Day: December 8, 2022

Female Founders: Jess Flack of Ubiquitous On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a…

Female Founders: Jess Flack of Ubiquitous On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Being a founder and CEO can be lonely. Being in the CEO role means you’re constantly fielding information, much of which may be sensitive. It can be tough when you’re the boss and there’s not really anyone you can talk to about the challenges you’re facing.

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

Jess Flack is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ubiquitous, an influencer marketing company focused on connecting social media advertisers and creators to develop mutually beneficial marketing campaigns.

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

I studied digital media with an emphasis in cinema, but I really didn’t know where I wanted to take that. More than anything, I enjoyed the curriculum in the arts. But through my undergrad studies, I had to have an internship and wound up working at a marketing agency. Through that experience, I realized marketing involved both the creative side of my brain and also the analytical side — I’ve always loved math and numbers and making things make sense. That internship experience really set me on the course to my current role.

After a couple of agency stints, I wound up at Bellhop on the brand side. That’s where I realized I love startups. My time there made me a more well-rounded performance marketer, and I got familiar with the startup lingo and other concepts specific to that world. During my time at Bellhop, the pandemic started and the world shut down. I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands and picked up some contract work — one of those jobs was to build a marketing strategy for a record label around the time that TikTok was really taking off. Although I had run influencer campaigns at Bellhop, it was always through an agency. I’d never run something like that myself. After reaching out to 200 or so creators and doing a lot of trial and error, I realized (without getting too deep in the weeds here) that TikTok was an insanely affordable and effective marketing platform.

After seeing the possibilities and successes of this campaign, I knew there was so much more we could do, so I pulled in more friends as contractors, formed a team, and we did that for around a year. In April of 2021, Ubiquitous was officially formed. We had a team of 10 up until November of 2021 when we raised our seed round of $5 million with a $28 million valuation. Since then, I have taken on the role of CEO, and we’ve grown to a team of about 40.

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

Becoming CEO of a venture-backed company before the age of 30!

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?

In the very beginning, we tried to put together a creator house — essentially a location where creators could go and develop the content they need to satisfy agreements with their advertiser partners. Suffice it to say that it didn’t work out. It wasn’t “funny,” but it was a learning moment for sure. In the startup world, it’s all about iterating, moving fast, trying things really quickly… But in this situation, I realized that sometimes you have to slow down, especially when there are people involved. We had developed real relationships with these creators, and I felt so personally invested in this working out for them.

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

I can’t name just one! But here are the three that come to mind:

1. Anna Siler. Anna and I have essentially had parallel careers. We started our careers together at an agency, then we both went to work at separate startups. And now, we’ve been able to come together again at Ubiquitous. Having that rapport and work chemistry with someone — yes, we’re friends, but we became friends through work — means we’re able to collaborate in really impactful ways. She’s also just someone that I can rely on and trust deeply. I’m really grateful for her role in my life and my career.

2. Natalie Martin. Natalie worked with me at the marketing agency where I started out, and she was further along in her career than the rest of our team at that time. She brought context about work and life that I didn’t have yet and set me on a path where I started to realize the value I bring and helped me figure out how to hold myself to a higher standard. She showed me that I could set goals and do bigger things and that I didn’t need to settle for what was right in front of me.

3. Bill Chase. Bill is the CMO at Bellhop, my last boss before co-founding Ubiquitous, and in some ways, I had the least amount of time with him of anyone on this list. But I am constantly referencing Bill, replicating elements of his management style. He was always so willing to be in the trenches with his team without promoting an unhealthy work/life balance or grind culture. It inspired me to work harder. If I didn’t do something, Bill was going to do it — without complaint — but I didn’t want him to have to. I wanted to work hard because I saw how hard he was working. I wanted to support him. Today, I always have a campaign I’m running, I help people build spreadsheets… I never want to be out of touch.

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?

Although this is a human condition, women can be more prone to imposter syndrome. It’s something I struggle with at times. Culturally, there’s still a stigma that if a woman comes on too strong, she’s aggressive — if you’re too sweet, you’re soft. Knowing these stereotypes are out there can really contribute to imposter syndrome and make women unsure of how to act.

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?

Even though I sometimes deal with imposter syndrome myself, I know it’s up to me to help combat it. There have been people along the way in my career who have reassured me that I am up to the challenge, that I’m smart enough, tough enough… I think as leaders, we have to make sure we’re supporting all people, all voices.

It’s also our individual responsibility to put ourselves out there and surround ourselves with people who build us up, rather than tear us down. It’s not easy, but it’s so important to play an active role in your own story.

So I guess my answer is two-fold: We have a responsibility to believe in ourselves, even if we don’t see anyone representing us. To know we have the potential to break the mold. And we also have a responsibility as leaders and peers to reinforce and build the confidence of those around us. We have to see the potential in others and work to support and grow it.

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

I think women, generally speaking, are more likely to approach business from a position of empathy. Empathy is such a superpower when it comes to being a manager or leader. It may sometimes feel like a weakness, but from my perspective, the relationships you make matter more than almost anything. If you’re able to create really healthy, close relationships, they will carry you wherever you need to go. I think this is something women leaders are particularly adept at, and these qualities make great founders.

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

You don’t have to have all the answers — you just have to have the right people. People make the company, not the founder.

Also, I’d say failure in general is a myth. Everything is a learning opportunity — in marketing, you’re always testing and learning, and when you get too caught up in what you perceive as a failure, you just set yourself back.

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?

No — being a founder is not for everybody. You have to be passionate about the vision, and you have to stay hyper-focused on it. Although my day-to-day varies, the focus on the vision remains. So if you’re easily distracted or need constant change and new projects to work on, being a founder may not be for you.

You also have to understand your personal hierarchy of needs — if work/life balance and having more structure in your day are most important, being a founder is not the right role for you. It’s an “always-on” job. It’s all-consuming — and it’s worth it — but people that aren’t extremely passionate about the vision and aren’t willing to compromise on other elements of their lifestyle may find themselves really unhappy or unfulfilled.

It’s also important to note that both roles are necessary and incredibly valuable. Not everyone has to be a founder to be a key contributor!

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

1. Being a founder and CEO can be lonely. Being in the CEO role means you’re constantly fielding information, much of which may be sensitive. It can be tough when you’re the boss and there’s not really anyone you can talk to about the challenges you’re facing.

2. Knowledge is power, but knowledge can also be a burden. Similar to the above, the emotional impact of hard decisions that are looming can feel like a weight or burden to carry. It’s not always fun.

3. Board relationships don’t have to be scary or rigid. It’s really important to have a diverse board where you rely on different people for different things — but I’d recommend having at least one person on your board who you’re really comfortable with. That outlet is truly invaluable (and helps tremendously with numbers 1 and 2 above).

4. It’s okay (and can even be a good thing) to admit when you don’t have the answer. It’s much worse to posture that you have it all under control if you don’t. Be open to (and encourage) a culture of constant ideation where people feel comfortable collaborating. You can earn a lot of respect from your team if you say, “I’m not sure about that. Let’s look into it and figure it out together.”

5. Focus your energy on the things you can control. It’s easy to get wrapped up in “what ifs,” but then you end up operating from a position of fear. I’m constantly having to step back, breathe, and get control over my anxiety when it feels like challenges are looming. You can’t predict the future, so there’s no point in worrying about it. Only focus on the things you can do today to move the needle; focus on healthy behaviors vs. doomsday planning.

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

I am thrilled to be in a position to make Ubiquitous a great place to work. Over the course of my career, I’ve seen things done poorly, I’ve seen things done well… And now I have the chance to take those experiences and use them for the good of our team members and our customers.

Ubiquitous offers great benefits, bonuses, the opportunity to travel… Our team members genuinely enjoy working with each other. We’re committed to listening to our employees so that we know what they need to be happy and healthy in our workplace culture. That happiness translates to better experiences for creators and customers, and it’s something I’m really excited about.

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.

In general, I’m really passionate about equal opportunities for people in different life stages. I’m not sure of a particular movement, but I’d love to be involved in something that empowers communities and individuals to understand each other better and support each other. Different voices and cultures and perspectives are critical elements of our humanity, and they should be celebrated through shared understanding.

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.

Stevie Nicks and/or Dolly Parton!

For Stevie: I grew up on Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie was what made me really fall in love with music, the person who led me to start writing songs and learning to play instruments. She’s always been my musical inspiration.

And of course, I love Dolly’s music as well. I was raised on Steel Magnolias and could probably quote it from beginning to end. Dolly radiates grace and humor in everything that she does, and somehow, she is able to bridge so many gaps without sacrificing her personal integrity. Everybody knows where she stands, but she’s still loved by everyone. I also love how feminine she is. She’s never toned down her femininity to appease people or to have them perceive her as strong or capable.

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

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

Women In Wellness: Lucy Townsend of Functional Medicine Associates On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks…

Women In Wellness: Lucy Townsend of Functional Medicine Associates On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Get a “cognoscopy,” which includes a set of blood test that reveals the risk for Alzheimer’s; a simple online cognitive assessment that takes only about 30 minutes; and an MRI scan with volumetric (the MRI is optional for those who have no symptoms, but is recommended for those who already have symptoms of cognitive decline).

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

Lucy Townsend is the Founder of Functional Medicine Associates. She holds an advanced degree in Counseling, is a published researcher, is a Certified Functional Medicine Health Coach, and is a Bredesen-Certified ReCODE Practitioner. She has been in the healthcare industry for over 25 years. Lucy specializes in working with individuals to prevent and reverse subjective and mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease.

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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?

Thank you for having me. I am humbled to share my journey.

In 2018, I founded Functional Medicine Associates. There, I work with individuals who have been diagnosed with subjective cognitive impairment and mild cognitive impairment to prevent and reverse the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. As a certified ReCODE practitioner, I utilize the Bredesen Protocol, a comprehensive, personalized evidence-based program to address the potential drivers of cognitive decline. I collaborate with my clients’ physicians to obtain accurate diagnoses through advanced cognitive and clinical assessment of their histories and labs, along with a report that reveals root causes — such as inflammation, glycotoxicity, lack of trophic support, vascular issues, and head trauma — to guide accurate medical intervention.

Prior to founding Functional Medicine Associates, I worked in the healthcare industry for more than 25 years. Today as a ReCODE practitioner and Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, I draw on my many years in physical therapy, counseling, and advocacy to provide insight, strategies, and support to my clients and their caregivers to make lasting lifestyle changes with the goal of improving cognitive health.

I matriculated at the University of California Santa Barbara, where I studied biology. I received my bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from San Francisco State University and my master’s in counseling from the University of San Francisco.

I acquired my certification as a board-certified patient advocate from the Patient Advocate Certification Board (PACB), an organization of professions including, but not limited to, healthcare and patient advocates, case managers and others who, on behalf of patients communities, share the goal of safe, effective and compassionate healthcare. Board-certified patient advocates work with individual clients who need assistance navigating complex medical situations by partnering with them, seeking to empower them, and supporting their ability to make autonomous decisions.

I received my training from the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA), the only coaching certification program that has completely incorporated functional medicine and functional nutrition into the curriculum. This program is approved by the International Consortium for Credentialing Health and Wellness Coaches. The Institute of Functional Medicine, in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, partnered with FMCA to develop the course content, which offers health coaches a time-tested standard that can be consistently applied in various settings and effectively discussed with other functional medicine practitioners around the world. FMCA-trained health coaches guide patients to optimum wellness using functional medicine, functional nutrition, mind-body medicine, and positive psychology coaching. A central theme of the training, positive psychology embraces and enhances people’s higher selves to achieve optimal functioning.

Years ago, I visited my grandmother in her nursing home, where she was convalescing with what was then diagnosed as arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. Today it’s called dementia. She was confined to her hospital bed. She was 72 years old. She played with a doll. She had no idea who I was, nor did she know her own daughter, my aunt Lucy. I was seven at the time. Not long after that visit, my grandmother passed away. She lived in Boston; I was in California. That visit left a lasting impression. Fast-forward twenty years to 1994, when I was in graduate school. I had to select an internship, and I knew I wanted to work in research with dementia patients. I secured a position at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital, working at the Older Adult Center on the PTSD and dementia unit. I worked on a longitudinal study that evaluated dementia patients and their caregivers. The study involved interviewing dementia patients and caregivers regarding stress and coping skills related to activities of daily living. Going through this experience profoundly shaped my perspective about the importance of the caregiver/patient relationship.

Back in 1994, when I was doing research, very little hope was given to Alzheimer’s disease patients. Most families were told to get their loved one’s affairs in order. Today, thanks to a paradigm shift, decades of research, and recent clinical success, Dr. Dale Bredesen, who is a world-renowned neuroscientist and neurologist, developed a revolutionary protocol that will help thousands, if not millions, prevent and reverse cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. I’m on a mission to help him. I did my clinical training with him to become a certified ReCODE practitioner.

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?

Seven years ago, I was on safari in the Kalahari Desert, south of Botswana, which is and a very remote part of South Africa about seven hours by vehicle to Johannesburg. I fell from a horse, which resulted in a traumatic brain injury, eight broken ribs, pneumothorax (collapsed lung), a helicopter and airplane evacuation, and two weeks in ICU. I have never experienced fear or pain like that in my life.

I was alone in a third-world country in a hospital bed with a translator. I prayed a lot. Thank goodness for my background in physical therapy, which enabled me to insist that a non-English-speaking African nurse get me out of bed to walk. I didn’t want to contract pneumonia. Two weeks after the accident, when I was stable, I flew back to the United States. When I arrived home, I had a year of rehabilitation. My greatest fear was becoming addicted to pain medication because I was on the highest doses of fentanyl and tramadol.

This traumatizing event gave me a new perspective on the power of functional medicine and the mind/body connection in healing. I successfully weaned myself off of the pain meds using powerful anti-inflammatory supplements, tea, an organic, mostly plant-based diet, sleep, meditation, and spinning. My own journey back to good health, in addition to working with so many others who have gone through health challenges, enables me to bring a high level of empathy, respect, understanding, and wisdom to my clients.

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

The biggest mistake I made in founding a company was thinking that I could do everything on my own. Building and managing the website, branding, social media, blogging, podcasting, events, marketing, finance, scheduling, and on and on, is not humanly possible on one’s own. When I invested in outside help, I started to focus on my services. I wrote a business plan that helped me understand how my business model is referral-driven and relationship-focused. I analyzed where I could get the biggest return on my investments. After I did that, my business started to make money. It doesn’t happen overnight.

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 global burden of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, affects more than one billion people.Mainstream medicine largely considers dementia to be unpreventable, incurable, and progressive based on years of clinical observation and hundreds of failed pharmaceutical trials. Alzheimer’s is currently one of the top causes of death globally. Conventional physicians currently have a handful of medications that do nothing to stop the progression of the disease process and may even hasten cognitive decline after a short-lived improvement in symptoms.

Dr. Bredesen’s protocol was developed from insights gleaned after decades in the laboratory and years of clinical work with hundreds of patients. The Bredesen Protocol has demonstrated reversal of cognitive decline with published peer-reviewed case studies and now has unprecedented early results from a formal Clinical Trial. Participants in the trial who experienced reversal were experiencing the early stages of dementia — including early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and subjective cognitive impairment (SCI). The protocol has been helpful for those in the mid- to later stages, but expectations should be tempered when beginning the program later in the disease process. Depending on what stage an individual enters the protocol, their willingness to institute healthful lifestyle change and agree with the contributors to cognitive decline that are identified through testing. In the years I have been implementing the Bredesen Protocol, I have seen dramatic improvements in cognition and a reverse decline in my clients.

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

For the prevention and reversal of neurodegenerative ideas diseases, I recommend the following lifestyle tweaks:

1. Get a “cognoscopy,” which includes a set of blood test that reveals the risk for Alzheimer’s; a simple online cognitive assessment that takes only about 30 minutes; and an MRI scan with volumetric (the MRI is optional for those who have no symptoms, but is recommended for those who already have symptoms of cognitive decline).

2. Implement the PreCODE (prevention) or ReCODE (reversal) protocol.

3. Hire a ReCODE certified health coach.

4. Stay connected to others for support (consider joining a support group).

5. Create a healthy lifestyle focused on prevention (nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, sleep, brain training, detoxification).

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

Functional medicine examines the root cause of disease. For example, what we call Alzheimer’s disease is actually a protective response to a wide variety of insults to the brain: inflammation, insulin resistance, toxins, infections, poor nutrition, hormones, and growth factors. Bredesen Seven (B7), developed by Dr. Bredesen, is based on decades of laboratory and clinical research that culminated in seven foundational strategies that promote neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to heal and grow new neurons and connections between neurons in response to stimuli. Each strategy alone can promote neuroplasticity but, when practiced together, their combined effect becomes more powerful.

1. Nutrition: KetoFLEX 12/3 combines a heavily plant-based, nutrient-dense whole foods diet with daily intermittent fasting.

2. Exercise: A combination of aerobic, strength training, and mind-body practice is one of the best ways to protect cognition and help reverse cognitive decline.

3. Sleep: Getting seven to eight hours of optimal sleep nightly is vital to brain health.

4. Managing stress: Chronic, severe stress is a key contributor to cognitive decline. Adopting daily stress management habits is critical.

5. Brain training: Challenging the brain in new ways can forge new brain cell communication pathways, helping the brain to heal and grow.

6. Detoxification: Avoiding toxins that can harm the brain’s functioning is a vital part of optimizing brain health.

7. Supplements: High-quality supplements tailored to the specific, evolving needs of each individual have proven to make an important contribution. The B7 also rests on a foundation of mindfulness — the ability to be fully present in the current moment without judgment. Practicing the above strategies mindfully has a much higher rate of success.

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

1. Mindset is the foundation of everything. Research shows that mindset plays a significant role in determining life’s outcomes. By adapting and shifting your mindset, you improve your health, decrease stress and become more resilient to life challenges.

2. Surround yourself with people who encourage you. Being around people who support and uplift you motivates you to be the best version of yourself and facilitates growth and empowerment.

3. Live each day with gratitude and humility. A genuinely humble person that lives mindfully recognizes that everything they have is good. They accept that all the good things happening in their life are blessings for which they should be thankful. Gratitude improves emotional well-being.

4. Write a comprehensive business plan (BP). Include a mission statement. Whether you need a lot of funding on the front end or not, mindset is everything. Understanding your goals and objectives elevates much disappointment on the back end. Your BP is the foundation of your business.

5. Take your strengths and weakness seriously. If you start early in your career as an entrepreneur or become one later in life, you will have to work hard for it. Knowing your strengths and weakness is essential for business success or failure. Be realistic, budget for needs you can delegate to vendors, and focus and execute on your top skills.

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

The highest rate of dementia-related death in the world is in Finland. It has been suggested that one of the main reasons for this may be mold-produced mycotoxins. We are all exposed to toxins at levels not seen before in history. We inhale air pollution and eat mercury-laden fish such as tuna and swordfish. We prepare vegetables laced with glyphosate (Roundup, the weed killer). We build our homes and colonize our sinuses with neurotoxin-producing molds. We burn paraffin candles that fill the room with benzene and toluene. We drink water tainted with pesticides and arsenic. In short, we are swimming daily in an Alzheimer’s bouillabaisse.

Our ability to detoxify on an ongoing basis is, therefore, critical, and a breakdown in detoxification increases the risk of cognitive decline. The first step in dealing with toxins is to determine exposure. Get tested using blood or urine, or even hair. Several laboratories, such as Quicksilver and Great Plains, perform these tests.

To optimize detoxification, try the following: purchase a HEPA filter such as IQAir, avoid smoking and air pollution (to the extent possible), and avoid prolonged mouth breathing since nasal passages also provide a filter for particulate matter. Additionally, individuals should check their home ERMI score (mold exposure), use a water filter (such as reverse osmosis), eat organic foods, avoid toxins in health and beauty aids, avoid fish high in mercury, avoid dental amalgams, eliminate PBAs, increase sweat with exercise and sauna, consider lymphatic massage, Epsom salt baths, and support liver and kidneys (both of which are major detoxification organs) with polyphenols such as blueberries and cruciferous veggies. We now know that inflammation is the root cause of disease. Be mindful of the toxic burden constantly being placed on the human body. Do things daily to detoxify your mind and body.

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

https://functionalmedicineassociates.net/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-townsend-ma-fmchc-bcpa-83574b53/

@functionalmedicinelucy

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

Women In Wellness: Lucy Townsend of Functional Medicine Associates 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.

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Stephanie Lytle & Aaron Douglas of High Vibe Collective

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Acceptance. No one is perfect. If we were, things might be easier. But, in the meantime, we actively practice accepting who the other person is and where they are at. By accepting these realities, we are able to navigate them confidently. We unconditionally love and accept one another. We know we may be in very different places around different subjects, depending on our past experiences and traumas. Often times when we are in different places we are able to lovingly see through the lens of the experiences of the other, and therefore lovingly accept where things are for them in the moment. We love holding compassion as nothing lasts forever and can change instantaneously. They say change is the only constant, so we pray and continue to devote ourselves to the highest good of all.

As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie Lytle & Aaron Douglas, a power couple with an impenetrable bond. Together they launched Sedona’s premier wellness retreat, High Vibe Collective, and are helping guide others through their healing. After losing their baby at birth earlier this year, the two have spent months rediscovering their purpose and the purpose for their bond. Their willingness to be raw, real and intimate with others gives them the special ability to connect with visitors from all over the world who come to Sedona for it’s renowned healing capacities.

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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?

Early on in our dating days, Aaron was organizing a public event highlighting healing workshops led by local Sedona healing practitioners. With my years of experience throwing client based service events and retreats, I had many ideas that felt aligned that I wanted to contribute. At first, he did not ask me to support or participate in any way, as we were new in our relating to one another romantically and we didn’t want to blur any lines. We had developed our friendship slowly to gain more trust and care for one another over the previous year and a half since having met. Eventually, he invited me to help organize the event with him, which is how we first worked together in community healing. Our inspired drive to organize healing for those around us quickly led to the creation of High Vibe Collective. This business, for me, was a dream come true to help my friends in this incredible, authentic, and integral healing community. Through this business we get to reap the benefit spiritually and financially in what feels like a cosmic, mutually beneficial way of relating with one another. As a business coach of 6 years I felt this to be a very honorable way to highlight the healers in this community who show up in their healing each and every day, thick or thin, in unconditional ways. I see these healers living truth in their day to day lives. Their modalities and teachings are not only displayed in their work, but in their relationships and within the community. These are healers that I am honored to know and call my family and friends. These are the people who saved our lives through their authentic support when they showed up for Aaron and I after our son Ahraya’s death. I feel humbled in this journey that I am on and I am so grateful for the connection that Aaron and I have.

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

We chose to start a romantic relationship with one another in February of 2021 and began to live together shortly after that. In May of 2021, I found myself in the position of volunteering as sole caregiver for my grandmother, Ethel Mae. The rest of my family chose to put her in a nursing home, but I pulled her out and brought her to Sedona. I loved my Gramma, and had been caregiving for her and Grandpa before I moved to Sedona. My Gramma was one of my best friends. So when the time came, Aaron was in deep support of this decision, and quickly became secondary caregiver to Gramma Ethel as she moved into our home full time. While this was an interesting time in and of itself, one of the funniest moments was when I was out to dinner with some girlfriends. Aaron was at home with Gramma, after dark, and she was doing puzzles in her room. She then chose to go to bed and turn out the light. Aaron got a call from his friend who needed his car pulled out of mud with his Jeep. Not wanting to leave Gramma unattended if she was still awake, Aaron went into her room to see how she was doing. He entered her room to see no Gramma in the bed, and no where visible in the room. The room was dark, with the lights off and the moonlight coming in through her window. She liked to have a salt lamp on at night, but we always found she slept better with all the lights off. Either way, Aaron found himself in her room, calling her name, with no answer. He went out to the street, on the porch, in the bathrooms, and checked the whole house. No Gramma was found anywhere. As he stood in the dark bedroom wondering where she could be his mind turned to the bewildering thought that she could be in the closet, hiding. With nightmarish images running through his head, Aaron opened the closet door. Some of her dresses were hanging up in the closet, but behind them was a little nook with a small chair. This small wooden chair was a childhood chair from my great grandmother, an antique. Well, if you think I’m going to tell you that Aaron slid over the dresses in the closet to reveal Gramma sitting in the chair, in the closet, in the dark… you would be right. She jumped up and forward at him out of the closet with a hand full of photographs (that was her favorite thing was to look through and hold old photographs of her family). She jumped forward pointing and shaking her finger at him. “Shhhhhh” she said. “Don’t tell anybody. Swear it.” She said before shooing him out of the room. Aaron legitimately jumped and felt chills. It was moments like this that I wish I had cameras in the house, because it would have been such a hilarious and scary moment to go back and watch! Ethel passed away just 6 days after her 94th birthday in October of 2021. She said that her 94th birthday was her best birthday ever. She lived her best life the last 5 months with Aaron and I in Sedona. She was a legend in the community here, and still is.

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

After just the first few months of launching this business, we realized that our pricing and payout structure was not sustainable. You see, when we first conceptualized this business we wanted to create a business that was less geared around profiting off of someone else’s services and paying out on the low end. We wanted to create a business that would truly honor the practitioner and their time, almost as though representing their private practice out of good will. It was just a few months in business before we realized that this was attainable, but not at the level we expected, as business costs continued to rise as the growth continued. We realized that the sustainability was not going to work, thus not being able to benefit anyone whatsoever! We then quickly called an emergency meeting and brainstormed what we could do to maintain and grow the business instead of run it as a hobby, with no chance of recouping investment costs. We made respectable and subtle shifts that did impact people, but ultimately created a sustainable foundation for growth and continued financial support for our practitioners. While we did correct the pricing and payout mistake that we made in the beginning, it took courage and certainty to instate the changes while still powerfully respecting and valuing our staff. We value them, their work, and our relationship to the highest degree. We learned that valuing ourselves to a high degree first and not shorting ourselves is the foundation to encouraging others to live from that same place. Despite not everyone liking the decisions that we made and had to implement, we learned that staying true to ourselves and our needs is non-negotiable, no matter what others think.

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

Our mission is to empower local, high integrity healers by aligning them with people seeking the healing results that they facilitate. While there are other companies doing this in Sedona, we stand out by holding high standards in who we work with along with paying our practitioners a fair wage. In this day and age with rapid inflation, wage is a heavily emphasized topic and we stand for optimizing our practitioner’s pay scale so that they can live a stress free life that they deserve as a result of their impact on so many people’s lives. We value the healing work of our practitioners as they are the roots of this business and the motor for the active healing processes that our guests experience. Our hope is that business models like this continue to grow. We believe in a new realm on earth where each of us actively creates our desired reality. In our reality, everyone experiences abundance because it is our birthright… for each and every one of us.

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

We are launching our online platform for virtual sessions, online courses, and coaching. This will enable people worldwide to receive the healing modalities and self-development tools to transform their lives and create a better reality in and around them. The energy in Sedona is loud and quite noticeable. This is one of the most powerful vortex energies on the planet. People come from all over the world to experience the energies of this land. Those who reside here full-time are warriors of this ‘Momma Sedona’ energy that we live and breathe with every day. And she doesn’t mess around. Momma Sedona gives you what you need and what you’re asking for, whatever your intention is or your soul needs. She shows you what you get to choose to work through in order to receive at the highest level. Being able to have anyone, anywhere gain access to this healing energy from one of our virtual healing sessions, or a coaching call, or day-to-day-messaging is putting this Sedona healing energy into the hands of everyone. We are excited to show up at the greatest capacity through this most difficult time for so many throughout the world right now.

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

I recommend that they read the book How To Win Friends & Influence People because it shares valuable insight into smoothly navigating challenging situations with other human beings. It is of great importance for us to treat others with respect and create an environment that is healthy and empowering. We found that the tools outlined in this book empower us and our employees to simply thrive with redirection instead of feel emotionally hurt due to plain, misguided criticism. As a CEO or founder, it is often of the utmost importance to maintain a healthy work environment that not only encourages employees to be and do better, but to live the most fulfilling life they can in their personal lives.

I find myself grateful for a young woman named Sarah King. Sarah and I met over the phone as a dog training client back in North Carolina. Her and her husband were moving to town, about to give birth to their first baby girl, and had a neurotic dog. They ended up becoming good friends throughout the client process and we ended up creating a lasting friendship with one another. Through the years I watched Sarah grow from no income, to a massive scale and online business and following. Each step along her growth journey Sarah would reach out to me in encouragement for her growth and skill set in the coaching industry. After hiring Sarah as my coach to learn a new methodology of business, I was able to create an additional income stream and create a mobile lifestyle for myself, which eventually landed me in Sedona. Without Sarah, and her encouragement and consistency in showing up for herself and her future, I may not have taken the path shifting out of ‘Dog Trainer’ to the embodiment of self development and internal betterment in my coaching and in this Sedona Wellness Center.

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

The success of our company inherently brings goodness to the world by empowering deep healing and raw transformation in our guests, while simultaneously empowering local healing practitioners to share their gift with the world.

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

Respect. We value each other as powerful people. We see each other as strong individuals who are lucky to have each other. When we see things differently, instead of making the other person wrong for their viewpoint, we genuinely listen in order to learn something new about our partner. With this new information, we agree to be better equipped for when this may arise in any future situation. We hold each other in the highest light possible, which helps us feel worthy in each other’s eyes and creates room for growth. We don’t often feel ill or negatively about the other, or actions of the other. When we do we come to one another to share the thought or feeling aloud and ask for help in processing this negative feeling. This is done in a timely manner, ideally the moment the negative feeling is occurring if appropriate. We shoot for a 24hr timeframe depending on our personal triggers that we may be working through, as to dampen any unnecessary emotional turbulence that does not guide us in the direction of resolve.
Attention. It is important for us to give undivided attention to one another when we speak. Although life moves quickly and there is often something to be distracted with, there is a different level of respect felt when we give our full attention. If one of us has something to share with the other, whether for fun or for serious reflection, we stop what we are doing and give our attention to the other’s words and needs. Without this respectful attention, there is little room to truly hear each other and feel honored. The eye contact alone in these situations allows for a deepened connection.
Encouragement. We love supporting each other in being the best versions of ourselves. When we see one another doing something or feeling a certain way that could be disempowering, we gently encourage the other to reframe their actions, mood, or perspective to enable a positive expression. Aaron loves to encourage Stephanie to take a step back and look at the bigger picture when feeling heavy emotions. Stephanie loves to encourage Aaron to get out of his own head and step further into the powerful man that he is. Loving words like “you’re doing great” and “I’m proud of you” truly go a long way when some days feel like an uphill battle. Hearing it, actually hearing it, not texting it can make a world of difference in how we feel inside.
Shared Values. We both strive every single day to increase our quality of life. We have been this way before we met. We value integrity, responsibility, a healthy lifestyle, and being in the energy of abundance. We get to band together in union with common goals which allows us to live side by side in harmony. We do this by choosing one another each and every day. We choose to be on each others team, always. And we like to say “It’s this or something better”. So, in our choosing of one another we are also choosing our individual betterment. We do not see everything the same way and do have confronting conversations about our differences. We do overall share the same values in which we lead our own lives and which we see our future unfolding.
Acceptance. No one is perfect. If we were, things might be easier. But, in the meantime, we actively practice accepting who the other person is and where they are at. By accepting these realities, we are able to navigate them confidently. We unconditionally love and accept one another. We know we may be in very different places around different subjects, depending on our past experiences and traumas. Often times when we are in different places we are able to lovingly see through the lens of the experiences of the other, and therefore lovingly accept where things are for them in the moment. We love holding compassion as nothing lasts forever and can change instantaneously. They say change is the only constant, so we pray and continue to devote ourselves to the highest good of all.

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. 🙂

We are on a mission to encourage each individual to find their own safe space inside themselves of love, nurture, acceptance, grace, and joy. When this radiates inside of someone, it can be felt by everyone around them, even when simply out grocery shopping. As more and more people develop these qualities inside of themselves, our world will naturally change from the inside out. People who have not cultivated these qualities will easily learn how to by seeing others effortlessly and gracefully express them, and by working through their own blockages and limitations. This is our dream and wish for the world.

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

“Leap and the net will appear”. Both of our lives have consisted of leaping when we felt the push to. By leaping instead of staying safe in the nest, we have created profoundly more satisfying and invigorating lives. Stephanie’s first tattoo, on her forearm says “My fearless freedom lights up the world”, which is from an inspirational card deck by Gabby Bernstein. This really brings us back to our inner knowing. We are always supported, and so when we leap towards our dreams the most magical unknown unfolds.

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 🙂

We would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Dean Graziosi, who has made a large impact on Aaron’s life and decision to serve the world graciously. It was Dean’s Mastermind course with Tony Robbins that lit up Aaron’s mind and opened his potential to give to the world wholeheartedly without holding back. Dean’s magnetism and effect on his customers and the world around him is profound and inspiring. We would love to learn about him on a personal level and hear his feedback about our mission to bring healing to the world.

How can our readers follow your work online?

You can follow our work on Instagram @SedonaHighVibes or on our website www.sedonahighvibes.com

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

Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Stephanie Lytle & Aaron Douglas of High Vibe Collective was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Karyn A Koven of Language Bird On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed…

Female Founders: Karyn A Koven of Language Bird On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

You will work harder for longer than you ever have. The sheer hours, travel, talking, meetings, thinking, and creating. Most of it I find fun but there is no secret that a lot is just getting work done. It’s work. Find some joy in about 50–80% of it, the rest is grit.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Karyn A. Koven.

Dr. Karyn A. Koven founded and directs LanguageBird. Curriculum building, best practices in college counseling, teaching and articulation with universities across the world has been her niche specialty for nearly two decades. Dr. Koven has been a high school administrator, counselor and teacher. She has visited over 100 colleges domestically and internationally and has helped thousands of students get admitted to the top universities in the world.

World language courses are required for acceptance into four-year colleges however, in her experience, she witnessed a lack of options for her own students and online courses for world language learning simply do not work as well without the conversation component and a teacher interacting spontaneously with the student. She believes firmly that learning a language requires constant interaction and speaking not just listening and repeating. LanguageBird® was born from the concept of providing live instruction from high quality teachers but with the convenience of an online classroom. The goal is for students to have high quality, personalized, standards-based, college-preparatory world language classes anywhere -even out of their own home.

Dr. Koven earned her undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA.

Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I’m a life-long learner and educator. I always wanted to work with kids and teach. I used to round up the neighborhood kids who were playing handball and riding bikes and sit them in my pretend classroom in our family living room. My parents always laughed that I somehow got kids to sit and pay attention, and even do homework, rather than play outside! I’m a caretaker and I love learning.

I attended the University of Wisconsin and majored in English and Journalism and had a few experiences in broadcast news and advertising. My heart was always in teaching and when Los Angeles schools had a teacher shortage and started a program to get credentialed as you worked, I jumped out of advertising with the opportunity to work with high school students.

I started as an English teacher at a comprehensive high school where I also taught writing and journalism. I found myself helping my students with college essays and really enjoyed assisting them with the college application process. I love to be a part of the transition period between being a teen to making decisions like where to go to college, what to major in and how to pay for it as a young adult. I decided to enter a certificate online program at UCLA in college counseling. Online learning in 2002 was not the same as it is now! I just really wanted to know how to best help my students get to college and at the time, knowing more about college admissions was key.

I met mentors who selected me for the opportunity to be part of the founding faculty of High Tech LA, a charter school in the San Fernando Valley. For over 15 years, I enjoyed working very hard as a teacher, counselor, college counselor, training and hiring teachers, writing curriculum, starting an internship program, and fundraising. I was fortunate to try it all! I learned from truly great educators and thrived with a passionate staff and a common vision for education. What I didn’t know at the time was that the work we had been doing in founding the school was entrepreneurial and a school is a business. I loved creating new programs to best serve students. I just didn’t know at the time that it could lead me into the business world.

During my time at High Tech LA, I pursued my doctorate in Educational Leadership from UCLA. I was interested in online learning and initially proposed my dissertation on the topic as it related to secondary studies. At that time, there was little research in the area and my committee urged me to change my proposal. I strongly believed that online learning would soon play a huge and influential part of secondary education. I switched my research to a college counseling focus and how to create a college-going culture for students who were first generation to colleges in the U.S. I was always drawn to online learning as a solution for the problems schools were facing in a new digital age of trying to best prepare students for the future.

One of the things I discovered was that even at a distinguished school, we were limited as to course and program offerings in particular languages. This was due to space, budget, and staff. Many of our students were taking Spanish when they already spoke that language at home. When I tried to put them on approved software to expand course offerings, I saw they were not learning the language due to lack of engagement. Learning a language is not the same without interaction and the ability to see how it can be fun and practical in the future.

I thought, “What if I could bring experienced and high-quality instructors to these students via video chat for a more personalized and immersive experience to learn language and culture?” I started outside of my school by writing a Spanish curriculum, hiring two teachers, and going through the process of approval and accreditation. I soon enrolled a few students. I think my goal was 10 students that first year. The process of accreditation is not easy. They certainly take you to task, but it is assurance of a high-quality academic program. I transitioned to working part time at my school and once I earned the highest marks for accreditation, I decided it was time to leave my school to pursue growing LanguageBird full time.

It’s hard to believe that only 7 years later, we have served over six thousand students!

They love the effective, one-to-one personalized and flexible instruction LanguageBird offers and the choice of 15 world languages. High school course offerings can’t compare to our options or individualized program. Our teachers enjoy the flexibility and relationship building with students to share their language and culture. Word of mouth spread, and we took off from there. The pandemic accelerated our growth by making online learning more accepted as a viable and even preferred way for many students to learn. LanguageBird was named a fastest growing company in America, and we continue to expand in terms of offerings and partnerships.

My motivation comes from providing a great educational solution to kids and helping to expose students to languages and cultures they otherwise wouldn’t be able to study. I also love that I can provide fantastic teachers all over the world with the opportunity to teach from anywhere and improve their practice through our professional development opportunities.

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

The people I have been meeting along the way have been the most interesting to me. I have the good fortune of working with educated, cultured, international people who speak multiple languages and many times have lived in multiple countries. LanguageBird teachers are exceptional at what they do, but they are also interesting people! LanguageBird focuses on building a relationship between the student and teacher for the most effective instruction.

The first teacher I hired is an Argentinian scientist, artist, and doctor living in Spain. She works late nights and loves to connect with our students about their similarities and differences. They talk about their dogs on the farm and her artwork. The second teacher hired was in the Venezuelan military. He didn’t have much teaching experience, but he was a natural. Over the years, his role has evolved into a mentor teacher for some and a technology leader for others. Another teacher is Italian and lived in Brussels where she learned French and married her South Korean husband. She now lives in Seoul and is a television celebrity there. She teaches our students because she loves to teach Italian and French. There are many life stories within our organization’s staff that are fascinating to me. I love to hear about people’s paths and passions.

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 reached out on LinkedIn very early on to the founder of a very large school. I thought they would be the perfect partner for LanguageBird. I thought, “I’m going straight to the top. They need us to offer better options for their students and this will really get LanguageBird going!” I look back now and think how incredibly bold I was to have not had many students or the staff to support a partnership like that and to have just reached out to the founder. She informed me she was still involved but had sold the school. We continued the conversation, and I am so grateful I met her. She has been instrumental in my confidence and success. The school partnership hasn’t happened yet, but I did make a great friend and mentor by reaching up and out. I learned that when you make connections and have something of value and high quality that helps people, people will help you. I also learned the importance of reaching out before you are ready and when opportunity comes, you will figure it out.

My parents have both been encouraging to me. My dad has experience in his career of starting his own school years ago which aligns in many ways to what I’m doing now. Also, my late mentor, Roberta Weintraub, encouraged me to apply to my doctoral program. I wasn’t sure why I should do it and she said, “You need to go because you will need it someday and now is the time do it.” She pushed me and always had confidence in my abilities and future capabilities.

In the past, I don’t think there were as many examples or stories about female founders. Very generally speaking, women may be more mission focused than money focused. Reframing thinking to be about the mission that can be accomplished with funding rather than what can be done with funding is crucial. In other words, put the mission before the money and it may be more meaningful to many women.

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?

Overcoming any obstacles depends on education, more support, funding, and opportunities for women that start earlier in their lives. I also think it’s important for women to be role models and mentors for other women. All my mentors are/were women and I’m currently a member of Women Presidents Organization (WPO). The ability to bring questions to the table when everyone sitting at the table is a woman completely changes the dynamic. Women are excellent mentors and learning from the real-world experiences and connections of others is key to anyone’s success.

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

It’s important to have women contribute to all areas of society. It goes without saying that different points of view are critical to creating all products and services. Women have a unique perspective and different experiences that they can bring to the table to make meaningful change and support society.

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

There may be the idea out there that founders are less involved. That may be the case for some or at some point, but I am deeply involved and committed to every part of my business and to every member of my team. I think about it all the time. There is always a new challenge, something to grow, and something to create and analyze. I love creatively solving problems and learning new things. I think those are key characteristics to enjoying the ride of being a founder.

I don’t think everyone should be a founder. You can be a significant and impactful leader without being a founder. Every founder needs the support of very knowledgeable and hardworking hands. One of the things I acknowledge is that I need to have a team around me of people who are much better than me at certain things. Many people want to be a part of something they believe in that is larger than themselves, where they can create and make a difference. You don’t need to be a founder to do that.

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.)

You will work harder for longer than you ever have. The sheer hours, travel, talking, meetings, thinking, and creating. Most of it I find fun but there is no secret that a lot is just getting work done. It’s work. Find some joy in about 50–80% of it, the rest is grit.
You will care more about this project than you ever thought you would. You will not carry your idea to success without a deep belief that what you are doing is meaningful and important. I’m also motivated by helping others to learn, as well as mentoring employees and teachers to be better at what they do.
You will learn more skills from this experience than you ever did in school. You hopefully learn how to think, analyze and ask good questions in school. There are just so many areas to learn and tend to in a business. You can’t master them all. Work with a great team and learn enough to know what they are doing to help you.
Find a singular focus and dig deeply there for a while. I love to brainstorm and think of all the fun things we can do but it scatters your attention at times. Most often, it’s been helpful to focus on one or two things at a time to see if they have legs. Focusing on too many things keeps you too shallow and you need to dig deep to see if something works.
Continue to read and learn from others. I think it’s clear I’m a life-long learner. I love to read and listen to podcasts. I have so much to learn from others and often they say things in ways you can adapt to what you are doing that are incredibly helpful.

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

I love what I have created with LanguageBird and what we do every day. We are helping people gain a broader world perspective and enable them to connect with each other. Our students are primarily middle and high school students and their interactions with our teachers are some of their first exposures to other languages and cultures. I’m proud LanguageBird offers languages they can’t find in their traditional schools. This enables them to explore a heritage language or an interest in a culture and people far from what they know. I think travel and interacting with people from different parts of the world expands your creativity and worldview. I hope LanguageBird students will be inspired to continue to learn languages and reach out to people who are different than themselves.

It would be a movement to be open to changing, growing, and learning at any age and throughout life. LanguageBird attracts learners of all ages and I’m incredibly motivated by adults who come wanting to rekindle studies and travels they took or wanted to take in the past. Also, there is clearly a relationship between language learning, travel, culture studies and being open-minded and aware world citizens.

I would love to have a conversation with Luis von Ahn, the founder of Duolingo. I think we are obviously like-minded, and I really respect his mission-driven company and dedication to change language learning globally and give everyone a chance to learn for free. Democratizing education is an important value to me. I would love LanguageBird to work with Duolingo in the future to provide the one thing they don’t provide, live, real-time interaction with an instructor in the language to take skills to the next level. I think our services are complimentary and our missions are aligned.

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

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

Power Women: Kelisha Mills of The Ultimate Mompreneur On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love…

Power Women: Kelisha Mills of The Ultimate Mompreneur On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love and Life As A Powerful Woman

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Patience — Success doesn’t happen overnight. I am sure we have heard the many stories about the number of years it takes to turn a profit or to truly see lasting success. Patience and strategy are important. You cannot be patient for something that you do not have a plan for. Create the plan, be patient and reap the success!

How does a successful, strong, and powerful woman navigate work, employee relationships, love, and life in a world that still feels uncomfortable with strong women? In this interview series, called “Power Women” we are talking to accomplished women leaders who share their stories and experiences navigating work, love and life as a powerful woman.

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kelisha Mills.

Kelisha Mills is a wife, mom of 4 and an entrepreneur for over 15 years. She represents a community of Caribbean Women making a global impact through their business and their lifestyle. Her message is spread through curated luxury events, retreats and experiences and the many stages upon which she speaks.

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

I grew up in a country town in south Trinidad. I am the oldest of 4 children. My childhood life was as country as it could get: animals, fruit trees, lots of land and lots of family members living in the same household. I always knew that there was something different about me. I had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. I would sell handmade hair accessories for $2 each to persons in my village. Coming to think of it now, I don’t recall what I did with my earnings. I was so young.

I also learned from a young age that I could sing. I got involved in all school and church choirs. My dream was to go to Berkeley College of Music in NY and to become a star; a dream that died because of many factors; lack of money being one of them.

I did very well in school and started my first job at age 19.

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

In 2005, after the death of my mom, I moved to Tobago with my son to be closer to my partner. I was not working and my partner was holding down two jobs at a hotel and at a school. We talked about starting a business. We both had procurement backgrounds, so it was natural to start there. We began providing stationery and general items to Government offices. An opportunity came along to buy a franchise the next year, and it was there that we started our real entrepreneurship journey. Everything happened so fast. It showed me how quickly life can change when you make strategic moves.

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

We invested everything we owned into this new business. Two years later, the recession of 2009 hit and placed us in a cash flow nightmare. The lifestyle we created became out of reach as our income was not covering our expenses. I learned that proper financial planning and forecasting is so important. Creating a business on a wish and a dream is very juvenile. Saying that your business will be successful does not get you away from the fact that you actually have to do the work and have proper structures and goals in place. The experience has forever changed the way I do business. I am a stickler for processes and having them mapped out. That way I have a lot more control of my outcomes.

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

Endurance — My entrepreneurship experience has spanned 15 years. During that time, I have had many ups and downs. In the beginning, I had many down moments. To be honest, the down times were more than 7 of those years. There were times when I thought that there was no way out, no silver lining to the endless financial and emotional struggles. However, I stuck it out. I can remember on my 35th birthday. I was in such a low place. I could not even buy an ice cream for myself. From that day I promised myself that I would never find myself in that situation ever again. By the next year, I would be in control of my financial wellbeing. It didn’t happen overnight, but I gradually changed my business and my life for the better. I believe those that know me can appreciate what I have been through, and have seen my life blossom from who I was then to who I am now.

Decisiveness — The longer you take to make decisions, the longer you take to get the solution. If I had made the decision to change my life a year or two earlier, then I would have been in a better position much sooner. Decisions will always have to be made. It takes a great leader to make quick decisions without fear of knowing how the solution would come. I was never good at making decisions. Being a female entrepreneur and a mom, I let emotions and empathy cloud my judgements at times. Decisiveness really grew on me over the years because there were some situations that were do or die. I remember when we had to close our business. I wanted to hold on to it because I had an emotional attachment to it. However, each day that we remained open cost us dearly, and we did not have the finances to sustain it. The day I let go, I felt such a relief, even though I did not know how we were going to bounce back from this having so many expenses and young children. Eventually we figured it out. We now have three successful businesses.

Integrity — I definitely was not the best at this in the beginning of my journey. I was young and new to business. I thought that writing post dated cheques and deflecting calls would buy me time to get the funds I needed to pay my bills. When our business closed, I knew within myself that I had to come clean with all of our suppliers and customers on our real situation. I had meetings with all of them and made plans on how we would repay. I followed through over the years and was able to settle almost all of the outstanding debt. I have had many conversations with those customers and suppliers that were impressed with our resilience and for doing what we promised them. Integrity goes a long way. I always think twice about any decision to make sure that my integrity will remain intact. I was a very shy and timid business owner. Now I can stand confidently and talk about any challenge followed by how it will be solved with integrity.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. The premise of this series assumes that our society still feels uncomfortable with strong women. Why do you think this is so?

I believe that society is slowly but surely becoming more comfortable with strong women. Times are constantly changing. Platforms are becoming even more social, that means that there are now more voices than ever sharing their opinions worldwide, especially since the pandemic.

I even think that the term “strong woman” has changed since 2020. Words like “soft life”, “peace” and “ease” have replaced “hustle”, “grind” and “strong woman”. Femininity is regaining its place for women, because they have seen how much “strength” is related to anxiety, stress, imposter syndrome, overwhelm and too much responsibility.

In my opinion, women are realizing that they do not have to compete with men. Being uncomfortable with strong women is seen more as a mindset that men and women have to change. A woman can be strong and feminine. In my sold out Ultimate Mompreneur Brunch, our panelist, Mrs Liz “Lady” Montano spoke about this. Being vocal as a woman entrepreneur can imply that she is aggressive and too “strong”.

Being strong can also be termed as being strong willed.

In Taming of the Shrew, men pine after Bianca for her beauty and her dowry. She is soft spoken and sweet. Katherine is just the opposite. She is forward and loud; strong willed. Men do not want Katherine. They are frightened of her. I don’t think that anyone would consider Bianca as a strong woman. Not all strong women speak loudly and with assertiveness. If you are familiar with the story, you would know that Bianca had many suitors because of her beauty. I would consider Bianca as strong because she stood her ground and insisted she would not marry until she found her true love, no matter how much her sister beat her or how much her father arranged suitors for her.

Without saying any names, can you share a story from your own experience that illustrates this idea?

Definitely! I remember going to Europe for a retreat. I was so timid and shy. Though I dressed the part and paid lots of money to be at the retreat, I looked for every opportunity to be invisible. I sat in the furthest seat. When asked a question, I would be the last to answer. During the retreat, there were some agendas that were shared that did not align with me. Since I was so shy, it would have seemed that I gave in to the agendas. I stood up for my spirituality and beliefs. I became so aware of what goes on in certain high level circles. I believe that I am strong because I have consistently spoken about my belief and faith, and have never tried to conform to trends.

What should a powerful woman do in a context where she feels that people are uneasy around her?

I believe that eye contact is a powerful tool that either intimidates people or makes them comfortable. For those who are easily intimidated, when you make direct eye contact with a powerful woman, you tend to look away. A strong woman should make the person comfortable by speaking to them in a warm tone and by referencing their name. Oftentimes, that person may feel insignificant and unworthy to be in the presence of the powerful woman. It is all about comfort and feeling seen.

What do we need to do as a society to change the unease around powerful women?

Society can accept that strong women are human. If unease comes because the strong woman speaks her mind and is loud, then society should accept that the woman is speaking her truth. I believe that unease comes from insecurity. If you are confident in yourself, then there is no need to feel intimidated or uneasy with someone else’s strength.

In my own experience, I have observed that often women have to endure ridiculous or uncomfortable situations to achieve success that men don’t have to endure. Do you have a story like this from your own experience? Can you share it with us?

I mentioned earlier that I loved to sing as a young girl. An older man approached me after hearing me sing at a concert. He told me that I had a beautiful voice and that I should come to his studio to lay my voice on a track. Being young and naive, I jumped at the opportunity. My mom was totally against it. She told me that I was being used, and that the gentleman had no business inviting a minor to his studio without an adult present. Being defiant, I decided to still go by myself. When I got there, there was not one, but two men at the studio. The men made uncomfortable gestures and alluded that I can reach far with my looks, size and voice. I felt so betrayed. I have been to music studios throughout my life. I have never seen men uncomfortable in the studio unless their track was “wack”. Females who have a timid demeanor always get raw deals and are made to feel like they have to give up their morals to get ahead in their craft. From my research, the musical greats like Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey all have stories of situations like this. That goes to show that these instances truly do happen.

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

I think that one of the biggest challenges women leaders face that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts is the limit on how much income they can make. In leadership roles, Corporate America and in business, women are always offered the lower (dare I even say the lowest) offers. According to Forbes, the number of female CEOs has been slowly increasing over the last decade, but only 6% of the CEOs of the largest 500 companies in the U.S. are women. Now, I also read, “If a female top manager has a female CEO, her compensation is roughly 16% lower than it would have been if she had a male CEO.” This is alarming. It is difficult enough that women earn less than their male counterparts, it is even more disturbing that their peers make it even more difficult. I believe this is an entirely different topic that needs exploring.

Let’s now shift our discussion to a slightly different direction. This is a question that nearly everyone with a job has to contend with. Was it difficult to fit your personal and family life into your business and career? For the benefit of our readers, can you articulate precisely what the struggle was?

It is indeed difficult to fit your personal and family life into your business and career. The struggle is lack of boundaries. When I had no boundaries, I would allow everyone into my space. I was not strong enough to tell my children that I needed space or time alone to complete critical tasks. I would allow my boss to contact me on weekends to answer questions that were on his to do list. I would check emails all hours of the night.

It was when I started having boundaries that I became calmer and had more structure around my family life and business. The Book “Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab also helped a great deal.

What was a tipping point that helped you achieve a greater balance or greater equilibrium between your work life and personal life? What did you do to reach this equilibrium?

My tipping point was when I got an eye infection from being in front of my computer for an extensive period of time without a break. I literally could not see for a few hours. I was in immense pain. I was ordered off screens for two weeks by my doctor. I knew that I needed a break, but the demands of deadlines that were imposed on me by myself and my employers was high. I wanted to complete all the tasks, but it was at the expense of my health. Besides the pandemic, this was one event that sit me right down. I had two weeks to reflect on my life and I knew that I never wanted to be in that position again. So I introduced boundaries. It was hard at first for those around me to adjust. But as long as I stuck to my position, they began to conform.

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

I see physical beauty as an accessory. It is not necessary. If you have it, I would call it a bonus. If you don’t have it, I believe there are many other traits that bring forth beauty. I would not say that I am the most attractive person in the world, however, the way I carry myself, I am told by many that it is one thing about me that they admire, and they call it beauty.

For many years I was lost and did not take care of my health and my physical appearance. I did not buy clothes. I did not wear makeup. My face always looked stressed. Since the pandemic, I felt within myself that I could do more to give others encouragement to make it through. By the way I was looking, no one would believe that I could speak to anything regarding leadership or business. I started working on being a reflection of who I wanted to become. I gradually started buying new pieces for my wardrobe. I changed my hairstyle. I bought lipstick for the first time in 12 years. I visited a dermatologist to start correcting hyperpigmentation and my uneven skin tone. As simple and as insignificant as that may sound, it made a huge difference in how I saw myself and how others viewed me.

I said earlier that physical beauty is an accessory. Even without makeup or fancy clothing, I still carry myself with a certain level of class, because you never know who you may meet when you leave your home.

How is this similar or different for men?

I believe for men it is the same. You are taken seriously when you carry yourself in a classy way. A study was done that asked participants to rate how friendly, trustworthy or strong the person in a photo appeared. The photos with a happy outlook were deemed more friendly and trustworthy. However, men with broader faces were assumed to be stronger in stature and will. So, people make assumptions based on your physical appearance.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Powerful Woman?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

The five things you need to Thrive and Succeed as a Powerful Woman are:

Boundaries — If you give people the chance, they will always try to cross the line. They will go as far as you let them. Clients have a way of trying to get the most out of their investment, so they call, email text and show up to your office whenever they feel like it. I had a client leave lots of messages after their calls went unanswered. It bordered harassment. The best thing to do is to clearly state your boundaries in your contracts and email footers. My email footer currently reads, “**I don’t read emails or accept work-related calls after 5:00pm on weekdays and on weekends. If you’re reaching out at these times, it is very likely you may not get a response. I’ll be sure to reply at my earliest opportunity the next business day.”
A Strong Network — Different doors can open because of your network. A strong network is an invaluable tool because their recommendation can cause you to be in rooms that you are not qualified to be in. I was called to be a part of an exclusive discussion because of a close colleague in my network. It pays to strengthen your network. I am always researching and reaching out to leaders to start a conversation. Who knows where your connection may lead mutually.
Confidence — As I mentioned before, I was very shy, and for no reason. I am sure that I missed out on many opportunities because I failed to shoot my shot. Not anymore! Now, I speak more confidently when in public, and I also dress the part. I believe they go hand in hand
Persistence — In life and business, there are periods of success and failure. For both periods, persistence is key. When you are in times of success, persistence has to be ever abound because you have to continue with what works. In times of failure, you have to remain focused on the goal and continue to work through whatever challenge is facing you. If I was not persistent in completing my life plan back in 2015, I would not be where I am today. I did not stop in spite of delays and setbacks. I was able to complete my Bachelors Degree after 5 years because of persistence. Many times I wanted to give up. But I kept focused on the goal. Which brings me to my next point.
Patience — Success doesn’t happen overnight. I am sure we have heard the many stories about the number of years it takes to turn a profit or to truly see lasting success. Patience and strategy are important. You cannot be patient for something that you do not have a plan for. Create the plan, be patient and reap the success!

I would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with Tabitha Brown. I believe she displays all of the five traits I listed above. I know they all were a work in progress. I would like to understand what it was like for her to go through her process of discovering her true authentic self and her secrets to thriving and succeeding as a powerful woman.

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

Power Women: Kelisha Mills of The Ultimate Mompreneur On How To Successfully Navigate Work, Love… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Women Of The C-Suite: Erica Hennes On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Pick your battles & set boundaries. You are only one person and you can only accomplish so much in a day. Don’t waste your time or energy picking battles that you don’t need to fight. Find the one or two initiatives that are truly important to you and learn to let the other things slide. You will be happier and it will help you streamline and focus on the important things. It’s important to defend your energy so you can do your best work.

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

Erica Hennes is the Chief Revenue Officer of Gradient, a startup building products that are good for the planet and great at keeping homes comfortable. A revenue-focused marketing leader with 16+ years of experience, Erica is adept at leveraging data to create and execute strategies that drive profitable growth. Over the course of her career, she has worked with DTC, B2C, and B2B brands to translate company vision and strategy into clear, executable plans.

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

As a kid, I spent hours crafting stories and acting them out with my Mapletown toys. My parent’s house had beige carpeting with a thick navy blue border around it and I created an entire town near “the river”. Once I grew a little older, I spent my time focused heavily on art, particularly drawing and painting. I would skip recess and hangout alone in the art room just working on my projects.

Why it took me decades to understand that I am an introvert is beyond me.

When I was applying for colleges, I wanted to continue pursuing something creative like architecture or interior design. My parents weren’t thrilled with me narrowing my focus so much in terms of education so they “gently” pushed me to get a business degree to keep my options open. In hindsight, they were totally right. I chose the most creative business degree I could, and doubled down on all things marketing and psychology. It all boiled down to learning how people and companies make the decisions that they make and why.

I’ve been accused of being a job hopper. It used to worry me and then one day I realized that my lack of default loyalty to one company was actually one of my biggest assets. Joining an advertising agency was a great way to learn about several verticals. I loved finding the common threads or taking something that worked in one industry and applying it to another. I learned that, with those foundational skills, I didn’t have to stick to just selling hardware, consumer packaged goods (CPG), clothing, or cars. I could go anywhere and future proof my career by mitigating the risk of only having experience in one thing.

I learned that there are no rules, only patterns and traditions.

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

Since I’ve joined Gradient, the evolution of government policies has been, by far, the most unexpected and interesting change. It’s not that I am particularly interested in politics per se, but my whole career has been driven by understanding how a system works and why systems fail. Early in my career, I craved getting to the source of who made decisions. Who had all of this power to help a company succeed or doom it to fail?

Joining Gradient as a C-level exec is the perfect example of how, even when you reach “the top,” you still don’t truly have control. Gradient is a mission-driven startup focused on rethinking HVAC by building products that are good for the planet and great at keeping homes comfortable. Working in hardware, and particularly HVAC, means that we have to pass numerous regulations to meet requirements to sell our products in the US. That includes everything from certifications from the Department of Energy to local laws.

One example is New York City’s Climate 2019 legislation, a grouping of local laws aimed at mitigating the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings. Particularly, Local Law 97 establishes emissions regulations on buildings over 25,000 sq. ft. Buildings produce pollution both directly and indirectly, representing 39% of carbon dioxide emissions according to the US Green Building Council.

Laws like Local 97 are a force multiplier to reduce carbon emissions across the US. I have been thrilled by the unexpected opportunity to work with several amazing organizations, including congress, to guide the US into a zero carbon future.

I thought I “just” joined a company to build a healthier, more comfortable world for all those who inhabit it — without compromising the environment. Now with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Defense Production Act (DPA), it turns out that we are building a critical product for Americans. It helps our supply chain resilience, enables hiring of more American workers, and drives incentives for electrification across the US.

This is only funny in hindsight, because at the time I was devastated.

I really didn’t enjoy college, though to be clear, I had fun and did all the things college kids do. It’s just that I was bored and I couldn’t wait to be totally on my own. I craved responsibility for my own life — so much that I accelerated my courses and graduated a semester early.

I moved back home for a few months after graduation to plan a move to Chicago. Through a family friend (aka privilege), I was able to become an unofficial TA for a graduate-level marketing MBA course at the University of Chicago.

I would take the Megabus to Chicago for class once a week (6+ hour drive each way). They brought in a few CEOs to have students prepare marketing strategies for real businesses. A particular CEO liked my feedback to the students and offered me a job.

Once I was in my new role, I built out my marketing strategy PowerPoint and felt deeply confident in my approach to help scale the business. I centered the strategy around shifting from traditional advertising in catalogs and tradeshows towards digital, including a website overhaul and this thing I had read about called Google AdWords.

They fired me on the spot because my ideas were not at all aligned with what they wanted to do.

It felt like I made the biggest mistake of my life. How was I going to pay the bills? I lived alone; I certainly didn’t want to ask for money from my parents.

I decided to go learn more about this Google AdWords thing because it still seemed like a really interesting approach to marketing. I joined an advertising agency to learn the ropes and then Google bought them a short time later. Turns out it was a good move.

Spoiler alert, that company went out of business a few years later. So maybe not a funny mistake, but definitely one that makes me smirk a little.

Sometimes you just need to trust your instincts even when no one else does.

I moved to San Francisco without a job, which is insane given the cost of living. I had my first in-person interview and when the hiring manager walked in the room, he didn’t even sit down before he said, “well, I just don’t know if you are going to want to work here, you will be intimidated working with people from better schools like Stanford when you only went to Xavier.” I picked up my notebook and politely said, “you are right, I don’t want to work here,” and I walked out.

After that interview, I vowed to never work someplace just for the brand or the role. I went back to my tiny network and said, who is the best person to work for? Who can I learn the most from? Everyone pointed me to one person so I reached out and it turned out that he was hiring.

Once I accepted the job, he told me that he was quitting to go work for Kerry Cooper, another of the “best people to work for.”

I knew I couldn’t jump ship just yet, and quite a few people had left to follow her, so I waited for the right moment. I ended up taking another role at a different company which gave me a director title. A few years later, I got a call from the same boss who had quit. He told me he was leaving again and asked if I was interested in interviewing for his role at Kerry’s company. At this point I don’t think she had any idea who I was or that I had been trying to find a way to work with her for years.

We went our separate ways over the years but always stayed in touch and she’s the one who recommended me for my current role.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunities she has passed my way. She’s been understanding of my struggles, and hasn’t held my mistakes or missteps against me. She sees my growth potential and has gently guided me for years.

I appreciate her generosity of time, advice, and guidance immensely.

I still don’t have any fancy schools or brands on my resume, but Kerry helped me get a seat at the table based on my work. I will continue to pave a path for people with similar backgrounds. We are all capable of great things when given the chance.

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

The most effective executive leaders are exceptional at situational awareness. Pilots call this “staying ahead of the airplane,” which essentially means the pilot’s job is to act on information before the flight’s risk profile becomes elevated. An elevated risk profile is anything from straying off course or making a poor landing, to running out of fuel or avoiding a thunderstorm. It requires that the pilot continually receives and digests new information as the flight proceeds.

It’s the same with executives. We are responsible for constantly taking in information across economic conditions, politics, evolving consumer needs and expectations, and everything in between. We need to know about what’s ahead and how it impacts our businesses. Knowing how to evolve, but also able to digest information into focused initiatives to drive and scale the business.

Executives set the course and then hire top notch people to develop the right strategies and build the best teams to hit these goals.

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

You must always be on, and always be available.

Clearly in some organizations that is the norm, but when you join an early stage company you get the opportunity to shape the work culture and prove that it doesn’t need to be that way.

No one knows you better than you do. Personally, if I was always on, I would be a terrible leader. At this point in my career, I know when I work best and I try to optimize my day to be successful. I set boundaries using things like blocking out my calendar for family time, exercise, and my most productive time which is early in the morning. I could work for 3 hours after dinner each night but it would take me twice as long as first thing in the morning. I also know that doing work right up until I go to bed is a recipe for a bad night of sleep. I end up reading an email or slack that either gets me excited to think about a new challenge or frustrated with an issue. Both are recipes for a disastrous night of sleep.

Becoming a parent has also made me a master at prioritizing what is important. What needs to be done now, and how do I need to prepare for what is up ahead. One of my core strengths is knowing what doesn’t need to be done.

2. Employees can’t handle bad news.

The secretive nature of the C-Suite and lack of transparency has got to go. Sharing the good and the bad is how you create a culture of innovation.

When it comes to delivering bad news, the sooner you loop your team in, the better off you will be.

I often think about Apollo 13, when the Command Module lost critical functionality the team down in Houston had no choice but to figure out how to use the Lunar Module to bring the astronauts safely home. The bad news forced them to look at what they had available and come up with a plan.

It is also important to remember that your team is made up of adults with real world experience. They know when something is off and that’s when a bad culture spreads like a disease. When you aren’t transparent with your team, people get worried, they get territorial because they fear layoffs, or they just stop working because they assume the leaders have no idea what they are doing. It’s harder to rebuild that trust than to just be honest and include them in the journey. It’s the best way to get experience and learn.

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

Let’s start with getting into the C-Suite in the first place. Women still make up less than 25 percent of executive-level positions, according to McKinsey’s joint report with LeanIn.Org, Women in the Workplace 2021.

One of the biggest barriers for women breaking into the C-Suite is that men are judged and hired based on their potential and women are judged based on experience.

I’ve seen this first hand during interview debriefs over the years. Unless a woman has had the exact role somewhere else there is a lot of, “let’s see how she does and then we can move her up in a year.” When men are interviewing there’s a lot more, “well he can definitely do this, let’s give him the opportunity, he’s such a strong candidate and we don’t want to lose him.”

This usually results in women doing the job for a year without the title or proper compensation.

Once we get a seat at the table, women-led startups received Just 2.3% of VC funding in 2020, according to Harvard Business Review.

Going up another level, according to the same HBR analysis, “only about 12% of decision makers at VC firms are women, and most firms still don’t have a single female partner, according to an analysis last year. Of all partners at these firms, only 2.4% are female founding partners.”

Frankly, it’s exhausting and one of the reasons I have considered starting my own fund.

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

There are two major differences.

The first is how quickly the imposter syndrome vanished. I thought that I would be second guessing myself and seeking approval of everyone until I proved myself. Then one day I realized I already had and I let everything else go. I really don’t worry about what other people are thinking about me.

The second is actually the sheer number of meetings. I assumed that I would mostly spend my time in senior leadership meetings building vision, strategy, and long term roadmap planning. Then providing my team with the proper resources to enable them to execute strategy and meet our goals.

However, I find that a lot of people schedule meetings to discuss literally everything. Perhaps, it could be a result of pandemic culture where people feel the need to over communicate. I find it rather disruptive, inefficient, and expensive.

This could be the introvert in me, but I am striving to find balance. It’s important to be an active member of the team, but it does come at a cost of productivity for me personally.

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

Yes, anyone can become an executive, but for some it does come a bit more naturally.

As a society, we are undergoing an evolution in the types of leaders who will be needed to lead us successfully. In a post pandemic world, we need leaders who can balance economic growth through innovation, job creation with increasing costs of inflation, supply chain challenges, and government incentives to move business back to the US all while creating and maintaining a work life balance in a new hybrid remote environment, while not ruining our planet. That is a tall order for the executives of the past who only focused on shareholder value.

I see leadership qualities in people who are able to make clear decisions, even when they don’t have all the information, the ability to take in new information and adjust the plan as needed, take responsibility, own mistakes, and hire the right people to help them succeed.

The type of person who should avoid becoming an executive are ironically the people most likely to aspire to become executives: egocentrics.

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

There’s no right way, only the easier way. Someone once told me that getting an MBA is like paying $200K for business friends, or something along those lines. It’s a great way to get good jobs, but it’s not the only way. I went my own way, and frankly I’m damn proud of myself for it.
Build an “FU” fund. Have a substantial safety net to fall back on. Take some portion of each paycheck and sock it away. We’ve all been in those roles that you think might kill you. You get the Sunday scaries, you can’t sleep — and in my case — you start to have panic attacks. Don’t put your whole life in the hands of a company who isn’t obligated to care about people at all. Some do, but spoiler alert, it’s not a requirement in capitalism. I have been able to walk away from jobs without having a new one lined up and my safety net is the reason.
Know your worth. Use as many tools as you can to pull data about what your compensation package should be, and if you don’t get it, go back and read #2 again. I think this is why there is such a movement around “quiet quitting” right now. When you give someone more and more responsibility, and you don’t adjust their compensation, you can literally get what you pay for. Companies need to do better.
Find your champion. Having someone in your corner internally can go either way. We’ve all had those experiences where you are aligned with the wrong person and as soon as they are gone, you are gone too. If you have someone externally who you always rely on as a reference, a sounding board or a mentor, you will be set.
Pick your battles & set boundaries. You are only one person and you can only accomplish so much in a day. Don’t waste your time or energy picking battles that you don’t need to fight. Find the one or two initiatives that are truly important to you and learn to let the other things slide. You will be happier and it will help you streamline and focus on the important things. It’s important to defend your energy so you can do your best work.

Send the elevator back down. I have encountered this underlying belief that just because you struggled to get where you are, others should have to face the same struggle, without any shortcuts. That is total BS. Our socioeconomic system is built around an immense amount of privilege, and shortcuts and nepotism are the epitome of privilege.

Let’s level the playing field. I challenge anyone who is hiring and building a team to send the elevator back down and recruit people who maybe didn’t go to an ivy-league school or work for a prestige company. Once those people are in, they will, in turn, open up avenues for people in their network. It’s a force multiplier to create job opportunities for those who need it most while diversifying the backgrounds of employees and cultures of companies.

Hands down, I would LOVE to chat with Glennon Doyle. I find her so refreshingly honest. She is exactly who I want to spend time with at this stage in my life. That is saying a lot, because I am an introvert and there are very few people that I actually derive joy out of being around.

My favorite thing about Glennon is that she has an incredible platform but doesn’t use it in the way people typically do in her situation. She doesn’t say, hey I’ve figured it all out, here’s how to be awesome just like me. She is clearly still on her journey, which is truthful and honest.

We never arrive at a place where we have it all figured out and that is totally ok! It’s supposed to be that way if you are doing things right.

I am continuously on a quest for self-improvement. I am in a constant state of curiosity about how and where I fit in the world around me. Maybe it’s because I see so much of myself in how Glennon thinks and approaches life. When I listen to her podcast, “We can do Hard Things,” I feel seen.

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

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

Modern Fashion: Kyhry Taylor of Adonis by Kyhry On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful…

Modern Fashion: Kyhry Taylor of Adonis by Kyhry On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today

An Interview With Candice Georgiadice

Have the right mindset: The first is pretty obvious but honestly in my opinion very underrated. If you’re constantly questioning yourself, thinking that you’re not smart enough to do this, or don’t have the knowledge or credentials to start a fashion brand — you need to think again. The fastest way to build a successful brand or any business for that matter is to believe that you can. You have to work hard. There is no substitute for hard work, but you need to keep your head high and your mind strong even when things feel out of your control.

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

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

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Kyhry Taylor, the Founder and CEO of Adonis by Khyry.

Kyhry studied Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Washington, and worked as a visual/interactive designer for many international brands and top design firms prior to launching Adonis By Kyhry. Kyhry’s extensive design background is what makes him capable of creating products that empower men around the world to look and feel sexy. Adonis by Kyhry underwear is one of the leading luxury underwear brands on the market that caters to the LGBTQIA+ and celebrates representation for all body types.

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

Like most other 90’s kids, I spent a large part of my childhood flipping through GQ magazines, spotting the latest trends, and dreaming of how to be in the fashion world someday.

From my early school days, I was always quite inclined towards fashion and design, especially because my mom studied Graphic Design, and at that time it wasn’t easy to do.

The moment is still clear in my head. I was about 12 years old when I watched her walk across the stage to receive her BFA in Graphic Design and this was a pivotal moment for our family because she was a first-generation graduate.

She also had a non-profit organization where she curated and produced high-school fashion runway competitions. One of the schools in the competition was mine, so I vividly remember watching the students practice and perform. Every detail — from the choreography to the music selection was intentional. The students would design their outfits and their creativity was so inspiring to see. I remember thinking “how cool would it be to do that someday”.

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

As a kid, I was always someone who looked out for other people and made sure that people close to me felt safe and comfortable (and free from bullies). That feeling transcended quite seamlessly into my adult life and it became quite clear to me that I wanted to help more men feel confident and comfortable in their skin. I realized quite early on that confidence really is the ticket to success and is the main ingredient in building strong relationships, having good interpersonal skills, and of-course succeeding professionally.

But to be real with you, I didn’t always feel that confident about my own body and I saw how that impacted my personal life. So in many ways, Adonis was born as a personal project to help me rebuild my confidence and feel good in my own body.

I wanted to feel confident, attractive, and beautiful just standing in my underwear, looking at myself in the mirror. I wanted to say to myself “damn you fine!”. That’s where the name actually comes from — Adonis means the god of beauty and attraction.

Over time I realized that most men were battling with some sort of self-confidence issue. I thought that if this worked so well for me, I’m pretty sure that I can help a few other guys too.

So, I decided to use my design knowledge and educational qualifications (I followed in my mom’s footsteps and also studied Graphic Design) to build a business that would change the lives of many men.

The idea was simple — to create products that could improve men’s self-esteem, boost their confidence, and make them feel empowered and sexy regardless of their body shape or sexual orientation.

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

I’m not sure if it’s the most interesting, but it’s definitely something that always brings a smile to my face.

Sometimes when I’m out at a bar, in the supermarket, or at the gym, customers come up to me and tell me how much they love Adonis, how amazing our products are, what their favorite styles are, and how sexy they feel when they wear them. This happens quite often and it truly is the best feeling in the world — to know you’re doing something that positively impacts someone’s life.

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

Adaptable: When the pandemic hit, we were forced to redirect our resources and pivot our advertising strategy. In-person photo shoots were no longer possible when the world was shut down and all photo studios were closed. While the initial response was to panic — because photos and their shareability is an integral part of our brand — we had to think of new ways to incorporate photography in a way that didn’t require models. This obviously meant more standard product shots, but we still needed a way to show people how our products looked IRL. So, we built a strong team of influencers and began to post UGC (user-generated content) on our website product pages and social channels. Funny enough, we realized that this was a much better strategy than hiring professional models because this made our customers feel closer to us as a brand and our products. These images provided them with a much more realistic view of how our products would look worn on real men with everyday bodies which helped us build more trust in our products.

Embracing Change: I am someone who loves to challenge myself and step out of my comfort zone. Being in a situation or circumstance that tests me excites me, and I love the feeling of learning more. I am constantly investing in myself to improve my business skills and become a better entrepreneur. In fact, I recently completed a Business Fundamentals program at Harvard Business School Online to learn analytics, economics, and accounting business concepts — all of which were quite alien to a right-brained, creative person like me.

Empathy: From a young age, I was always sensitive to other people’s feelings so this has carried on with me in running my business. I make it a point to understand all my customer’s core needs, and desires and connect with them on as many levels as possible. Thorough research is conducted before every product release — we run a minimum of 5 in-depth customer interviews every quarter, and send out regular surveys to make sure that we are consistently fulfilling our customer’s needs and wants. All the input we get from our customers — whether it’s through reviews, emails, interviews, or even just DM’s or comments on social media — drives our decisions and influences new product launches. We never just blindly produce a new style without having some indication from our customers that this is genuinely what they want.

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

I think our storytelling and reason for existence is what sets us apart, especially my story, which I feel resonates very closely with our customers. To know that — as the founder — I didn’t always feel confident or comfortable in my body makes the people who buy from us feel like they’re being heard.

What a lot of people don’t know (but most of our loyal customers do) is that we’re a black-queer founder-led business. And as a founder, it is my responsibility to make sure that our products deliver on their promise.

We are on a mission to help as many men as possible — especially black queer men — feel confident, empowered, and sexy. This mission flows through all our imagery, and some of it features me so our customers feel connected to the brand. They can relate to me and my personal story, many of them even follow my personal Instagram and always see me wearing our products. They see that I am the biggest fan of Adonis and that I don’t just wear our products to promote them, but I actually love our products and wear them all the time.

We also have so many reviews on our website. These are reviews from real men, written by themselves, straight from the heart. So when people come to our website and read these reviews they immediately know that this brand is authentic and does exactly what it says it does — help men look and feel great about themselves.

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

“Don’t talk about what you’re gonna do. Don’t just dream about what you’re gonna do. Don’t criticize somebody else for what they’re not doing. You, be it. Be about it. Be about that action and go do it. Keep your eye on your intention. Don’t let any outside distractions or your own insecurities stop you from your goals. Embrace that struggle. Surviving that struggle will strengthen you.” — Beyoncé’s speech to 2020 graduates.

I mean who doesn’t feel inspired when they listen to Queen Bey? But honestly, this life lesson/quote inspires me to keep at it and not give up. Even when the going gets tough (like it does for everyone), I have this audio saved on my phone and I just play it whenever I need a quick pick-me-up. Being an entrepreneur is exhausting, and some days you get overwhelmed and think is this really worth it? But I listen to this, think of all our customers, and get back to work because I know what I am doing is making a difference. And to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to block out the noise, get out of your way, and sometimes be your own cheerleader.

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

The continued evolution of wearable fashion excites me. I thought the Gucci x Oura collaboration which dropped this year was so cool. Because here is a fashion wearable device that not only looks good but can monitor your temperature, heart rate, and breathing patterns. And with more people trying to optimize their performance and live long healthy lives, we’re going to see a lot more of this.

Fashion in the metaverse is also something that can’t be ignored. We’re going to see a lot more fashion x metaverse collaborations that allow people to express their individuality and sense of style through digital avatars. I was especially inspired by Lacoste’s undw3 digital collection and how they’re building a community around this project. Purchasing this NFT will allow customers to be “design partners”. People with this NFT will help shape future Lacoste products.

Although larger brands are at the forefront of creating digital fashion experiences, we will also explore how we can provide innovative brand & customer experiences using technology in the digital space.

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

It all goes back to our mission. We are committed to helping men of all shapes and sizes feel better about themselves. We know that people with higher self-esteem are less likely to be depressed, more successful in their professional lives, and just are overall much happier and more at ease.

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

Before we began producing, we did strict quality checks on the two manufacturers who we’ve now worked with for over 6 years. Both of them provide traceability identification so we know the exact source and origin of the raw materials. This year, we started introducing styles made with a lightweight blend of GOTS organic cotton, bamboo, and elastane since we know that organic cotton has a significantly lower carbon footprint. But this is just the beginning. In 2023, we will release many more products made with GOTS organic cotton.

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

It really depends on the business model. We are not a fast fashion brand at all. We don’t release thousands or hundreds of “trendy replicas” at once. That is not something we’ve even been inclined to do and we never will. We release 8–12 new styles every year and that’s it. Some of our best-selling styles have been available since launching in 2015 because people love them so much.

We’re very intentional and thoughtful in creating products that will stand the test of time aesthetically, functionally, and sentimentally. Our products are designed to stick with you for years to come because we believe that your underwear should last a lifetime. We like to look at it like this — you’re making a small investment in yourself that will have you looking and feeling great for a lifetime.

We’re not driven by trends, and that’s why most of our customers who’ve been with us since our start in 2015 are still with us.

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

Have the right mindset: The first is pretty obvious but honestly in my opinion very underrated. If you’re constantly questioning yourself, thinking that you’re not smart enough to do this, or don’t have the knowledge or credentials to start a fashion brand — you need to think again. The fastest way to build a successful brand or any business for that matter is to believe that you can. You have to work hard. There is no substitute for hard work, but you need to keep your head high and your mind strong even when things feel out of your control.
Believe in your idea: There is no point in starting a brand if you don’t fully believe in it yourself. It’s important to remember that when you start a fashion brand, you’re selling a lot more than just products. It is a vehicle to communicate your thought process, your beliefs, your philosophy, and a lifestyle. This means that you have to believe in your idea and be willing to do everything it takes to make the world see how great it is. If “they” don’t believe in your idea, make “them” believe in it. You will come across naysayers. People will put their fears on you (knowingly or unknowingly) by telling you that you can’t do it. There will be stiff competition (there always is), but as long as you believe that your product is what your target customer wants and needs right now, you’ll win.
Embrace imperfection: When starting a brand, it is natural to spend hours and nights toiling away, making sure that every tiny detail is perfect. But something I learned the hard way and early on in my journey as an entrepreneur is the need to embrace imperfections, and take action even before you feel ready. Sometimes you just gotta press go and take it from there. You don’t need to have all your ducks in a row. Just start. When you think you’re somewhat close to where you want to be, take action and move on. Be willing to take risks even when they feel really scary. Put yourself out there and wait for the rewards to come pouring in. If you keep at it, you will reap the rewards.
Learn and understand the business side of fashion: While creating beautiful products is super fulfilling and seeing your vision come to life is probably a feeling only someone who’s done it will understand, being creative only gets you halfway. You have to learn the analytical, numbers side of things, to truly make those designs materialize into a successful business. Fashion is a very tough business. The competition is only getting more stiff every day so you need to have a solid understanding of business fundamentals like analytics, economics, and accounting so that you never lose sight of the fact that you are running a business. Finances matter. Having this knowledge and keeping it top of mind (without overshadowing the mission which is the heart and soul of the business), will allow you to make balanced, logical decisions that are backed by data as opposed to what just “feels” right. I believe that there should be the right mix of intuition and data to make good business decisions — and ultimately — this is how you build a brand that resonates with people and stands the test of time.
Have empathy: In my opinion, empathy is a very underrated leadership skill. As you grow, you will need to build a team that you can rely on. And that can only happen if you are empathetic to your employee’s feelings and sensitive to their desires. You must always make them feel appreciated and heard. Always remember that your team is the reason you are where you are. Loyalty only comes from constantly listening and understanding the needs of your team members and resolving conflict in an unbiased, objective, and practical way. I have a small team of just 3 employees; both have been with me for over 5 years.

Empathy towards your customers is also very important. I have been able to build and nurture strong relationships with our customers by constantly listening to them and identifying their core needs. This helps us create products that they want which in turn improves brand loyalty and retention. There’s no point wasting resources creating products that your customers don’t want.

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

While we have been seeing a lot of efforts to increase diversity and representation in the fashion industry, there’s still a lot more that needs to be done. Many fashion brands still only represent or highlight the LGBTQ+ community during pride month in June. But that is just 1 month out of the whole year — what about the other 11 months? We’ve seen a lot of rainbow washing in recent years and strangely enough, it has become a trend. This isn’t something that’s supposed to be a trend and the LGBTQ+ community should be celebrated, represented, and highlighted more than just once a year. Little has been done to hold fashion brands accountable for not genuinely supporting the LGBTQ+ community, their rights, or alliance outside of pride month.

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

My ultimate goal and responsibility as the founder of Adonis is to help people improve their self-confidence. So the movement I would start would be to kill body shaming entirely, in every aspect of life; dating, online profiles, friendships, social media, and social gatherings. The worst thing you could do is shame someone because of how they look, especially their body shape, size, or weight.

I think a lot of people don’t realize how hurtful and debilitating these remarks can be. When you judge someone or criticize their body image, the underlying subtext is that they’re not attractive.

Unfortunately, society places a lot of value on attractiveness so when someone hears things like “you’re too big” or “you’re too small”, they constantly question and doubt themselves. They’ll often internalize this as “I’m not good enough” or “no one will accept or love me for who I am”.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can also learn all the tips and tricks to launch your own e-commerce fashion business at AdonisUniversity.com where I personally teach you everything you need to know — from how to find the perfect suppliers to getting the business off the ground, and transforming your idea into a brand that can change lives.

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

Modern Fashion: Kyhry Taylor of Adonis by Kyhry On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Metta Risdal of Uni Tequila On The Five Things…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Metta Risdal of Uni Tequila On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Help each other win. When a restaurant group, hotel or bar takes on Uni Tequila we work as a team to create a win-win situation for everyone. The team knows they have my full support with new ideas for their cocktail menu and special events for example.

In the United States in 2022, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Metta Risdal.

Metta Risdal is the owner & CEO of UNI ORGANIC TEQUILA. Metta launched Uni Tequila to the marketplace in July 2021 in Florida and New York. Uni Blanco was the first product launched followed by Uni Anejo which is currently on en route from Mexico to the U.S.

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

I grew up in a small village in Norway where my mom was a landscape worker laying stone and seed for wealthy homeowners. At the young age of six, I accompanied my mom to work each day. By doing that, I learned the true value of hard work. Growing up I enjoyed bike rides with my sisters and after seeing the outcomes of my labor at such a young age when I was 14 years old, I put an ad in the local newspaper advertising trying to get a job as a house cleaner, and worked on the weekends while I was attending school.

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

I have been going to Mexico for the past 15 years and fell in love with tequila and the entire process that goes into it. Organic farming is important to me and I felt there was a gap in the market for smooth organic tequila in beautiful bottles.

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

I was beyond excited and thrilled that Uni Blanco Tequila won double gold in the prestigious Sip Awards earlier this year! Also, if I must say, having celebrities like Jamie Foxx following Uni Tequila on Instagram is pretty cool!!

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

1. Work Hard

e.g: I started the design of the bottle before the pandemic and then ran into many challenges. A large company in Mexico, who were committed to creating the cork stopper, completely backed out at the beginning of Covid. This caused a huge delay in the bottling process with more trips to Mexico to source a new supplier for the cork stopper. The same just happened with the packaging for my 6 bottle cases. The current supplier couldn’t complete the order.

2. Be impeccable with your word and accountable

My clients and customers know they can fully rely on my work ethic and my commitment to staff meetings/trainings at the restaurants and the product tastings at liquor stores. When I make a commitment, I am all in!

3. Charity/ Serve my clients & customers

My commitment to donate my product and my time to charitable causes is key! Uni Tequila has been involved in many different fundraisers for organizations supporting animal shelters to food banks, to education etc.

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

I used to run a beauty and skincare company which was primarily a female industry. Now I am clearly in a male-dominated industry and from personal experience both have many challenges and obstacles. It’s the nature of being an entrepreneur but if you have a quality product you know people will love all it takes is hard work even if it means harder work than your peers are putting in. Nothing will be easy but, it will always be worth it.

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

I am still a “one woman show” compared to larger brands. Of course, there are many men on the production side, in the agave fields of Mexico, and females working in the distillery helping the bottling process. I try not to think of gaining “acceptance”. I put my passion into my work and let my product speak for itself. We all work together so hard to produce this spectacular Tequila. I always embrace teamwork.

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

I feel by being more open to a female prospective. Maybe we as women need to be more courageous and go after what we really want. Follow your passion!

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

1. Don’t take anything personally. Master your own emotions.

Sometimes it is hard but so important to stay calm and focus on the business at hand.

2. Be relentless and take responsibility when needed.

Face the challenges and mistakes. Find the best solutions and move on when facing obstacles and difficulties. Don’t dwell too long.

3. Recognize and listen to your co-workers so they feel valued and heard.

Everyone on the team brings something unique to the table. It is important to listen and embrace their contribution.

4. Communicate clearly.

The brand identity of Uni Tequila is of utmost importance to me, so I ensure my audience understand clearly what that message is.

5. Help each other win.

When a restaurant group, hotel or bar takes on Uni Tequila we work as a team to create a win-win situation for everyone. The team knows they have my full support with new ideas for their cocktail menu and special events for example.

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

Yes, I would advise it, provided that she is equipped to enter the particular field. Meaning, has she done sufficient research into the product and the marketplace. In general, being an entrepreneur in any industry can be really tough; regardless if it is female or male dominated.

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

Yes, certainly it is moving in the right direction. There is still the need for more female CEO’s but it is encouraging to see more female founded companies receiving funding from VC’s and Angel Investing compared to just a few years ago. I believe this will just get stronger and stronger.

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx! She has been a huge inspiration particularly for female entrepreneurs. I like that she thinks outside of the box and don’t take herself too seriously.

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

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

Modern Fashion: Shahroz Ahmad On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today

An Interview With Candice Georgiadice

A purpose. Consumers can tell when there’s no purpose, meaning, or message behind a brand. There has to be something beyond the fabric. For example, when I created Ubari the purpose was to create comfortable clothing, simplify the wardrobe decision making process, and create unique versatile clothing that can be dressed up or down. Wearing Ubari means you wear your achievements. It represents being worn by the achiever, and how you define that achievement is up to you.

As a part of this series I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Shahroz Ahmad.

Shahroz Ahmad is an entrepreneur, musician, and the co-founder of Ubari. Co-Founded in 2021, Ubari is a contemporary brand with essential, versatile wardrobe pieces that empower you to effortlessly showcase your personal style. Launching with their Fall 2022 collection, the ready-to-wear label was made with the millennial and tech savvy consumer in mind. Shahroz set out to build a label that fuses his creativity and artistry between music and fashion, merging the two worlds together, and creating a line of unique contemporary designs with high quality construction that will truly last. Delivering effortless everyday wear and staple clothing to every closet, Ubari is where comfort meets cool.

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

I was raised in New Jersey as a child of Muslim immigrants. I was fond of music, basketball, comic books, video games, and art. I would always sketch, write raps, and even got heavy into graphic designing by the age of 13. I was the type of kid that was always worried about what he was wearing. If I had on a fresh pair of sneakers, my parents would have to wait until I fell asleep to take them off me.

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

I’ve always been a creative at heart. I’ve used art, music, and even the way I dressed to express my creativity and feelings. I’ve always wanted to be involved in the design process, creating something from scratch with full autonomy. After my career in music took off, I wanted to try a new medium to express myself because artists view everything with a creative lens. As a creative, I’ve infused that outlook into my professional career. I was at the intersection of business and law, but because my approach has always been unique, I’ve attracted interesting opportunities such as starting Ubari.

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

The most interesting thing so far was that we decided a week before launch to handle our own fulfillment so that we could have full control and appreciation for the process from start to finish. It was a huge decision to make at the last minute. We spent a lot of long hours making sure we figured out a system that works. We’re constantly adapting our solutions to make sure our customers get their products fast. Initially, I was driving and dropping off packages to our carriers myself. I believe to fully understand and appreciate the business you have to fully immerse yourself into understanding all aspects of it so you can make better decisions long-term.

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

Undeniable Determination. You have to have a resilience within you that allows you to bounce back from any setback and learn from it. When I started my music career I was going to school and working just to pay for studio time, marketing, videos, you name it. I spent almost every dollar I had, and people were telling me I was crazy for investing so much into my own music. I lost all my money and people were telling me to give up on my music career, but I never lost sight of my goals and kept working until I had a few breakthrough records and opportunities that changed everything for me. That’s when I realized people on the outside looking in can never see the vision or end goal, you need to have that self-belief to make it happen cemented within you.
Calculated Risk-Taking. Nothing in business comes without taking some kind of risk. There are some that really roll the dice when there’s really nothing there and others who simply take no risk. I think the key to success in business is knowing exactly when and how to roll the dice. There’s a big difference between a risk and a calculated risk. I believe Ubari is an example of a calculated risk. Being in the fashion business was definitely a dream of mine, but the industry is not a cake walk. It’s hyper competitive and not for the faint of heart. However, I jumped on this opportunity because I believed we had a strong competitive advantage given our control of the manufacturing process which most other brands don’t have.
Cultivating Talent. Seeing and fostering potential in others is a talent itself. You have to be humble enough to know what you’re not good at and recognize what others are good at, and motivate them. When I started Ubari I spoke to different designers but ultimately brought on a designer who never had the opportunity to design an entire collection before. She was limited to certain departments at her prior jobs, but I saw a unique talent in her designs and pushed her to think outside of the box and be as creative as possible with her designs. Given an opportunity and the freedom to create, she was able to create amazing designs. I genuinely enjoy seeing people reach new heights and believe that cultivating talent is what takes your business to the next level.

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

Many of our designs are unique with intricate details on the clothing that make them stand out without being too in your face. Our fits are more of a relaxed, comfortable fit but not so overly big and baggy that your clothes are getting caught under your shoes. We aim to create pieces that could be dressed down or dressed up. I believe we also have unique functional aspects to our clothing, such as hidden pockets on our dresses. As for fabrics, we use high quality cotton and polyester blends for our joggers, hoodies, sweatshirts, and t-shirts with just the right percentage blends for ultimate comfort. We also have unique cotton-linen blends on some items, and cashmere blends on some of our women’s pieces that are luxurious to the touch.

At our recent pop-up store, a former NFL star saw our collection for the first time in person and said, “You guys really got something here.” He purchased multiple products and was really curious about when our Cotton-Linen Kurta Shirt would be back in stock because he hadn’t seen a unique design like that before.

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

“If you look really closely, most overnight successes took a really long time.” — Steve Jobs. Rarely do things become successful overnight, what you’re not seeing is all the work that went into it before that point. I’ve been working on Ubari for over a year quietly, and now people are noticing it after we launched. When people see the success the brand is having, they’re usually not thinking about all the effort that went into it beforehand.

I see fast fashion declining with a growing concern for sustainability. More consumers are becoming concerned with environmental impacts such as the solid waste created by fast fashion. That’s why Ubari is focused on creating durable clothing so that we can help slow down that impact.

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

For people with busy lives, we’re helping simplify the decision making process for their daily outfit. We’re also dedicated to having clothing that doesn’t sacrifice comfort for aesthetics. Looking good and feeling good can have a significant impact on how you go about your day.

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

We produce a majority of our clothing in Pakistan, although we have manufacturing in other neighboring countries if it’s more efficient to source certain fabrics and manufacture there. We source the highest quality fabrics we can get and try to find the perfect blends that make the material soft but durable. As we expand our collection, we are focused on sourcing sustainable materials, utilizing energy efficient factories, using less water, and working with factories that pay fair wages to employees.

Ubari is unique because we are able to provide high quality fabrics at a lower price since we own our manufacturing. We control the process from start to finish so we have more flexibility than other brands. Because we can cut out the middle man, we’re able to pass those savings onto the end consumer to make high quality clothing more affordable.

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

A purpose. Consumers can tell when there’s no purpose, meaning, or message behind a brand. There has to be something beyond the fabric. For example, when I created Ubari the purpose was to create comfortable clothing, simplify the wardrobe decision making process, and create unique versatile clothing that can be dressed up or down. Wearing Ubari means you wear your achievements. It represents being worn by the achiever, and how you define that achievement is up to you.
A great team. You need a team that has diverse perspectives, personalities, skill sets, and yet they all work in cohesion towards reaching a common goal. You need to delegate tasks to those who are best equipped to handle them. At Ubari everyone’s input is accounted for but we have leaders in different departments and tasks to ensure quality decisions are made.
Consistent quality. Many brands start to decrease in quality as they scale, items pass through quality control without being up to par. One of our focuses early on was building a strong audit system to ensure that as we scale, we don’t run into that issue. We also pre-plan our growth and figure out what resources we need in order to meet those needs.
Appealing designs. What unique features or designs does your brand have? Ubari for example features clean, minimal designs that aren’t too loud or in your face. People can recognize our style without seeing our brand name written all over it. At the end of the day, if your product isn’t appealing, it won’t last long. We also do a ton of research on our color palettes for our collection, we like to have certain shades and tones that compliment all our pieces. One thing our customers have loved so far is the color options we provide.
Experiment with marketing. The market is constantly changing and public perception is always shifting, so you can’t be afraid to experiment with marketing strategies that are outside of the box. You always have to be thinking ahead and thinking differently in order to stand out. Many of the ideas you try will fail, but you will only know what works by trying a variety of strategies until you figure out what works for your brand. A strategy that works for another brand may not work for yours. Take a look at a brand like Liquid Death, which decided to go on the polar opposite side of what other water companies were doing. At Ubari, we had some unique curating for our live events including Q&As with our models trying on our clothes and letting people know what they genuinely liked about the clothing.

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

I think the intersection of fashion and technology is the future for more personalized styling. You will see more innovation in spaces like smart mirrors or using augmented reality for people to preview how an outfit would look on them. As these technologies improve and become more accessible, I think you will see more brands implementing them.

That’s a very interesting question. I don’t know exactly how, but I would like to start a movement that makes food, clothing, and shelter accessible for every human on earth. If our society is to advance technologically but we can’t figure out a way to efficiently use technology or our resources to benefit as many people as possible, then we aren’t doing enough.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

www.ubari.us

www.instagram.com/ubari.us

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

Modern Fashion: Shahroz Ahmad On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Disruptors: Robin Albin of Insurgents On The Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

… “You are who you make yourself up to be.” Who says what’s done is done. We all have the power of transformation, to invent and reinvent ourselves.

As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Robin Albin, Founder, Brand Strategist & Sherpa, INSURGENTS.

Robin is a serial brand innovator, strategist and virtual Swiss Army Knife of creativity with an insatiable curiosity about people and culture. She founded INSURGENTS with the goal of partnering with brave business leaders who want to break through barriers and bureaucratic BS to uncover new worlds of opportunity.

Over her career, Robin has helped invent or reinvent over 50 brands. Some of the original brands she has helped create and steer to success include: Origins Natural Resources, Sensegen Taste, Smell & Beauty, Sweegen Taste Solutions, Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, DrinkLavit, Voli Vodka and microMend. She has also helped many incumbent brands rediscover their “True North” in a contemporary way.

Give me a form or application to fill out and you can bet I’ll make a mess of it. Last name where first name should go. My handwriting is so large, I run out of room on the given line. And stuff like that.

I had to take the SATs 7 times before I could break 1000. Not because I wasn’t smart enough. I graduated top of my class at a prestigious Long Island high school. But because I didn’t — and still can’t — answer questions sequentially. So, at the conclusion of the test there were many gaps — which naturally impacted my score.

Tell me to fill in the blanks and I go blank. Following directions has never been my strong suit. I don’t believe that best practices = the right answer.

You see, I have always been something of a MissFit. A square peg in a round hole. A step behind. And a step ahead. And for many years I struggled trying to follow the rules and belong versus trusting my instincts and ideals.

Over the past decades, I’ve learned that being an outsider can actually be a huge creative advantage and an inspired form of leadership. It’s been my secret sauce and a key ingredient in my personal happiness, creativity and success — even when I didn’t realize it.

So, no surprise that when it came to my career, following some logical step-by-step up the corporate ladder was never going to happen. My entire career has been a series of detours and unpredictable disruptions followed by moments of incredible serendipity. Being in the right place at the right time and open to opportunities that to some seem risky. I’ve become a master of the jig and jag.

For instance, I quit a toxic agency job where I was an VP Creative Director managing a team of 12 with no idea what was next. Why be miserable? It turned out great and changed my life.

Less than 2 weeks later, I landed a sweet engagement to form a Skunk Works for Cover Girl, a former client, which morphed into my first agency BRASH (an acronym of By Robin Albin and Susan Hunter). We created a virtual model long before the idea existed. Our job was to come to Baltimore once a month with ideas. New products. New brands. Promotions. Retail store concepts. Anything. It was an amazing opportunity. When P&G bought Cover Girl, the gig was up. But we had built our agency and reputation. And when our CG clients moved on, they called us. As a result, we worked for a who’s-who of brands for many years.

I was fired from one account for being too outspoken aka BRASH. Which led to an introduction to another Skunk Works project this time at Estée Lauder where I became one of the Founders of the Origins Brand. This role led to tremendous visibility and again changed my life and my career.

After BRASH disbanded (my partner chose to retire), I accepted the “perfect job on paper” as SVP of Conceptual Innovation on the Estée Lauder brand. Essentially an in-house entrepreneur charged with creating the future expression of the mothership. I knew the players and the politics. I’d been a consultant there for over 25 years. I figured I had less than a 10% chance of succeeding. But what did I have to lose? While I didn’t succeed, I learned a ton.

I was laid off on a Friday (along with many others in a corporate house-cleaning) and launched my new agency, INSURGENTS, the following Monday. And I have never looked back.

I’m not afraid of curve balls that might back others off the plate.

Today, we live in a world where all of the fundamentals we once counted on have crumbled. Where and how we will work, how achievement is measured and rewarded, and what success really looks like, are all undergoing massive transformation. I see all this uncertainty and instability as an opportunity bold new ideas. So long as we have the courage and the skill to take hold of the jib and sail full tilt into the wind’s eye.

My greatest accomplishments, insights, and creative efforts have come as a direct result of a disruption of the status quo, of being pushed to think out of the box, because the box suddenly disappeared into thin air.

Here are a few things I learned along the way.

Don’t be afraid to take a baseball bat to the piñata. There are some wonderful surprises inside ready to shower you.
Try anything. Try everything. Try, try again. Take a swing — even if you miss, you’ll always get another at bat.
Remember, life is like a slingshot. When stuff keeps pulling you back, the thrust forward will be so much greater and more powerful.
Fitting in is overrated — Having a strong opinion makes you interesting — it creates conversation and causes people to feel something. Beige is boring and it rarely looks good on anyone

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

I’m an incurable romantic. Give me a story where a hero overcomes his or her adversary, good triumphs over evil, love conquers all and results in a happy, happy ending and I’m over the moon.

That may be the reason I’m so attracted to Challenger Brands. Brands that have a strong sense of self. Engage with passion. Are ever-true and authentic to their purpose. Challenger brands are not necessarily market leaders, they are thought leaders.

According to Henry Morgan author of Eating The Big Fish, a Challenger Brand is defined, primarily, by a mindset. It has business ambitions bigger than its conventional resources, and aims to change the status quo, to do something bold, to question existing conventions, industry norms, complacency and category codes in a way that bends in the customer’s favor. It’s more about what they are challenging — than who they are challenging.

I’m forever adopting brands and founders who are challenging the status quo in order to make a difference in the world. For example, I am an advisor to Victoria Watts whose mission is to empower the blind and visually impaired with the ability to experience and enjoy products independently and safely. She is the Founder of The CyR.U.S. system, the first — and only — modern tactile language universally designed to make products accessible to this currently ignored and underserved audience.

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 know if it counts as a mistake — but it certainly was the funniest thing I’ve ever done. I was in college and my friend’s mom was a pretty famous puppeteer. She not only taught me how to make and work these amazing hand puppets and elaborate marionettes, but she had me appear as special characters in her puppet shows. We performed all over Long Island. I was Alice In Wonderland, A Frog Princess, Santa’s Helper and Mickey Mouse. To name a few. For Mickey I wasn’t allowed to speak because his voice was trademarked. What I learned from this experience is don’t worry about looking silly or foolish. Just to get up there, assume the role and forget what anyone thinks.

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?

By the time I reached age 27, I had been blessed with three incredible mentors who shaped my life and my career.

My first mentor was Joyce, a beauty industry veteran who herself was mentored by the legendary Shirley Polykoff of Clairol “If I have one life to live let me live it as a blonde” advertising fame. Joyce took incredible joy in teaching me all about the beauty biz, how to name and position products and invent exotic new lotions and potions in the typewriter. (It was a long time ago.) During the 2 years I worked for her at Revlon, she challenged, encouraged — and often mothered me. And when I eventually needed to spread my wings, she not only cheered me on — she did something even more important — she saved me. I had been offered my first ad agency job at 2x my prior salary and responsibility. And that’s when I was stricken with a debilitating case of Imposter’s Syndrome — a condition in which someone doubts their abilities and constantly fears being exposed as a fraud. I was paralyzed — unable to breathe. “What have I gotten myself into? The world was about to find I was not a writer — I was a talentless hack.” Joyce would not stand for that. She picked up the pieces and made me go to therapy. And of course, made me take the job. Then she religiously checked in on me and championed me. Joyce paved the way for my future success as a person and professional.

At the agency, I worked for my second mentor, Mary Ellen, on Johnson & Johnson Baby Diapers. Her serene confidence set my values and standards for the future. She said speaking of herself: “I will never be a chief creative officer — I won’t play the politics — but I can get up every morning and I look in the mirror and I like who I see.” Mary Ellen is my constant North Star and I still strive to be like her in business and in life.

It wasn’t long before the Cover Girl group at the agency learned that they had a beauty writer from Revlon hidden downstairs. Which led to Mentor #3.

“I will teach you everything I know but I expect blood in return.” That was the first thing Lois said to me the day she became my new boss. I immediately thought “Yikes!” Lois was a hugely famous copywriter with a long list of impressive campaign creds and awards. And I was in awe of her talent — and her cool sophistication. She had so much to teach. I had much to learn. Instead of giving me junior caliber assignments, Lois made me sit and write alongside her in her office, from 9–5, day after day including lunch — working on the high-visibility TV and print campaigns.

Lois hand wrote in large flowing script on a yellow lined pad with a thick blue felt tip pen. I’m not sure she ever used a typewriter — or even knew how to type. This was way before computers. On rare occasions, I got to chime in with an idea or two. “Robbbbin” she would say in her deep Lauren Bacall voice “I don’t get it.” The even rarer times she allowed me to write my own copy, she would make me rewrite and rewrite and rewrite it. Each word, each sentence carefully crafted, deliberated and debated over. But in the end my ideas began to sizzle. The words were crisp and sharp. Clever and smart. Humorous and human. Lois schlepped me to every meeting she attended and always gave me equal credit for the work — which cemented my credibility with the client. After 5 years, I had learned all I could from Lois and it was time for me to move on. I became a VP Creative Director at my next agency leading a staff of 12 writers and art directors.

As it turned out, Lois and I both lived up to our parts of the bargain. Lois taught me the art of ideation, advertising and strategy. I gave her blood. But Lois never forgave me for leaving her.

I recently read this question: How can someone teach others to ride a bike who hasn’t really skinned their own knees? I am forever indebted to these 3 incredible women — each 2x plus my senior. Each among the trailblazers of their time. Mentors and role models who endured their fair share of skinned knees from misogynist bosses and stereotypes about what women could and should not do. And they paid those lessons forward to me along with a great big box of Band-aids.

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?

“Forget everything you know about cosmetics. We are not here to test the waters — but to make waves,” that’s what Leonard Lauder told our Skunk Works team as we began to explore the importance of the green movement and the role cosmetics would need to play in the 21st century. And that’s just what we did.

We didn’t just listen to the conversations at the beauty counter. We listened to the politics, culture, economics and environment of the time. Because ultimately, every decision we make is influenced by the world around us.

Based on what we heard, we sensed a seismic shift in attitudes. Our audience was feeling marginalized by the hyper-materialism and excesses of the time. Technology was encroaching on our lives and it seemed overwhelming and scary. (Think Orwell’s 1984.) The Cold War was pretty hot and there was a lot of saber rattling. (Sound familiar?)

We created a brand built on the word RESPECT. Respect for our audience’s skin. Respect for the genius of nature. Respect for the world around us (if you take from Nature, you have a responsibility to care and protect her resources).

We chose to Respect our audience’s intelligence, pocketbook and desire for self-discovery. We removed all of the barriers from the shopping experience including the highfalutin beauty lingo and preachy beauty experts. And we created a quirky, engaging tone of voice featuring Origins’ now famous naming system and wit to share information in a warm, inviting, human way.

Origins broke every rule of the beauty industry. There was not a single touch point that we didn’t consider. The brand was right on time and perfectly executed to meet the moment. Today, Origins remains the most widely copied beauty brand in the world.

Conversely, a brand can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And fail for that reason.

Some time ago, we were contracted to create a tween beauty brand to be sold in Walmart. We had previously created a teen brand named Jane that had taken the industry by storm. A brief nine months after its launch, it was scooped up by the Estée Lauder Companies as their first — and last — foray into the mass market.

So — as so-called “experts” — we set out to make lightning strike twice.

We knew that young girls were maturing faster and hitting puberty and skin problems earlier. We wanted to offer an alternative to the potentially irritating play cosmetics available at the time. We wanted to teach good grooming habits — like washing your face — in a responsible way. We knew that tech-savvy Gen Z craved community and connectivity. We knew they were philanthropic, socially and environmentally conscious.

And so, we created GeoGirl. Wholesome, age-appropriate, mistake-proof beauty products made with gentle, good-for-skin natural ingredients. No harsh chemicals. No synthetic colors or fragrances. The products popped in the package but were virtually invisible on young skin. Our planet-friendly packages were made of recyclable materials. We even wrote a theme song that was recorded by an up-and-coming tween vocalist. It was as innocent as innocent could be.

Out of the blue, the day of our launch party, a rightwing news outlet released an on-line headline: “Walmart targets EIGHT-year-olds with a new range of ‘anti-aging’ make-up.”

And with that all hell broke loose. No one could resist the flap — CNN, Good Morning America, The Wall Street Journal — even Jay Leno — all weighed in. “The sooner they start wearing makeup, the sooner they can get knocked up and come back to Walmart to buy cases of diapers and baby goods,” wrote one pundit. Another called it prosti-tot.

Like a game of telephone — word of our healthy, natural antioxidant ingredients in our flavored Blueberry Lipgloss were twisted as they were passed along — antioxidants became anti-aging. Our wholesome Balloons, Butterflies and LadyBugs became Botox.

24 hours later, the retailer decided to rethink the project. Within 2 weeks we were told GeoGirl could only “soft” launch. No advertising. No PR. No website. No music videos. No reputation repair. All of which resulted in No sales. Within 6 months, GeoGirl was scrapped as a failure. At great cost to our client.

At that time, social media was relatively new and we totally underestimated its power to ignite a firestorm. We were at the forefront of the cyber-bulling movement that is on steroids today.

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

My best words of advice actually come from campaigns I’ve written.

#1: From a Calvin Klein project: “You are who you make yourself up to be.” Who says what’s done is done. We all have the power of transformation, to invent and reinvent ourselves.

#2: From Jane Cosmetics: “There’s no such thing as a plain Jane.” We all have unique qualities. Learning to make them your secret sauce is the surest route to success and happiness.

#3: From Origins: “Never stop discovering.” Curiosity and exploration are vital to the resilience of a brand — and an individual.

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

Every time I hear about a forest fire in California or Colorado, I’m overwhelmed. And heartbroken. It’s hard to imagine anything more frightening or devastating than a wild fire devouring everything in its path. A loss of life and livelihoods. It’s the ultimate act of destruction.

That said, sometimes you need to burn the forest down to spark new growth.

There can be hidden benefits that come with what’s called counter-fires or backfires. They play a vital role in renewal. Fires can open the forest canopy to allow sunlight to reach the forest floor. Benefiting many plants that are shade intolerant. Fires clear out dead trees and litter allowing healthy regrowth. They can break down nutrients and minerals and other debris to nourish the soil. Fire brings change.

A similar principle applies to entrepreneurship and innovation. While at Insurgents, we strongly advocate for sticking to your DNA, we also recognize times when too tight a hold on the past prevents future growth. That’s when it’s time to strike a match.

Fire metaphors are prolific. Sparking change. Igniting ideas. Firing up our imaginations.

The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term creative destruction to describe how innovation creates new entities — industries, jobs, tools — and at the same time destroys those behaviors and approaches that no longer work. The theory states that long-standing arrangements and assumptions must be destroyed to free up resources and energy to be deployed for innovation. Bye-bye horse and buggy. Hello Henry Ford. Out with the old. In with the new.

I am currently working with a Righteous Rebel who is going to shake up the sleepy (pardon the pun) aromatherapy category by drawing the distinction between “olfaction” and “olfiction.” Stay tuned.

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

Everybody talks about how women are judged differently — ambition seen as aggression. Sensitivity as too emotional. But I think the two biggest challenges for women today are the “isms”. Ageism has been added to the sexism — despite the accomplishments women have made. I watch with terrific sadness as many of my friends and peers are dismissed from senior roles at an alarming rate. Too expensive. Less valuable. Or just plain over the hill. Here’s a nice package. Have a nice life. Bullshit. These women are amazing successes with gobs of experience to offer. Baby boomers, like myself, bring vital technical chops, creativity and business acumen. And we not only have the ambition and the agency — we have the bandwidth to do it. Ageism is in fact the most neglected “ism.” This mass extinction will likely ripple through every field and industry. We’re talking mega-brain drain. And a huge loss of generational capital.

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

I have been inspired by the amazing essayist and risk analyst, Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his bestselling book — Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.

He wrote: “Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder and stressors and love adventure, risk and uncertainty. Let’s call it anti-fragile…Anti-fragile is beyond resilience and robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stay the same. The anti-fragile get better.”

Taleb defines glass or fine china as “fragile”. Things that should be handled gingerly or even better left alone on a shelf in peace, quiet, order and predictability. Fragile objects do not benefit from earthquakes or toddlers. Fragile seeks tranquility. Anti-fragile thrives on volatility. Anti-fragile grows from disorder.

My life has been anti-fragile. And I’ve learned that anti-fragile can send you on a path you would never have found otherwise. Shrinks refer to this path as “Post Traumatic Growth”. PTG is positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or a traumatic event. Those who experience PTG don’t simply bounce back, they bounce higher than they ever did before. We truly can build a better future out of the ashes of the disrupted past. By standing up, standing out, sticking to what you believe in you can harness the forces of change that are bound to come.

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

If I could inspire a movement, I would encourage young women to value and cultivate their uniqueness. To not fear failure. To strive to be and thrive on being themselves. And to use their authentic originality to fuel their success.

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

Don’t be afraid to poke the bear. The messed-up things that happen in life — the shit you think is going to sink you forever — actually present moments of incredible transformation. They provide us with the greatest opportunity to leap forward and achieve things that we never thought possible.

How can our readers follow you online?

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-albin-02525b11/

On Medium: RobinAlbin

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insurgents.io/

Website: www.insurgents.io

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

Female Disruptors: Robin Albin of Insurgents On The 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.