However, there are a few cardinal rules including:

• eat real food, not processed foods,

• pay attention to how the foods make you feel. In other words, notice signs and symptoms of discomfort after you eat including a runny nose, itchiness anyone, fatigue, change in mood and change in poop.

• Eat locally and seasonally when possible

• Learn to prepare your foods if you can. Preparing food with love is very healing.

• Substitute ingredients to make your favorite foods healthier for you so that you do not feel deprived.

5) Spend time every day doing something you love. I love being outdoors. When I give myself that gift, I feel happier. Happiness leads to health. Not only find time for the activities you love, take the time to savor those moments by including them in a gratitude prayer or a journal. What we pay attention to will amplify in our lives. So, if you want to amplify your health and happiness — put your focus on it to amplify its energy.

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

1. Every part of your journey is valuable even the “so-called” negative parts. I always believed this myself but did not always express this to my clients.

2. There is no magic bullet to healing. I think many people believe that it will be some sort of overnight change that will help them heal, but it is a process, and this process can be enjoyable if you have the right attitude, beliefs, thoughts and emotions about it.

3. People really resist change even if what they are doing is hurting them. I have realized that timing is everything when it comes to changing your health and so I no longer feel like a failure if I have not been successful with a client.

4. Just because you are in a heart-centered business, there will be people who willingly or unwillingly try to thwart your progress. I unfortunately have learned that there are many people in this business who are more concerned with making money than healing like any other business. It is up to me to be very careful with whom I associate with to maintain my own integrity and reputation.

5. It takes time to figure out how to best serve. Often what you thought you would be doing when you started is not where you end up. I would have liked knowing that the road would not lead me down a straight path only so that I would not have fretted when I went down a wrong path and then had to retrace my steps. In other words, in my business and in my own healing journey, I have changed so much and learned so much along the way and I am so ever grateful for all the twists and turns that have led me to this day.

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

I have been an environmental activist my whole life. I continue to support those causes when I can. However, I truly believe our mental health crisis is the elephant in the room. As long as we refuse to acknowledge that nearly all of us have been traumatized by life during the past few years and work to emotionally self-regulate, we will not be able to fix any of our other problems. To work together and care about each other, we need to get back to nervous system safety again.

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

They can subscribe to my newsletter. Each week I write new blog and post other useful information about mental, physical and emotional health. I also provide free recipes and do a monthly free HeartMath meditation. You can sign up on my website at https://heavenlanecreations.com

I am active on Social Media….

Facebook @heavenlanecreations

Intagram @heavenlanecreations

LinkedIn @AndreaTrank

Twitter @Heavenlanetrank

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaTrank

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Andrea Trank of Heaven Lane Healing & Creative Arts on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women In Wellness: Mariah Craig of Maria Bowls On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Create a positive morning routine: The most impactful positive change I made in my life was when I changed my morning routine. And by that, I mean what I was doing the moment I woke up to set the tone for the day. This might sound silly to some people, but every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is press play on a Feel Good playlist I created for myself. I’m talking full volume, surround sound, before I’m checking my Instagram notifications. Ensuring I start off every day on a positive note (which for me is singing and dancing around the house) has created a significant shift in both my mental health and productivity. Dare to wake up and tell yourself ‘I am energized’ instead of ‘I am exhausted.’

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

Mariah specializes in all things creative for health and wellness businesses, from content development, to social media strategies, graphic design and even recipe development. She originally studied Advanced Graphic Design and worked with creative agencies for years in creative and marketing positions, including the most sought-after advertising agency for thoughtful food and beverage companies, and one of North America’s leading hospitality agencies. After battling her own health issues, Mariah began to study nutrition and gained a certification as a Culinary Nutrition Expert. From there, she worked with industry leaders as a plant-based recipe developer, worked in natural health product sales for one of the fastest growing plant-based nutrition companies in the country, and worked in Senior Brand Manager and Social Media Manager positions for health and wellness companies. Today, with a background in graphic design and certifications in nutrition, Mariah is able to apply her knowledge and passion for holistic nutrition with her creative skills to create effective and meaningful social media content for her clients at Social by Nature.

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

My backstory really starts in college where I studied Advanced Graphic Design. During my second year I began feeling very sick and after six months of being misdiagnosed and seeing dozens of doctors who turned me away, I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease. This completely changed the trajectory of my life.

I left my home on campus and moved in with my family for a short while to get the extra help I needed at the time, but if you know me you know I’m stubborn and determined when I set my mind to something, so I made sure I graduated despite my struggles. In order to graduate, one of my final assignments was to interview the owner of my ‘dream company.’ This assignment launched me into my career starting as a graphic designer.

I sat down with the owner of my favourite art publishing company, and after that day I kept reaching out to him determined to get a job until he sent me a project and said ‘flip this back to me in three days.’ I sent the work back to him in two days and he then said ‘move to Toronto and you’re hired.’ By the next day I was crashing at my best friends’ house in Toronto until I could get my own place and I had a job that allowed me to represent my favourite artists in the world. My biggest win was designing my favourite artist’s first art book, which sold out at her first show that we hosted in Manhattan, NY.

From there I worked with agencies in various creative and marketing positions, including the most sought-after advertising agency for thoughtful food and beverage companies, and one of North America’s leading hospitality agencies. During this time I was really suffering from Lyme, so I decided to take my health into my own hands and went back to school to study nutrition where I gained a certification as a Culinary Nutrition Expert. This prompted me to start a health food blog which quickly gained a lot of traction and led to me working with industry leaders as a plant-based recipe developer. If you ever want to hear a good story, ask about the time I started a raw vegan dessert line, developed recipes for the Harvard School of Med, or worked as a vegan personal chef.

I then worked in natural health product sales for one of the fastest growing plant-based nutrition companies in the country, and worked in Senior Brand Manager and Social Media Manager positions for health and wellness companies. It wasn’t until my last role working for a start-up wellness company in a digital marketing role that I started to see all of my skills and passions aligning. That’s when I decided to go off on my own and started freelancing. Fast forward eight months later and I had started my first company Social by Nature, a digital marketing agency that represents health and wellness brands. Talk about things coming full circle!

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 can speak to a very pivotal moment in Social by Nature’s growth and success, which speaks to the importance of not just being good at what you do, but the importance of relationships.

I was in my mid-twenties starting Social by Nature, and while I was confident in my skills, I was figuring out a lot of things along the way. When I launched the company, I was relying heavily on the relationships I had built in the industry over the years to get my name out there. Sure enough, a year into running the company, a client of mine who I built a strong relationship with came to me and said ‘Your competitor is looking to sell their company, are you interested?’ And what did twenty-something-year-old-me respond with even though I didn’t know the first thing about buying and selling a company? ‘Yes.’

You never know what a conversation or a relationship can lead to. Granted you have to be good at what you do, but there are a lot of people less talented than you who have been a lot more successful than you. My confidence, communication and people skills have been essential in getting me to where I am today in both my professional and personal life.

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?

Like any entrepreneur I’ve had to learn my fair share of lessons the hard way. One of the biggest mistakes I made at the beginning was not designing a better hiring process. My dad always said you’ll be hired for your skills and fired for your personality. I think a lot of what we’re taught in terms of behavioural questions are outdated and don’t reveal the qualities in a candidate that really matter to ensure they will be a good cultural fit. Knowing what you’re looking for is a lot harder than it sounds, but I have learned that thoughtful hiring is extremely important, and in order to hire thoughtfully you need to really break down the qualities and behaviours that are important in the role outside of what’s on a candidate’s resume.

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?

All of the brands we represent at Social by Nature are helping make a bigger impact in the world in regards to health and wellness in some way. That’s why it’s so easy to be proud of the work we do and feel so passionate about growing our clients’ online presence to influence lifestyle changes and healthier choices. During a time where there’s a lot of negativity in people’s social media news feed and not enough talk about how to build our health, it feels good knowing we are pushing brands and messaging that can have a positive impact.

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.

Everyone’s needs are different, but these lifestyle tweaks have helped support me in my journey towards better wellbeing:

1. Create a positive morning routine: The most impactful positive change I made in my life was when I changed my morning routine. And by that, I mean what I was doing the moment I woke up to set the tone for the day. This might sound silly to some people, but every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is press play on a Feel Good playlist I created for myself. I’m talking full volume, surround sound, before I’m checking my Instagram notifications. Ensuring I start off every day on a positive note (which for me is singing and dancing around the house) has created a significant shift in both my mental health and productivity. Dare to wake up and tell yourself ‘I am energized’ instead of ‘I am exhausted.’
2. Eat real food: Everyone can have their own opinion when it comes to what diet is best, and every body is different, but I think one thing we can all agree on is that an abundance of real, whole foods will make you feel (and look) better inside and out. Having struggled with health issues for a decade now, it’s forced me to become so in tune with my body and it’s now so noticeable to me how much consistency with nutrition will impact my life. With that said, it’s also taught me that in order to feel truly healthy when it comes to food, it’s about what you do most of the time, not some of the time. Having the glass of wine and slice of cake is important too! True wellness does not come with unhealthy obsessions.
3. Choose your inner circle wisely: Who do you surround yourself with? Do those people inspire you? Do they support you? Do they bring positivity into your life? Do they challenge you? The most uninspiring year I’ve had to date was the year that I would have answered ‘no’ to all of those questions, and that is not a coincidence. Choose your circle carefully.
4. Get comfortable being uncomfortable: Coming from someone who never had a clear plan or vision when it came to a career path, I attribute a great deal of my success to the fact that I was never stagnant. I was always trying, doing, failing, succeeding. There are transferable skills in everything… The worst thing you can do is to stay inside your comfort zone and expect change. Follow your heart and happiness will follow.
5. Make time for movement: I remember when I was really sick, any movement at all was a struggle, even walking. My joints and muscles were always in pain, and I had this intense tingling sensation that I compared to ‘pins and needles’ in my legs. My dad would always make a lot of effort to get me up and moving no matter how much I would scream and shout at him. Going through this gave me such a deep understanding of how much movement can impact the body, to the point where to this day I will get flare-ups if I’ve been inactive for an extended period of time. We are designed to move, not be sedentary! It’s so important to create ways to move for both our body and our mind. Find a form of movement that you love, whether it be a bike ride, dancing or swimming, and find ways to incorporate it into your days.

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

That’s a tough question to answer because wellness is truly defined by an individual’s needs, wants and goals. On top of that, I think wellness has been redefined in recent years as a result of the global pandemic. With that being said, I think the immediate focus in regards to wellness needs to be mental health. It’s no secret that depression and anxiety has reached an all time high. In fact, depression has doubled among young people. With so many individuals experiencing this for the first time who don’t know how to identify their symptoms, or had preexisting mental health struggles and are now experiencing increased risk, we need change, resources, education and accessibility more than ever.

If I could deliver the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people right now, it would be through an abundance of efforts supporting mental health awareness to a society that has taught us to be cool instead of be connected.

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

Surround yourself with people who challenge you to be better

You ruin your life by tolerating it

Big goals require different habits

Consistency is more important than perfection

Take care of your energy

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

That’s a trick question! These are all topics that are so important to me and it’s hard to say which is dearest.

As someone who has a sustainability brand that repurposes discarded coconut shells, reclaimed wood and bamboo to create eco-friendly products and lessen greenhouse gas emissions, you could say that sustainability and the environment are causes I care about.

Veganism, while not a diet that I follow now, is something that is very personal to me because it was a part of my life for many years and was the diet that I followed when I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease to manage my inflammation. It’s also what pushed me to go back to school for culinary nutrition and get involved in the plant-based food space!

Lastly, there is no way I can not speak to the importance of mental health. Especially in the current climate when it’s something that people are struggling with now more than ever. More on that in one of my previous responses.

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

I’m the most active on my personal Instagram account @ murrcraig. You can also check out my company accounts @ socialbynature and @ mariabowls.

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Mariah Craig of Maria Bowls 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.