Day in the Life: Shilpa Shah & Karla Gallardo of Cuyana
“Customers craved more, they were tired of expensive low-quality products—we created a brand to fill that need.”
Welcome back to our monthly series, Day in the Life! Through this Q&A series, we’re giving you an inside look at the day-to-day lives of some of the most inspiring women in business. This month, we talked with Shilpa Shah and Karla Gallardo of Cuyana, the lifestyle brand for the modern woman interested in simple functionality.
Below, hear what these co-founders have to say about filling whitespace, what advice they have for for work-life balance, and the habits they’ve developed to be the best versions of themselves.
Tell us a bit about Cuyana. What whitespace did you see in the market? What need did you want to fill?
Karla: Fewer, better things is the philosophy behind all we do. We started Cuyana to inspire consumers to shop intentionally for high-quality pieces crafted with integrity. We saw the need for luxury-made items at an affordable price point - the consumer mindset was shifting, and we had the opportunity to be the better choice within fashion.
Shilpa: She was seeking higher quality products with purpose; logos and overt branding were no longer relevant. Customers craved more, they were tired of expensive low-quality products - we created a brand to fill that need.
Are you a night owl or a morning person? When do you do your most important work and why?
Karla: I’m a night owl but have recently been successful in transitioning to being a morning person. Getting an earlier start to the day enables me to spend more time with my son, Mateo.
Shilpa: I’m a night owl by nature. I’ve tried to become more of a morning person, but I’m still a work in progress!
What does your morning, pre-work routine look like?
Karla: I’m up early to ensure I have breakfast together with my family - with such a busy work schedule, breakfast is more dependable than dinner. The shared time together sets the foundation for my whole day.
Shilpa: I spend my mornings coming up with creative ways to cajole my kids out of bed - they’ve clearly inherited my night owl mentality! The rest of the morning is a wild dash to get everyone to where they are supposed to be and making it happen on time.
What’s your commute like? Do you listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks? Any current faves?
Karla: I spend my commute looking at everything I’m devoting time to, ensuring that each task or meeting has purpose.
Shilpa: I take my time on the train to peruse the New York Times app or listen to podcasts and audiobooks - listening to "Becoming" narrated by Michelle Obama has been a wonderful experience.
Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” What’s the first thing you do when you get into the office/to your desk?
Karla: Grab a cup of coffee - my brain doesn't process information until the first sip of my morning latte. I then head right to an early meeting with my bag and latte in tow - I rarely make it to my desk.
Shilpa: Definitely not eating frogs! I am typically in meetings first thing in the morning. I’m lucky if I even make it to my desk, but always have coffee in-hand.
What are you working on this week?
Karla: Everything from annual internal reviews to our exciting plans to expand retail!
Shilpa: I’ve been focused on exciting collaborations and our seasonal marketing strategies.
What advice do you have for balancing the minutiae of day-to-day tasks with big-picture planning?
Shilpa: Break down the big-picture plans into smaller, discernible milestones. Then you can plan all tasks the same way!
Karla: We plan our annual strategy every January, and it serves as the overarching framework for everything we do. New items pop up every day though, and it is important to constantly review my week to ensure that every meeting and task continues to ladder up to the big picture. I re-prioritize my week on Sundays to make sure I achieve key results by Friday. Also, I am very close to the data. It reveals whether the path we decided to take in January makes sense, and it will sometimes challenge me to make changes in the overarching strategy. I spend 2 hours looking at reports and thinking about the big picture strategy every week. It is my “zen” moment, and it brings back the focus.
What are some work habits that help you stay healthy, productive, and on track to reach your goals?
Karla: I make time each day to do something for the people I care about most. I then get some me time by working out a few days a week at home on our Peloton.
Shilpa: It’s not the quantity of time, but rather the quality way in which you spend it. I make sure that I connect with my husband and kids in ways that also meets their needs. It’s amazing how outsourcing the household tasks opens up more meaningful time together.
What are you reading/watching right now?
Shilpa: Anxiously waiting the last season of GOT!
Karla: Honestly, television is my way to zone out - I love watching laughable and outrageous shows at the end of my night.
When do you go to bed? What’s your “optimal” # of sleep hours?
Shilpa: Between 12-1 am. I would love to have 7 hours of sleep, but I usually end up near 6.
Karla: I get up early now, so I’m in bed by 11!
What’s the most rewarding part of your day?
Karla: The time with my son and husband. Whether our family breakfast in the morning or watching Mateo’s favorite movie, Moana, the moments I spend with my family are the best.
Shilpa: I cherish the time spent with my family. Sometimes, getting in those last few hours of quiet work time at the end of the day can feel rewarding too!
What’s something not a lot of people know about you?
Karla: I already revealed my guilty television pleasures!
Shilpa: I actually wasn’t very organized until I met Karla. It’s been amazing to see how our “fewer, better” philosophy has changed the way I live.
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Building a Selfless Squad with Working Wonder: Ally Love
Find out how a little sweat can do wonders for you too.
Ally Love’s name is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. This empowering and inspiring woman has hearts in her eyes and joy in her soul. The host, model, dancer, producer, and founder of LoveSquad has created a career where she’s in charge.
Case in point: she created LoveSquad to share her own personal journey to find fulfillment. It has evolved into a means to unite people, to motivate readers, to help others push their limits, improve their habits, and finish everything with Love.
Wonder how she does it all? Read on to find out more about Ally’s Squad, her day-to-day, and why a little sweat can do wonders for you too.
Let's start with the basics. What does the idea of Working Wonders mean to you?
It means being selfless in the approach to make the world a safer, and better place by championing diversity, and equality.
How has the work you do with LoveSquad made you feel wonderful?
LoveSquad is about community. So, the fact that I’m able to empower and encourage others through confidence, tactile takeaways, and support, is what makes me feel wonderful, and more importantly, makes others feel wonderful.
LoveSquad believes in being multifaceted, sweating on the outside and taking those first steps to improving what’s on the inside. How do you encourage women to actually take those first steps?
I encourage women to begin with conversation. This is the first step and ultimate process for change. It’s through conversation, that we are able to find creativity, cultivate ideas, and work through concepts.
What is your advice for younger female entrepreneurs struggling to feel their own sense of wonder. Or, those wondering if they're on the right track?
If struggle is your current position, I would always advise young entrepreneurs to take a break. Take a couple of days to be present, gauge the health of the business, and prioritize your objectives. From there, you can get advice from a mentor, or a trusted friend on whether you should continue to pursue this career path.
Take a couple of days to be present, gauge the health of the business, and prioritize your objectives.
Do you think there is a difference between 'beauty' and feeling 'beautiful?'
I think they are one and the same. They are both subjective, offered to everyone, and both do not indicate or dictate your self-worth.
What do you hope other women feel about themselves and the concept of "beauty?"
That they don’t have to be “beauty” or “beautiful” unless they want to. It’s a label, however not the end-all-be-all.
So, speaking of beauty... we all have our own tips and tricks. We recently found out that only 20% of visible skin aging comes from the natural aging process. Mary Kay's TimeWise Miracle Set 3D helps protect your skin against the rest – what else do you incorporate into your beauty and wellness routine to combat the environmental and lifestyle stressors that contribute to premature skin aging?
I love vitamin C toner to remove dead skin and invigorate my color.
When do you feel the most wonderful?
I feel most wonderful when I’m a part of a conversation that is not only inspiring but providing insight that could potentially encourage and change lives.
Who is a woman you would consider a Working Wonder? Someone you want to give a shout out to?
I think that Elaine Welteroth is doing an incredible job standing out front and center as a woman- as even more as a black woman, she is an example to all women to get out and be the change we want to see, to stand up and advocate for justice and equality.
We'll be featuring wonderful women paving the way in their careers as part of our new Working Wonders series with Mary Kay. Check back for more inspiration and wonderful words of wisdom.
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Working Wonder: Christina Topacio
Maintain the wonder with Christina Topacio.
Ever wonder what it’s like to take your blog and turn it into a business? Wonder no more. That’s exactly what Christina Topacio has done. The Working Wonder has been on a mission to create stories with purpose. “My mission,” she says, “is simple; connect communities and their stories to foundations that amplify them.”
Having been in the storytelling business for over ten years, she helps brands like Nike and Mattel with branding, customer acquisition, and strategy. She’s also the founder of Jig + Saw, which spent two years connecting thousands of women. What can we say? Christina is a bridge. A wonderful working bridge.
Read on to learn more about Christina, her biz, outlook on life, and why she says you need to “maintain the wonder.”
Let's start with the basics. What does the idea of Working Wonder mean to you?
Working wonder feels so grand, feels so other than. But, I’m going to own this moment and say Working Wonder means stepping into my power, she/they are stepping into their power to create action with impact within themselves, their communities, their lives. Not by some magic or spot of luck but rather through the work, the drive.
How has the work you do with businesses and business owners connecting them with their purpose made you feel wonderful?
It creates this really vulnerable experience between the idea and its creator. You become witness to them learning about trust in themselves, understanding their desires to build something of their own. I simply feel honored they allow me into that space, to support and encourage the exploration.
You’ve said that stories are meant to invite, encourage and hit home. How do you go about crafting that perfect story for each brand you work with?
Each brand has a connection point to a particular kind of human. My goal is to find him/her, identify with that person and craft a story that will hit home for them. Like most modern marketers, I focus on a niche rather than targeting the world. You find that there is more of a unison head nod when she/he can relate. I encourage all brands to do some digging, create a story about him/her, give them a name, tell their story, provide their journey. You’ll have an easier time marketing when, for us, Simone (she’s JIG+SAW’s previous marketed human) was in our minds for all our collateral and content.
What is your advice for younger female entrepreneurs struggling to feel their own sense of wonder? Or, those wondering if they're on the right track?
Maintain the wonder. Allow yourself to be on a journey. Try as many things to spark that kind of awe that wonder creates. For me, it came down to people. I needed to be IRL, see their faces, interact, to understand whether or not I was on the right track. DIG IN WOMAN!
"Allow yourself to be on a journey."
How do you aim to empower other women through JIG+SAW?
Women are already in power. We just give you the tools + resources to support that power, help you see it through.
Do you think there is a difference between 'beauty' and feeling 'beautiful?'
There is absolutely a difference and its simply stated in feeling. Beauty is beyond a feeling, it’s a state of mind. It’s this idea that your beauty is exuded through other vessels, not just the physical feeling of beautiful.
What do you hope other women feel about themselves and the concept of "beauty?"
To trust its the truth. If you remove all the influence and say, do what I did and shut down all influences in my internet life to just see myself, you start to see that the beauty reflected is the truth. It’s powerful, it’s hungry, it’s loving and compassionate. I hope women see there’s more to beauty than what you’re looking at. See how beauty shows up in how you love someone, how you care for your pets, how you speak leadership into your jobs, your companies. Find beauty in those moments.
So, speaking of beauty... we all have our own tips and tricks. We recently found out that only 20% of visible skin aging comes from the natural aging process. Mary Kay® TimeWise® Miracle Set 3D™ helps protect your skin against the rest – what else do you incorporate into your beauty and wellness routine to combat the environmental and lifestyle stressors that contribute to premature skin aging?
Getting as much sleep as I can has been a goal since my breakup. I really kind of lost it all and everything fell off. But now, incorporating more care into my daily routine like sleep, like brain dumping, like meditating, I believe all affect premature aging. I’m also a very religious skincare “routinist”. I LOVE my self-care practice of putting on and taking off everything body + face related.
When do you feel the most wonderful?
When I’m loving someone. When I look around and see being loved back. When I’m able to see my purpose showing up. It’s a really great feeling.
Who is a woman you would consider a Working Wonder. Someone you want to give a shoutout to?
So many…
Jess Puccinelli
Kanya Iwana
Chelsea Leifken
Candice Brathwaite
Roshanda Cummings
Elena Hansen
Chrystina Woody Train
Gabriele Almon
Krystal Elaine Scott
Puno Puno
We'll be featuring wonderful women paving the way in their careers as part of our new Working Wonders series with Mary Kay. Check back for more inspiration and wonderful words of wisdom.
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Nina Dobrev’s workout playlist and best fitness advice
Get #LikeNina
Nina Dobrev is an actress and fitness fanatic. You may recognize her from her roles in Return of Xander Cage and Flatliners. When she’s not busy filming on set, Nina is in the gym with her girls.
Get the scoop on her new Les Mills GRIT workout, what’s on her gym playlist and the one fitness routine every on-the go woman needs in her life below!
Tell us about your girls you workout with, what do you love about group workouts?
I am lucky enough to have an amazing group of girlfriends who all love working out as much as I do. For me, it makes the experience much more fun. Especially when we do our weekly dance classes. It doesn’t feel like a workout, we have a great time and we sweat which a bonus! I’ll take a group workout with my ladies over a solo workout any day.
What are your essentials to a healthy lifestyle as an on-the-go girl always working on the next big thing?
Working out for at least 30 minutes each day is my Zen time that keeps me going. I make sure to put my phone down and completely unplug so I can focus on doing something good for my body.
Can you chat us through how working out with Les Mills has changed how you feel about your body?
Les Mills GRIT has transformed my body completely. To put it simply, these workouts kick my ass! Les Mills GRIT workouts work every single muscle in the body and have allowed me to build strength that I never had before. Once I started seeing results, I couldn’t stop.
How do you juggle your fitness and wellness routine while filming on set?
I am fortunate enough to have Lissa (Lissa Bankston, Reebok X Les Mills International trainer) with me, we make time every single day. 30 minutes, everyone can do it. Even after the hardest, longest days, I have learned to hold myself accountable for making this time no matter what. However, what’s amazing about Les Mills is that they offer workouts you can truly do anywhere, anytime – with or without a trainer, or even a gym. Les Mills On Demand workout programs let you workout from online anywhere. They have 15 minute to 55 minute classes available for people of all fitness levels so it really gives you no excuse to not find the time.
How does maintaining a wellness routine affect your positivity and perspective?
Maintaining a consistent wellness routine is so important to me. I love working out. It’s in my body, it’s in my soul, and it’s part of who I am. Sleep, and the proper fuel are also vital to maintaining wellness as well. I won’t settle for less than 7 to 8 hours of sleep every night, and I start each day with a special shake packed with protein and vitamins to help kick start my day.
IYO, what’s the one fitness activity every working women should try to do at least once a week?
If I had to recommend one fitness activity that every woman could fit into their schedule just once a week, I would have to say the #LikeNina Les Mills GRIT workout that I developed with Reebok and Les Mills. It’s quick, only 30 minutes, but it is SO hard. The best results come from the hardest work, and I am a firm believer that everyone can make time for a 30 minute workout each day.
Go-to playlist you listen to when you’re working out:
Woman - Kesha
She Wants Me Dead - CAZZETTE
Lose Control - Hedley
No Problem - Chance the Rapper
Feel It Still - Portugal. The Man.
Most Girls - Hailee Steinfeld
Sorry Not Sorry - Demi Lovato
All Night - Steve Aoki, Lauren Jauregui
Coming to C&C LA? Nina will be joining us on our Keeping It One Million panel at this year’s conference, don’t miss it!
What’s on your workout playlist? Let us know in the comments below!
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