Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Simone Devenny of Wealth Enhancement Group On The…

Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Simone Devenny of Wealth Enhancement Group On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be open-minded and curious, and learn from everyone you can. Professional life becomes fun and interesting when we use our platforms to foster our natural curiosity. The world expands and grows in proportion to the risks we take — don’t be afraid to try other ways, to consider other possibilities, and to explore pushing your own boundaries with the support of colleagues.

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 Simone Devenny.

Simone has spent over 20 years advising clients in matters related to estate planning, tax, philanthropic planning, and investing. She began her career as a tax consultant with Deloitte in New York City, eventually relocating home to Southern California where she founded a boutique law practice focused on estate planning. She then went on to hold various roles with Fidelity, BNY Mellon, Morgan Stanley and Eaton Vance, where she educated and collaborated with advisors and their ultra-high-net-worth clients, including entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and multigenerational families.

As Regional Vice President, Financial Advisor with Wealth Enhancement Group, Simone applies her strong background in implementing tailored strategies and solutions to the role. Simone currently lives in San Juan Capistrano, CA. She speaks multiple languages and enjoys building cross-cultural bridges and working across the spectrum of diverse clients. When she has time, Simone can be found traveling and taking part in the occasional treasure hunt.

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’m a first generation American. My father was a physician from Egypt, and my mother was a fabulous homemaker from Italy. My parents were always incredibly supportive of my education — as long as that involved becoming a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer

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

I went to law school intending to pursue a career in international law or diplomacy. My first summer in law school, I was connected to an internship at Merrill Lynch through a family friend. This unplanned turn of events led me to consider wealth management as a career option, though would take me many years and a winding road to eventually get there.

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

When I graduated from law school, I lacked clarity on which direction I wanted to take. I decided to move to New York and try to find a job. While I was sending out resumes (for readers who are old enough, they were printed on onion-skin), I decided to go to a temp agency to find any work I could while I waited to hear back from any potential employers. I ended up in the administrative pool at Deloitte in New York. I showed up every day, and while I made copies for the partners, I also made amazing connections. Once the partners learned that I was a law school graduate, and they offered me a role as a tax consultant at the firm once I passed the bar. While luck and serendipity certainly played a part, I think the message is that if you show up consistently and authentically, the right opportunities will find you!

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?

Curiosity, eagerness and warm-heartedness were most instrumental traits on my path.

We often hear that we should follow our curiosity, and it will lead us to our purpose. Throughout my career, I have eagerly embraced new challenges and always asked many questions. When I was just starting out, I regularly questioned colleagues and mentors on their career paths, interests, and professional pursuits. I think it’s critical to stay open-minded, inquisitive and to recognize that we can learn something new every day just by listening.

In every professional role I’ve held, I’ve always been eager to learn and do as much as possible. I find that volunteering to do more than is asked has always allowed for expansion and growth. When I was a tax consultant at Deloitte, my role consisted of consulting with large, multinational financial institutions on their tax planning. The role was intellectually challenging and interesting, but there was a point where one of the partners wanted to do a completely out-of-the-box campaign involving Beanie Babies (I realize I’m dating myself — see the onion-skin reference above). Although it did not fall squarely, or at all, within my stated job description, I spent days procuring and packaging Beanie Babies. Not only was it a fun project, but it also resulted in a promotion to a broader and newly created role that aligned with my personality.

I attribute a great deal of my success to my humanity. I am a naturally caring, empathetic and warm-hearted person. Over my 20+ year career, I can honestly say that most of the opportunities I’ve had have been a direct result of the time I have invested in genuinely caring about people. In a professional world that has historically been so goal-oriented (although this is changing!), I have always made a point of connecting deeply with colleagues and of listening to and caring about their unique challenges and life experiences. This human connection has led to the opening of many doors. In addition to listening, I have also been open to sharing my own stories and challenges. In doing so, I have always found help and support from others.

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 think my greatest challenge is concurrently my greatest asset — my authenticity and warm-heartedness. In a historically male-dominated industry, there are still many individuals who believe that such attributes are not necessary for the workplace. I have found that at times, my approach to work, which is often characterized with humor, empathy and humanity can be confused with a lack of skill. While I have deep and broad technical skills, I rarely command attention with the seriousness or gravitas that many men do. It’s a different approach, and one that has worked well for me, but I do find that I’m sometimes misunderstood by colleagues.

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 have certainly attended more golf outings and sporting events and consumed more beer than would be my natural inclination — I may have even worn a company-issue vest! I can say the same on behalf of many female co-workers. It’s actually an over-simplification on the gender side of things — I have many female friends and colleagues who love golf, sports and beer, and many male colleagues who don’t. I do remember distinctly one female colleague who hosted an event which involved a makeup lesson. It was different and fun, but also memorable because it was rare.

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

I think this should solve itself with time, and I also think that women in organizations need to be actively involved in recruiting. By this, I specifically refer to women in professional roles outside of HR roles. I think we need to do a better job as professional women of encouraging each other to grow.

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. Bring your whole self to work. Master the technical skill that’s required for your role, and then add to it your own personality, your own unique perspective and way of executing. Use your voice, and share that perspective with others. Organizations grow when differing perspectives inform culture.
  2. Find your supporters, both male and female. In an industry where males hold the majority of senior leadership roles, it’s important to connect with male supporters and to seek out their mentorship. Not every individual connects naturally with every other individual — seek out leaders whose philosophies and value systems align with yours, and let them know that you’re looking for support. Don’t be afraid to ask! The same goes for women — look for women who are navigating the organization well, and explicitly seek out advice and mentorship.
  3. Develop genuine relationships. Professional success means it can prove difficult to compartmentalize work and life. The idea of work/life balance is an imperfect one. Instead, connect genuinely with colleagues and leadership. Share personal stories and seek to understand the unique situations of those you work with everyday. Don’t ignore the reality that our colleagues are humans with lives full of joys, as well as challenges. Aim to connect across the spectrum of professional and personal worlds.
  4. Create and foster community. Collaboration results in excellence when we encourage open, healthy dialogue and debate. Build a culture of inclusiveness, where different perspectives and opinions are welcomed and valued. Encourage others to use their voices (especially the quiet ones in the room — their observations are often nuanced and invaluable).
  5. Be open-minded and curious, and learn from everyone you can. Professional life becomes fun and interesting when we use our platforms to foster our natural curiosity. The world expands and grows in proportion to the risks we take — don’t be afraid to try other ways, to consider other possibilities, and to explore pushing your own boundaries with the support of colleagues.

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?

I encourage women to enter male-dominated fields. The only way the landscape will truly change and broaden is if we continue to invite other women to join us. We can inspire change, and there is strength in numbers. The more of us there are at the table, the more our voices will be heard and considered.

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 — as more and more women enter male-dominated fields, the traditional notions of what those fields looked like change. Today, we are more supported with DEI efforts than ever before. Transformational change can take time, but we have made tremendous headway and continue to do so.

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

I would choose Richard Branson. I listened to a TED talk recently about the importance of “multipotentialite” talent. There is nothing more fascinating to me than individuals who achieve success across disparate disciplines, from music, to gaming, the seas and space. I find that people with the combination of creativity and drive change the world and are such an inspiration.

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


Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Simone Devenny of Wealth Enhancement Group On The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Vanessa Barcus Of Talisman Fine Jewelry On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and…

Female Founders: Vanessa Barcus Of Talisman Fine Jewelry On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Know your worth, and know what your non-negotiables are when dealing with other people. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a relationship or situation (in work or otherwise haha) that isn’t working for you. I’ve found that trying to stick things out in an arrangement that is draining your energy, rarely yields new or better results.

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

Vanessa Barcus is the founder, designer and goldsmith behind Talisman Fine Jewelry, a collection of sculptural, heirloom jewelry that is sustainably handmade in recycled 14k gold. Barcus began Talisman after working in the fashion industry for over 15 years, most notably as the owner of designer apparel retailer Goldyn. Taking matters into her own hands — quite literally — Barcus began designing Talisman as a means of bridging the worlds of everyday jewelry, sacred adornment, and art. Using traditional lost wax casting techniques, Barcus creates substantial, statement-making pieces that evoke an abstract, modernist sensibility with a decidedly ancient feel. The collection can be found at finer retailers nationwide.

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

I’ve always been a little obsessed with jewelry, but what really led me to start Talisman Fine Jewelry was owning a women’s boutique for 11 years. My shop Goldyn stocked independent designer labels in clothing, as well as quite a bit of fine jewelry. So much so that after a while, the jewelry became a predominant source of our revenue. So after a while it seemed like a no-brainer to start our own line of jewelry basics. The collection has evolved a lot since then though, particularly after I closed the shop and started doing metalsmithing full time in 2018.

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

A lot has happened in my life since the collection’s humble beginnings. A marriage, a cross-country move, a divorce. Two life-altering accidents. Working with my hands and making jewelry ended up being very healing for me on all fronts, which I think is pretty interesting and fortuitous, given that I had already started down this path before knowing what curve balls life would throw me. The jewelry has ended up being my saving grace, and seems to always provide just what I need.

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

The fashion, beauty and jewelry industries can involve a lot of puffed-up egos. I try not to be one of them, but apparently my own sense of self-deprecating humor isn’t appreciated by everyone. I remember, early on, that there was a retail buyer who knew me from my previous business and had been a fan of my work. She had all kinds of flattering things to say, to which I replied something to the effect of, “Oh goodness, no need to inflate my ego like that.” I never heard from her after that. Whoops.

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?

So many people have helped along the way, but one person I’d like to highlight is a man named John Vesowate, who was a pillar of the Portland, OR jewelry community, where I really got my start as a goldsmith. John owned a jewelry findings supply business called West Coast Findings, and he was always so gracious about taking time to help customers, share knowledge, and answer in-depth questions from newbies like me. In fashion and jewelry, most people guard their knowledge rather than share it, but John was a rare human who saw the benefit in helping others. John passed away unexpectedly this year, and I know he will truly be missed in that community and beyond.

I also have to thank my mom, because her support through all of my entrepreneurial ventures has been foundational.

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?

If you look at how many women start small businesses (these days women own around 40%), vs how many found *funded* businesses, I think the answer speaks to several things: First off, gaining investor capital oftentimes is an intimidating process that is much more easily navigated when one is already a member of the ‘good ol boys club.’ Many women are not educated in how to negotiate for money, let alone pitch to investors. Second, I think that more women are attracted to the idea of working for themselves, and all that that implies in terms of being able to make your own schedule, have flexibility, etc., without being beholden to the expectations of men. The expectations placed upon modern women — to be everything and do everything — is exhausting, and frankly impossible. Most larger companies, especially those who have to answer to investors or a board (oftentimes comprised of mostly men), tend to have a masculine approach to work, and lack an understanding of meeting women’s needs for childcare, eldercare, etc. Not to mention the way those organizations are run in general. I believe there is a new way emerging — one which is more balanced, non-hierarchical, and “feminine.” Perhaps then we’d see more female founders of “funded” businesses.

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

I’m no political think tank over here, but I personally think that things like paid family leave for both sexes (funded by the government) would be a great step in the right direction. Movement towards new models of leadership that incorporate both feminine and masculine ways of operating would also help attract and retain women. And simply creating more opportunities for women to feel included in conversations around finance and investor opportunities would be great as well.

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?

You have one life, and a finite number of days to spend in it. Why would you toil each day to make someone else’s dream happen when you could be living your own?

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

It’s not all expense accounts and long lunches while your managers do the grunt work… Speaking to the fashion industry in particular, because that’s my expertise, I think a lot of people have misconceptions around how glamorous things are. I went to NYFW each season for 12 years, and trust me, it was way more hard work and much more exhausting than anyone realizes. Being a founder in general means that at the end of the day, the responsibility is on you to make sure things get done correctly. No one is going to care about your business the way you do, and oftentimes that can mean some late nights.

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?

Founders and entrepreneurs must, by necessity, be people who are naturally driven, have a high work ethic, and ideally are organized and good with time management skills. Not everyone meets all of these qualifications, of course, but these things certainly help.

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. Create boundaries around working hours and your personal life, and uphold them. No one is going to respect those boundaries if you don’t.
  2. Know your worth, and know what your non-negotiables are when dealing with other people. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a relationship or situation (in work or otherwise haha) that isn’t working for you. I’ve found that trying to stick things out in an arrangement that is draining your energy, rarely yields new or better results.
  3. That said, be sure to communicate your needs upfront, clearly, and be straightforward about your expectations of others. Employees can’t read your mind.
  4. “No” is one of the most powerful one-word sentences there is. We women could benefit from using it more.
  5. Conversely, when it gives you butterflies in the best way possible, even if it feels a little scary, I’d challenge you to say “yes.”

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

While I certainly try and incorporate philanthropy into what I do as much as possible, not to mention the whole “sustainability” M.O. of my brand, I also have a view that fashion and adornment aren’t just silly, superficial things in and of themselves. They have deeper meaning. Part of what I love about what I do is helping women (and men) express their truest selves, and really feel good about who they are and how they’re communicating that to the world. When someone feels confident, radiant, and happy, I think that contributes to making the world a better place.

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

I think what I’d like to inspire in others is just to be unapologetically yourself; that each person is at their best when they’re not trying to be anyone but themselves. It’s ok to be different, it’s ok to be a little weird, and it’s ok to do things your own way. Success isn’t always just money, and the path isn’t always linear. Stop trying to fit into others’ norms of status, productivity, beauty, etc. Our differences make the world interesting, and that’s what makes you the most radiant version of yourself.

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

I’d love to meet Kelly Wearstler. She’s an icon in the interior design world, and an incredible businesswoman. I admire people who can straddle the worlds of art and entrepreneurship the way that she can.

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


Female Founders: Vanessa Barcus Of Talisman Fine Jewelry On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Try your best everyday — and have peace that you did your best. There is no point in beating yourself up for what you could have done or should have done.

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

Anita Tulsiani is the Chief Marketing Officer for Carpe Data. She brings deep industry knowledge and strong business acumen in insurance, real estate, technology, and data and analytics. Tulsiani received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business and her master’s in business administration from St. Edward’s University. Tulsiani is married and is the mother of two young girls. She is also an avid foodie and lifelong Austin evangelist.

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?

I am a first generation daughter of immigrant Indian parents who had strongly encouraged their children to maintain a high set of standards when it came to education as they believed that knowledge was power and could not be taken away. My parents wanted me to become a doctor, engineer or lawyer and IF I chose a business path instead, pursuing an accounting or finance role was “acceptable” to them. After a few classes in those disciplines, I knew it was not my passion and I quickly changed my major to marketing without telling my parents, and never looked back.

I spent the first half of my career in high-tech sales and marketing at Dell and AMD. In 2013, I took a leap and shifted industries to join CoreLogic, a real estate technology and analytics firm. I was excited about tackling a new challenge in the company’s strategic business unit, where it had plans to diversify from mortgage data and analytics to insurance data and analytics. Little did I know that that shift would turn into a lifelong love and curiosity for the insurance business.

It’s incredibly fitting that I wound up working in the real estate industry, because my father had a passion for real estate and all things property as I was growing up. This is what catapulted my career in real estate and insurance.

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

My very first day at Carpe Data was the first day of Carpe Data’s customer event, Data In Paradise. Without skipping a beat, I met my fellow colleagues, customers and industry veterans and instead of feeling new for weeks, I felt like an established part of the team by the end of the first day. That is incredibly rare and I am grateful to have had this kind of jump start on my time at Carpe.

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?

Ok this one is ridiculous. When I was in sales, a very dear friend of mine and I had lunch almost everyday. Mostly he would drive because he loved driving in his very large all encompassing truck, and I did not want to drive because leaving meant that I would have to give up my very precious parking spot. One day while running late to a meeting, I jumped out of the aforementioned very large and tall truck, started to sprint to my meeting and tripped (or maybe even toppled) over a fire hydrant which I had not seen due to how tall this truck was. The node on the fire hydrant made an immediate imprint and bruise. To make matters worse, it was in front of a large series of office windows which was extremely embarrassing as I felt like everyone in the entire building saw. I sprinted to my meeting but carried that embarrassment with me. It was truly the silliest fall of all time.

I still think of it to this day, and the lesson it taught me is that no one is really watching all of your misfortune. We often experience embarrassment (or nervousness, anxiety, etc.), but we are all human and have silly and strange things happen to us all the time.

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 have been fortunate enough to have had some great mentors, teachers and made some amazing friends throughout my professional career. I would say both of my parents shape where I am today.

I would attribute my success to my parents who made so many strides and sacrifices for my academic achievements and success. My parents met in Austin, Texas after immigrating to the bustling central Texas city from India for education in the early 70s. As a first-generation daughter to Indian parents, I was exposed to a strong work ethic by watching both of my parents work tirelessly to achieve the “American Dream.” It was my dad (who passed away when I was 24) who taught me my drive, my love for real estate, resilience, and how to have fun. He was always carrying a smile on his face no matter when things were good or bad. It is these experiences that shape who I am today. I have a drive and a quest for knowledge and a passion for the why and the details. This has given me the great professional fortune to do what I love. And for the cherry on top I get to market technology, business and property and maintain a curiosity for the ever-changing insurance landscape.

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

At a certain point in your career your network of business relationships and friends grow immensely, especially if you have had a long tenure in a specific industry as I have. There are many stories along the way where I have been placed at the cross-roads of interesting predicaments and have been walking a tightrope.

One example is the case of the controversial hires. Years ago, there were two employees who had been hired into my company and placed on my team–one having been hired without going through the same stringent processes as the other. I was not sure I wanted to hire the employees because I knew it would likely upset the existing team dynamics and be seen as preferential treatment. But these new hires were seen as critical hires to the business, and I had to make the best decision for the business even though that meant upsetting the team dynamics. I won’t try to pretend that it was not difficult, scary and awkward on many levels. On top of this, one of the employees ended up causing a lot of organizational conflict and later on I had to have (many) difficult conversations with this person. I was worried that the information would go all the way back up to the CEO but still had to persevere for the overall team dynamics and health of the business.

At the end of the day, as a leader, you have to focus on doing your best, and reminding yourself that you were hired for a reason. Do the best that you can, and take decisions that you can stand behind. A former leader from my Dell days Thurmand Woodward asked us all to operate in a manner consistent with our core values, and as we grow our business, to operate as if your actions could be seen on a highway billboard. Only then will you know how to operate in a way that leads to doing the right thing.

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?

CMOs do the following: Be the leading evangelist for the company mission and create additive value to internal and external audiences.

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

Myth #1: You cannot have it all.

I am blessed with an amazing career, beautiful family and a loving and supportive husband. Finding a foundation of support including friends, family and a company like Carpe Data that provides and supports the total human is possible. I don’t think of it as an ability or an inability to “have it all.” You have to work to adapt each day, week and month and calibrate to the total output versus a play by play.

Myth #2: Burnout is not a real issue.

No matter where you are in your career, given the state of the world, it is no wonder that many are struggling. I still look back at 2020, and am not sure how I survived managing a career, homeschooling and trying to maintain some level of sanity. I believe burnout is real. It’s okay to say it and it’s okay to ask for help managing it.

Myth 3: You have it all figured out.

As a functional leader, I have been brought in for my experience but it does not mean it’s all figured out. Marketing is a blend of art and science but then taking those experiences and navigating within the business, externally with customers, as well as other major stakeholders to formulate an opinion and a series of programs that are put to the test. Some tests will fail and as marketers, we will need to learn from that and dial up things that are working well, and kill the darlings that are not. As a marketing leader, “figuring it all out” doesn’t mean getting caught up in shiny vanity metrics that just show upward trends. You need to really hone in on key KPIs that tie to the business’ overall health.

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

Some of the biggest challenges women face in the workplace, is underestimating the need to secure sponsorship, advocacy, followership and friendship. Men have had a long runway of being able to navigate a room of a similar kind for decades where maybe those terms were part of the culture, utilized, or just a given. For women, we face an added challenge of learning to not just be good at what we do….but to be good at how we do it. Some women can hold themselves to a set of standards and also measure themselves on how they make others feel. Because women like me care about the how, we often work to surround ourselves with a sounding board and that is why it’s important to strive for:

Sponsorship: Staying close to those who have helped you along the way and believed in you.

Advocacy: We must also take time to lift our heads up in order to help others be lifted. Make sure we take time to really appreciate those that support those in leadership roles. It is impossible to succeed without the help of others.

Followership: Create an organization where people desire to follow you. Rally people and inspire teams to align to the department and business mission.

Friendship: Finding someone in the organization who can be your sounding board, someone you can trust and has your back. Bonus if that can be a two-way street.

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

Coming into the job I knew I could make a difference using my key strengths, building a great foundation (technology, team, and transformation of our narrative). I expected my biggest concern would be to move quickly to shape my team–the first marketing leadership role for this company. However, the key difference is that instead of moving just quickly, I have the time to collaborate with our leadership, our customers and our employees to create a more thoughtful view of our value to the marketplace, which is giving me the space I need to build a successful department and message that will create real results.

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?

Getting to be an executive is an interesting path to navigate. On one hand you must excel at the function in which you have chosen. You must have a track record of producing and seeing results. On the other hand there is a bit of grit, savvy and grace that one must balance as you are ultimately responsible for key results. That means making tough business decisions that might not benefit everyone but with grace and humanity that helps even the skeptics align.

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

It is not just how smart you are and how many A’s you get in school. One could say I had some diversity on my report card, but it was because I was busy honing my social and emotional learning!

Hire for diversity of thought — embrace diversity and how it is exponential — for yourself, for your team, for the company.

Never take your health for granted, NO MATTER WHAT and no excuses. At CoreLogic, our CEO died unexpectedly because of a health condition. I have also battled my own health challenges and now try hard every day to put my health first by starting the day off with fitness.

Work out 5 days a week, not for vanity but for total wellness. Getting to the top is stressful and full of sacrifices. Fitness provides so many benefits — time to think, endorphins, and longevity.

Try your best everyday — and have peace that you did your best. There is no point in beating yourself up for what you could have done or should have done.

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.

If I could inspire a corporate movement it would be for all businesses across the country to send employees on one universal day per quarter to ideate, innovate, think or give back on behalf of the business–collectively. Covid gave many the opportunity to work from home but for many that meant the creativity created by collaborating with others in person was lost. If we had a day to be together as a country–to unite those of similar professions across company and geographical lines, I think it would reduce the anger, hate and stress in the world. At the same time I do believe it would inspire creativity and ultimately drive indirect revenue for businesses. I got inspired by the American Express campaign, “Small Business Saturday,” which was a campaign to bring awareness to small businesses and is now a national holiday.

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.

For those that know me, they know I love pop-culture, and one of my favorite pop-culture interests is Mindy Kaling. I am an absolute fan of the famed TV show The Office, as it offered an opportunity to truly laugh out loud at all of the office dynamics that we often encounter in real life. But it was not until Mindy Kaling created the Netflix series Never Have I Ever, about an Indian American high school student, dealing with the death of her father and loosely based on Kaling’s own life growing up in Boston, that I really gravitated to Mindy Kaling. I often share with my friends that this story is a 100% carbon copy of my own life growing up in America. I love that Mindy Kaling has shined the light for South Asian representation in Hollywood and has been praised for breaking Asian stereotypes. One that she continues to infuse across all facets of life.

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


Women Of The C-Suite: Anita Tulsiani 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.

Deborah Fryer of Anatomy of Money On How To Develop Mindfulness During Stressful Or Uncertain Times

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Don’t allow other people’s agendas, dramas, traumas, commotions, and emotions to seed your day. Seize your day and own it by cultivating daily habits that create safety and security from the inside out for you. Be the lighthouse, not the storm.

As a part of my series about “How To Develop Mindfulness And Serenity During Stressful Or Uncertain Times”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Deborah Fryer.

Deborah Fryer PhD is a writer, speaker, spiritual business coach and creator of the Anatomy of Money system for holistic wealth and well-being, which helps people release subconscious mental, emotional and financial blocks so they can create sustainable, soul-aligned businesses with ease, speed and confidence (while having more fun, ease and joy in the creative process).

Deborah holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Princeton, is an award-winning filmmaker, and has been practicing and teaching yoga, meditation and mindfulness for over 30 years.

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

When I was a little girl, I was terribly afraid of flying. Every time I was on a plane, I threw up. Even the thought of flying made me sick. My parents were divorced and lived 800 miles apart, which meant I flew back and forth and used a lot of barf bags through my teenage years.

Fast forward to age 30, and I got a job as a documentary filmmaker that required me to travel all over the world. This was a dream job, and I knew I had to find a way to interrupt my conditioned response to flying. I started meditating morning and night with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Meditation Practice cassette tapes.

Meditation and mindfulness changed my life. It created freedom for me. Eventually, I started teaching it to others.

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

Daily meditation and mindfulness practice has helped me cultivate nonreactivity, equanimity, and patience. These are wonderful everyday tools to have in your pocket. You never know when you’ll need them. One time in Turkey, we were shooting a documentary — on film — for NOVA. Each film reel has about 11 minutes and we want to get the whole take on one reel. On this particular day, it was my job to walk up the dirt road to the top of the hill and stop any traffic (because the sound of a car passing on a dirt road would ruin our scene).

I took my position at the top of the hill. Our fixer (a Turkish man who was helping us with the logistics of filming in Turkey) was at the bottom of the hill. Between the two of us, we would stop all traffic for 11 minutes. We called to the crew “All clear!” and we heard the clapper clack. The director shouted “Action!” and the camera started rolling.

About five minutes in, I heard a car.. I heard it before I saw it. It was coughing up a cloud of dust, and it was coming fast. I stood in the middle of the road, and waved my arms for the car to stop. The driver jammed on his brakes and skidded to a stop inches from where I was standing. A man got out of the car and started yelling — in Turkish. I didn’t understand Turkish. He didn’t understand English. He yelled more, getting louder and louder. I picked up the walky-talky, radioed our fixer at the bottom of the hill, and asked him to translate. The fixer explained to the man that we were filming and he needed to wait. The man went back to his car, got in the driver seat, and slammed the door. I was still standing in front of his car, so he couldn’t pass.

I thought everything was fine, but then the man got out of the car again. This time, he pointed a gun at me. I calmly picked up the walky-talky again and said to the fixer, “He has a gun. Can you come up here and talk to him?” I looked down the hill and saw that the cameraman had stopped rolling and was changing the film reel. 11 minutes had passed. I folded my hands in a namaste prayer position, bowed my head and waved the driver on.

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

If you have a physical location where you work, create a physical meditation space where people can go throughout the day for a reset. Plants, fountains, and other calming art can also help to create a culture of calm. If you work remotely, encourage your team members to meditate. Build in meditation retreats as part of your work culture.

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

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. This is a book about writing, but it’s also relevant to the stories we write in our minds. Our minds are story-making machines, and we can all easily become overwhelmed when the story-writing gets out of control. Anne describes a scene where her brother is supposed to write an essay about birds, and he’s overwhelmed because he hasn’t started writing yet. It’s due tomorrow and there are so many birds. Their father gives this brilliant advice, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

It’s so simple. One thing at a time. The power of now. This bird. And now this bird. And now this bird.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. From your experience or research, how would you define and describe the state of being mindful?

To me, being mindful means being aware. Nonjudgmental. Nonreactive. Curious. Open. Available. Present. What thoughts are present? What feelings are present? What does this remind me of? I wonder what else is going on? What do I need right now? Can I hold loving awareness when I am triggered and be curious about the sensations arising inside me without identifying with them? Or making them be wrong or bad (or right or good)? Can I be present with discomfort without needing anything to be different?

Being mindful allows you to stay present and curious without being overwhelmed. I wonder why I think that? I wonder. It’s a practice. We forget so we can remember.

This might be intuitive to you, but it will be instructive to spell this out. Can you share with our readers a few of the physical, mental, and emotional benefits of becoming mindful?

Being mindful allows you to feel a sensation without judgment, guilt, apology, defensiveness, or shame. You can feel the feeling and know that you are okay. What you resist persists. So the harder you push away feelings you don’t want to feel — because they’re uncomfortable, or unfamiliar, or you’re ashamed we feel that way — the more you feel the feeling, which just makes it worse. You end up being in battle with a part of yourself and wishing that part would go away. If you exclude any part of yourself — feelings included — you will never feel whole. You’ll always feel like something is missing — what’s missing is your willingness to feel the feeling. The feeling is just energy moving through you. Let it move through you the way a breeze moves through a screen door. Some breezes are soft and gentle, some are strong, gusty, and icy. Let them blow through you without blowing your house down.

When you feel the thing you’re afraid to feel, you realize that the feeling is not going to kill you. You realize that you are more than the feeling. You have the experience of the feeling, but you are not the feeling. The feeling is temporary. All feelings are temporary.

It’s a relief to know this. It’s a relief to know that feelings are normal and natural, and they are just energy. We all love to make up stories about our feelings and how people make us feel, but the reality is that your feelings are yours. No one but you can make you feel anything.

When you can be loving and present with whatever judgments (knee jerk reactions and feelings arise because of your conditioning) you are able to insert a pause between the thought and the reaction to the thought. This is where your power lies. This is where you will discover your freedom.

Viktor Frankl writes, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. The past 5 years have been filled with upheaval and political uncertainty. Many people have become anxious from the dramatic jolts of the news cycle. From your experience or research, what are five steps that each of us can take to develop mindfulness during such uncertain times? Can you please share a story or example for each.

  1. Limit the amount of news, social media and other external inputs you consume. Turn off all notifications. If you want to stay informed, definitely do not consume news first thing in the morning. Start your day instead with meditation, exercise, journaling, pranayama (breathwork) and gratitudes. Fill your tank with what inspires you, grounds you, supports you, and nourishes you first thing in the morning so you train your brain to seek and find more of that throughout the day.
  2. Don’t allow other people’s agendas, dramas, traumas, commotions, and emotions to seed your day. Seize your day and own it by cultivating daily habits that create safety and security from the inside out for you. Be the lighthouse, not the storm.
  3. Don’t buy into the fear narrative. Be deliberate about this. Don’t be a passive consumer of information that scares you. Much of the time, the worst case scenario hasn’t happened yet. Don’t buy into a future that has not happened yet. If it has not happened yet, you have agency. You can do something about it.
  4. Create the kind of future you want to live into. Mindfulness helps you become aware of how you feel moment to moment. If watching the news makes you feel a certain way, then the news is controlling you. The news is responsible — not you — for how you feel. You now feel out of control because you’re not in control of how you feel — and you probably don’t like being controlled, but you just let the news (or Facebook, or Insta, etc.) control you. Mindfulness helps interrupt this downward spiral of lack of control, loss of control, being controlled, and wasting time.

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

  1. Focus on the breath. Bring all your attention to the breath. Notice the sound, the texture, the sensation, the rhythm. Inhale…count 1 on the inhale. Exhale… count 1 on the exhale. Inhale…count 2 on the inhale. Exhale…count 2 on the exhale.
  2. When the mind wanders, which it will because this is the nature of mind, recognize that you’re thinking. Your mind has wandered off the trail into the poison ivy of thinking. The mind loves to obsess, analyze, ruminate, judge, take things personally, be right, make others be wrong, compartmentalize, find fault, catastrophize, rationalize, and blame. The mind has 1001 creative ways to avoid feeling, so step 1 is to notice that you’re thinking (and likely overthinking). Simply label it Thinking.
  3. Return to the breath. Begin counting from 1 again. Inhale…count 1 on the inhale. Exhale…count 1 on the exhale. Inhale…count 2 on the inhale. Exhale…count 2 on the exhale.
  4. When the mind wanders again, become aware of WHAT you’re thinking. What’s the quality of the thoughts? Are they kind? Judgmental? Scary? Self-righteous? Are you caught in a victim loop where you’re powerless? Notice the pattern without needing to change it or make it wrong. Are you aware of any sensation that accompanies the thoughts? Thoughts create feelings and sensations in the body. Become aware of the felt sensation a thought creates in your body. Where is it? What does it feel like?
  5. Come back to the breath and begin counting from 1 again. When your mind wanders back to the thoughts and the feelings, ask: what do you need right now? Your thoughts and feelings want to be acknowledged. They’re messengers, wanting to get your attention, so pay attention to them. Have a conversation with them. Be unconditionally loving to every thought and sensation as it arises and see what’s underneath it. There’s always a deeper longing hiding beneath it, wanting your attention. The more you watch your thoughts, the more you realize that you are not your thoughts. You have thoughts, you entertain them like guests at a dinner party, but eventually, they all leave.

What are the best resources you would suggest for someone to learn how to be more mindful and serene in their everyday life?

There are many great apps that can help you create a daily habit of mindfulness: Calm App. FitMind , GrowthDay, MindValley and NeuroGym are my current faves. I meditate every day with one or more of these apps. I also love soundscapes, like rain, or the sound of a river. Listening to Nature sounds is a great way to train your mind to vibrate in the relaxed alpha frequency of Nature.

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

You make your habits and then your habits make you. I don’t know who said this, but it’s true. Everything you do is a habit. Your thoughts are habitual, your reactions to your thoughts are habitual, your preferences, likes, dislikes, all habitual. Scientists say that about 80% of our thoughts are negative and repetitive, meaning we think the same thing today as we thought yesterday, and tomorrow we’ll be thinking 80% of the same thoughts we had today. If you want your tomorrow to look different from your today, start deliberately exploring your thoughts and choosing which ones you keep around.

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

I’d love to see meditation and mindfulness taught and practiced in schools, starting K-12. My wish is that every child grows up learning that it’s safe to feel their feelings.

I believe that living in internal duality from overthinking, compartmentalizing, comparing, labeling, etc. is creating more and more isolation and alienation from self and others on the planet. Our inner world creates our outer reality. If young children can learn that meditation is as valuable a life skill as reading, writing, and math, I believe we would live in a more peaceful, kind, and compassionate world. We’d experience less stress and anxiety, and more connection, compassion, and creativity.

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

Follow me on

https://www.facebook.com/deborahfryer/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/anatomyofmoneyacademy

Connect with me here
WEBSITE: https://deborahfryer.com/

Join the Anatomy of Money™ Academy online community

ANATOMY OF MONEY™ ACADEMY Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/anatomyofmoneyacademy

Download the FREE E-BOOK
TURN ON YOUR TAP: YOUR GUIDE TO EFFORTLESS FLOW AND ABUNDANCE

https://deborahfryer.mykajabi.com/turn-on-your-tap

Listen to the ANATOMY OF MONEY™ PODCAST
Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4Jf7zDNyKnhNxcsojBe3Ks

Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anatomy-of-money/id1659694831

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


Deborah Fryer of Anatomy of Money On How To Develop Mindfulness During Stressful Or Uncertain Times 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: Laura Casselman of JVZoo On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior…

Women Of The C-Suite: Laura Casselman of JVZoo On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It’s consuming — it’s hard and oftentimes impossible to switch off thinking about the business, the direction of the company, the future of the industry, worrying about what you may have missed. Those thoughts will consume you at all hours of the day and night and you have to find a way to switch it off. Running is how I switch off as a few miles in, the only things I can focus on are my pace and breathing.

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

With an ambition to dance on Broadway fulfilled, Laura Casselman beat the “Old Boy’s Club” at their own game, advancing into the boardrooms of The Big Apple. As the CEO of JVZoo.com, co-founder of VidaStreet and with a quadruple listing on Inc. 5000’s list of America’s Fastest Growing Companies — Laura has become a champion for equal rights and opportunity. When her new book, Trust Your Increments hits the bookshelves on March 7th 2023, she aims to show the next generation of business leaders how to get what they want, without losing their soul.

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?

My story isn’t your typical climb up the corporate ladder. My background is performing arts and I was a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. I knew that my path wasn’t the normal performer route of maybe retiring from dance performance and opening a dance studio. Selling Girl Scout cookies as a young girl had shown me that I had a knack for selling. In New York City, I built both my resumes at the same time — my performance resume and my corporate resume. I started at the very bottom with both and worked my plan to both become a Radio City Rockette and a business maven. I danced at theme parks and sold gym memberships, learning from every experience. However, when I finally decided it was time to hang up my dance shoes, I stepped into my first executive role as a VP of Operations. By that point in time, I was good at identifying cost effective ways to grow income while reducing expenses. I first joined JVZoo as a contractor, then later became their COO. I took over the role as CEO in 2016. In 2020, I also co-founded my media company, Vidastreet.

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

There are countless stories I could share, however the most interesting to me would be meeting JVZoo’s users. One in particular stands out, as he was not only someone I enjoyed interacting with, but also someone who blew me away with his knowledge and work ethic. That person is Simon Harries and he’s my partner at Vidastreet (and the talent behind the company.) Simon and I share the belief that the team that makes your business run is the heart of the company and should be treated as such. Our team at Vidastreet, much like JVZoo’s, is based around the world and we’re off to Serbia in January to have face-to-face time with our team there. Technology like Zoom and Slack make daily work with remote teams easier, however there’s nothing like shaking someone’s hand, looking them in the eyes and saying ‘thank you’ for all you do.

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

I’ve said this before, but as an executive, our mistakes are not usually funny as they come with high impact and affect a lot of people. We all make mistakes though — so own them, apologize quickly and begin rectifying the mistake.

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 wouldn’t say there is one particular person, but rather many people that have helped me along the way. Past managers or bosses — both the good ones and the bad ones have shown me what to or what not to do as a leader.

In both sales and executive roles, Mary Laudati taught me the most about believing in your product, personal energy, and authenticity. She’s so good at what she does that I asked her to share some of her knowledge in the bonus material of my book, Trust Your Increments.

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

You’re correct. OFTEN, leaders find themselves making hard choices and it’s incredibly hard when the choices both seem to be good paths for the company. Even as a CEO, we still have bosses to report to, so when decisions are particularly difficult, we must make the decision that is most in alignment with the board’s wishes or vision for the company. That’s when the decision feels the hardest for me, when I know what I would choose for the company and I also know that it isn’t what the board wants. Ultimately, the decision is easy to make in that scenario as I serve at the pleasure of the board, however there are certainly times it doesn’t feel easy. At the end of the day, leaders need to know the end goal and then decide which path is most likely to lead there with the least amount of damage and expense to the company.

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?

Executives shouldn’t just motivate and inspire their teams, pulling out the best in each like leaders should, they also need to be focused on the direction or future of the company. Executives should be less hands on with individual team players and employees, and provide more of the big picture to departments or teams. As executives we find ourselves more hands on with spreadsheets and numbers, keeping a finger on market pulse, and making informed predictions or forecasting the industries future.

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

I feel when most people think of a CEO, they instantly think of the role in a well-established, large company with funds flowing and they glamorize the position. I know I’ve done that in the past. However, according to the Small Business Association, 99.9% of all US businesses are small businesses and before reaching the small business label, a company will begin as a startup. The US currently has over 70,000 startups with a 9 out of 10 failure rate.

When I first became the CEO of JVZoo, we were still a startup. We’ve now successfully entered the small business phase, however my role as CEO has been far from glamorous. We’ve experienced every type of growing pain possible, from staffing shortages and overages, to payment processing issues, navigating new laws and regulations, and even litigation. It’s taken a little luck, a lot of hard work, long hours, grit, and the ability to quickly adapt to a rapidly changing market. The reality is, the role of CEO for a startup is stressful and exhausting.

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

Statistics show that women in executive positions are held to higher standards than male executives. This leaves more room for failure in the eyes of others than a male executive would be scrutinized for. Women in executive positions are also likely to be paid less than males (even if the male has less experience and performed poorly in the same role/same company as the female.) Women who are confident, competent and strong leaders are often seen as not likable or bitchy.

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

The naive, pre-executive version of Laura Casselman, thought I’d have more free time and be able to leave work or turn it off earlier in the day. I’ve laughed at myself about that for years now. I work harder and longer hours than ever before. Again, being an executive is not glamorous!

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?

If you’re the type of person that likes to stop thinking about work the moment you walk out the office door or 5pm hits, being an executive is definitely not for you. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that approach to work, it simply doesn’t work for an executive. Specific traits that increase the likelihood to become a successful executive would be adaptability, tenacity, curiosity, and courage. As an executive, you’ll need to be inquisitive, seeking industry/consumer problems and of course, creating solutions for those. You’ll want to plan ahead for the direction of the company, but you’ll need to be able to adapt your plan as things change or more information is uncovered. Sometimes you’ll have to adapt your plan simply due to new regulations. You’ll also need determination, persistence and grit to keep going after you’ve encountered roadblocks. I certainly wouldn’t recommend an executive role to someone who dislikes change, as you’ll be the one leading the changes at your company.

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

  1. It’s consuming — it’s hard and oftentimes impossible to switch off thinking about the business, the direction of the company, the future of the industry, worrying about what you may have missed. Those thoughts will consume you at all hours of the day and night and you have to find a way to switch it off. Running is how I switch off as a few miles in, the only things I can focus on are my pace and breathing.
  2. It’s scary — being responsible for the health of a company, knowing how many people (both customers and employees) rely on the success of the company, and knowing if I make a mistake it could negatively impact them all, is scary.
  3. You’ll feel responsible for more than just the company. I never realized how much I would care about an industry. I find that many of the decisions I make aren’t only to protect our company, but also our industry. I wish more “leaders” in my industry felt the same and weren’t out for a quick money grab, but rather working to protect the industry to ensure it was protected and would be around for decades to come.
  4. As a female, even in an executive position, people will still assume you work for customer support and in the end, you do because every person in a company should be focused on customer support.
  5. You’ll work longer and harder hours than ever before. A CEO serves as the pleasure of the board, but also needs to ensure the customers are happy and keep coming back. On top of that, while one might initially think that the employees work for the CEO, the reality is the CEO should work for their team. It’s a lot, but if you work in an industry you love, build a strong team, in a company with values that align with your own… it’s a privilege.

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.

Take responsibility for your own happiness. If you don’t know what makes you most happy and brings you the most joy in life, then make it a priority to figure it out. Once you know what makes you most happy, find a way to work into your life frequently, daily if possible. I believe that happy people do most everything better and happiness spreads. I feel strongly about this, I’ve dedicated an entire chapter of Trust Your Increments to this topic.

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

Cindy Eckert is an incredibly inspiring business woman that I find myself watching and trying to learn as much as possible from. She epitomizes adaptability and tenacity and turned her “no” into a billion dollar business.

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


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

Andrés Fajardo of Clever Leaves: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a…

Andrés Fajardo of Clever Leaves: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis or CBD Business

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

It takes time — While I always knew it would take time to build a successful cannabis business, many were not expecting the industry to take so long to mature

As part of my series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business” I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrés Fajardo.

Andrés Fajardo, CEO of Clever Leaves, has over 20 years of leadership and management experience. He has served as a director of the Clever Leaves board since December 2020 and as president since 2019, and in various other roles at the Company since its establishment in 2016. Prior to Clever Leaves, Fajardo was a founding partner of Mojo Ventures, CEO of IQ Outsourcing, and a principal member at Booz & Company. He obtained a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Economics from Los Andes University in Colombia.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I began my career in management consulting and acquired an abundance of knowledge in decision-making, execution, and leadership. I knew that I always wanted to be an entrepreneur and after about 5 or 6 years in consulting, I felt ready to start my own business. My partners, Gustavo Escobar and Julian Wilches, and I saw an opportunity in the emerging cannabis industry, specifically in Colombia, where the economical and geographical conditions are prime for cultivation. We wanted to build a company to help people and other businesses while sharing cannabis with people around the world and in 2016, we set out to do just that. Now, 6 years later, Clever Leaves has operations across the globe.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Cash is king — Focusing on the bigger picture and being cognizant of how you grow and invest is essential when making effective decisions as a company leader. In 2016 when the ‘green rush’ began, the industry attracted a lot of investment and there was a positive outlook on the future of the cannabis space. After some time, investment began to slow and capital became scarce while companies were trying to establish themselves and grow. Navigating 2020 during the pandemic was difficult for many operators who were just trying to financially survive and in an industry that’s fast paced, there is no room to slow down. By the end of 2020, Clever Leaves went public and we were able to continue our global expansion by learning how to adapt and react during difficult times. This experience taught me much about making tough decisions. We were able to successfully adapt our strategy and continue to grow as a company, while many organizations were not.

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 2016, when my partners and I first founded Clever Leaves in Colombia, the government had no implementable legislation on cannabis, although it had been proposed since 1986. We were working to obtain a license and in order to be granted one, insurance was required. As cannabis was not yet mainstream, institution after institution turned us down, until we were able to find one willing to insure us. It was 3:45 pm, the same day that the application was due at 4:00 pm, we only had 15 minutes and realized we were $50 dollars short. Thankfully we were able to scrounge it all together and submit all materials before the deadline. I often think about this day and how one small moment has the ability to shift the course of your entire company or career. Being as prepared as you can be for anything that comes your way is crucial as a leader, but the ability to perform under pressure and navigate difficult situations sets you apart and makes you successful.

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

Clever Leaves recently made some changes in terms of cost restructuring and shifting our strategy to focus on the markets in which we want to lead in. We founded the company with three objectives; 1 — to bring cannabis to people around the world, 2 — to generate wellness and well-being within the communities we serve, and 3 — to establish a company that our employees and shareholders are proud of and dedicated to, in order to fulfill our mission and help the most people possible while breading a positive work environment.

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?

Finding the right partner to build a business with is essential and I could not have built Clever Leaves to its level of success without my partner, Gustavo Escobar. Since we founded the company, we built Clever Leaves to new heights by working as a team and supporting each other, professionally and personally. Having a complementary vision for the company and views on how it should function is key to building a company together. Gustavo and I both aspire to generate well-being through Clever Leaves and with his guidance, he’s played a crucial role in helping me get to where I am today.

This industry is young, dynamic and creative. Does your company use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?

Instagram and social media. We’re highly regulated on the medical side and focus a lot on B2B, but we’re utilizing various strategic communication techniques and have adopted an account-based marketing model. We target specific markets or regions depending on where the operation is and develop campaigns per launch through the integration of our teams. We’ve been seeing our sales grow, and pipeline increase, resulting from our close alignment and articulation between sales, marketing, and product development.

Can you share some things that most excite you about the Cannabis industry? Can you share some things that most concern you?

For three things that excited me–

Market potential — there is a market out there to be tapped and the ability for companies to make money is still there.

The cannabis industry is fast-paced and requires flexibility and adaptability to be successful. We’ve been able to obtain this in an industry that’s constantly evolving.

In the U.S., there’s been a lot more development in the cannabis industry and room for it to be shaped in the world. Being a part of shaping and creating an industry is exciting.

Two things that concern me–

Capital availability is very limited and cannabis requires investment for a longer period than originally foreseen.

Lack of regulation is causing a slow in industry growth. Regulation and legislation are required in order to propel the industry forward.

Can you share your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a Cannabis Business”? Please share a story or example for each.

It takes time — While I always knew it would take time to build a successful cannabis business, many were not expecting the industry to take so long to mature

Understand the dependency on regulation and how it changes.

Focus on cash flow and profitability instead of capacity and valuations, which is more important to investors who are not looking to over-invest.

Institutional capital would take a long time to enter the space and, in some cases, wouldn’t enter the space. We’re proud of the institutional investors we have but the industry lacks institutional capital, complicating operations and putting pressure on these organizations.

Mastering grow and cultivation of smokable cannabis flower is difficult and requires patience, adaptation, and expertise.

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

At the center of running Clever Leaves, we value cultivating mojo, creating value, and changing lives. In order for your people and teams to thrive, you have to love what you do. Doing what you love is a bit unrealistic but loving what you do with optimism and the belief that you will reach the other side successfully- this is how companies thrive. Success comes through a combination of leadership and putting your people in positions to grow while allowing them to have the autonomy to make decisions. When people work with Clever Leaves, they always tell us that we have something special, and I think this has driven much of our success. When our employees thrive, so do we.

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. 🙂

Being a leader in cannabis allows me to focus on doing good for the masses by providing wellness to the communities we serve and building a company people can be proud to support. We built Clever Leaves to inspire, motivate and help people and if I was able to change the way all companies were managed to focus on its people the way we do at Clever Leaves, I would. Cultivating mojo is at the core of our organization, this is how we keep our people engaged, dedicated, and feeling valued. I am inspired every day by our employees and partners who are just as passionate about the work we do through Clever Leaves.

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

Andrés Fajardo

Linkedin — Andrés Fajardo

Clever Leaves

Twitter — @clever_leaves

Linked in — Clever Leaves

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


Andrés Fajardo of Clever Leaves: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started Leading a… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Modern Fashion: Deseri Kelley of DESERI On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand…

Modern Fashion: Deseri Kelley of DESERI On The 5 Things You Need To Lead a Successful Fashion Brand Today

An Interview With Candice Georgiadice

Heart — Leaders with heart exhibit relentless commitment to their brand, unwavering loyalty to their teams and passion for their purpose. It means putting your business first, creating a meaningful brand and serving the community as well.

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 Deseri Kelley.

Deseri has created a business marked with the relentless passion and skilled foresight of a true tastemaker. Her signature touch permeates every item in her collection, resulting in a brand that is the essence of its founder. She sees DESERI as an opportunity for connection and tangible impact, using her platform to inspire others to pursue their passions with confidence, and empowering them to enjoy the pleasures that premium quality design has to offer.

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’ve always enjoyed fashion. I remember when I received my first designer handbag, I was nine (9) years old. I was at the Dooney & Bourke outlet with my family and my Aunt asked me if I wanted one of the bags that I had been modeling around the store. I think I said yes before she could finish her sentence. From that day forward my love for handbags began. The lower end brands to the higher end brands to the independent designers. Seeing how handbags, no matter the cost, made women of all ages happy has left an indelible imprint on me and encouraged me to create a brand for myself and that others will like also.

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

While residing in Barcelona, Spain and Paris, France, my passion for luxury goods was developed over a four-year period. I gained a microscopic view of what sets luxury products apart. As a dedicated teacher, mother, and wife, I was moved to bring the benefits of premium fashion accessories to all women. Determined to reimagine the handbag as a work of art and an instrument of confidence, DESERI was created to empower luxury handbag buyers and celebrate their individuality.

Personally sourcing Spanish and Italian leather and ensuring the subtle visibility of my brand name embossed with care on each handbag, I work closely with European artisans to ensure no detail goes unnoticed. I am an example for all to dare to dream big and refuse to give up on their ambitions. Fueled by passion, informed by personal experience, and motivated to give the experience of artisanal luxury, handbags are indeed just the beginning for me.

Years ago, I had a vision for a fashion brand that would embody my effervescence and genuine passion for fashion. I wanted to create an accessible luxury brand that would inspire connection across the globe and be for everyone. I’m so happy that my vision has become a reality with DESERI.

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

My most interesting story since I began my career in fashion is to come; however, I am excited about DESERI and what we are developing right now. We are designing premium quality handbags with materials sourced and manufactured in the same factories as some of the more prominent luxury brands that sell at higher price points. DESERI is giving buyers the same premium quality at affordable price points. We are here to show the market that you can have a beautifully designed handbag made of the finest materials without paying thousands of dollars. DESERI handbags are designed in the USA and made by hand in Spain.

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. Believe in yourself — Faith allows you to do things that are unseen or previously thought to be impossible. When you believe in yourself, you can accomplish things others have done and potentially have the chance to accomplish things that haven’t been done before. I was an educator and did not attend fashion and design school like some of the designers you see and read about. The belief I had in myself and my ability to carry out my dream of creating my own luxury handbag line is why DESERI is here today.

2. Be resilient — There will always be challenges and setbacks in business. Those who win and those who have success also fall and pick themselves back up and fight through challenges. I learned first hand about the challenges of international shipping with my first orders. I planned for all orders to be delivered by a certain date and unfortunately the weather was not on my side. However, that’s just something that comes with the business and comes with the economy as a whole right now. But our customers have been fantastic. They were excited to order and they waited for the DESERI bags to arrive and those who have received them love to carry them.

3. Superior work ethic — I believe that hard work is the solution to many problems. Working smarter is always crucial to remember. However, there’s no reason you can’t work smart for more hours than another person who will work smart for fewer hours. Putting in the time, sacrificing, and going above and beyond in a way others are unwilling to do allows your business to have success. There are times when I am in the middle of a project and will look up and it’s 3am. I truly believe in never shutting down, always finding ways to improve your craft and yourself is key to success.

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

The personality of DESERI makes the brand stand out. When we speak to our customers we speak the way we would speak to a friend. When customers submit questions or want to know more about a handbag we are there to call them and send them photos to really give them the experience of a friend helping them make a decision.

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

“Think positively and be optimistic” — Your mind is powerful and your thoughts can determine the outcome of many situations. Always find the positive in a situation and stay focused on making the negatives into positives.

A perfect example is when the handbags were in production I needed a sample of each style for a photoshoot. This is not a normal request that is granted once production has begun. I could have thought that there is not any possibility I am going to get what I need in this short timeframe. However, I stayed positive and spoke with the factory and let them hear how optimistic I was and that I believed in them and that I know they will make it happen. They said they would get back to me in a day to let me know if it was feasible. The next day I received a phone call saying they will have the bags I requested in time for my photoshoot.

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?

One of the most fascinating developments is the new types of materials being developed with food compost. For example, Apple pectin is an industrial waste product, often discarded at the end of the manufacturing process. However, a new technology developed by Frumat allows the use of apple pectin to create sustainable and compostable materials. The company uses apple skins to create leather materials all while using a product that is normally thrown away.

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

We are invested in giving back to the community by empowering young women to be successful in business and all they aspire to be in life. DESERI partners with a local nonprofit to give back to the community and spread joy while serving as a mentor to young women. There are so many young people that yearn for the chance to meet successful individuals. If someone at DESERI has the opportunity to be an inspiration to them it could be a life changing experience. From a young girl I was always taught to give back and as a mother I have instilled this trait in my children. Not only am I the founder of DESERI, I am also one of the founders of the nonprofit organization, Children’s Wellness Circle. Giving back and bringing goodness to the world is very important to DESERI.

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

DESERI considers the impacts of the products we purchase from suppliers and the impacts they have on the people and the communities who create them. Oftentimes companies only look to the factory producing the final product. However, we make it our standard form of practice to visit the factories and meet with the suppliers of our materials as well. It is very important to us that our products are ethically sourced and exceed the ethical standards.

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?

Fast fashion offers affordable prices and instant gratification to buyers. It also allows them to be up to date with the fast changing trends, as well as the democratization of stylish clothing. However, fast fashion causes excess pollution, waste, the promulgation of a “disposable” mentality, low wages, and unsafe workplaces. DESERI is a brand that creates premium quality designs that are timeless and high quality. Our bags are also handmade in Spain with carefully selected leathers, each of our pieces are intended as a work of art that reflects the skill of the artisan. Sourcing materials that are quality, while ensuring the designs are on trend but still classic is the goal at DESERI.

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.

Heart — Leaders with heart exhibit relentless commitment to their brand, unwavering loyalty to their teams and passion for their purpose. It means putting your business first, creating a meaningful brand and serving the community as well.

Empathy — To have success empathy is key. You have to be inclusive and empathetic, willing to listen and learn from those around you. Taking a genuine interest in what your consumers are asking for by understanding their wants and needs and transferring it to the finished product. Respecting the opinions of those around you and treating them with respect is necessary.

Think unconventionally — When you think unconventional you are elevating your brand. Your brand will create things people love but were not expecting. Your team will be more enthusiastic about the products your brand sells if you are doing things differently and not in a conventional way. I am a prime example of unconventional. My start was in education and before I started DESERI, I did not have any formal fashion training. However, I am here today to be an example of an unconventional thinker and leader who found success.

Leading by example — One of the hardest things that come with being a business owner is the responsibility of knowing every single role within your company. You can have marketing, finance, or operations departments as a business owner. But regardless of the different departments associated with your company, as the owner and leader, you must understand everyone’s roles and responsibilities. A clear understanding of every role within your business allows you always to know how your business is performing to ensure success. As a business owner, you wear many hats, but you also have the opportunity to create your platform for success.

Connection — An emotional bond and trust is the key to a successful brand. Fashion purchases are emotionally driven. If your customers feel a strong emotional connection to the brand you are going to benefit from their loyalty which will give your brand a competitive advantage. The identity of DESERI is a direct representation of myself and the brand values which allows me to connect with women all over the world, just as the brand connects. Elegant, fashionable, optimistic and confident are traits that are in line with the brand personality. DESERI products bring confidence, style and a vibrant personality to buyers. Our customers are the savvy businesswoman, the stylish and trendy college student, or the stay-at-home mom, who all feel connected to the luxury lifestyle they deserve. From business boardrooms to fun weekends, every DESERI handbag is designed to make women feel their best — because when you look good, you feel good, and when you feel good, anything is possible.

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

Diversity and inclusion. It takes a lot of research to find black women owned brands. And most of these brands only a handful of individuals have heard of. As well as diversity in big fashion houses. You do not see many minorities in larger roles in the fashion industry. Inclusivity is necessary in the hiring process as well as in the company’s day to day. I’ve seen one retailer as a changing force on this topic. They have been promoting their black owned brands and it’s been a nice addition. However, we need more emphasis on promoting female and minority owned brands and designers. I am not seeking to bring change to only benefit my brand but to the fashion industry as a whole.

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. 🙂

Food, shelter and full access to education and medical care for children. Many times when you think of homelessness you immediately envision an adult who has lost everything and is in need of assistance. Each year there are over 2 million children that are homeless due to no fault of their own. They deserve a chance to find success in the world too and didn’t choose the life of homelessness. I would focus on ending child homelessness and ensuring education and medical care at all levels is accessible.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

DESERI can be followed via our website, www.DESERI.com

Instagram — @deseriofficial

https://www.instagram.com/deseriofficial/

YouTube — @deseriofficial

https://m.youtube.com/@deseriofficial2515/featured

Twitter — @deseriofficial

https://twitter.com/deseriofficial/status/1590804602462830592?s=46&t=6tv2zUV8c2mlCOxQV8hS4Q

Pinterest — @deseriofficial

https://pin.it/5aLWekL

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


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

April Gandy of Alluring Designs Chicago: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More…

April Gandy of Alluring Designs Chicago: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Be festive! If you are big on holidays, add some festive flare to your space. Selecting pieces for a joyous season can be a fun project and it truly reflects in your space.

As part of my series on the “5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More Joy”, I had the pleasure of interviewing April Gandy, Founder and Principal Designer, Alluring Designs Chicago.

Alluring Designs Chicago is a full-service luxury interior design firm offering design services for residential and commercial interiors. Led by April Gandy, her mother, Valerie Steward, and close family friend, Jennifer Anderson, Alluring Designs is on a mission to create beautiful homes with classic, quality design that exudes the essence of their clients. Alluring Designs is known for their classically fun, modern, and luxurious interiors, and they’re proudly veteran, family and black owned.

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

When I was 23 I bought my first condo. It was small but it’s what I could afford at the time. It had green laminate countertops in the kitchen and “vintage” tile in the kitchen and bathroom. I could only afford something that needed a little work so I made it my own little by little. When I went through the process, I found that I really enjoyed making my place beautiful. It was in that condo that my love for design began. From there I helped my friends and family overhaul their places and built my portfolio. In 2017 I officially launched Alluring Designs Chicago and I’m lucky enough to do what I love everyday!

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

I was casted for a design TV show on a major network! I received a DM on Instagram and couldn’t believe it was real. It was one of the best experiences of my life!

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’ve had many situations where I purchased items that were not the correct size. I used to pull out the painters tape and plot out furniture but for whatever reason I could not get it right! Those were very hard lessons having to exchange large furniture pieces! I found an app to create floor plans so I never make those mistakes again.

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

I recently worked on a lakeside cabin. We started designing from plans and have made every decision in the 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom cabin. I learned a lot about what to consider when designing from plans and working with a builder. I am happy to have that experience in case I ever work with a builder again in the future.

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

This sounds so underrated but the one thing I say to my team the most is “It will be just fine.” There are times on every project when things don’t go as planned. That is inevitable. I’ve learned to quickly pivot and not dwell on things in the past. There are so many things that can frustrate and stress us, but I remind my team everyday that we will figure it out and it’ll be just fine.

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 never went to school for interior design so I felt there were some components of my job that would be easier had I gone to school. In 2020 when we were quarantined, I decided to do as much studying and research as I could while stuck in the house. I attended so many webinars with the Interior Design Society. It was on one of those webinars that I met Michelle Lynne of ML Interiors Group in Dallas. I signed up for her coaching course and she quickly became someone I call my friend. She was so supportive and helped me beyond what I signed up for. I owe a big part of my success to her.

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

  • Joy comes from within, so include pieces in your living space that make you happy. It can be as simple as family photos or an heirloom that was passed down to you. Add pieces that bring you joy when you see them.
  • Choose colors for your living space that bring you joy. Bright and airy or dark and moody; when you align the vibe of a space to your own mood, people pick up that energy. It’s all about what brings you joy.
  • Add layered lighting to the space. Lighting creates a whole mood by itself. When adding light fixtures, think about how you can complement what you already have in the space. Creating the right mood can bring joy in the space you crave.
  • Live plants can also bring joy to a space. The color of the greenery along with a beautiful planter can be the extra bit of joy your space needs. Live plants literally bring life to a space so add pops of greenery for a little extra joy.
  • Be festive! If you are big on holidays, add some festive flare to your space. Selecting pieces for a joyous season can be a fun project and it truly reflects in your space.

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

I grew up in the inner city of Chicago. I had so many odds against me to be successful. I worked hard to get to where I am today, but I will never forget where I came from. One of the goals of my business is to build underserved communities in Chicago. I want to see property value increase and give African American families a chance to have a beautiful home to live in. “Building beautiful communities and beautiful homes, one room at a time!”

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

I would love to have a private lunch with Kelly Wearstler so I can ask how she did it!

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I can be found on IG and FB @alluringdesignschicago

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


April Gandy of Alluring Designs Chicago: 5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Living Space Spark More… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Female Founders: Vetzabe Rivera of Vivid Belleza On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed…

Female Founders: Vetzabe Rivera of Vivid Belleza On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman Founder

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Time-everything takes time. You will not get into a business with instant gratification and success, even with a huge following. You have to be dedicated and be willing to miss out on time with friends and family.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Vetzabe Rivera, CEO of Vivid Belleza, a Female Latina Owned Beauty Brand.

Vetzabe is a proud Latina from Delaware who embarked on her entertainment journey via MTV’s Teen Mom 2 co-starring alongside her husband Jo Rivera ten years ago.

In 2017 Vee began her influencer career as a beauty guru quickly growing her community of glam loving fans. Vee’s mission as a multi passionate mompreneur is to inspire other women particularly mom’s to tackle their goals with style and passion; showing women they can truly have it all.

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 was on a reality TV show for a long time, and I gained a large following from my tenure on the show. I always knew I wanted to leverage that experience and become an entrepreneur. I have always been obsessed with makeup and all things beauty and decided to create a business based on the things I was passionate about. I started Vivid Belleza and it turned into not only a brand but a community of beautiful women. I love my small business now and I am glad that I was able to have the TV opportunity that in turn helped grow my business following. I feel like it was utilized as a backbone to what I would create in the future.

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

The most interesting thing that has happened since I started my company was that I was in a print magazine. I didn’t think that was something that was going to be attainable as a Latina owned small business. However, being able to see your brand that you created in a magazine is the most rewarding feeling.

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

My first mistake was not knowing how much inventory to purchase. When I first started the brand, I ordered a huge quantity of lipsticks. I thought the following I had obtained on social media would be enough to sell it out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and I was stuck with product for a little while. I had to really push sales and market the items to sell them. It helped me to learn more about my audience and the process of the business. You will learn what works and what doesn’t in the process of creating your business.

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

My husband really helps me stay focused and motivated. If it wasn’t for him pushing me and motivating me to start the business, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I am very grateful for him and his motivation and kind words to me. Even when I feel like I am failing, he always picks me back up and helps me to see the bigger picture and helps me to realize I have a really great thing going here. I always want to put my best foot forward. He is the person who always brings that out in me.

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

As women, we aren’t even comparable to men in the job market on a pay scale in a corporate environment and I think that intimidates women in starting their own businesses. They may not feel confident in their decision to create and produce their ideas. It can feel impossible to take yoru ideas and turn them into a career. I think some women get frustrated and don’t have the support. I feel like we have come a long way but I myself, want to show other women that they can put their plans in motion and create a career out of their visions and become successful.

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

I think as individuals, we need to look at our competition as a community and tap into that to help uplift and motivate one another. If you are working with like-minded individuals such as CEOs and Founders of companies who are women, you can create a network that you can utilize to help build and motivate your own brand. We really need to do more in supporting one another in our ventures and become more helpful to each other.

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 we need to show that we can be CEO’s of our own companies and our own lives. Most of us have families and husbands and we want to be empowered to be able to do all those things and still contribute to the household income as well. I feel like there is a different mindset in this day and age where we feel like we can have it all. It’s tough but it’s very rewarding. There are challenges but in the end to see the fruits of your labor come into successful fruition, it’s a great feeling. We need more women leaders and founders to be an example for the future generation.

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

Just because you are a business woman, people automatically think you are rich and successful. It takes a long time to build. I am in my third year of my business, and I still struggle sometimes. I am still a one woman show and wear many hats by being the content creator, the photographer, packaging, marketing, social media management, and more. It takes work, time, and effort. You just need to remember your why on the days you want to give up. that. It takes work, time, and effort You need to remember to not give up when its hard

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

I don’t think everyone is set up to be a founder because we all think different and have different traits. We also still need employees at “regular jobs”. I think all jobs have their pros and cons. I can only speak for myself that I think to be a founder you must have persistence and consistency in order to be successful. Once I was consistent, I was able to watch my brand skyrocket.

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

  1. You will need storage for your inventory-I used to work out of my den and I quickly learned that it wasn’t going to be enough space for my products and daily tasks I needed to achieve in my business.
  2. I would not only be the owner of the business but a million other things for example, content creator, website designer sometimes, accountant, I wear many different hats that I didn’t think I would.
  3. Social media would play a huge role in the sales and marketing of my brand and it changes constantly. There is always a new platform popping up that you have to learn and utilize.
  4. Time-everything takes time. You will not get into a business with instant gratification and success, even with a huge following. You have to be dedicated and be willing to miss out on time with friends and family.
  5. You will face challenges and you have to remember your why on the bad days.

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

I think I have. I have at least tried to make it a nicer place for the people who know me and who have been following me for years. I always do my best to interact with them and let them know I care about them, and I am appreciative that they are investing in my products. I feel like Vivid Belleza has become a community where we can build and uplift one another. The purpose of my brand is to motivate and encourage women to let them know they are beautiful, confident, and successful, and can do anything.

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

I always wanted to put together a fund to help small Latina business owners. I spent a lot of money in the beginning that I never thought I would, and I think it would be helpful to encourage and support others who were interested in starting their own brands. To create a community of other women who were business owners where we can help one another in the brand building process.

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

I have always wanted to sit down with Jennifer Lopez She has a lot of successful businesses that she has created. I would love to pick her brain and see how she balances life between being an entrepreneur and a mom. She is one of my favorite people and she is Latina, like myself.

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


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

Female Disruptors: Anne Mahlum of [solidcore] and Ambition on The Three Things You Need To Shake Up…

Female Disruptors: Anne Mahlum of [solidcore] and Ambition on The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Hire the right people and know when to add new positions. It’s easy in the beginning to hire people based on passion or people who work like you. If you do that and don’t understand the skill sets that someone’s bringing to the table that you don’t have, that might not benefit the business. Hiring people different from you and getting diverse skill sets and opinions around the table is critical.

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

Anne Mahlum is founder and executive chairwoman of [solidcore], a fast-growing boutique fitness company she founded in DC in 2013. She successfully raised more than $70M in private equity to be able to grow [solidcore] across the US. The company now has more than 85 locations (entirely corporately owned) across 27 states with more than 800 employees. Her latest venture is Ambition, a new fitness and wellness venture which will open its first studio in Manhattan in February 2023. Anne is also the founder and former CEO of Back on My Feet, a national non-profit organization that uses running as a vehicle to help those experiencing homelessness change the way they see themselves so they can change the direction of their lives. Anne is an active philanthropist and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to organizations serving people in recovery, as well as organizations working to help the wrongly convicted.

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 thought when I was in high school and college, I was going to have a very traditional path, meaning go to college, get married, get a very stable job, two kids, and a house, just like I saw growing up in North Dakota. It wasn’t until my last year in college that I started to think, “I’m not sure if I want that.” I wasn’t brave enough to go against the grain at that point. It took a few more years to realize — I was in my early 20s at the time, living in Philadelphia — I knew I didn’t want that traditional life, but I didn’t know what I wanted. It was a lonely, confusing, and isolating time, and I spent the next two years searching for my purpose. I was running every morning and happened to run by a homeless shelter and began to talk with the people I saw there as I ran by each day. I quickly realized that I should start a club for them and share this gift of running. For many people, it just would’ve stayed a running club. But I think because I was doing so much inner work on myself to understand what motivated me, I began thinking about this in a different way. I knew these guys could have a different life if someone paid attention to them and gave them an environment to succeed.

That vision was enough to go all in and try to build my first organization, Back on My Feet. I did that for six and a half years, grew it across the country, and helped thousands of people move out of shelters and live independently, all by starting with running.

And then these voices started to come back. So, I was like, “Ok great, Anne. It’s time to go do something else.” I was very resistant to that at first because I didn’t want to fail, and I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do something bigger or better than what I had just done. But the voices didn’t go away. And at some point, you drive yourself mad if you’re not listening to yourself, and you’re like, okay, “I’ve got to do this”. So, I left Back on My Feet and started [solidcore].

I discovered Pilates and how strong it made me feel, and I didn’t think anybody was doing it well from a brand or community perspective. So, I opened the first started [solidcore] studio in November 2013, and we have 86 studios today.

And then the same voice happened again last year. So, I have resigned to the idea that this will be my life. I’m going to create, build, and scale, then pass it on to someone else and do it all over again.

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

The health and fitness industry isn’t new, but how I disrupt and make people pay attention is how I choose to live my life as a female. I’m not married, I don’t have kids, and I do what I want. I’ve made my own wealth, and I think it’s disrupting the gender roles in business and the gender roles in entrepreneurship and what is possible for women.

We need to stop and ask ourselves what we want instead of falling in line with the societal messages that are everywhere. I do that well. I’m not scared to change direction. The great test I give myself to determine if I’m living my life to the fullest is that I reflect on where my life was 12 months ago. And if everything is the same, I know I’m not pushing myself.

That’s a good measure.

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?

It’s funny because you would think I would’ve known better, but when I opened [solidcore], the first studio, we knew we would be playing music and having a microphone. I didn’t stop and think about how the sound would travel and disrupt the people above me. So, every morning for months, the police would show up when I was coaching that 5:00 AM class. They would show up because they got a noise complaint, and they would knock on the studio door and try to come in. There was only me in there, so I was on the microphone saying, “Can you come back after class?” I’m talking to the police, trying to get them to leave me alone, and going back to talking to people in the class, “Get into a lunge!”

So, I think that was probably the funniest mistake I made I would think, “I know the cops are coming today, and I’ve got to this class, so I’m gonna lock the door.” What I learned through that was making sure that I didn’t find myself in that situation again. When the company grew, it needed to have a little bit more professionalism and maturity than that.

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

I haven’t talked to her in a while, but Mary Wittenberg, the CEO of New York Roadrunners, was a mentor of mine when I was running Back on My Feet. She had been in a senior leadership position for a while.

I remember talking to her about feeling like I wasn’t appreciated, “I feel like I work so much on Back on My Feet, put it first, and go above and beyond.” And she stopped me before I could finish my sentence and said, “Anne, if you’re going to play in this big space and be a CEO here and in other places, you can’t look for appreciation at work. You need to get that from home. It is your job to make sure everybody else around you feels appreciated and that you are serving them, not the other way around.”

She was the first person who taught me to have proper expectations for what an experience was. And I still see that people get upset, disappointed, and frustrated when they don’t have appropriate expectations about what an experience will be. Like they made up a contract in their head about what your relationship was going to be, and the other person didn’t agree to it.

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?

No, and I’ve talked to my team about that. People constantly get hammered with innovate, innovate, innovate. And innovation for the sake of innovation is irresponsible.

You need to have a good reason to do it. A lot of innovation with [solidcore] happened in the early stages of developing the workout when we made our machines. We took some significant innovative risks in the beginning. You need to assess what’s working and double down on that. People would think innovation meant getting online or making an at-home product. But that’s not our bread and butter. The reason [solidcore] works is the in-person community. So again, double down on those aspects and don’t try to follow what everybody else is doing or “disrupt” the at-home market.

[solidcore] is the best at the in-person community, and continuing to perfect, develop, and foster that is what is in our best business interests.

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

  1. Start before you’re ready. From an entrepreneurial perspective, many people don’t start. They sit and have an idea for years and never do it because they think they need funding or have a list of excuses for why they can’t start. They claim they must have it all figured out before taking step one. There is nothing that exists today that is successful, whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s Tesla, that didn’t start with what is step one. Take it to something tangible when you look at a house. The first thing in building a house is creating the plans to build the house, and then you get the materials. And for some reason, with business or ideas, people jump toward the very end, and then they either convince themselves that it’s way too hard, that they’re not capable of doing it, or that they don’t know what step six or seven or how to do step six and seven. Therefore, they’re not the right person to do it. And nobody who has started something has known every aspect of their business. You need to know enough to be resourceful, get the ball rolling, and bring in the right people who know what you don’t know. And again, back to expectations, you need to expect you’re going to miss things. You’ve got to take the first step, and then you’ll be able to figure out what step two is.
  2. “Don’t freak out when things go wrong, and be ready to problem solve.” So, the second good piece of advice is somewhat aligned with the first; you cannot freak out when things happen. If you think that you will wake up every day and things will be smooth, your business won’t make it because you’re not pushing hard enough. Your job is to come up with solutions. That is a big part of being an entrepreneur.
  3. Hire the right people and know when to add new positions. It’s easy in the beginning to hire people based on passion or people who work like you. If you do that and don’t understand the skill sets that someone’s bringing to the table that you don’t have, that might not benefit the business. Hiring people different from you and getting diverse skill sets and opinions around the table is critical.

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

I’m onto venture number three, opening another fitness and wellness company called Ambition. We are seeing many boutique fitness studios focus on one workout, and they deliver that one thing exclusively. People run around to the different studios to get all these different experiences. At Ambition, we will put four of those modalities under one umbrella. The program will be very different for each class and format we’re doing, but you’re going to save time and be more efficient. The brand we’re building will resonate with folks about challenging themselves.

We have gone too far into the self-care world. People say, “I don’t feel a hundred percent today, so I’m going to take a break.”

I have days where I need a beat, and I know that, but it’s not when I feel 80 or 90%. I go to workouts when I don’t want to because I’m not only going to show up when I’m only 100% motivated. Ambition is going to be about that. We’re not going to announce at the beginning of class that a fetal position is available if the workout feels too hard. We want to push you and develop an internal dialogue: “I can show up for myself even when I don’t want to.” Ambition teaches resilience and shows people they are stronger than they think; we can do hard things. We can push through even when we want to give up. We teach people how to elevate and grow to the next level.

I’m an ambitious female. I want to contribute and see what I’m capable of. I want to show up, push myself, and know I’m not the only one.

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

I have been speaking a lot about masculine and feminine energy. No men say, “I want to be a housewife.” There’s not a movement against it, but as women step into their independence, we want our own money, we want to feel financially independent, and we know we’re smart. We want a seat at the table; we have opinions, thoughts, ideas, and all these things. We have had to learn to step into the more masculine trait of being decisive, ambitious, and disciplined, holding our own and standing up to people, even when our opinion differs from everybody else’s. I still think that most people, women, and men included, do not take kindly to that.

We look at women, and we want them to be feminine. We want them to be amenable. We want them to be nurturing; we want them to be all these things. So, when a woman shows up to a meeting and is hard on somebody and says, “I expect more,” or is hard driving, it still breaks people’s brains.

We want her to be kinder; we want her to be softer. It’s a challenge to balance that polarity constantly. Women will constantly have to fight that battle until we start celebrating female and feminine energy in leadership roles more than we are.

I didn’t grow my Back on My Feet or [solidcore] quickly without ruffling some feathers, breaking some rules, being very demanding, and being hard charging. And some of those are all male attributes. But, again, people are like, I don’t like her, and I’m okay with that. Would you say the same if I was a man? I think women need to stop apologizing all the time because someone has an issue with them. You can have an environment that is hard work, encourages you to show up, push yourself, be results-oriented, and not apologize for that. I don’t see driven men always apologizing.

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

My favorite go-to podcast is Brené Brown. She talks about trust and has an acronym for it–BRAVING. She goes through each of these letters, and I’ve never heard someone talk about trust like Brené does. And it’s a 30-minute podcast, and it makes you think about how you show up for yourself and how you show up for your friends. And I’ll give you one example. She talks about the gossip, like when you run up to your friend, and you’re like, did you hear that so and so broke up? And you think you’re connecting with me because you’re giving me the dirt, and all I’m thinking is, “Hmm, that wasn’t your news to share. And I am never telling you anything.” That is sacred to me because you now display that what I tell you isn’t safe with you.

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

It would be around helping people change their relationship with alcohol. I know some people might say more profound things like “world peace,” but I’m being realistic about my personal experiences. My relationship with alcohol has changed dramatically, and I’ve been very vocal about that. And I think there would be a lot more people better off health-wise from a social standpoint if they stopped drinking. Instead, we use it to numb. We use it to suppress. We use it to connect with people falsely.

And I think there’s so much quality of life if you remove alcohol from your regimen. I’m not saying you’re not going to drink ever again necessarily, but when it’s a daily thing or such a consistent thing that you can’t go to a concert, dinner, or out to meet a friend without alcohol, I don’t think your connection is real.

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

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life,” from Jerzy Gregorek, a Polish man who went from being an alcoholic to winning four World Weightlifting Championships. If you’re making the easy decision and going after the immediate gratification, more times than not, your life, at some point, is going to get hard. That means you have no savings. It means you’re choosing to go to a party instead of your friend’s or your friend’s parent’s funeral. It means you’re choosing the food that tastes good but is bad for you instead of the food that will fuel you. And if you do that enough times, you will create complications for yourself down the road.

Another concept that guides me is from Andrew Huberman — “Be very wary of things that give you a high dopamine release with minimal effort.” Think about alcohol, for instance: you get a little bit of a peak of a high because the alcohol is hijacking your brain and releasing dopamine. Or maybe it is buying something you can’t afford. You get an instant dopamine high, and then the next day, you realize you can’t afford it and have regret.

I always ask myself, am I making a decision? If you’re in that place where you are living a life of immediate gratification, you must start asking yourself questions when you want to do something. Does this serve me today? What about tomorrow? Or does this benefit me today and not tomorrow? And you need to have fewer of the latter decisions than the former ones.

How can our readers follow you online?

Instagram is the place I’m most active — @annemahlum. People can also follow along at @solidcore and @wegotambition. Visit AnneMahlum.com and sign up for the email list to get continued content.

In January 2023, I am launching a new podcast called Choose 90. Choose 90 is actually a simple formula for getting the results I want in any area of life: 90% of the time, I am committed to consistent thoughts, actions, behaviors, and habits that contribute to my success. And the other 10%, I allow for the variety and normal ups and downs that happen in life.

My goal for the Choose 90 podcast is to help people achieve ultimate optimization in their careers, their health, and their wealth. On the show, I interview successful people who have adopted consistent strategies to help them achieve their goals and get to the “how” of what they do so that anyone can use those tactics to optimize their own lives.

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


Female Disruptors: Anne Mahlum of [solidcore] and Ambition on The Three Things You Need To Shake Up… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.