In celebration of International Women's Day, Mastercard and Create & Cultivate are teaming up with prominent female leaders and business owners to share their #Priceless advice to inspire and elevate women entrepreneurs.

Denise Vasi, Founder of Maed

Brooklyn-native and Los Angeles-based Denise Vasi first became known by many for her high-profile modeling and acting career, but the mother of two has also organically built an inclusive online community. In 2018, Denise launched the digital resource, Maed.co, that focuses on nutrition, beauty and mindful life-balance for women who find themselves juggling careers and parenthood. Growing up in an inclusive community of engaged women, Denise realized that she was consistently being asked to share her tips and suggestions on parenting, beauty and non-toxic living living. With the encouragement of the many women in her community, she created Maed with the intention to inspire, inform and empower her readers.

Since launching Maed, Denise has exponentially grown her close-knit audience with her well-informed clean beauty recommendations, vegan recipes, and conscious parenting tips. The site has since evolved into a supportive community and thriving business, partnering with dream brands and ambassador programs, while helping the community advocate for equal rights and encouraging them to invest in themselves through self-care challenges.

Below, Denise shares her #Priceless advice to inspire and elevate women in business.

What is one piece of advice you would give to women looking to turn their passion into purpose?

Be consistent, show up every day and don’t aim to replicate what other people in your space are doing. While it might work great for your peers/competitors, what makes your brand and your business unique is your voice, your opinion, and your authenticity.

What challenges have you faced as a woman in business/a position of leadership? How did you overcome them?

I originally pitched a man my idea for MAED, in hopes of finding business support for my idea. He didn’t understand the aspect of what I was trying to do.

If I had the support of his company I would have been able to build my site much faster and have some financial backing. But because he passed and because I decided to go out and do it on my own, I can proudly say I own my business outright, learned every role it takes to run my business and I only have to answer to myself both financially and creatively.

What is the most important message you have for women advancing their career or growing their business?

Hire out your weaknesses! It’s important that you can perform each task of your business but then it’s vital for every entrepreneur to know when it’s time to add people to the team.

What’s your perspective on the importance of mentorship? What advice do you have for women seeking mentorship or looking to become a mentor?

Even though there are men who have taken women under their wing, it’s more the exception than the rule. In my opinion, if you're a woman who has #MAEDit, you should seek out women with talent and mentor them. Show them how you were able to break glass ceilings. If you can mentor other females and show them what worked for you and your business and what didn't, you could save another woman months, maybe years of mistakes.

What’s next for Maed?

I have a lot of big goals for Maed but my immediate next steps are to continue building out my team and delegating responsibilities, expand my community and to collaborate more with inspiring women and business owners. It takes a village!

In celebration of women in business, what are (3) small businesses you want to highlight to encourage others to shop, share and support?

Care Package is female founded. They do incredibly beautiful curated boxes of hand selected items from other small businesses. I love sending these boxes as gifts.

SoCal ISR gives infants and kids the skills to survive in water with Infant Swim Resource Self-Rescue swim lessons. I love businesses that are modeled this way because it affords a lot of mothers the ability to run their own businesses offering them tools, resources, but most importantly credibility.

54 Thrones is a Black-owned clean beauty line that recently made Oprah's 2020 Favorite Things list. The founder, Christina Tegbe, creates intimate skin experiences through African beauty rituals. Their body butter in the bomb!

Priceless advice for women in business in two words, or less: