Why Selling Out Doesn't Mean What It Once Did

"Selling out" has long been considered the scourge of the creative. The dollar sign death knell to the artistic soul. But relationships to career and goals change. Certainly, the economy has changed. And the dreams of our twenties take different shape in our thirties.

Life happens, moving us along-- sometimes unwillingly-- and we find ourselves in the crevice between the rock and the hard place, making important decisions about the "business" of our art. OR, in the best case scenario, this next step is so fluid, so sensible, we can't help but forge ahead.

Because living the dream implies that there is only room in your life for one.

We don't think that's true.  

It's something that Anna Bulbrook, violinist/musician and now, founder of GIRLSCHOOL, an LA-based music and arts festival that celebrates and connects female-identified artists, leaders, and voices in an inclusive, action-oriented, and forward-thinking way know something about. This past January GIRLSCHOOL launched its first annual weekend-long festival, called FIELD DAY WEEKEND at the Bootleg Theater in LA. The goal is to spearhead "creative or community-based events, online editorial content, and collaborations with organizations that create or support positive change." 

So we chatted with Anna about gold records (she's got one), living "the dream," and why building a business was the next smart and oh-so-soulfilling step.  

How has your relationship to career changed from your early twenties until now?

When I was 23, I left my corporate job and ran away with the circus—I mean an indie rock band—for what turned into ten years. I saw an opportunity and I needed to see how far we could take it. With nothing to lose but a job I was lukewarm about at best, I’m so glad I did.

… Because we took it pretty far. We put out several studio albums on major labels, toured the world, did a bunch of TV shows, music festivals, all that good stuff. I even have my gold record hanging up somewhere.

That said, I’m in a different place now. I’m 33. I’ve gotten to “live the dream,” and see it through to its logical conclusion. I now want the ability to drive my future for myself. I want to put my money where my mouth is, and to make something that serves others. I want to support women in music. And I want to build a business that can carry me into my 40s and 50s. (And unless you’re in U2, that business is not being a sideman in an alternative rock band.)

"I want to support women in music. And I want to build a business that can carry me into my 40s and 50s."

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I also want some creature comforts: I want to be home on weekends and holidays. I want to participate in the cultural life of my city. I want to be present for my friends and relationships. That stuff is all real.

A lot of creatives feel the pressure to ‘stay the course’ with their dreams, sometimes to their detriment. When and how do you think “giving up” makes sense? 

Rigidity is the enemy of… everything. Throughout life, what you want can and will change. Your needs change. Your identity can change. Maybe your family situation changes, and it clarifies things. Maybe you just wake up one day and see things you never saw before. (That has happened to me a couple of times now.) These changes can happen slowly or instantaneously. And when they happen, there is zero shame in changing course, admitting that your feelings have shifted, or acknowledging that an earlier approach doesn’t work anymore.

I try to look at it as exploring and being open to what needs to happen, rather than “giving up.” The single most important thing in life is to do things as opposed to not doing them—even if that means closing a chapter to make room for something new, or taking a break to earn some income for a while.

Adrien Young, Anna Bulbrook, and Jasmine Lywen-Dill. Photo by Jen Rosenstein.

Why did you decide that this point in your career was the right time for Girlschool?

I didn’t think too hard about it. As soon as it occurred to me to do it, I went for it. If I had slowed down to think it through, would I have talked myself out of it? Would I have missed out on all this learning? Or would I have found a different challenge to take on? The beauty of signing yourself up to do something, and then figuring it out, is that doing is incredibly powerful. You can’t decide if something was successful, or fun, or completely sucky, unless you’ve done it first.

Without that first test-run of Girlschool, we wouldn’t have proven that this great un-met need existed. We wouldn’t have attracted an assembly of amazing women to work together to build Girlschool into a proper little music festival and brand. And we wouldn’t have discovered all the other ways that Girlschool can help to create a space and a platform for talented women to connect. 

How do you strike the balance between being creative/following your passion and also making money? 

I think transitions are by definition intense. When I went from working full time to being in a band, I spent a full year pulling 60-hour work weeks, plus recording with two bands, plus using all of my vacation days to go on tour. (The things you do when you’re 23!) It was hard, and I didn’t sleep a lot, and I wasn’t in the best shape. But at the end of that year, I had played on two records that changed the course of my entire life (the first The Airborne Toxic Event album, and the first Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros album), and I was in a very, very different place than when I started.

"Rigidity is the enemy of… everything."

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This year, I’ve been in a double transition. My band is on hiatus, so I’ve had to rebuild my income in addition to building Girlschool. This year, I worked harder than I did when I was 23 for less money. I took a lot of risks, I made mistakes (which I hate doing), I didn’t sleep a lot, and I recently bought some “relaxed fit” jeans. But I made it work because I care too much about Girlschool to not find a way.

I should add that in addition to earning money by playing violin, I landed a summer-long producing job this year because of… Girlschool. And even though it slowed me down a little bit with Girlschool stuff, I was happy to have the job because it supported me while letting me sharpen my Girlschool skills in a bigger sandbox.

So when I say that it’s OK to do things differently than you ever have before, I mean it.

Also, “relaxed fit” jeans are amazingly comfortable.

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Filmmaker & Cancer Survivor Encourages Young Women to "Dream, Girl"

Erin Bagwell (L) and Komal Minhas (R)

It was a Kickstarter trailer that lead to a cold email that lead to a life-changing partnership. “It was an instinctual ‘I have to be a part of this,’ there was no doubt in my mind,” says Komal Minhas. “I knew I had to give it my all, and what that meant for me was being totally authentic, totally honest with why the project impacted me so much and why it meant so much to me.”

“This,” is Dream, Girl. A documentary from creator Erin Bagwell that features the empowering stories of female-led companies and their founders. From fashion to tech to non-profit, it explores the challenges, successes, the conventions that still hold women back, and the dreams that pull them forward. It is framed by Bagwell’s and Minhas’ struggle to make the movie.

When Bagwell launched the project on Kickstarter, the two women were complete strangers.

Minhas was in Italy on what was supposed to be vacation. Like thousands of others she saw the trailer one night before dinner and told her partner, Mitch, “I have to be a part of this, I have to figure this out.”

“I knew I had to give it my all, and what that meant for me was being totally authentic, totally honest."

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Initially launched with a goal of $57,000, Bagwell was seven days and $18,000 away from reaching her target, when the project received a boost from author and life coach Marie Forleo. Forleo agreed to blast the Dream, Girl mission to her email list of about 300,000 people. Money started pouring in and so did the emails. One of which was from Minhas.

“Erin went from having $30,000 to $104,000 in three days,” says Minhas. “The amount of press, the people-- when you’re cutting through the noise to get to someone who is that busy, who is getting cold attention, going from zero to hundred, I knew I had to stand out.”

Before she made any “hard ask,” Minhas thought about what she could offer. She had her own company, Montreal-based KoMedia, which she founded at 23. “I knew I could invest a little bit of the money I had saved up from the year of operating my company,” she says. Beyond that she could strategically supply “camera equipment-- I had a couple of 5D cameras and I had some audio equipment.” In her first email to Bagwell she outlined every provision she could make. Drafting what she called a “have-to reply.” Minhas says she “created an opportunity for Erin to respond, making the option of saying ‘no’ incredibly difficult.”

“I didn’t want to be overbearing,” she says. “I kept it light, but it was a rich ask and also, offer.” The response was not immediate. “It took Erin three days to reply after I sent a follow-up email. It felt like ages to me because I knew this was went I meant to do.”

Three nights later the two were on a Skype call. It was midnight in Naples, the connection kept cutting in and out, but where the internet failed, the synergy between the women succeeded. “We told each other our life stories, why we were each doing what we were, and I again reiterated the offer, the strengths I knew I had and what I could bring the partnership.” Bagwell, she says, “she was right there with me."

"Throwing it down, not being afraid to ask, but also, not being a crazy person,” that’s how she got in the door. “It’s a strange line to toe,” she says, but acknowledges, “I prefer more over less. Fortunately in this situation, Erin did too.”

From a Skype call, an in-person meeting, emails in between, and Minhas landed on set a couple of weeks later.

That first $104k gave the filmmakers enough funding to make it through about 8 months. “For the first time,” Minhas says, “I didn’t take a salary. It was almost a full year before I did because we were bootstrapping.” In the summer 2015, lead by investor Joanne Wilson, who appears in the film, they did a round of Angel funding. That raised another $100k. They did one final round of friends and family to “make it through the finish line.”  

Though Minhas had never raised for business, she had done work raising money for charity. For instance, while at university she spearheaded a campus fundraiser that raised over half a million dollars for the Canadian Cancer Society. “I knew how to magnetize money for a cause,” she explains, “but when it’s a business you have to include how you’re going to share long-term revenue projections, understand distribution, and we had to convince our investors that beyond the social impact mission of the film we would bring them returns, and hopefully great returns.” It was a “learning curve when we were starting to pitch.”

And then there was the big curveball. “Back in March,” says Minhas, “I was actually diagnosed with cancer. I am survivor and was diagnosed cancer free a couple of weeks ago. But when we got the news March 2nd our premiere was set for May 26th at the White House. We figured it out and did our best.”

Erin Bagwell, third from left and Komal Minhas, fourth from left at the White House screening. 

They premiered the film to a private, 190-person screening for women entrepreneurs, followed by a round table discussion led by Diana Doukas, the director of the White House Business Council.

The response was overwhelming and powerful. “It took two years to create the film and we’re anticipating it will take a full two to fully maximize the distribution. We’re not only creatives, but we made a film about business and we are running a successful business.” Since launching in June in New York, Dream, Girl has had over 100 screenings in seven different countries. They are planning to scale that number to over 1000 in the next year.

Another arm of the goal is to give young women “better examples of what wealth and what wealth in business looks like,” says Minhas. “We don’t want to be Wolf of Wall Street. That’s not our jam, but it’s a no-brainer that a woman can be in power.

"We don’t want to be Wolf of Wall Street. That’s not our jam, but it’s a no-brainer that a woman can be in power."

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Minhas and Bagwell are also turning the forty plus hours of unused footage into a web series called, Your Moment of Ambition, which they are looking to launch in 2017. The series will be 20 episodes at about 2 minutes each. "There are so many stories that couldn't make it into a film,” says Minhas. “Those of sexual harassment to a professor at Wharton talking about why it’s also a no-brainer that every man should be a feminist.”  

They are not only incredibly inspired by the people they interviewed, but by what Minhas says are “the next generation of feminists like Zendaya and Rowan Blanchard. These are really woke women. They have Queen B to look up to and some of them are just thirteen, fourteen years old.”

She says “Maybe Gen Z won’t see the work and effort it took to get here,” but “there will be no barriers in this generation's mind that they can be limitless.”

Dream, big. Dream, Girl.

For more information or to host your own screening and bring Dream, Girl to your community, visit the site here. 

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This Entrepreneur Walked Away From a Scholarship at a Top University

Written by: Karin Eldor

Whether Jasmine Star waxes poetic about entrepreneurship on a podcast, offers up social media engagement tips in her Facebook Live workshops or talks about her dog Polo in her Insta Stories, one thing is clear: she speaks as she is. The wedding photographer and social media strategist has blazed a trail of authenticity, guts and determination.

Jasmine’s star rose to fame as a wedding photographer when she was 25 years old. But here’s the clincher: when she first picked up her camera, she was actually a UCLA law student who didn’t know the first thing about photography. Luckily, she’s into shots in the dark.

Talk about a pivot: Star took a life-changing leap of faith, without even knowing if photography was her passion. 

“That's the crazy thing,” she admits. “I didn't know if photography was my passion... I believed it was my passion, I hoped it was my passion, but I didn't know it was my passion.  However, I had to at least try to figure it out. I owed it to myself.”

Star explains: “When I was 25 years old, doctors said my mom was dying of brain cancer.  She was only 50.  In that moment, I thought I was having a midlife crisis.  I was literally half the age of my dying mother… I understood how fast life flies by and I promised to do everything I could to ensure I didn't look back on my life from a hospital bed and wonder, What if…”

So she walked away from her UCLA law school scholarship to follow her heart.

“I believe entrepreneurs owe themselves the chance to try to pursue their curiosity,” Star continues. “Curiosity is the thing that leads to passion, so I'm hell-bent on chasing my interests to determine if they'll morph into my wildest passions.”

“Entrepreneurs owe themselves the chance to try to pursue their curiosity.” 

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That Christmas, her husband JD gifted her with a camera, and the rest is her-story. Jasmine pursued her (then TBD) passion and clicked her way to become one of the world’s premier wedding photographers. Four years in, she became one of the most sought-after photographers in Cali and was voted “Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World” and “Top 10 Most Socially Influential Photographer.”  

Her advice to others also considering a pivot? “Release yourself from people's expectations of your decisions. If you're looking for people to ‘get’ you or applaud your career-switching decisions, you may be searching for a long time.  The vast majority of people are afraid of trying something new, but -- more so -- afraid of failing publicly.  Most people don't want to be vulnerable and run the risk of closing the doors to a dream.”

Star adds, “Your responsibility isn't to handle the naysayers, nor is it to convince others that your decision is right. Your only job is to do what you've been created to do.  You must stand in the rightness of your vision and let your success silence their doubts.” (And, mic drop.)

But everything has its purpose and Star’s law school experience has impacted the businesswoman she is today:

“I firmly believe every experience helps me as an entrepreneur.  For example… Being a waitress taught me how to hustle and smile when dealing with rude customers. Working in retail taught me how to dress for the job you want, not the job you have (and properly fold a T-shirt). Volunteering for a janitorial union in L.A. taught me to treat everyone with utmost respect, even if they're cleaning toilets. Law school taught me to think in non-emotional terms and see every situation in black and white.”

Amazingly, Star evolved from wedding photog to branding & social media strategist, helping other entrepreneurs and creatives build a brand and pursue their vision, with her Path to Profitability business summits and workshops. Her evolution from creative to consultant is proof that some of the best career transitions happen organically.

"Stand in the rightness of your vision and let your success silence their doubts.”

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“It was natural. Totally. I built my brand from scratch and used social media to buttress it.  Shortly thereafter I taught other photographers how to do it for their businesses and soon a variety of business owners asked for my help.  I began consulting with creative entrepreneurs and saw their business explode with growth and entrepreneurial flair.”

Star explains: “The Path to Profitability was a labor of love and resulted with 12 hours of teaching content to entrepreneurs on how to build a brand and use social media to market it effectively. We hosted the workshop and recorded it to share it digitally with entrepreneurs.  When I was creating it, I set aside two hours every day for four months to write and assemble the content.”  

Star’s advice on how to maintain your voice as a brand?

“Write your copy like you're talking to a friend.  There aren't rules for good writing. Actually, there are lots of rules.  But ignore them. In today's digital world, the main goal is to get your point across as quickly as possible, in the strongest fashion… and write it the way you'd send an email to a good friend.  Make jokes.  Add smiley faces.  Talk to, not down to, people.  This makes a world of difference.”

Amazingly, with everything Star has on her plate, she still manages to answer all the emails to her website within 48 hours, all the while engaging with her over 160K Instagram followers.

And interaction and engagement seem to be what makes Jasmine Star the brand tick. Not only are her posts authentic, but she loves sharing nuggets of truth and wisdom for those who scroll her social media feeds. This is likely why her INSTA180 free 7-day challenge resonated with people.

“I love social media.  Like, love it. I've been able to grow my social platforms with concentrated effort and dedication.  Most of my marketing efforts are bolstered by social media, so I love teaching others how to use it.  INSTA180 was created to teach entrepreneurs how to use Instagram for their businesses. I've learned being popular isn't as important as being profitable.  Can I get an amen?!?”

"I've learned being popular isn't as important as being profitable."

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But it’s not all roses, right? So how does Star deal with the thorns and keep viewing the world with rose-colored filters?

“You are enough. You have enough. You need to give yourself grace, in spite of your mistakes. Abundance flows through you. You need to celebrate others' successes as happily as you do your own.” This is Star’s own mantra. 

As for the entrepreneur' mom:

“Here's some good news:  my mother miraculously recovered from brain cancer… and she's the first person I call when I'm ready to make yet another pivot.” Which, happens to be her advice for surviving the daily hustle: “When you're down, get up. Take breaks when you need them. Call your mom. Invest in good coffee.”

Amen number two. 

###

Karin Eldor is a coffee-addicted copywriter, with a long-time love for all things pop culture, fashion and tech. Ever since she got her first issues of YM (remember that one?) and Seventeen in the mail, she was hooked on the world of editorial content. After earning her Communications degree, she spent 6 years honing her craft as a Senior Editor for AskMen.com. More recently, Karin enjoyed gramming and strategizing as Social Media Manager at ALDO. Today, she is Chief Content Writer at 818 Agency and a social media consultant.

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This Founder Is Winning the Maternity Leave Fight

Michelle Feiner, founder of Emissaries. 

Michelle Feiner, founder of Emissaries says she is "a hustler and entrepreneur at heart." The mom and business woman created the first U.S. recruiting agency to service the niche of parental leave coverage and "to support the U.S.’ evolving leave policies and growing gig economy."

Maternal and parental leave is a hot 2016 election topic, but it's also something that's been close to Feiner's heart since working in the freelance world herself, often as a maternity fill-in. 

Hear what she has to say about pregnant lady bosses (which, she currently is herself), what policies in the U.S. need to change, and why her company doesn't take a cut of freelancer pay. 

Women in the workplace! From pay gaps to covert and overt sexism, it’s still a complicated place. What has been your experience as a woman in the working world?

I’ve always enjoyed work – even in my teens. I’m a hustler and entrepreneur at heart. My career gives me purpose, fulfillment and perspective. With that said, I have had some negative experiences as a woman in the working world. The most memorable: I was sexually harassed by one former manager many years ago, early in my career. He grabbed a fist full of my butt in front of clients. I turned around and looked him dead in the eye but said no words, out of shock. Unfortunately, this manager had a reputation in the office for this sort of behavior and somehow, he got away with it several times because no one spoke up. I was about to be promoted and I didn’t want to risk the raise. A shame, right? But now, for the most part, I can choose who I work with and altogether avoid shady characters! ☺

You spent a large portion of your freelance career filling in maternity leaves. How did that happen? What’s that trajectory?

The transition from full-time to freelance was one of the easiest transitions I ever made. I created a portfolio. I positioned myself as a freelancer online. I let my professional network know I was available for freelance work and landed my first gig within a couple of weeks. One gig led to another (referrals accounted for the majority of my projects) and fortunately, I was often booked months in advance. A lot of the maternity leave fill-in work I did was in the magazine industry – which is predominately female (read: lots of women inherently going on maternity leave). I raised my hand for the right opportunities, developed a niche in digital sales marketing, constantly networked and was very aware of my reputation as a freelancer and maternity leave fill-in. 

"I raised my hand for the right opportunities."

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For many, the freelance world is a hard, hard hustle that can leave workers feeling undervalued. But you’ve said it made you feel more valued in your career. Can you chat a bit about that?

Freelancing isn’t for everyone. I know many talented people who tried their hand at freelancing yet prefer full-time employment. Personally, I enjoyed the hustle and constant change. Plus, I made more money, worked less and was more focused on producing good work vs. navigating office politics. Maternity fill-ins are particularly amazing projects for freelancers because often the expecting mom is in this planning state-of-mind as she prepares for her baby’s arrival and that translates to the most detailed turnover reports you’ve ever seen! The women I filled in for trusted me to be their ally at work and I truly wanted them to come back to their roles with their workload and team in a good place. Speaking of teams, many of the teams I worked with during maternity leave fill-ins were incredibly welcoming because they were just so stoked the workload wasn’t going to fall on their shoulders while their colleague was out on leave. This is one of the most important benefits of parental leave covers – the entire team feels valued and supported.  

Then came Emissaries. Why was it important for you to start this company?

Most everyone knows parental leave policies in the U.S. are pretty horrible compared to the rest of the world. Starting in 2015 it became a hot topic in the national news. I had the idea for Emissaries years ago when I was freelancing and covering maternity leaves. The timing was right last year and Emissaries launched in November of 2015 in order to support the U.S.’ evolving leave policies and growing gig economy. There are models like Emissaries in Europe and Australia but Emissaries was the first U.S. recruiting agency to specialize in parental leave coverage. On another, but equal note, I wanted to create an agency and marketplace that would sincerely behoove freelancers. We’ve never and we won’t take a cut of freelancers’ pay. That’s vital for attracting the best freelancers to our network. The best freelancers get constant job and gig offers; it doesn’t make sense for them to give up a portion of their pay. It does make sense for them to sign up with a talent-matching agency like Emissaries if it helps them get access to new clients.

Post-launch, you found out you were pregnant, which surprise! has the ability to derail anyone. But you’ve used this to your "professional advantage.” What does that mean and how did you do it? 

I’ve been fortunate and my energy levels are through the roof. Perhaps I’m just excited for my future. Planning for a baby’s arrival forced me to think about the future of Emissaries. One of my immediate thoughts the day I found out I was pregnant (which, mind you was four months post-launch!) was: "what am I going to do with Emissaries?" I'm constantly advocating and evangelizing for parental leave and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't make a plan for myself. So I devised a plan to build and launch a self-service, online platform that will enable our clients and curated network of freelancers to directly connect while I spend a few months prioritizing my daughter's health. Emissaries' new freelance marketplace (launching in late September at www.emissaries.co) is the obvious next step for the company; it will make sourcing and connecting with qualified freelancers even more turnkey, transparent and affordable. Pregnancy has only encouraged me to expedite Emissaries' growth strategy. As the number of freelancers in our network and the quantity of clients have grown, the natural evolution of the business is to digitize the experience and utilize technology to improve the talent matching process. Many of the pregnant women I help find freelancer fill-ins for share a similar trajectory wherein pregnancy has had a positive effect on their careers.

Speaking of pregnancies— let’s talk about the #pregnantbosses. What does that hashtag mean to you? 

#PregnantBosses celebrates pregnant, professional women. There's a misconception that pregnant women aren't as committed to their careers as their peers - and that's the myth we're trying to dispel by profiling expecting and new moms who are dedicated to and enthusiastic about the future of their companies and careers. Pregnancy doesn't have to derail your professional goals and most importantly, pregnant women should not be seen as less valuable than their counterparts. Quite the opposite, these women are powerful forces! P.S. We welcome new submissions on our site, www.pregnantbosses.com. 

"There's a misconception that pregnant women aren't as committed to their careers as their peers."

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Have you found someone to cover you? When you run a company is it realistic to take time off after baby? 

Obviously, being the founder of a self-funded startup is different than being an employee but I am certainly creating my “village.” I have a team that supports Emissaries and I’m in the midst of interviewing for a role that will be my right-hand person. Emissaries new online freelance marketplace is built to be primarily self-service but of course we’ll have a community to foster, freelancers to vet and support emails to answer. Additionally, I’ll be pausing our full-service recruiting services until I’m ready to recommit to that level of hands-on work. This is my first pregnancy so I’m adjusting as I go while making sure I have the support both myself and my daughter need.

What are some issues you’ve seen affect pregnant working women?

Some feel more professionally motivated and supported than ever before - thanks to improving parental leave policies, evolving corporate cultures and new social norms. Others face unjust challenges of additional gender discrimination and unfounded assumptions that they aren’t committed to their careers or companies. Various global surveys report that 30-77% of pregnant women and new mothers experience discrimination at work (statistics vary by country). Pregnancy discrimination is unfortunately alive and well! 

What would you like to see change?

In general, I think U.S. companies could do a better job of supporting employees - whether they need paid leave to take care of a newborn, a sick loved one or an elderly parent. Much of the opposition to paid family leave is centered around misinformation or confusion, especially around business impact. Particularly where we have data from CA or RI about their experiences, we can correct the record with the real story. I’m a big believer of the mantra: it takes a village. We could also do a better job of thinking about how paid leave affects teams. Many companies simply redistribute that employee's workload to the existing team.

"In general U.S. companies could do a better job of supporting employees."

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Some companies have the foresight to hire a seasoned freelancer to fill in for the individual and support the team. This strategy has many positive effects: one point of contact makes the transition less disjointed, colleagues will be less likely (even subconsciously) to resent the individual on leave, it provides an opportunity to glean expertise and insights from a reputable source in your industry, it's an excellent gesture for companies to demonstrate that they support working parents and an overall wellness-based, balanced culture and lastly, your company will attract and maintain top talent. If employees feel valued, they are more likely to reciprocate with their loyalty and hard work.

How and why is Emissaries rewarding?

We’re supporting two topics at the very forefront of the world’s workforce dialogue –  freelancers and working parents. There's certainly an element of social change to Emissaries’ business model. I'm motivated and inspired to create a new social norm for companies to offer working parent benefits, employees to take paid family leave and better support the booming independent workforce. We’re paving new paths! 

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Gal on the Go: The Ultimate Boss Guide to Atlanta

CREATE & INNOVATE in collaboration with Marriott Hotels

photo credit: Kathryn McCray Photography

When we chose Atlanta as the next stop for Create & Cultivate, there were more than a few good reasons. As a growing hub for diversity and tech, Atlanta has also been named #5 in the best cities for female founders with 44.3% of female-owned firms in the city. #nobrainer. 

So it felt natural when we headed to Atlanta this past month in partnership with Marriott Hotels to profile female entrepreneurs and business women living in the City of Trees. Like our San Francisco City Guide, each woman is at a different point in her career. Each with a different focus and personal definition of success and balance.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in downtown (Hunger Games anyone?! see elevator shot above) and explored the city, hit up Barcelona Wine Bar, chatted work/life balance, what it means to have a job that puts you up in the air, and why ATL is the place to be. 

MATTIE JAMES, FOUNDER, MATTIEOLOGIE 

photo credit: Chris Payne

Mattie James, lifestyle and business blogger at Mattieologie has broads in Atlanta. Fans and women who listen and take the career advice she doles our seriously (as they should). 

When we met up to grab coffee at the brick-lined Octane near Georgia Tech, one woman couldn't help but approach her. "Are you Mattieologie?" she asked with excitement. 

It was not only a reminder of how bloggers and influencers become their brand-- at least via public perception, but also served as a reminder that dishing out career advice is a big responsibility.

Mattie knows this. It's not only something she's "comfortable with" but also says that her "intentions are whole-hearted." She wants her followers and readers to know that "that power will always belong to them. I'm simply just a guide." 

When she first started Mattieologie she was working a full time job and blogging simultaneously. "I think having a full time job and tackling blogging at a full time level is exactly that. Working two jobs. You have to wear the employee hat - where you answer to management or a supervisor - and then the entrepreneur hat where the last decisions are on you." Pulling double duty was something that forced her to be a better blogger. "It made me take myself seriously," she says. 

"The better version of myself is the only person I'm trying to keep up with." 

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Like many working women Mattie says she "danced around the idea" of leaving her 9 to 5 instead of giving herself a hard deadline. She says she really made the decision, "subconsciously when I had a baby." But then she was "Luckily let go in June 2015 and got really focused."

The child of immigrant parents who both worked, Mattie learned plenty of lessons about entrepreneurship growing up. "My mom did Mary Kay for years and was incredibly successful at it. The thing I admired most about her is that she dominated both at work and at home. She created a balance that made me believe you could do it all. My dad has such incredible work ethic which I think he passed on to me and my sister. They made us believe in the American dream." Her sister has also been bit by the entrepreneurial spirit.   

Today Mattie is a working mom who says that balance means "making it work by any means possible. And that balance looks different every single day. There are days when I'm an amazing mom, fantastic blogger but dropped the ball as a wife. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully the day you get it right."

She calls Atlanta "a city of balance." And is always loving on "the food, the people, and the feeling." 

Favorite spot to get coffee: Octane off of Marietta St.

Grab the perfect shot: Whiskey Blue at the W Buckhead

A spot in the city that has special meaning to you: Fox Theatre. Where me and Hubs had our first date.

Your favorite spot in the city to sit still and be creative: Condesa Coffee

Restaurant you can go to time and again and always leave satisfied: Gio's Chicken, Little Italia 

Go when you want to be alone: Brash Coffee

Go when you want to be with friends: Edgewood - Mother, Sound Table, Noni's and other cool bars

Tourist spot that’s a secret guilty pleasure (that everyone should visit): Centennial Olympic Park

COCO BASSEY, FOUNDER, MILLENNIELLE 

photo credit: Kathryn McCray Photography 

Coco Bassey is at the point in her career where Mattie James once found herself. She's working two full time jobs-- what she calls her "professional job" and her "personal brand."

It's important to Coco that she succeeds at both. 

"I've found that working with people who support my vision on both fronts is what has really helped me. My blog is still a solo project, but I have a really supportive family who knows what I'm trying to do." She says she asks herself every day if it's time to focus full time on one or the other but feels like, "everything I've learned in my professional career has really contributed to Millennielle's success. I'd love to keep my double life going for as long as I humanly can... until one or the other takes absolute precedence."

As a woman and student of the world, having lived in five different countries, Coco has learned a lot about business and building relationships from being mobile and adaptable. The current secret to her hustle is "no days off," but that doesn't mean it's not a challenge. She also knows a lot about challenge. She started Millennielle during a time of particular hardship. 

"When I started my blog back in 2013, I was just a few months out from a thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment," she says. "I had to leave my job out of school because of visa issues, and I was going through a break-up that affected me a lot more than it probably should have — probably because of the former two." She says it felt like "nothing was working for me," but one of her escapes was "admiring the digital spaces girls just like me had created for themselves by way of blogging and/or starting up small businesses." 

"The most successful women I've known have never played it safe," she says, "which is so inspiring to me, because sometimes I feel like I could do so much more to make my mark! What I've discovered though, is that risks come in so many different forms, so I try not to be too hard on myself and just take things one day at a time.

"The most successful women I've known have never played it safe."

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With Millenielle, Coco's goal has always been "to to be a representative voice of all millennial women" and share her unique perspective. "There's only one me with my own story to tell!" she says. "I'm a firm believer of concentrating on bettering myself and reaping the rewards of the work I put in, instead of focusing on what the next person is doing. I think that's what any business-savvy person does to keep their head above the water — comparison is the thief of joy."

Coco didn't take to Atlanta right away, saying "it took a long time for me to fall in love with this city. Growing up in cities like Prague and Berlin I thought living in the South was not for me." And yet, the City of Trees kept pulling her back in and she finally made the decision to "bloom where I'm planted." 

"You may have to dig a little," she notes, "but there really is so much to love about ATL."

Favorite spot to get coffee: Brash Coffee in West Midtown has the smoothest coffee I've had in a long time, and I love the quirky shipping container situation that they have going on

Go shopping: The Shops, Buckhead Atlanta (featured above) 

Take a business meeting: Bread & Butterfly in Inman Park

Favorite neighborhood and why: This is a tough one, but I would have to give it to West Midtown. It's where most of my favorite restaurants are located and I love that the neighborhood hasn't lost its personality, even though it's right in Midtown!

Meet up with other bloggers: Bartaco! Fun cocktails and delicious tacos... who can resist?

Your favorite spot in the city to be creative: Ponce City Market

Go when you want to be alone: Home :)

Go when you want to be with friends: My closest friends live out of town, so whenever I'm looking to have a good girl's weekend out, you'll probably find me at the airport checking in for a weekend getaway! 

Listen to live music: Although I do love a good music festival, arena concerts aren't my favorite. I love smaller intimate gigs, so The Tabernacle is my favorite!

TISHA THOMPSON, VICE PRESIDENT, PUR COSMETICS 

photo credit: Kathryn McCray Photography 

Tisha Thompson didn't start out in the beauty department at PÜR, but in finance. The now VP tells us, " I was an Accountant at the company in the early stages of PÜR getting started.  At the time I was a freelance makeup artist doing weddings and music videos, etc and one day shared my side gig with management and much to their surprise they said hey lets give her a shot on the marketing team.  I then shifted over right as PÜR was in the middle of 6 test stores and now 4000 stores around the globe later I am so excited to be apart of such an amazing brand and team."

She has a proven track record of driving profitability while implementing innovative beauty solutions in a saturated market place-- innovative being the key word. She understands how important it is for a brand to be able to pivot and shift. "PÜR has really reinvented itself in the last year," she says. She's talked about getting the "branding right," which for Tisha means "staying relevant while staying true to who you really are.  For us at PÜR it's so important to not chase the next 'trend' and try to be the most 'trendy' brand but is it important to be on trend." It's a fine balance, but a challenge she's up for and once she understands has to include social responsibility. 

"I recently read a stat that said 58% of women started wearing makeup before the age of 18," she says. "With so many women starting to wear makeup at such a young age I think its critical that we remain socially responsible as a brand and provide the best high performance products that are the very best for your skin.  Being socially responsible and helping women feel beautiful as we say one compact at a time will naturally lend itself room to be apart of women's day-to-day and therefore a critical part of their lifestyle." 

"With so many women starting to wear makeup at such a young age, it's critical that we remain socially responsible as a brand."

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When it comes to Atlanta as the HQ for PÜR, Tisha has this to say: "Atlanta is such an inspiring city.  What I love the most is that it’s a very diverse city and so much like the PÜR customer we are able to serve so many different kinds of people of all different races and skin tones.  As the complexion authority we have products for all women."

Favorite spot to head after you’ve gotten your makeup done: I love getting dolled up when I go out to any of the many events always happening in Atlanta. PÜR is the official makeup sponsor the Atlanta Hawks Cheerleaders and the Atlanta Falcons Cheerleaders and so I love to attend the games all dolled up so I can tell people this is what the cheerleaders are wearing. 

Go-to spot in the city when you need to relax: Relax what is that?  I always say I will relax when I am dead. But if I ever need a moment I generally go and get a massage.  There are so many good ones but I particularly like Spa Waverly at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel.

Favorite location to have a glass of wine: It’s a little out in the burbs as we say but it's amazing. It's called The Gifted Ferret located in Woodstock, GA. They do FREE wine tastings every Saturday and I really enjoy going to learn about new wines. 

Guilty pleasure “tourist” spot: The Georgia Aquarium.  I really love to go and take family or friends that come to visit because it's really spectacular. 

The one thing about ATL that lives up to its reputation: Nightlife & Music. The night scene is a very vibrant in Atlanta.  There is always somewhere cool to go and listen to great music and have a great time.

Best spot for coffee: Café Intermezzo. I love the vibe!

Best spot on a Sunday: Sunday is reserved for family time.  I love to go for walks with my family and just enjoy the day. 

LYNNETTE COLE, DIRECTOR EDUCATION GLOBAL RETAIL, PUR COSMETICS

photo credit: Kathryn McCray Photography

For more than 16 years Lynnette Cole has been a beauty expert and TV personality, working to empower women to be their best selves. She never expected to be in the beauty industry, but the former Miss USA 2000 is now focussed on on being a global ambassador and makeup educator. "I didn’t have any 'makeup experience'," she says, "but I have always had a love and passion for beauty."

"Growing up my parents always told me, you can be and achieve anything you put your mind to. I’ve always known that I wanted career that combined my passion & drive to make a difference and I’ve always known that I wanted to work for a company that invests in training and growth. In many ways PÜR “ticks” all the boxes."

"Growing up my parents always told me, you can be and achieve anything you put your mind to. "

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"Since I’m not one to be still," she says, "the beauty industry is a good fit because it’s constantly changing and evolving. Being a part of the PÜR team has been a great training ground in so many was, being able to travel to different countries doing what I enjoy is a bonus!" 

PÜR's home base is in Atlanta, but Lynnette lives in Florida and travels for the company. When we met up she was about to go wheels up to Australia. "For me," she says, "traveling has always re-energized my creativity and inner spirit. Being a global brand, it’s important for us to travel and connect with our PÜR Beauties around the globe! Travel also provides invaluable insight, education and hands-on learning." 

That's not to say jet lag and long flights don't take their toll, but there are ways Lynnette manages to #travelbrilliantly. "The one thing that helps me adjust to a 15-hour time difference is adapting my 'home' routine to my travel routine. I get up at 6am, no matter where I am around the globe, exercise and drinks lots of water! But I must give credit to my amazing team! Without them, I’d be a mess!"

As an entrepreneurial woman on-the-go Lynnette advises young business women to "keep educating yourself and broaden your social and intellectual reach by reading, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, networking and having a mentor. There is so much to gain from someone else’s knowledge and expertise. AND be generous with your success by mentoring and lifting others.

"Success is happiness," she says. "Becoming successful is a combination of hard work, preparation and opportunity. Maintaining success is like a relationship, it requires attention, care, nurturing and respect."

"Maintaining success is like a relationship, it requires attention, care, nurturing and respect."

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The first spot you go when you fly in from Florida: My first stop is always the office!

Favorite spot to head after you’ve gotten your makeup done: I think anytime you pamper yourself and get your “makeup done,” you instantly feel a little pep in your step! I always tell my clients, “don’t waste this look (makeup), call your friends and go out for at least a cocktail”! Personally, I love treating myself for a blow-out at Dry Bar!

Go-to spot in the city when you need to relax: Wherever my friends gather! Recently it’s been Hearth for some “guilt free” pizza!

Favorite location to have a glass of wine: I love trying new places. I’m really excited to try the new French Bistro Le Bilboquet! The Le Boeuf Bourguignon has my name all over it!

The one thing about ATL that lives up to its reputation: Being raised in Tennessee, I appreciate Atlanta’s southern charm and I love the food!

HEIDI DAVIS, NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR, PUR COSMETICS 

photo credit: Kathryn McCray Photography

As the National Sales Director, Heidi Davis brings PÜR over 25 years of prestige beauty and skin care experience. She's mother of four but also travels for work. Like Lynnette home base for Heidi is not in Atlanta, but she flies in from Ohio. Of the constant movement Heidi says, "I am a gypsy by nature. I have lived in NY, Miami, Orlando and Atlanta before settling in Ohio to raise my family. Traveling keeps me sane."

Her trick for managing travel days and jet lag is "work," but she says she "often won't buy the in-air wifi so people can't reach me, but I can respond to them." 

"I easily bang-out 100+ emails if they aren't coming back in. I take mild amusement knowing when I do connect that my team gets 50 emails in five minutes. Is that a little twisted?" she laughs, "I have to keep them on their toes." 

She says that traveling and "being in the air 50% of my time teaches you a lot. You learn to maximize on your time. Prioritize and put first things first. You know to pack light and to expect the unexpected. I have a mantra - a delayed flight is the universe's way of slowing you down and saving you from something, sometimes yourself.

"I have a mantra - a delayed flight is the universe's way of slowing you down and saving you from something, sometimes yourself."

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She's worked for what she calls "uber-hype brand Urban Decay," but made the decision to leave after the birth of her second baby ten years ago. "I was the National Sales Director," she says,  "and was beginning to feel that Urban just wasn't my lifestyle anymore. Brands are a lifestyle. Your career is a huge part of that lifestyle. I wanted to be part of something that was more me. A brand that was healthy, good for you, with great messaging that empowers women and addressed real life beauty concerns. Representing green eyeshadow called Acid Rain just was no longer "my thing". 

Of the company Heidi says, "We are a true family at PÜR. We leave no man (or woman) behind here. It is a rare and beautiful thing." 

The first spot you go when you fly in from Ohio: Typically for coffee. I get on the earliest flight into town so this is a must. We don't have Caribou Coffee anywhere near me in Ohio and it is a lovely change of pace from Starbucks. 

Where you go to recharge: As a frequent traveler I love to recharge at those crazy little massage kiosk things they have in the airport. I will take a massage everywhere and anywhere I can. Atlanta airport by the way is one of the best in the country. Shopping, food, etc.

Favorite spot to have dinner with a colleague: We all love and frequent South City Kitchen. I am a huge fan of shrimp and grits so this is a must for me.

Favorite spot in the city to meet someone new: Chops Lobster Bar is a great place to socialize and I have always had a great time at The Tavern at Phipps. Their Tavern Chips are fun to share over a few post work cocktails.

Secret guilty “tourist” spot pleasure: Tourist spot...You have to go to the Georgia Aquarium. It's amazing!!

Favorite ATL neighborhood: Buckhead. I can shop, eat, and see my secret celebrity crushes all within a few miles of each other. 

Best place to grab a great bite when you’re in a hurry: I don't care what anyone says... Chick fil A biscuits with cheese are amazing and I could eat them daily. My fast and furious guilty pleasure.

The one spot in ATL you’d recommend to anyone: Breakfast at The St Regis - It's the St Regis, need I say more?

Create & Cultivate is visiting 4 more cities across the United States in partnership with Marriott. For our next city, we're heading to Miami. 

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The One Thing This CEO Says She Won't Do

photo credit: Richer Poorer 

Top shelf products in your top drawer. That's Innerwear company Richer Poorer, minus the hefty price tag. 

Founded six years ago by Iva Pawling and Tim Morse, Pawling says "Richer Poorer is building a brand that makes you never want to leave your house." (But, you will.)

Richer Poorer started at the bottom, literally, launching with colorfully patterned men’s socks and then expanded into women’s and kids’ socks, and underwear. Last December the company made the decision to add men's tees to the lineup. The tees were, "so passionately loved by our customers and friendlies," says Pawling, "that we fast-tracked our women's tee collection launch, and got them to market last month." That was July of this year. According to Pawling, "Women's tees sold out the first day, and have been making up over 20% of our RP.com sales since." 

This success can be tied to what Pawling believes "is the evolution of the Athleisure movement we’re all pretty tired of seeing. Instead of wearing workout clothes all day when you’re not actually working out just because of comfort, we wear our Innerwear that we’re still comfortable in, and feel presentable outside the house."

It's also a way of dressing that works well for moms, a role Pawling knows herself as mother to son, Ford. It's simple, casual, and perhaps mostly importantly, convertible. She'll wear their tanks to yoga and then wear the same tank with a fancy necklace, skirt and heels to dinner on the weekend. "Our products are blank canvases," she says. 

From scratch beginnings to a Shoes.com acquisition, we caught up with Pawling to talk mom and mogul-hood, the evolution of Richer Poorer, and if it's possible to hustle your way to happy. (She says yes, with one major "duh" caveat.) 

Mom and mogul. These roles are not mutually exclusive these days, but that doesn’t mean they’re simple. How do you do it? 

The only way I do it is with lots of help and planning. My husband and I split parenting duties pretty evenly so that we can seamlessly parent on our own when the other one is traveling or tied up, and Ford has total consistency. We also have a really great nanny as well who we couldn’t function without. She fills in the holes for us when we both have early morning meetings, crazy schedules, etc.  

One of the reasons I wanted to start my own company was because I knew I wanted to be a mom, and wanted to have control over my time out of the house. I stayed home with Ford on Fridays until he started pre-school, which was such a gift. Having one day of the week that was just for him and I to go to music class, go to the park, become besties, was great. The flip side to that coin is that running your own business does not come with a three month maternity leave, so I was back in the office a week after having him. Sacrifice is the name of the game. 

Also, lots of planning and foresight is needed to keep our life organized and running smoothly. I have found that parents with careers get much more efficient with their days almost instantly, so we pre-plan everything we can. A month in advance for travel if possible, and every Sunday go through the coming week’s logistics of meetings, drop offs and pick ups. 

How do you NOT do it?

I do not prescribe to being a martyr for my child by sacrificing myself. I love my child more than anything on earth, but I also love working and my career. Fitness is really important to me so I still squeeze it in as consistently as I can. What I learned early on was that I am not a good mom for Ford if I am not doing what I need, to be happy.

"I do not prescribe to being a martyr for my child by sacrificing myself."

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Taking care of myself mentally and physically allows me to be really present and engaged during the time I have with him, rather than in my own head battling myself. 

What are some parts of modern motherhood that you don’t buy into?

Parenting as a sport and the mommy wars. The judgment in parenting is something I have great disdain for. It’s become very present in the last decade, likely because of social media, but it is one of the most destructive things we do to each other. The topics are endless – epidurals, breastfeeding, sleep training, organic food, co-sleeping, potty training. We are all doing our best, and doing what we believe to be right for our child, so I really wish the divisive speak would come to a stop. 

Similar question, slightly different approach: If there was a part of modern motherhood that would end up on sale… what would it be? 

Unsolicited advice. After I had Ford I was totally blown away with how much direction strangers feel compelled to give when it comes to parenting. There is no other subject matter that this happens with, only parenting. And while I think most people mean well, as a parent with a young child the – shoulda / coulda / wouldas – are exhausting during a fairly confusing time when you are just trying to find your own way. 

photo credit: Richer Poorer 

In what ways did the role of founder help you prepare for your role as mom? 

There is nothing that prepares you more for parenthood, than running your own business. The parallels are endless. I was really prepared for becoming a mom to flip my entire world over, and while it certainly did from a priority perspective, on a day-to-day basis I felt like it was so similar to the early day of Richer Poorer.

In the world of a start up, the business changes all the time. The second you think you have things on lock, everything shifts and you have to dig back in to adjust. Kids are exactly the same. You think you have them figured out, and they do something like START WALKING. 

And the sleep, oh the sleep. My sleepless nights and learning to function on not very much of it began when I started Richer Poorer, so once Ford arrived it felt very similar and like old hat. 

Are there ways your leadership changed postpartum? 

My leadership style definitely changed postpartum. It softens you at the core, so I think I’m a lot more understanding than I was before. I give people a bit more rope when we make mistakes. On the flip side I’ve become a lot more direct and decisive since I can no longer afford to burn the midnight oil at the office. I require efficiency out of our team and they’ve become really good at moving through things quickly.

What are some ways you think Richer Poorer is disrupting the market?

Two ways – by defining a new category for the industry that is focused on how we’re dressing these days, Innerwear – and working really hard to be part of the solution for retailers in this really turbulent and tough market. 

We believe there is a new way of dressing that has taken over most of our wardrobes that is really focused on comfort, utility and simplicity – your Innerwear. We’re determined to be the brand that makes your favorite pieces that live at the top of your drawer, that you can’t wait to put on every day – tees, underwear, socks, sweats, etc.

There is a lot of doom and gloom in our industry right now with the shift in consumers buying habits, and quite a few brands are either launching with the plan to just be direct-to-consumer, or established ones are trying to shift their model to stop doing wholesale and only do direct-to-consumer. We really believe that you need to build both channels to support each other, in order to grow a strong brand. We are focused on working with our retailers to create unique buying experiences in their stores that tell our brand story rather than just product, and give the customer a unique way to shop that they can’t necessarily get online. 

photo credit: Richer Poorer 

When you’re repositioning what are facets you have keep, where do you have some wiggle room?

The defining brand tenets of what Richer Poorer was built on haven’t changed – Elevate Everyday – Honest Hustle – California Born. 

Elevate everyday speaks to not only our why, which is to create great products that make people’s days better in the simplest of ways at an attainable price point, but also our internal culture at Richer Poorer. We are here because we love what we do. We are lucky to be in this passion-driven industry, so I firmly believe it is our obligation to treat each other really well, both internally and all the people we work with outside the walls of our office. 

Honest Hustle is how we do it, we are as scrappy as can be and work our asses off. This was born out of necessity because we had no dollars or budget for anything when we started, and we still instill this in every employee that enters our world. Limited resources force people to think outside the box and work smarter, and we’ve almost always seen better results from that. 

"Honest Hustle is how we do it, we are as scrappy as can be and work our asses off."

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We’re a California Born brand, and it informs our overall aesthetic from product to photography. California is a dream of a place to get to live in, the entire world knows this, so we embrace it and love it. 

So short story long, we religiously adhere to these tenants with everything we do as we’ve repositioned the brand, so it still feels like the same Richer Poorer, but better.

When you shifted from the traditional wholesale model did you learn anything new about the customer?

We shifted our model in December with the launch of our first apparel item, mens tee shirts on our direct-to-consumer site, which helped us understand our customer a lot better. 

The first thing we learned was that our customer wasn’t price sensitive to our brand. They were willing to spend more with us if the product was good. This was a great eye-opener for us as it gave us the confidence to speed up our timelines on the new product categories we wanted to offer. 

The second thing we learned was launching a product direct-to-consumer first, then wholesale channel second is really, really helpful for growth of the wholesale channel. The customer is now walking into the shops asking if they have our tees and wanting to touch and feel it, but buying it right away. Historically if they had seen it there first, it may take a few visits to convince them that they wanted to actually buy the product. Now it’s instant. 

How did this shift change your business? 

It changed our entire business because it was proof that there is in fact a way to run a true hybrid model that supports both the wholesale and direct-to-consumer channels. 

We’ve since spent the last six months strengthening our supply chain, internal processes and adjusting calendars so that we can get items to market on faster timelines that are focused on direct-to-consumer, all while maintaining a consistent solution for the traditional wholesale calendar. 

Running on two paths at once has been really difficult, so we’re lucky that we have an insanely committed team that is excited by these changes and sees that as a team we are committed to being the change in the industry, rather than the dinosaur that gets left behind. Tim and I are always pushing our team to think differently and iterate what we do quickly. We tell everyone that we expect what they are doing today to be different six months from now because they are making our products, processes, just everything we do, better as they learn more and grow.

"We are committed to being the change in the industry, rather than the dinosaur that gets left behind." 

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Simply, what is an honest hustle? 

The Honest Hustle was derived from our original company rally cry, that – Humble beginning make for great stories. Tim and I started Richer Poorer with little more than a few dollars, a mountain of inspiration and the drive to create something we could share with the world. 

Seeing a brand through - from a simple idea to a truly functioning business -required having the perseverance to guide it and us through hundreds of roadblocks. It demanded an unwavering spirit, some serious scrappiness, honesty with ourselves, and a lot (A LOT) of hustle. As our team grew, it was important to us to maintain these values, so we named it the Honest Hustle as an easy way to define it. 

The honest hustle has become a way of life to me. It’s a commitment to being the best, most honest version of yourself in what it is you chose to do with your life. Regardless of whether you are running your own business, in your dream job, or your first job – it’s a belief that working as hard and smart as you can will lead you to the next best step, and so on. Be proud of what you do and how you do it.

Can you hustle your way to happy?

Yes! I entirely believe this if you are doing work that is meaningful to you. As human beings, we derive immense happiness and self-satisfaction out of accomplishing things. I read about how important the feeling of accomplishment is to humans in a really great book called Brain Rules before I had Ford, and it describes this starting in children as early as a few months old through adulthood. I know for myself, when I leave a day at the office and have been able to cross a big thing off my list, I feel great. 

I say this with the caveat that work alone will not make you happy. Human connections and relationships are the most important thing. Duh. 

We can't wait to have Iva Pawling join us #CreateCultivateATL this October on View From the Top: The Do's and Don'ts from the Women Who've Done It. 

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Amanda Chantal Bacon Knows She'd Make a Great SNL Skit

“Very early on I didn’t align with industry standards and I was OK with that.”

We’re chatting with Amanda Chantal Bacon, founder of Moon Juice, ire of Father John Misty, about the beauty industry and though the entrepreneur and mother knows that she’s fodder for what she calls "cynical humor," she remains dedicated to what matters to her. 

"I'm into nature, and health and consciousness-- and that,” she says, “has nothing to do with beauty and fashion industries. My mom was in the fashion world and I was raised in New York in the fashion world and I wanted nothing to do with that. I was like the weird daughter from Ab-Fab.”

  Chantal Bacon says it's a disconnect that began during the onset of womanhood. “It was probably around puberty,” she says, “when I realized, ‘oh there is this whole world out there and this projection on women,’ and I started to feel the expectation that I was meant to be ’pretty.’” It didn’t vibe.

She says this need "to be pretty" was really at its height during the ‘80s and ‘90s-- the Model Search “Are you the next cover girl” and Victoria Secret catalogue days. “It all felt really off to me. The boobs, the push-up bras, the lipstick, the inherent weakness that I saw. I was really cognizant of how that got imprinted.” To her point, by 1997, Victoria’s Secret was sending 450 million catalogs a year and seeing a return of $661 million in mail-order sales alone.

“Seventeen was all about ‘how to have perfect hair,’ ‘how to wear the right lip gloss,’ ‘how to put on that eyeshadow,’” she says. “I was 13, I was just getting boobs and didn’t want to do that, it didn’t resonate with me and I didn’t think it looked good.” Then she got to high school and Cosmopolitan was running covers on “‘How to give the best blow job,.” She says “All of that information started collecting in me and I really didn’t want to train on my free time how to give a better blow job. I didn’t want to keep up with the shimmery eyeshadow world.”

So she didn’t. “I wasn’t a tomboy, but I did play sports, I really liked writing, nature, and being funny with my friends.” She started on what’s become a lifelong journey to re-examine beauty. “I think it really starts with a baseline of what is actually safe to put on and in our bodies,” she says. “Beyond safe what is truly going to be beneficial and unifying.”

Even as a young woman, Chantal Bacon says “I was not going to align with anything that did not feed my body, was not in harmony with the planet, and told me that I was in my prime during an age when I was not my strongest. None of us feel our strongest when we’re 17 or 18. When we’re 21 or 22. My god, if I look back at that and see that that’s what was being projected on me, that’s when I was most desirable, that’s when I was most beautiful-- that’s completely off.”

"I was not going to align with anything that told me I was in my prime during an age when I was not my strongest."

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She brings up the “George Clooney, Clint Eastwood thing.”

“There’s the thought that with age men become more handsome, sexier, they have more mystique-- that’s great I love that for men. I find that to be very true. I also find that to be true for women.”

“It’s one thing for everyone to look beautiful,” she adds, "but when we take unhealthy measures to get there or ruin the planet and environment in the process, that makes no sense, especially if you’re thinking about beauty as longevity.”

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photo credit: Katarina Dickson

Moon Juice is Chantal Bacon's grown-up response to the discrepancies she felt as a teen; an inside-out approach to beauty. 

The business, which began with a tiny shop on Rose Ave. in Venice, now has four locations, the most recent of which opened on Melrose Place this past summer. The brand's organic and wild-crafted herb mixtures will be available at Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-a-Porter, Urban Outfitters Free People-- about 70 retailers in all. So, she's figured out how to scale "juice," something that she says started as "a fun party trick at first.” (The Moon Dust products, not raw juices, are suitable for beauty resale.) 

Chantal Bacon was juicing for herself at the time and convincing other people that cold-pressed juice tasted great. “They wouldn’t want to try it and then they’d take a sip and it would blow their mind.” A trained chef, who "loves food," she was working a full-time job “with crazy hours, six days a week and could not keep up." 

"I’d always joke that juicing was like a full-time job, until that joke didn’t feel like a joke anymore.” It was then she realized, “This is the full-time job that I want, this is the life that I want. It was a leap, but it was leap that had such a natural urge behind it that there was nothing else for me to do.”

Other people like to joke as well, especially about Chantal Bacon’s lifestyle, food diaries, and social media posts about crystals. She's not blissfully unaware, but it doesn't slow her down either. “We like parody and I’m sure I’d make a great SNL skit. I can understand that. I totally get that. In my dream next job I get to do a TV show about how wacky and wild what I experience is. The characters that I know, my friends, the stuff that really happens-- if you think the Elle article was bad or me asking for someone to anonymously return the crystal that they stole from us, if you think that’s bad, you should see what’s really going on. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I live a very different lifestyle and my friends live a very different lifestyle. The things that we talk about are just way out there.”

She does say that she thinks there is a more loving way to be humorous, but then adds, “for me-- other people can do what they want.”

“I get all types of reactions. I get hate,” which, she hesitates to call hate, “but I get just as much love. I get more people that write to me and say, ‘Thank you so much, I felt lost and confused and knowing that you’re out there and doing similar things is comforting.’”

“My favorite is when I get teenagers that come out and see a different version of a female and how I explore my femininity. I think it’s different than an actress, a model, someone selling perfume.” She's referring to concepts like growing old with grace and a more holistic approach to beauty. 

She knows that "the movement" is polarizing, but that “it takes a while for people to figure out if it’s a path they’re interested in.” She also agrees that ”it’s a lot easier to figure out if it’s a path you’re interested in if you have expendable income.” 14 servings of Beauty Dust, for instance, cost $30, a bigger jar costs $65.

However she encourages people to look at what they’re spending money on. “If you do want to make changes, maybe you need to reconsider the kind of coffee you buy or the car you’re leasing. Or reconsider how often you need to buy seasonal fashion items or get your nails done. Or rather than getting your hair dyed or highlighted in a certain way, you could focus on something that would grow your hair.” Chantal Bacon lets her grays fly. 

“It’s re-examining what you want to choose to invest in,” she says, asking, “Why do we feel comfortable investing so much money in automobiles, premium gasoline and car washes, but OK with putting our bodies second to that? There is a disassociation we have with our bodies.”

“Why do we feel comfortable investing so much money in automobiles, but OK with putting our bodies second to that?”

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“And I do challenge people to do some price comparison,” she says of Moon Juice's often lambasted pricing.  

As for the pushback, it's par for the course. “I think I am a figurehead to a movement that is rapidly emerging. When there is something that’s different, it challenges people and whenever there is a moment when you look at someone and can’t see yourself completely in them, it’s uncomfortable." 

Yes, she burns Palo Santo. She rarely wears makeup. She rocks her grays and she eats foods that most of us can't pronounce (rehmannia and schisandra), but whatever your incense preference might be, getting incensed over it is not the Moon Juice way. It's about asking, “Does this make you feel good about yourself in a long-term sort of way? Not, does this make you feel good about yourself for five minutes when you look in the mirror or for a month of your life where you stay on top of a practice that feels sustainable for a moment."

It's about feeling, "nourished and healthy. On a soul level, asking, is this good for your soul?”

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Why Nicole Richie Would Make the Best BFF

Inventor. Artist. Ex-Girlfriend. Australian. These are all titles Nicole Richie took on in season 2 of her VH1 series "Candidly Nicole." But while it's universally accepted that Richie is a quick-witted comedic Queen, capable of the above and more, she also takes her businesses (multiple), her friendships (more than multiple), and her role as mother (just 2) very seriously. 

Almost nine years ago Richie launched House of Harlow 1960, shortly after the birth of her first child, becoming mom and mom to her career simultaneously.

“At that time I had so many fears,” she says. “I had a newborn baby. I was twenty-six. I was starting a new business. I was one of three people that I knew with a baby that was my age. I had no idea what the future would bring. I didn’t even know if I wanted to turn it into a full-blown brand yet.” 

Which, is exactly what is has become. The initial 50-piece costume jewelry line has developed into ready-to-wear, eyewear, footwear, and handbags. The most recent collection was released in partnership with Revolve. 

Though entrepreneur wasn't exactly a role she imagined for herself, Richie got a taste of that business life, liked it, and last November held the inaugural Pearl xChange in Los Angeles. It is her live-event series for women who want to make connections, share knowledge, and listen to speakers like Gwyneth Paltrow and Marianne Williamson drop some. 

At first glance, it’s very similar to Create & Cultivate. That’s not a problem for Richie, who was a keynote at Create & Cultivate Atlanta in conversation with HelloGiggles co-founder Sophia Rossi. 

“This is a perfect example,” Richie says, “of how two people in the same business with the same interests understand that we each have strengths. Joining together only helps us spread our wings, reach even more people, build the energy and make the vibration stronger.”

“Joining together only helps us spread our wings, build the energy and make the vibration stronger.”

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It’s the matter of competition being able to life us higher, together, not further apart and it’s a direction she’s focussing a lot of her energy. “I am able to see other people’s strengths where I have weaknesses. That’s not putting myself down, that’s understanding who I am and wanting to build myself up and make myself stronger. I’m so excited to be a part of the Create & Cultivate conference and spend time with other like-minded people who have been in this business longer than me.”

This approach is a through-line with Richie and many of her successful friends. 

“Rachel Zoe is an example of a woman where there are a lot of parallels in our careers,” says Richie. “That being said, do we look at each other as competition? Absolutely not. Rachel is Rachel and I’m me. We’re two individuals. We have different lives. I’m so happy for her and I love going out and supporting her." 

“Rachel has been very open with me,” she adds, “and this is very important to say, she’s been so open about the ins and outs of her business. She's never once said, ‘You’re on your own.’”

This approach has only helped them both. You can do it by yourself, Richie explains, “but you’re really limiting yourself. I can only get so far on my own."

She brings up longtime friend Sophia Rossi, who likewise understands the sisterhood of business. “Her business is HelloGiggles," says Richie. "It’s online, it’s so different than what I do, but we have found ways to collaborate and I’m really passionate about my friendship with her. She’s somebody who is a true connector. She has no skin in the fashion game, but she loves me and she wants to see her friends succeed.” Friends like Clique Media co-founder Katherine Power. “Sophia started a few years after Katherine, but she is the first person to say, ‘I just copied everything Katherine did. I listened to everything she said and she was my mentor.’” 

“Those girls are the perfect example of two friends going after kind of the same thing but who have done nothing but support each other and maintain the closeness. You’re never going to produce the same thing, it’s just not possible. We don’t have the same souls.”

With Pearl xChange Richie wants to take this notion a step further. “When I hear other girls say, ‘Oh, I don’t have a lot of girlfriends,’ or ‘I don’t trust other girls,” I, personally, don’t understand what that means,” she says. “We have to get over that. It has to be a thing of the past and it’s really important to me. To say, or ask, ‘How can I help?’ ‘What can I give?’ and ‘What is the one thing that I have that I can offer?’”

She brings up advice Marianne Williams gave the audience at the first Pearl xChange. “She spoke a lot about us understanding our own strengths and how that takes more confidence than we know. Feeling good within ourselves about what we have to offer— that’s harder than a lot of people think.”

Adding, “There is no how-to book, but the idea of ‘this is how you do it’ can be thrown out. You can create your own way.”

“The idea of ‘this is how you do it’ can be thrown out. You can create your own way.”

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In her thirties Nicole feels more confident and secure in her decisions, her "own way," than ever before. That means exploring and pushing herself and finding new sides of who she is. “You really have to put yourself out there, give everything that you have, and do it authentically.” 

“It’s been a slow and steady process of me finding the confidence in myself to take the reigns of my own business and my own life.” 

“I think the key is to find the thing that you love and figure out how to turn that into a business. And just be that. Don’t worry about being anything else. Then you’ll feel like your life has alignment and true flow.” 

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What Kelly Mindell of Studio DIY Learned From a 13-Year-Old

photo credit: Studio DIY 

DIY is more than project-based crafting-- it’s an attitude, a lifestyle, and according to Kelly Mindell of Studio DIY it's also about making life a party. Born and raised New Jersey, Kelly says she's been a DIY-er since birth and an entrepreneur since 15. She moved to LA in 2011, founded her business the same year, and has put her crafty head and hands to good use since.

Dedicated to a good time, Studio DIY gives readers the kind of excited feeling they had as kids. Think: the moment the piñata broke open and candy rained from the sky. The time you had donuts for dinner. The day you spend running through sprinklers. It's joy in motion.

It's also a lot of work. 

We caught up with Kelly to talk biz, what she's learning from younger generations, and the one thing she's bad at (that you'd never, ever expect). 

How do you DIY your life?

I've always been one to ask questions and not play by the rules. In high school, I asked if I could do an independent study to build my portfolio instead of spending hours in classes I knew I wouldn't use. In college, I did the same and built Studio DIY during the process! I've always worked tirelessly to make these situations my own and, well, if that's not the true basis of DIY, I don't know what is!

How do you DIY your business?

What I love most about DIY is that it's all about figuring things out and finding a solution, and lord knows that running a business involves figuring things out on the daily. The cool thing about blogging is that no two blogs or business models are the same, so I get to make Studio DIY completely my own... and make things up along the way, too

What was the learning curve for you taking something that was crafty and project-based and scaling it into a business?

Was? How about "is"? Ha! Building and scaling this business is a constant learning curve! DIY blogging takes so many hours, such extensive overhead and so much man-power all while things are changing constantly. I have to learn to grow my revenue, bring on and manage new team members and determine which new avenues for the brand are the right ones to take. And that's all in my spare time!

"DIY blogging takes so many hours, such extensive overhead and so much man-power."

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Where do you see the movement heading? Are you interested in getting into the world of AR/VR?

I've noticed that readers, myself included, are placing more and more value on the personality behind the content, versus the content itself. Now that the DIY and blogging markets are so saturated, it's often the person behind the business that people relate to, are interested in or want to build a relationship with. One of the best things I did was start showing and sharing more of myself on my platforms. Sure, I create larger-than-life projects for a living, but I'm also a person... who struggles with infertility, who steps over a pile of clothes to get to her bed, and who really likes watching Teen Mom and eating pizza on a Friday night. It's fun to share those parts of me and build connections with my readers on a much deeper level. And I think that's becoming more important than ever. 

What are you learning from the younger generations, especially as it’s related to tech and social media?

So much! I have a growing tween and teen audience and it's been fascinating to learn how differently they consume media. My 13 year old niece helped out at the office over the summer and I quizzed her about everything she knew so I could learn more. YouTube is integral for reaching their generations and that's precisely why we recently launched our YouTube channel. 

Life is not a Pinterest board. Can you walk me through the BTS reality-- how much goes into it?

I work around the clock and the work is still never done! Our studio looks like a never-ending craft tornado blew through it. I work with my husband which is rewarding and challenging all at the same time. Most nights our dinner consists of avocado toast eaten on the couch while answering emails. I have certainly not mastered a work life balance, but I know that this is the season to work my hardest so my priorities can shift in the coming years. 

How have you grown up as a business woman in the digital scene?

I've gone from being a one-woman show to managing an incredible team. I've also gone from knowing nobody in the industry to now calling my colleagues some of my best friends. Both have been some of the most rewarding experiences in my career, and I am thankful every day for the amazing community of women that surrounds me!

What social platforms are most relevant to your business? Are there platforms you’re more hesitant to grow? 

Instagram has been by far the most relevant and important, as far as community building goes. It's where my largest and most interactive audience lives. And Pinterest is integral as far as circulating content and exposing it to new eyeballs each day. It's a big traffic driver. Snapchat has also become far more important to me than I ever expected.

On the flip side, I know I'm not the only one who was thrown for a loop when Instagram Stories launched. On the surface, making the jump from Snapchat back to Instagram seems like a no-brainer (one app, better view counts), but I treat Snapchat very differently than Instagram. Snapchat is my core audience and almost like a built-in focus group. I love having one-on-one conversations over there and posing questions to get real time answers. Yes, I can do that on Instagram Stories too, but the audience is much larger and therefore the response much more overwhelming. It has been nice to have a smaller platform like Snapchat so I can build more intimate relationships. That said, I'm sure I'll find a way to incorporate Stories soon enough!

photo credit: Studio DIY

What parts of your career would you say have expanded your mind the most? 

Without a doubt the amazing community that surrounds me, both with fellow bloggers (now friends) and readers. Our community spans the world and it has been so fun, and eye-opening, to learn more about them. About how they learn, what they like, how they range from being 13 to being the grandmother of a 13-year-old. How cool is that!? I love being able to interact with people of all walks of life on a daily basis.

Is there anything you’ve found that you’re just not good at? 

Well I have terrible handwriting! Ha! Learning to be a manager has been a huge struggle for me, but as a boss, that's not something that I can just "not be good at" so I'm learning as I go! But the handwriting thing... that's just hopeless! 

How do you separate person from brand?

Right now, it's quite a blurred line! Now is the season in life where I am fully immersed in my business and my personal life and business life blend together quite often. However, soon enough the business will be much bigger than myself, and I will be much more fiercely protective over my personal life once there are little ones in the mix!

Your husband Jeff is an integral part of your team. How did you go about building the rest of it? 

When I knew it was time to hire someone, I determined two things: what I wasn't good at and what took up the most of my time. Getting what you're bad at off your plate is the most important thing because there's always someone else out there who's good at it. So that was the first major hire I made. Then, when I was in a better financial position, I was able to start taking off the tasks that I was good at, but that took up more time than I had. As the business grows, I continue to look at these two pain points and hire accordingly!

"Getting what you're bad at off your plate is the most important because there's always someone else out there who's good at it." 

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What’s next! 

We're putting a lot of effort into our new YouTube channel and we're about to launch the biggest endeavor yet for Studio DIY, but that's all I can say... for now! On the personal side, Jeff and I are excited to start growing our family in the near future and begin a whole new adventure as parents!

VIP Tickets for #CreateCultivateATL are ALMOST gone. To hear Kelly speak on "You Do You" grab a ticket before it's too late!

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What Success & Authenticity Mean to YouTube Star Ingrid Nilsen

In the world of YouTube there are those considered to be “top of their game.” Beauty blogger Ingrid Nilsen is one such name. Her charm and smile are infectious. As is her honesty. "First of all," she says in a recent "July Favorites" upload, "I just have to say that I am on my period." 

“I don’t see myself at the top as much as I see myself as successful,” she tells us when we chat a few weeks later. “Those are two different things for me. I think that my success is rooted in the intention of helping other people and moving in the direction of love. Everything that I do in my life revolves around those two intentions.”

Ingrid has followed that intention from the very beginning of her jump into YouTube. Now 27, she uploaded her first video over seven years ago. It hasn’t always been smooth vlogging. The wwwaves are rough and first videos can be choppy. Ingrid’s first upload has been described as painfully awkward, something that makes her laugh now, but in and of itself is a success, having started video blogging as a way to get over a fear of public speaking.

“That,” she says, “has kept me rooted and has made me feel truly successful. You can have millions of subscribers, you can, numbers wise be at the top, but you can also feel really unhappy being there too. That’s why I don’t equate being at the top with my success. I felt really successful from the beginning.”

“Reflecting on that, recognizing and accepting that,” she says of the initial video, “will carry you through difficult times you’re bound to encounter.”

She’s had her share. She first got into makeup to deal with the passing of her father. It became a way to express what was happening inside of her. “Experimenting with makeup was a way for me to navigate my grief from losing my father when I was a teenager,” she says. It’s also why she doesn’t agree with the idea that you can’t be a makeup blogger and authentic.  “I think behind every person wearing mascara, lipstick, foundation… is a story that’s waiting to be told.”

"I don’t equate being at the top with my success. I felt really successful from the beginning.”

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“I talk a lot about being comfortable with yourself,” she says when we talk beauty standards and authenticity. She comes up against a fairly standard argument, those who say that the two are mutually exclusive. “I think beauty standards in general are harsh and I wish our standards were simply acceptance and love-- the world would look very different, but people think makeup is used as a mask,” she says, “and it can be. But for so many makeup is used as a tool to navigate something internal. And if this is the tool that helps someone navigate something inside of themselves, let them have it. Let them have this outlet. It’s so important.”

She does acknowledge that there is much more pressure for young girls. "There is definitely a lot more," she says, "because there’s more information and access,”  

"When you become completely consumed by these images-- which, is not to put anyone consuming the content at fault because there is just so much and you come across it without even trying to look for it-- it has an effect on young people. It makes them feel like life is a competition and love is a competition, and that beauty is a competition. It’s not. I think that digging into and trying to find a deeper awareness of yourself is really important to navigate this world we live in. This stuff,” she adds, “isn’t going to go away.”

Though she's a "beauty" blogger, dishing on winged eyeliner and lipstick hacks, Ingrid feels "the most beautiful when I’m crying." She tells us. "I may not feel that way the entire time, but I'll remind myself, this is the moment when I feel the most beautiful because I’m completely exposed.”

“Everyday, whether it’s a good day or a bad day I look in the mirror and see myself. I’m not always thrilled, but I see myself , I'm grateful for that. That has not always been the case.”

Still from "Something I Want You to Know."

In her coming out video titled, “Something I Want You to Know,” Ingrid told her subscribers the she was gay. The video has over 15 million views to date. "I'm gay," she tells the camera, laughing and crying, "it feels so good to say that." 

Though it felt “natural and important" to her, it was also "a big step in bringing my audience closer and letting them in. I didn’t want to hide. I didn’t want to shut them out."

"YouTube has been a space where people can be themselves, and be themselves in whatever light that is that day and receive acceptance," she says. "I think that’s why it’s why it’s so accepting of the LGBQT community. It’s rooted in authenticity and acceptance at its core."

Receiving acceptance is a huge part of why she keeps doing the work and sharing herself with the world. “I give a lot, but I also receive so much from the people I meet and the comments I receive online. I am fueled by the people in my community who care and accept me.” 

Even with success she’s not immune to impostor syndrome. “I’ve felt this so many times, but those feelings are coming from a place of fear. Everything I have and love in my life right now are all things that once completely terrified me. So I think the way I work through those feelings of, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing’ or ‘why are people following me?’ stems from my willingness to surrender to my mediocrity. I’m not going to be good at everything. Getting to that level of humility takes work."

“A lot of times of what you really want is on the other side of fear,” she notes. You have to go straight through, there’s no shortcut.

"I am fueled by the people in my community who care and accept me.” 

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When it comes to her work, she's found, not a shortcut, but a bit more balance. In the beginning she was shooting, editing, and posting the same day-- a grind that wore her fine. “When you’re doing that for years,” she says, “it can really take a toll on your general well being.” Now she does a quarterly brainstorm with Eileen, who manages her day-today. They "brain dump" ideas and then really hone in on the forthcoming season, events, and holidays.  When possible she likes to shoot a month in advance.

“I think that there is always a balance,” she says about creating content. “Content that your audience wants but doesn’t require you to lose your authenticity. There’s always a sweet spot and I try to find that sweet spot."

She was “a lot more stressed out,” in the beginning. “I was pumping out as much content as I could, whenever I could, and the turnaround was much faster.” But she knows that the work she put in at the start, what she calls an “I will not stop mentality,” is what got her where she is today. “Having the experience of a one-day turnaround was essential to my growth.” 

Today she is committed to being her most authentic self. "You have to know where you stand and what you feel comfortable with." So how does Ingrid know what she’s comfortable with? “Sometimes what I’m comfortable with is being uncomfortable," she says, "especially if it means that I’m moving in the direction of emotional bravery."

She doesn’t know exactly what’s in her future, but she does know that "it will be exciting." She credits this to moving "in the direction of truth and helping other people. I would love to figure out a way to make something that’s tangible-- a product, book, or something that I can put into people’s hands and have them feel the energy that I put into my work and my life every single day.”

Ingrid will be joining us on panel at #CreateCultivateATL-- there are just a couple of ticket left!

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Erica Domesek of P.S. I Made This Talks Crafting the Career of Your Dreams

photo credit: Amy Bartlam

Let’s talk for a moment about crafting a career. Sure, maybe Erica Domesek founder of P.S. I Made This can pom pom trim the pouf out of a hat (and best believe, she did), but how did she turn it into a business? One, years of hard work. Two, the simple act of being a good person-- something, we’d like to note takes zero DIY "skill."

Crafty since she was a kid, Erica says she always had a paintbrush or crayon in hand and was constantly creating. “I was blessed to have people around me who were also interested in moments of creative living,” she says, “and I got that DIY in my DNA early on. But DIY isn’t necessarily about picking up a glue gun, it’s a way of life and living creativity.”

“I believe anybody can craft the career they want,” Erica says. “Not to sound cheesy, but I truly believe it.”

“I got that DIY in my DNA early on.”

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After graduating from school in Florida where she studied business and fashion merchandising, she set out into world. “I had a jewelry line before I could even have an adult beverage and I was doing trunk shows at Saks Fifth Avenue and all over the Eastern seaboard,” she says. She didn’t necessarily know that she would be a “serial entrepreneur,” but she knew she “enjoyed makings things and making people happy.” That, and the entrepreneurial spirit of trying new things. “I didn’t have a roadmap, I met nice and interesting people and I believe when you’re nice and like to help people, well, it’s called karma.”

From helping out the fashion director at Golf Digest when she was in college to then meeting “every editor at Condé Nast when I was 21 years old,” Erica was naturally curious and had a willingness to get involved-- to work. She wanted to learn. She wanted, to do-it-herself. These are all traits that helped her along that unpaved road.

“It was a very different world when I rose up,” she said, “but you can’t compete with being a good person.” Her career moved in the direction of prop stylist and design consultant, which allowed her to work with brands like Kate Spade, Anthropologie, and Bloomingdale's, as well as major fashion magazines. It was during a moment when she was creating wire sculptures for Anthropologie that she realized, “I was just happy-- I was happy making and creating, but ultimately I knew that there was a goal from the business side.”

P.S. I Made This launched in 2009. Shortly thereafter, Elle deemed Erica “Fashion’s Queen of DIY.” She did some "heavy lifting" in the DIY space, spending 11 years in New York, the city where she says her hustle “sparkled and shined.” Coming off the hamster wheel of the city however, she knew she had to ask herself, ‘Wait, where do I see myself in five years?’”

She doesn’t have a specific answer to that five-year question, but is looking into how virtual reality will play into her work. “I’m really interested in VR,” she says. “I’ll always be a storyteller, but pressing on to find the next round of innovation is always going to tickle my curious bone.”

She knows that “Gen Z is going to be the power user,” so she’s thinking about how they will interact with tech and what that side of the business will look like. She also knows that there are key ingredients for success, those that don’t shift or change even as tech does. “Hustle, confidence, desire, keeping true to your integrity and being a good person along the way,” are her standouts.  

Having grown up in the business pre-social days she says “numbers don’t define you. I think people are so focused on a number. Social media is a blessing in so many ways, but self-worth is not based on the number of likes received on a post. I was definitely conflicted about the ‘we’ vs. ‘me,’ and the ‘I’ vs. ‘us.’ I was torn what to share-- the narrative was confusing and I struggled.”

This is not an uncommon feeling among bloggers juggling platforms, what to share and what not to share. (That is the modern question.) To alleviate part of that stress Erica has a personal Instagram account for friends and family, what she calls “a small, private space on the internet.”

She advises young entrepreneurs to do the same. “Find a place on the internet-- should you want to,” she says, “that’s just yours.” It’s how to believe you can attempt balance in the midst of the hustle. “I give advice to a lot of people and I think it’s really important for younger generations to have separation,” she says. “If you want to craft the career you want, you have to be happy inside. And that’s the hardest DIY project in life.”

“If you want to craft the career you want, you have to be happy inside. And that’s the hardest DIY project in life.”

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Erica’s current hustle depends on the day. When we talk she’s in the midst of prepping for multiple shoots the following week, as well as joining us on stage at our Beverly Hills #CreateCultivatePopup. She tells us, “I’ve always gone for what I’ve wanted and always took the road less traveled.”

photo credit: Amy Bartlam

In addition to her blog and brand, she has a new TLC series, “Erica in the House,” where she's sharing her DIY and lifestyle expertise with viewers. In a video introducing the series Erica says, life is “like the monkey bars, you gotta let go of one to get to the next.”

Last year Erica let go of New York and headed west to Los Angeles. Since moving the entrepreneur says she now “cooks more than she crafts.”

“I love entertaining and having people over-- doing things where I’m able to put my phone down. I might pick my phone up and Instagram a pretty plate but weekends are not about work for me. I had to make a separation because I did hustle so hard.”

“I think hustling is great,” she adds, “but it’s also great to be able to enjoy life.” She quotes friend (and fellow TLC-ite) Stacy London, saying, “One of her favorite words is ‘almost.’ She loves it because it means that we haven’t arrived, that we can always reach for more.”

"Hustling is great, but it's also great to be able to enjoy life." 

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“We’re still evolving. Everybody who says they’ve figured it out, is wrong. They’re lying. We all have that 'almost' inside of us.”

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Katherine Schwarzenegger Shares Key Moments From Her Life-Changing Road Trip

With mother Maria Shriver as inspiration, Katherine Schwarzenegger has always known that women do it all. This past May Katherine embarked on a road trip across the country. She met and interviewed over 500 women in collaboration with T.J. Maxx, aiding their mission in highlighting women who live life on their own terms. After three moths of traveling across 16 cities, Katherine finally headed home with a head and heart full of inspirational stories.

We caught up with Katherine to chat what she learned from the collab, how her mom helped her prep, and the six common traits she found in every single woman. 

You just finished up the “Road to Real” 16 city tour where you were interviewing real women about living life on their terms. What was the most surprising part of the journey?

When I started the Road to Real tour, I didn’t know what to expect. But I think the most surprising part of this journey was how open and honest each woman was, and how their stories have truly made an impact on my life, and how I want to live life moving forward. The purpose of the tour was to show others that you don’t have to look far to be inspired. And what I have learned and hope others have too, is that everyone has a story to tell, we are all on this journey of life, we are all doing our best and that inspiration really is all around you – it’s in our friends, family, neighbors, and even the woman shopping next to you in a T.J.Maxx store. When you hear so many amazing, real and inspirational stories each day, you cant help but walk away changed. So the next time someone yells or snaps at you for no reason, just know that you never know what’s going on in peoples lives; they could be going home to a sick child or parent, they could’ve just lost a loved one, they could be going through a divorce. Bottom line is, we are all just trying to do our best so the most important thing is treat one another with love and kindness and the world will be a much better place. 

"You don’t have to look far to be inspired."

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Your mom is a journalist, did she share any tricks to getting people to open up before you embarked on the tour? 

My mom helps me with everything and she is definitely my number one supporter. When I first learned about the Road to Real tour, I was so excited and I told her right away. I grew up watching her interview people in her professional life and personal. She used to interview everyone around us, even in the line at the coffee shop, and that all rubbed off on me, so this experience felt very natural to me. I am a very curious person and I ask a million questions, but before the tour launched, she did help to coach me on my interview skills and gave me advice on talking with people I didn’t know. The most important thing she taught me was the importance of listening and on this tour I realized that one of the greatest gifts you can give someone is listening to them. We don’t realize how many people just don’t have someone to talk to or to listen to them, and a really good listener is a huge gift. Every time I finished a interview, most women would thank me for listening to them. I was so surprised by this because for me, to be able to listen to their stories was such a gift, and knowing that just sitting and listening to them made a difference, was so rewarding for me. 

"One of the greatest gifts you can give someone is listening to them."

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How did the collaboration initially come about? What was the conversation? 

T.J.Maxx actually approached me to be a part of the Road to Real tour, and I was immediately obsessed with the whole concept of the tour. When I learned more about the campaign I couldn’t say no – to have the opportunity to travel the country (to some places I had never been before), and connect with real women and hear their inspiring stories is what really peaked my interest. I love talking with people, asking questions and learning from others so it was a natural fit. I am always eager to learn and to grow and I knew this tour would not only be an amazing career experience, but it would be a life changing experience that I wouldn’t be able to get anywhere else. I am all about talking to people, learning from their life experiences, and being able to take a nugget of wisdom from each person I spoke to. Plus, the fact that my website is all about “living life on your own terms” was a natural tie to the brand and the Road to Real campaign. 

It’s easy to see the Road to Real as an internal journey we all take as women. What has your own road to real looked like? 

I think my Road to Real is a journey that I am on and continue to be on and one I am very excited about. We are all on this journey of life; sometimes it’s great, other times it’s more challenging, but as long as you look at life as a growing and learning process that never stops, you will be able to live a fulfilling life. This tour has completely changed me; I am not the same woman today, than I was when I started this tour in May and I will forever be grateful to T.J. Maxx for allowing me to be a part of this experience. I learned so much about life, about myself, about how I want to live my life moving forward, and how I deal and interact with people. This tour was a journey for me in my personal, spiritual, and mental well-being; I went out of my comfort zone, traveled to new places, met new people, formed new friendships, and experienced new things. I laughed with strangers, I cried with strangers and I listened and learned from them. These are the kinds of things you only learn by having the kind of experiences I was lucky enough to have on the Road to Real. 

"I laughed with strangers, I cried with strangers and I listened and learned from them."

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What parts of your journey as a business woman and entrepreneur are you most proud of?

What I’m most proud of is that I have had the opportunity to work on projects that I’m truly passionate about, like my two books and website. I’ve been able to do so many amazing things, and I always want to try to make a difference and do work that I’m proud of. That said, I am definitely proud of my partnership with T.J.Maxx, because the Road to Real campaign speaks to something I truly believe in, which is that women are living life on their own terms, in their own unique way. I feel lucky to have worked on such a meaningful campaign by celebrating women all over the country, and by sharing their inspiring and amazing stories with the world. 

When are you your most real/authentic version of yourself? 

I try to be real and authentic all day every day because that’s just how I want to live my life. It took me awhile to get there but I have come to realize that whenever I am not my real self, nothing good comes from that. It’s much easier said than done but staying true to who you are is the greatest gift you can give yourself and you only get there by going through the ups and downs of life. I still haven’t mastered it and I do make mistakes of course, but I always try to remind myself the importance of being YOU because there is no one else like you. 

You spoke with over 500 women. How do you process that amount of information? That number of stories?

Throughout the course of the tour we visited sixteen different cities and spent two days in each store location, so I spoke with about 15-20 women per day, sometimes more! The experience was amazing but at times the conversations lead me to feel overwhelmed by my own emotions. The women really opened up to me and some of the stories shared were extremely personal, open and raw. It’s crazy to believe that each story was more inspiring then the next, but it’s true. Although I talked with over 500 women, there was a commonality among the stories I heard, like the strength to persevere and live life on their terms, and just an overall sense of the women wanting to do good, and give back to others. I would be lying to you if I said that I wasn’t overwhelmed by some of the stories I heard, but I decided to look at this experience like I wanted to take at least one nugget of wisdom from each person I spoke to and be able to grow from their stories. 

Why do you think storytelling is important? 

I have always been interested in learning and hearing from real women, it helps you to not only grow and learn as a person, but to see things from a different perspective. I think storytelling is important because it connects people everywhere. Everyone has a story to tell and inspiration is all around us. We just need to take a moment to open our eyes, maybe ask a few questions and really see the people around us.

What was a universal truth among all of the women you spoke with?

After speaking with all of these women, I learned that strength, perseverance, courage, love, kindness and the desire to do good, lives in the women walking amongst us daily. Every woman I spoke with, no matter her background or personal struggle, wanted to help those in need and leave the world a better place. It can be easy to focus on negativity, especially with recent events our country has faced, but you have to remember to never lose sight of what’s important. The need to love one another, treat each other with kindness, compassion, and understanding is what every woman agreed our world needs most.

"Strength, perseverance, courage, love, kindness and the desire to do good, lives in the women walking amongst us daily."

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The tour culminates in a gallery event this fall in NYC. What do you hope people see in the work?

The stories that these women shared both touched and influenced me, not only in the way I view life, but in the way that I want to live my life each day moving forward. So my hope is that this same raw emotion, these inspiring stories of struggle and perseverance and vulnerability, are conveyed within the gallery portraits. I hope people see that women are playing many different roles in their lives and that no matter what, they make it work in their own way. I hope that these pictures impact people in the same way that I was impacted.

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It's National Ice Cream Day! Meet the Woman Who's Changing the Ice Cream Biz One Flavor at a Time

Photo Credit: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Jeni Britton Bauer, says that if her business was a flavor it would be Dark Chocolate: "Complex and game-changing, hard to replicate."

With over two decades dedicated to the scoop game, Jeni knows a thing or two about packing a pint, but hitting the sweet spot didn't come easy. There were learning curves, major lessons and hard, trailblazing work. 

We checked in with Jeni who shared about ups, downs, her entrepreneurial vs. business spirit (yes, there is a difference), and which pint she would choose to eat fooooreevvver. 

Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into the scoop business? 

I grew up wanting to be an entrepreneur. My grandmother is an art teacher and because of her, I learned to constantly create and make things. Yet, we have two very different views on how to best craft an item. As an artist, she never wants to make the same thing twice, but I relish in it. When I hit upon something I love, I want to replicate, build a process and perfect the item until it’s flawless. And as a child, I started more businesses than I could count. So, it was inevitable that I would find something that I loved to make and run with it. I studied Art and Art History at The Ohio State University. I was also interested in pastry-making and working for a French bakery. I very seriously considered switching over to perfuming. I have always been led by my sense of smell so I wanted to go to Grasse, France and become a nose or find a way to incorporate scent into art.

One day I had the idea to use ice cream to carry scent, and that moment changed my life. It was precisely where all of my interests intersected and I knew in an instant that American ice cream could get a lot better and more interesting. So I set sail -- and the rest is a crazy ass history of ups and downs and hustle like nobody's beeswax. 

Ups and downs. You were living out of your car during the first months of operating your first ice cream stand, Scream. You’ve come a long way. What’s some advice you have for a scrappy entrepreneurial spirits?

I'm an adventurer. I wasn't bothered a bit by living out of my car or hustling. I have so much energy and excitement for what's possible and very very few resources to make it happen -- I have found that my hands, feet, brain, and friends have been my greatest resource. 

Every entrepreneur has a very different experience, but one thing is always true: you get a wacky idea that becomes a vision and then you start working toward that vision and never quit. No matter what. Entrepreneurship can be extraordinarily isolating; the better your idea is, the more people will be repelled by it. When I started, no one wanted spicy ice cream, or flower petal or herb ice cream. It’s about getting help from anyone you can and proving yourself over time. You are the only one who will champion your idea, and in some ways, that never ends. It's always about seeking great people to help. And to do that, you have to get really fucking good at what you do. You have to earn your teammates because they make all the difference. 

"Entrepreneurship can be extraordinarily isolating; the better your idea is, the more people will be repelled."

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Interior St. Louis location. Photo Credit: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

What kind of learning curve did you experience between opening shop number 2 and shop number 10? [Ed note: there are currently 23 scoop shops.]

Suuuuuch a huge learning curve.  But again, it's about my teammates. They would never take on something they can't knock out of the park - give or take a few snafus. We always push ourselves to try something new in each store and we learn from that experience. 

We must get used to seeing great companies embarking on controlled growth. It's impossible to survive and truly build demand for the ingredients we want or build a safe and secure community of jobs without the resources to sustain it. The 21st century is very different from the 20th century, where we saw great little companies explode and just go downhill. It's not only possible to grow and get better, it should be expected. We look up to trailblazing companies like Patagonia for this reason. We will get better as we grow, not the other way around.

"We will get better as we grow, not the other way around."

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Is every pint still hand packed? How do you scale and business while remaining committed to local and quality?

We haven't hand packed every pint for a long time. And we determined that it’s no longer a safe way to pack pints, by our safety standards. It took us a long time to figure out how to get our ice cream to work on a pint packing machine because our ice cream is more viscous than others as it comes out of the ice cream machine.

We're building our company as a community of people and many are not local to our kitchen. We work with a 5th generation peach farm in Georgia, a vanilla farm in Uganda, and various makers and producers locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. We believe in each other and we believe that by coming together we make better ice cream. That’s how we’ve approached it from day one.

Quality is a choice every company makes every single day. And it begins with your values. There is no reason a company can't grow and maintain quality, but we also know that as we grow we can actually improve quality from the perspective of ingredients, molecular science, safety and direct partnerships. In many ways it’s the only argument for growth at all. Scale is important in ice cream unlike some other food products. You can't even begin to impact dairy quality unless you have scale to support it - which is why we love Ohio so much. But the same is true of direct trade vanilla or fair trade cocoa. We can all order ingredients from a catalog, but we want to be more than that. 

"Quality is a choice every company makes every single day. And it begins with your values."

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You’ve talked about the difference between entrepreneurs and business people. Have you grown to understand and be more interested in the business side of things? 

The short answer is no. I retain too much “artist” in my heart. In fact, I have less and less interest in the business stuff as I learn more about it. I like to create experiences, and to do that I need resources and a great team. That's what motivates me. The older I get the more comfortable I am in admitting that. 

Exterior Westside Provisions, Atlanta. Photo Credit: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

"I have less and less interest in the business stuff as I learn more about it. I like to create experiences."

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The long answer is yes. I am inspired by my teammates who are so flipping brilliant at everything from leadership and org stuff, HR, R+D, Art and Design, and our finance team kills me—some of the most creative people I know. They find stories where I see a paper full of digits. 

The truth is that I have so much belief and trust in these people and our talents work really really well together. I have the luxury of being able to purposefully remain blind to many business details. Not to say that I don't keep up, I absolutely do, I just keep my head very squarely on creating the best ice creams I can imagine and making great places to eat them in, but always with great reverence for the resources we've built and how to do the most with them. 

What are some lessons you’ve learned about rapid growth?

We have 23 stores. I've been at this for 21 years (I have had two ice cream businesses). Jeni's is almost 15 years old. We've stepped out our growth. As we get more great people and knowledge and dairy we apply it. Every single day is challenging in business. That's what makes it fun. 

Still, if you want to do something new it's often difficult to know how to do it. You can hire the top consultants in the world and you'll still fuck up somehow. You get really really tough blazing the path through the forest. 

----And you make it a lot easier for the copycats who benefit from your blood, sweat and tears. 

Scoop pros. Photo Credit: Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

If you had to eat one of your pints from now until forever, which would you choose? 

Lemon buttermilk frozen yogurt. It's perfect. And I say that after making it for 20+ years - with tweaks along the way. Perfect texture, body, and flavor. I think this is one of a handful of our flavors that really sets us apart from all others in terms of know-how. Plus, it's so simple: fresh lemon, cultured buttermilk, bio-dynamically raised yogurt, grass-pastured milk and a nice dose of cream. You can't ever tire of it. It would sustain you for forever, too - the right combo of protein, fat, carbs.

OK. Truth: Is the dessert business sweet? What parts are more like veggies? 

The highs are really high. The lows are really low. But they balance each other to become a great adventure. 

But I have a very strict policy: if I'm going to eat ice cream daily (which I do) then I have to balance that with lots of veggies (which I do).

It works the same way. 

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Why Poetess Rupi Kaur Follows Zero People on Instagram

photo credit: Rupi Kaur 

Like most writers, Rupi Kaur, the 23-year-old Toronto-based poet, illustrator, and photographer thinks she’s better at putting pen to paper than she is at giving an oral interview. “I’m a better writer than I am a speaker,” she tells us.

On one hand, we believe her. Her work is biting and soft. She twists language in a way that makes you want to walk into a forest and stare up at the sky through the trees. Her words allow you the space to see the world a little differently.

On the other, we don’t. Not really. Especially when the author/mother of “milk and honey,” her debut book of poetry and prose which shot to the New York Times Bestseller List says this: “We navigate the world, come across so many people, but at the core of our experience is love. I think that’s the message I’m trying to consistently share, without even really realizing that I’m sharing it.” The message that, “you deserve to be here and you’re welcome here and allowed space.”

"You deserve to be here and you’re welcome here and allowed space.”

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A native of the Punjab region in India, Kaur spent her formative years in Toronto, where she currently resides. She is a modern day storyteller, using her poetry and social handle @rupikaur_ to explore beauty standards, violence, love, injustice, the female body, and more. “my issue with what they consider beautiful/is their concept of beauty/centers around excluding people,” she wrote in an Instagram post on July 11th of this year. It's the same platform that deleted a photo of Kaur's sister, Prabh Kaur on a bed, her gray sweatpants and bed sheet stained by (fake) period blood. Instagram claimed the post violated their community guidelines. Kaur reposted the photo, which was part of a photoseries project for a visual rhetoric course with a caption challenging the decision. "i will not apologize for not feeding the ego and pride of misogynist society," she wrote on August, 25, 2015, "that will have my body in an underwear but not be ok with a small leak. i bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility." Instagram recoiled, apologized; the community clapped loudly. And they kept clapping. Her approach to language and honesty has captured the attention of nearly 600k Instagram followers. 

****

When she first started sharing her work online there was no intention of a book. “It’s still such a personal experience for me. I’m not writing for anyone else," she says. "At times I don’t understand the interest. But all of the sudden I was building this online community and they were the ones that would comment, ‘Where can I buy your book?’”

Consider that Kaur's first reaction to the idea of a book was, “I’m me, I can’t." She was 20 at the time, thought of writing as her “hobby,” and had just started university. Her thoughts were, “I need to finish my degree, I’m paying thousands of dollars to be here.” We’ve all experienced this tug of war-- the one between our head and our heart, our reason and our dreams. But Kaur slowly warmed to the idea. Between the encouragement of friends and the enthusiasm of the online community she began piecing together what would become ‘milk and honey.’

“It was a very difficult moment in my life,” she says, “and I just strapped down. It was the summer of 2014 and I didn’t think I was going to get through it. I couldn’t see myself and I couldn’t imagine my life after this moment. I needed it.”

She wrote the pieces and crafted the book by listening, she says, “to what my body said.” She designed everything from front to back, the font, the pictures, and then put it into the world. “I don’t think anything I ever do will feel as holistic as that,” she says. “It was deeply grassroots, on the budget of zero dollars. When you give birth to something like that and see it blossom, it’s so incredible."

Now consider that her debut paperback, self-published book of poetry and prose sold over 18,000 copies in the first 8 months. "milk and honey" flowed into the world November, 2014 and kept moving.

Around the 8 month mark publishers started calling. Andrews McMeel (AMP) became her publisher. “They’re very agile,” she says. “My biggest worry was someone coming in and saying, ‘Oh, we want to remove these pieces about body hair, or 'We want to change the cover.'”

“It’s not a product to me, it’s my heart.”

Currently, she is working on the release of a hardcover. “It’s very important to me that people have something to hold,” she explains. “That’s what gets passed down from hand to hand and moves across the world. A hardcover is the version that refuses to be ruined. The paperback version is going to fold, its matte black is going to stain, but the hardcover is beautiful and elegant. You keep the hardcover on your bookshelf and you keep the paperback under your pillow or in your purse.”

Throughout this journey, she has remained the creative leader of her work, though there has been pressure to create more, both from herself and industry pros.  Earlier this year she tried writing for the audience. An experience she describes simply as “bad.”

“I was holding a knife to the neck of my writing,” she says, and it wasn’t working. There were people who told her she needed to release a second book. That by next year the industry would try and replace her.  It didn't deter her. It only annoyed her. “I have to be honest with myself, " she explains. "It’s a very Adele approach. You have to remember why you started and stay true to that.” 

She'll tell herself, "You brought yourself here, not the industry. I think that’s a huge source of my power. My inability to see how people perceive my work also allows me to see how powerful I am. I have my insecurities, but I feel powerful. I’m here and I’m doing what I love.”

“It’s not a product to me, it’s my heart.”

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She knows social media has a lot to do with her success, but Kaur currently follows zero people. However, she’s not pulling a Beyoncé. “Like most people I have my own personal, multi-dimensional battles with social media.” But without it she says, “the publishing world wouldn’t have cared about this young, brown woman. Social media was a free tool that I used to create my own community. It can also swallow you up.”

At the moment she has deleted all social media from her phone. She tweets from her laptop. She’ll download Instagram, log into her account, post, and log back out. She doesn’t read any of the comments. “It’s helped me feel more rooted again. I’m a very sensitive person and I don’t want the thousands of eyes pouring over my work to change the way I’m going to write in the future.”

The way she writes, is magnetic, sticking to all lower case as her words stick to her audience. It’s almost a way of ensuring that no one letter is left in the shadow of another. And it's human. 

"When I first started writing it was about getting my voice back and finding my voice,” she says. Now, she has a “loose idea of three to five books that I will write in the next ten years. So I’m going to keep writing and listening to what my body tells me.”

“The recipe for my success, if any,” she notes, “is that I’ve always been honest with myself. I’ve always written what I’ve needed.”

This Friday, August 19th, Rupi Kaur will be delivering a Ted Talk at the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City. She will be performing a new spoken word piece followed by a talk called “My First Home.” Via Instagram this past week she told her followers, “I think the piece I’ve written is some of my best work.” Tickets have sold out, but you can tune in and watch it live at 6 pm central time at tedxkc.org. 

Arianna Schioldager is editorial director at Create & Cultivate. 

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The Female Forbes: Why Moira Forbes Is More Determined Than Ever

Moira Forbes, EVP of Forbes Media and Publisher of ForbesWoman, has the kind of last name that immediately makes you tilt your head back and raise your eyebrows. Forbes. Yes. Heard of it. 

Moira Forbes, journalist and knowledge seeker, makes you tilt your head to the side and listen intently as she speaks, curious as to what knowledge nugget she’ll drop next. 

Growing up in one of the most powerful and influential families in publishing, Moira is one of five daughters of Steve Forbes, current Editor-in-Chief of the publication, and Sabina Beekman. Her great-grandfather B. C. Forbes founded the media company, releasing the first issue in September 1917. The inaugural 52 pages featured the business of “Doers and Doings,” as well as a section called “Women in Business.” This might not seem revolutionary now, but it would be three more years before the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote. “My great-grandfather,” says Moira, “was interested in telling great stories in business. The huge successes and the big misses,” regardless of gender. The core mission of the media company “has remained the same,” she says, and is an exploration of humanity that captured her attention as a young girl. 

On Moira’s ninth birthday, her grandfather gave her a leather briefcase, which she filled with any office supplies she could get her hands on and lots of pens. The same year, her father bought her a name plaque for her desk. “I loved playing office. Office and store were my two favorite things. I loved interviewing people growing up. We’d play newspaper. It was a natural interaction and curiosity.” She was always interviewing family members, asking questions, questing after the story. 

At the moment that story is ForbesWoman. The platform launched in 2008. ‘It was a time in our business,” she says, “where we were really looking for growth and opportunity, and looking for a deeper commitment to audiences that are important to Forbes.” She believes that the content in the magazine is just as relevant to women as it is to men, however, “we felt the opportunity to go a level deeper and engage with the community about the unique dynamics of women in business.” 

The focus of ForbesWoman is on female entrepreneurship and sharing stories from female movers and shakers (AKA the doers), in an environment that offers practical advice, and creates “a community of women who are striking out on their own, making unconventional decisions, and looking to see how others are charting their course.” 

Moira was directly involved in this decision, calling it a passion of hers. After looking around the media landscape and not finding content that she wanted -- from career to leadership to more soft story elements around lifestyle, she narrowed in. “There was a void of content that we felt was authentic to our brand and that our audience was eager to consume.” 

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“It is a very exciting time for those who didn’t have a voice before,” Moira says.

Digital has created an extraordinary path for women to contribute in the business world. Entrepreneurship is on the rise for women. There is more access than ever. A sea change for women professionally, socially, and politically, came with the Democratic nomination of Hilary Clinton for president. 

“When you see women reach the highest levels of power,” she explains, noting that the person in the White House is the most influential person on the planet, “and they’re at the helm of the most powerful nation in the world, that’s a very powerful sentiment. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”

“If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”

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It’s an incontrovertible notion. “As women continue to break through these last glass ceilings, it makes for a powerful statement that these opportunities are possible.” She makes quite clear that change will never be quick or easy, but it is nonetheless important. If digital is a fast-paced, quick animal (content is fast, stories are 140 characters) change is its tail, dragging behind. There are two ways to view this. Frustrating sure, specifically in a nation that Moira says, “prides itself on opportunity and access.” But no change or success has ever come without setback and failure. Opportunity knocks often on the heel of disappointment, it’s simply unfortunate that some of us are too busy wailing to hear the call.

“I think change is slow,” she says, “because the business ecosystem is much larger than just female entrepreneurs. You look at access to capital-- that remains a huge challenge. You look at opportunities that influence policy and government that are inextricably linked to business, which are still areas where women don’t have the same level of representation.” 

Ecosystems and sectors outside of business are also still in the midst of giant shifts. They are all parts of the massive, slow moving machine that is equal representation, though as the parts become better oiled, there will be less friction, more motion. “It’s very hard to steer those parts in a different direction,” she says, “so you do have to work to drive change in all the different sectors and realize that it isn’t as simple as we portray it to be. There isn’t a CEO who is saying ‘I don’t want more diverse boards,’ or ‘I don’t want more women at the table,’ but how you do that and how you go about that change can be difficult for a variety of different reasons.”

She lists a few including: socioeconomic, political, cultural -- particularly issues with unconscious bias. “Something,” she notes, “that each of us holds, but are those small things that can have big repercussions.” She thinks it’s positive that culture can change faster than ever before -- social media and the shifting idea around influence and power certainly being precipitant factors, but creating what she calls lasting change and gender parity, even with “the greatest enthusiasm, effort and commitment, will take time.”

“Lasting change and gender parity, even with the greatest enthusiasm, effort and commitment, will take time.”

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In a way, lasting change is like piecing together a good story: the parts come together in bits, you work for them, seek them out, and sometimes you get hung up on or ghosted, but for the sake of the story, you never give up. The is the crux of where Moira finds her own calling: the hard parts and the “curveballs you’d never expect.” 

“Understanding the stories of how people keep moving forward, what inspires them to continue to act and gives them a sense of mission, day in and day out, to fight the fight when many people would throw up their hands and say it’s just not worth it,” that’s what she wants to share.

So what is a reasonable timeline for the current fight toward gender parity? Even with the potential of a female POTUS, she says that even in the next 3-5 years there will not be true 50/50 representation. 

This isn’t single-file success, but not everyone can get through an open door at the same time. A front door opens to a small hallway, a hallway leads into a dining room, and slowly more people gather at the table. “We need to create great pipelines for talent, understand how to identify and source great talent,” she says. It’s also vital to acknowledge that while we’re talking about women starting occupy the highest positions in a company, not that many positions are open; turnover at the top is slower. “We spend a lot of time,” she says, “talking about corporate boards and public companies and needing women on these boards, which is very important, but the flip side is that there are only 100-120 of those spots that open up each year. I think we have to be ambitious with our goals and be realistic about what are the challenges and opportunities to get there.” 

Noting, “You can’t hit fast-forward on experience but the next best thing is to learn from the experience of others.” She sees ForbesWoman as the storyteller, sourcing and sharing the relevant content with an audience that can thrive on the information parlayed. And she wants “to be able to scale and amplify these great stories, to inspire people to act, and think differently.”

The content she is most interested in is comeback stories. “When we talk about success we talk about it as a destination and think about the heroes of entrepreneurship and business. We think about the context of where they are now,” she says, “but no great success or achievement occurred without setbacks and failure along the way.” This was a mission of her great-grandfather from the beginning, who penned the following words in that first September issue:

“The most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”

“No great success or achievement occurred without setbacks and failure along the way.”

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Despite the movement toward gender equality, Moira believes “women still face the challenge of a narrower band of acceptable behavior. You have to walk a much narrower line to communicate confidence in a way that others will be receptive to and not turned off by.”

She says hard work and great work are number one, but women should also pick their heads up and let people know what work they're doing. “Let people know what your ambitions and aspirations are,” she says. 

It’s impossible to have this conversation without mentioning Hillary Clinton again, a case study of both an ambitious, unapologetic woman who has broken through one of the final glass ceilings, who has also been subject to immense criticism of that unabashed determination. “Women are still subject to [biases],” Moira says. “There is a crisis of confidence sometimes where [women] feel badly and ashamed of that and want to hide.” She adds, “I’ve never met a man who has impostor syndrome.” 

Irrespective of party politics, she celebrates Clinton’s achievements and nomination as “a historic moment in this country. You have to recognize that and celebrate whether you support Hillary Clinton or not.”

The sense of possibility is great. “The fact that we haven’t seen a female president in our lifetime, yet -- you can’t underestimate the power of those cultural messages. You need to have the role models of what’s possible because then it’s no longer questioned.”

“You need to have the role models of what’s possible because then it’s no longer questioned.”

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She brings up the Roger Bannister effect. “For hundreds of years they said no one could break the four-minute mile. It was always said it was impossible and there were articles written that you would die. Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile and then within months of that five more people did. It’s a great reminder that when the impossible is made possible the powerful effect that has.” 

We ask what she would have in her leather briefcase today. She laughs. “Nothing. It’s all on my phone. Shows how times have changed.”

Yes, times have changed, but the Forbes commitment to its roots has not. “We’ve always been rooted in telling the story, empowering our audience to not only achieve success in business but achieve success in life. That has been our core, fundamental guiding principle, so how we tell that story and the way we tell that story-- the platform may change but the core mission has remained the same,” she says. 

And that is hardly nothing. 

Arianna Schioldager is editorial director of Create & Cultivate.

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Sugar & Cloth's Ashley Rose Talks DIY, Dream Collabs, and Dedication

photo credit: Sugar & Cloth

Ashley Rose of Sugar & Cloth is all about serious DIY. So much so that she got to create a Sugar & Cloth color wall in Houston (see above) that has been the site of some serious 'gramming. 

One look at the website that she launched in September 2011 after leaving Marshall University where she studied Art & Design, moving to Houston and following her dreams, you'll quickly find the injection of color she's put into the blogosphere was much needed. The blogger self-admittedly takes a lot of coffee and macaroon breaks, but she's also the proof in the blog pudding that committing to an idea is sometimes the best idea of all. 

We caught up with Ashley in anticipation of Create & Cultivate ATL where she'll be joining us on panel to chat all things craft, creativity, and DIY-why not. 

Was there a project where you thought, this is impossible but I’m going to try! And it turned out?

Being a DIY blog, I have A LOT of these, haha! It’s a good mix of trying to reinvent the wheel but it either turns as: a literal pile of trash, pretty but much harder than I anticipated, or it turns out amazing and I even surprise myself!

What lessons have you learned from DIY’ing? That apply to life?

That you’ll win some, you’ll lose some, and everyone is going to have an opinion. What really counts is that you’re honest and true to yourself about the outcome, whatever it is. 

 "You’ll win some, you’ll lose some, and everyone is going to have an opinion."

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DIY is more than a craft-- it’s a choice, a frame of mind-- to do it yourself. What other parts of your life are about “doing it yourself?”

I think in general DIY is simply a frame of mind that speaks independence for whatever you’re creating, doing, or achieving. 

What parts of your life do you let go of the reigns a little bit?

Outside of work decisions, I’m actually much more go with the flow, ha! When it comes to where we eat, who drives, what our weekend plans are. I’m pretty much game for whatever as long as deadlines have been met. We definitely make it a point to spend time with friends and family each week.

When you first got started you were working on your blog full time and had a full time job. What have you learned about balance and pursuing your passion? 

It’s funny how working multiple jobs seems super exhausting to some people, but once you’ve done it, you learn really quickly how to process through what absolutely needs to get done first. It really helps you prioritize, because you essentially have no choice not to if you’re going to do two jobs well. In some ways I’d say I was even more productive with my time back then. It’s easy to get lost in little details when time allows.

What would you say to women in the same boat right now? Even as simple as how many hours is reasonable to put in?

My best advice is to say — Don’t sweat the small stuff. Whether that means not letting an unkind comment get to you, moving on from a failed DIY, or letting go of the struggle to get it all done before bedtime. It’s not worth spending your energy on worrying about things unnecessarily. 

What’s your favorite part of working in a creative field?

Always getting to dream up the next new thing!

Do you ever run out of DIY-ideas? What happens when you’re coming up empty?

I definitely struggle in A LOT of small business areas (hello, accounting and all things taxes), but running out of ideas thankfully isn’t one of them. When I do start to feel complacent with some ideas, I try to just move on to one I am excited about to get the good juju flowing again. 

When you live a Pinterest-looking lifestyle, it can be hard to keep up appearances, or have everything look curated all of the time. What are some of the BTS difficulties? 

First world problems, am I right?! Ha! It’s definitely super easy for me to get burnt out on social media for that reason, or even just have the constant feeling of keeping up with the Joneses because it’s my entire job basically. I think every online personality feels that at some point, but at the end of the day I think the most important reminder is to not think more highly of yourself than you ought to. 

Where do you see the blog world evolving? 

It’s basically a new generation of free reality TV! Or at least I keep pretty entertained by it ;)

I don’t think the blog world has hit it’s prime yet, but it’s definitely getting quickly saturated. To keep up at this point, you really have to hustle and be a forward thinker to make it a longstanding career move instead of becoming an overnight, internet one-hit-wonder. 

Dream collab?

A product line with Target or Amazon!

How important is your Instagram game? Is Snapchat part of your social strategy and how are you using it?

Instagram has become a huge part of our business. Within the last year it’s come super close to being our highest earning platform, and we’ve now started focusing a lot more on Snapchat for the sake of feeling more real. It may or may not take off like IG, but it’s a great tool for followers to see a real, everyday you without the Pinterest-esque smoke and mirrors. 

What’s the messiest room in your house/What is your favorite?

Messiest is definitely my closet! My favorite would be my bedroom, I LOVE a good Saturday sleeping in. 

"You know it’s a passion project when you’d be there regardless of your circumstances."

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What does Sugar & Cloth mean to you?

It’s an attainable place for everyday inspiration. And even if I won the lottery tomorrow, I’d still be making pretty things to share there. You know it’s a passion project when you’d be there regardless of your circumstances.

 

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Why Otherwild Founder Wants to Uplift and Support Small Business Any Way She Can

photo credit: Gilda Davidian

Otherwild Founder Rachel Berks didn't set out to open a boutique shop slash graphic design studio (making her an official slashie), but when the graphic design world and a brief stint at William Morris designing presentations for fast food companies didn't align with the vision she had for her future, she shifted gears. Otherwild was born in LA in 2012 and just opened a second location in New York this past May. 

Now she's focussed less on fast and more on building community and offering an inclusive space for the LGBTQ population. It's the glue that binds Otherwild's followers together and also sets her apart as a business owner. You might recall Rachel as the unapologetic force that brought back "The Future is Female" shirt after seeing the image on HerStory's Instagram, which focusses on the herstory of lesbian imagery. She's also committed to representing the multi-dimensional and expansive queer community. 

We caught up with Rachel to talk the importance of reputation, what working with like-minded individuals means to her, and women she admires. 

What’s your background? How do you end up owner of a brick-and-mortar/graphic design studio?

I studied modern dance, printmaking and gender studies at Sarah Lawrence College, and after a brief stint as a professional dancer/waiter in NYC, I went to work with my friend Stacey Mark, who was the photo editor of NYLON Magazine. While there, I assisted in photoshoot production and contributed collage, illustration and writing. After about a year, I was recruited to join Ford Models’ newly established New York-based in-house art department in 2004, promoted to Art Director for the company’s international corporate network in 2006, and appointed Creative Director through 2011. In the fall of 2011, I followed my girlfriend, artist A.L. Steiner to Los Angeles. I imagined I would build a freelance design business out in LA. During my first couple of months there, I was very inspired by the DIY spirit of LA, and befriended my former business partner, Marisa Suarez-Orozco, who was also a graphic designer. In early 2012, we conceived of Otherwild, a hybrid retail store, that would sell work by our artist + designer friends, as well as a graphic design studio.

Can you talk a bit about how NOT getting a (series of) job(s) lead you to where you are today?

When I first landed in LA, a creative freelance agency immediately placed me at William Morris, designing PowerPoint presentations for fast food companies. I was the only woman on the team, where I had to endure misogynist conversations all day in a windowless office. I lasted about a week and a half. From there, I interviewed at a slew of production companies and ad agencies, where in one interview, I found myself defending my ability to design work that was less creative, and more appropriate for corporate clients. I freelanced for a few of these agencies, until I met Marisa and we decided to open Otherwild.

Is it important to you that female founders support each other? Why?

In the Summer of 2014, I received a random email from two female shop owners, Marlee Grace from Have Company in Grand Rapids, MI and Courtney Webb of Hey Rooster General Store in Nashville, TN, inviting me to "SHOP : KEEP - - a retreat for shop owners." It was shortly after Mari and I had parted ways and even though I didn't know anything about these women, I booked a ticket the day I got the email. The retreat was an incredible life-changing moment, where we discovered through our total transparency that we could help each other grow our businesses. Since that moment, I've tried to uplift and support small business owners as much as I possibly can. Some of my closest friends are other female and genderqueer business owners... we have a truly unique connection and understanding.

You talk about working with like-minded individuals. What mindset is that? Do you think it’s important to work with non-like-minded people sometimes?

I think taken out of context, that sounds like I'm part of an exclusive clique, which isn't the case. I'm referring to craftspeople, the handmade, feminisms, and social justice organizations. I don't want to work with racists, homophobes, misogynists, gun enthusiasts or multinational corporations, for instance.

"I don't want to work with racists, homophobes, misogynists, gun enthusiasts or multinational corporations, for instance."

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photo credit: Gilda Davidian

You’re surrounded by a pretty stellar creative squad. Who is a woman in your life who is doing something you’re proud and amazed by?

My partner A.L. Steiner is an incredible artist and activist, and her work is endlessly inspiring to me. You can see more at hellomynameissteiner.com.

Also my friend and collaborator Kelly Rakowksi, who runs the Instagram account @h_e_r_s_t_o_r_y,  mines various sources for archival lesbian imagery. Together we've been working on a clothing line that reinterprets some of these images. See more here.

Invest as little as possible-- how did that work as a business plan? 

It was really about playing it safe and working with the resources that we had. Initially, everything in the shop was brought in on consignment. The original Otherwild was down an alley on Hollywood Blvd - it was under 300 square feet and cost $500 a month. We were determined not to fail, and not being in debt was crucial to that plan. Once we felt a little more secure, we moved to a bigger space on a residential stretch of Echo Park Ave. and continued to slowly and carefully build the business. Recently, Otherwild moved once again to Vermont Ave in Los Feliz where the storefront finally has foot traffic!

To a degree you built a business on reputation-- do you think this is rare? To promise something and deliver on said promise? 

I think this is rare, but I think it is often true of small businesses. My dad is a small business owner and my grandfather was too, and I think through that lineage, I learned to build something that had integrity and generosity at it's core. I think being unapologetic in Otherwild's embrace of all things queer, feminist and small-scale shows a certain truth in who we are and what we believe in as well.

"Otherwild's embrace of all things queer, feminist and small-scale shows a certain truth in who we are and what we believe in as well."

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photo credit: Gilda Davidian

What other ways do you think you do business differently? 

Otherwild has evolved from being a retail/design studio to being a social space that hosts music, comedy, performance, readings and classes in herbalism, craft, tarot and more. I've always wanted Otherwild to be an active space. 

Additionally, Otherwild donates money from the sales of specific products to Planned Parenthood, The National Center for Transgender Equality, The Lesbian Herstory Archives and Black Lives Matter. This is an important aspect of living our politics beyond a slogan on a t-shirt.

What have you learned through the ups and downs? Breaking up with your partner, for example?

It's not easy having your own business, you basically work all the time. When you start a business, everyone always says it takes 3-5 years, and you don't want to believe that at the beginning, but it's absolutely true, and you need to be willing and able to put in the time. Breaking up with my partner felt like a tremendous setback at the time, but ultimately it was the right thing for both of us. 

Two stores-- is that something you ever imagined? Any further plans for expansion?

I had only just left NYC when I opened Otherwild, and so I always imagined that I might come back to NY and launch a NY store. Otherwild had to be born in LA, it was very much product of LA's cultural climate in that moment, but NY seems really excited to embrace us now. As of right now, the NY shop is a longterm pop-up which will be installed through March 2017. I've yet to decide what will happen after that!

Otherwild carries the work of Tuesday Bassen who just called out Zara for ripping her off.  What are your thoughts on big corporations taking advantage of small biz? And how does Otherwild work against this? 

I love Tuesday Bassen and her work, and I am excited to watch this particular situation continue to unfold. I feel like Tuesday actually has the power and possibility to set new precedents. I've always been outspoken about big corporations and their cruel treatment of artists, as well as terrible labor practices. After this latest example of IP theft, I made a personal vow to boycott multinational corporations, as wholly a possible. For me, it was not such a stretch but I recognize for some that might feel impossible. I am dedicated to supporting small businesses, artists and designers in all aspects of my life.

What do you want the legacy of Otherwild to be? 

Legacy denotes history -- or herstory as I might read it -- and I don't know what our herstory as humans will be. I just hope to provide those interested with inspiration, knowledge or objects that they love and cherish by being as conscious, kind and caring as possible, and by supporting the people who want to produce in this way. It's a continual learning process. There's book that came out in 1973 called Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered by British economist E. F. Schumacher, which is the antithesis of our current ethos of growth and exploitation. Although I participate in a form of capitalist exchange, I challenge myself to figure out ways to find ethics and humanity within this model, and continually transition where necessary.

OTHERWILD LA 1768 N. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027

OTHERWILD NY 37 Orchard St. Basement New York, NY 10002

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Tina Wells Started a Company in Her Teens, Today It's an Award-Winning Agency

When you start your company at 16, there’s a decent chance you won't be doing the same thing by the time you graduate high school, let alone two decades later. Yet Tina Wells, founder of Buzz Marketing Group, defied that decent chance and remains CEO, founder and captain of the marketing company she started in her teens.

It wasn’t her intention. She didn’t set out to run a company. Rather, the goal was to be a fashion writer, ideally at a Hearst publication. “Seventeen was the dream,” she says.

“Never in a million years did I think I’d run a company or that twenty years later I’d be doing the same thing.” Like the start of many companies, her foray into marketing came from a place a need. As a fashion and beauty loving teen with five younger siblings she knew her parents weren't going to be able to buy her the newest trends. "My parents," she says, "were working their butts off to get us into private school and I knew I needed to come up with a way to make money. That's all it was. I figured out that I could review product and then wear it." 

It is a resourcefulness that followed her through high school graduation, into college, and helped her grow BuzzMG's buzzSpotters-- a network of trendspotters that was cast to be a research network. It's a group of those in-the-know "and now and always looking around the next corner."  In the beginning the buzzSpotters consisted of Tina and her ten friends.  “I remember when we got to 200 people I thought it was too much," she says. There are now 37,000 people worldwide. "Consumers know what they want and want to be part of the process," she says. “That’s something I recognized as a 16 year old. I knew that if my friends and I wanted to be a part of the process of a company making something for us, then other people had to want it too."

"Consumers know what they want and want to be part of the process."

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It's a thought that has paid off. It was during Tina's freshman year at Hood University when someone said to her, “I just paid someone $25,000 to do market research and what you’ve done is ten times better.”

It was perfect timing. When this conversation occurred Tina was taking an Intro to Business class with the head of the Business Department. She went to visit that professor during office hours and told her what she’d been up to the last two years. That professor told Tina to take independent study with her to figure out how to make it a viable business. She did. “That was the launch pad,” she says. “It wasn’t me saying, ‘I have a great idea for a business,’ rather I was being told I was doing something really interesting that could be a business.”

Today, Buzz Marketing Group is an award-winning media communications agency that focuses on Millennials, moms, and multicultural consumers. They deliver data and strategies that drive the marketing approach for clients. “I’ve been doing this so long,” Tina says, “that back when I started it was youth marketing. There weren’t Millennials and there certainly wasn’t the idea of Millennial marketing.”

"So long," gives Tina and her team a certain edge-- even though the technologic landscape around her has moved seismically. “I still reference the business plan I developed with my professor 18 years ago,” she explains. In addition to running her company Tina is the current Academic Director of Wharton's Leadership in the Business World program and is teaching a summer program based on the principles set forth in that business plan. "The basics of building a business are still the same." she says. Adding, "You still need to answer those ten questions every business owner has to answer." (Check back, we'll be sharing those next week!)  

What has changed are the tools. She jokes that if she had launched her business now she would have scaled in three months “Technology tools empower us to be better at our jobs every day.” It's technology that allows Buzz to survey people in their network better and provide better results for clients. 

“Technology has the ability to do the unbelievable, but my business is built in a very brick-and-mortar way," a foundation she insists has the ability to withstand any tech wave or crunch. "I realized early on build a great business and let the tools empower you. But don’t be so focussed on creating a business for a particular tool."

"Build a great business and let the tools empower you."

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BuzzMG is built in a way that's evergreen-- they are, says Tina, "research first, not creative first, and we're very honest with our clients about that." They develop marketing strategies based on data from consumers of all ages and internally develop original research for the client. "We’ll go to our network of buzzSpotters, conduct an internal survey, and go back to the client with an audit of where their brand is, where it need to be, and what we will do to get to achieve that goal.”

"Because we’re research driven we never go into any situation assuming how a conversation is going to go." It also helps Buzz create campaigns that are likewise evergreen. One of the things Buzz is known for are their lists. They help build the inspiring Levo100 List, which was first released in 2015 and is still being shared today. They worked with American Eagle Outfitters on the aerie beauty and body line, leveraging their proprietary database of influencers to create and educate a curated in-market ambassador program of over 150 ambassadors in every state with an aerie store. Upon re-launch, aerie performed 500% better than projected, generating over $250 million in sales for AE. 

It’s an approach Tina believes (and has the results to prove it) gives her a great advantage because her team is always looking at what the consumer will tell them. "We make decisions by looking at all sides. Culture is changing, it’s moving so quickly-- how we’ve survived for twenty years is by sticking to the solid principles of marketing."

“I never want to get caught in hype.” she says. “There are people who say 'this is dead,' 'that is dead,' 'blogging is dead', 'influencer is dead.' 'No.' I’ve said to clients, 'Print is not dead, bad print is dead.' And it should be."

"Print is not dead, bad print is dead. And it should be."

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“A great brand is always a great brand," she says. "It’s just the tools that change.”

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Men's Streetwear Mammoth Bobby Hundreds Is About to Change the Game

photo credit: Josh Escueta

Bobby Kim, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Hundreds, is not the highest paid employee at the company he co-founded in 2003. 

“Sometimes (partner) Ben and I don’t even pay ourselves,” he says. “It’s an approach to “doing business,” that puts the brand and its core values first. Mind over money, but not over matter.  

“I like making work that I’m proud of,” he tells us from the red leather chair inside The Hundreds office in Vernon, CA. The shelves are full of trinkets and glittering The Hundreds signs. The mood board is covered in magazine clippings and tear outs ranging from photos of Angelina Jolie and Liv Tyler, to drawings from his kids, postcards of the ocean and surfers waiting on waves, and a MOMA VIP ticket. Bobby dressed in a black “Flag” The Hundreds t-shirt (check out the Wildfire video he just released featuring the shirt) and old black The Hundreds tennis shoes is unfussy AF. As noted by multiple publications, Bobby doesn’t put much stock in “things,” wearing items until they fall apart. “Money,” he tells us later in the conversation, “just gives people more reasons to be unhappy. When I’m out on my board,” he says, referring to his surfing habit, “those fish, they don’t care… everything else is ancillary.”

At this moment in our conversation we’re talking about work. “I think,” he says, referring to creating work he’s proud of, “that’s the most important issue I’ve tried to drill into my staff this year.”

“Money just gives people more reasons to be unhappy.” 

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Currently that staff consists mainly of men with few women company-wide. Of approximately 60 Hundreds' employees, about ten are female. Bobby acknowledges, “definitely not enough,” but not many women apply because streetwear is not the most open community.  “A lot of women feel like they’re not welcome in streetwear,” he says. 

photo credit: Josh Escueta

“I don’t know what it’s like to be a woman and I can’t speak for women, but it’s hard enough for a dude on Fairfax,” he says of the infamous LA strip highly concentrated with streetwear brands. “Dudes get sweated. So for a woman? First of all, in most of those dude’s heads it’s ‘what’s a girl even doing here?' ” 

He mentions the company's yearly summer open call for interns. “Hundreds of people showed up, the line was down the parking lot,” he says. “And the ratio was about the same. Out of a hundred people, probably ten were women.” 

When The Hundreds launched there were (and still are) formidable women in the game: Leah McSweeney, founder and CEO of Married to the MOB, Lanie Alabanza-Barcena, founder and Creative Director of Hellz Bellz, Lauren Marie and Ashley Jones, co-founders of Dime Piece, and Melody Ehsani, founder of Melody Ehsani. “I assumed that in their wake there would be another wave of women streetwear designers,” he says, “but there wasn’t.” 

In the early 2000s, the wholesale market for female streetwear wasn’t sustainable and many retailers didn’t know how to position the product. Now with the decline of retail, he explains, the wholesale model is being rethought. “As more brands start to decide on a direct-to-consumer approach,” Bobby says, “you don’t need to play by the rules. You can be a women’s streetwear brand and you can make it work now.” 

The market isn’t the only issue. Feminism, female empowerment, and streetwear aren’t seen as roads that lead into each other. “I don’t think we’re generally warm to women,” he agrees. “It’s a boys club, and when boys get together their psychology and perspective on what they think is equal is so skewed. It’s crazy some of the conversations I’ve had with my own staff and within the industry.” And yet it’s a conversation he is committed to having. 

Moreover Bobby is not one for playing by the rules. 

photo credit: Josh Escueta 

When Ben and Bobby started, it was imperative to have a blog element as a means of discourse. Listening and sharing is a through-line of Bobby’s professional and personal trajectory.

Let’s rewind about 20 years. 

Before The Hundreds Bobby was a writer and an activist. “I was freelancing a lot, I was the editor at a magazine and when Blogspot launched in 1999, I had a blog and quickly realized the power of the Internet.” As a teenager in the punk community, he photographed police brutality at shows. He protested at Black Panther rallies, Food Not Bomb rallies, and was a member of the National Lawyers Guild, having focussed on human rights issues during law school.

So when he launched The Hundreds he wanted, “people to understand who I was as human."

"I love making money and running a business, supporting my family and friends," he says, "but I’ve always wanted to figure out how to engage. Open up communication and draw people together. I’m a sharer. I want people to talk.” 

“I’ve always wanted to figure out how to engage. Open up communication and draw people together.”

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He explains however, that back then streetwear and its community had a complete opposite approach. “If you had a secret, you shut up. You didn’t put it on blast.”

“Streetwear is structured on rules,” he comments, then making clear, “I don’t believe in boundaries. So when Ben and I entered the fray, we never played by the rules.” His approach to both business and politics has made him “a lot of friends,” he says, “but even more enemies.” He doesn't mind. 

“Because I came in and impacted the game in a way that I thought was beneficial...a lot of people took and take issue with that.” He remains focussed on doing “whatever I can to get the right information out to my audience.” That audience is the fan base and traffic drawn to The Hundreds blog as well as the clothing line. On Instagram the brand reach is about 350k people. Bobby’s own IG clocks in at a little over 160k. The Hundreds also recently started a highly produced Facebook Live “talk show,” shot from inside Bobby’s office.  

“There’s a real education issue and a real compassion issue,” he says. So what can he do as a father, a businessman, and a community leader, we ask, specifically in regards to gender issues. 

“What can I do? With my children, I can have really deep, meaningful conversations about being conscious and empathetic to other people.” He has two sons, turning four and seven, with whom he is committed to engaging in conversation. “When my sons ask me why I’m wearing pink because pink is for girls, that warrants a longer conversation.”

“We have an entire generation of boys right now whose favorite film is Frozen. Their favorite characters are Elsa and Anna. Those are their superheroes. Is it weird that my kids are into watching Frozen or they think princesses are cool? No. Why is that weird at all? They’re also going to grow up in a world where we will have a woman president.”

He’s emphatic about this. “My boys are going to grow up with a woman in charge of this country and they have never known a white president. That’s powerful and also incredibly normal for them.” 

But what about the front-lines of streetwear? “With streetwear what can I do?” he asks. “With streetwear I have a platform that’s not just t-shirts. It’s content and it’s my presence as a personality and a voice in this world. Not a lot of people in streetwear and fashion are speaking out about a lot of injustices.”

photo credit: Josh Escueta 

“I think the odds are against me because I work and exist in a primarily male-dominated space that’s not really open to listening to women right now, but that’s a huge opportunity. Let’s champion women and level the playing field, but that means men have to be a part of the conversation.”

It’s an opportunity he’s seizing-- not, we should note, for profit, but because the constant through-line of his career is again, opening the convo, getting people to talk. 

“I’m starting a separate side project that’s going to be launching this fall/winter,” he reveals. "I’ve always been intrigued by the idea that girls and women are open and accepting of the idea of wearing men’s clothes. But why isn’t it OK for men to do the same with women’s clothes?” 

“You’re starting to see a little of it,” he says, “but there’s a lot of resistance still.” 

So he’s getting in front of it with “Jennifer,” the tentatively named brand, entirely separate from The Hundreds, that’s primed to change the game. 

“It’s going to be a very subtle transition,” he explains. “I want to create the first brand that is for, targeted, and designed for women, but men will want it and wear it, and it won’t be weird. I want to break down the walls of ‘that’s for men,’ and ‘that’s for women.’”

"I want to break down the walls of ‘that’s for men,’ and ‘that’s for women.’”

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In regards to his fall launch, he hopes there isn’t backlash, but won’t be surprised. “I think people might say it’s a marketing gimmick-- that’ll probably be the convo first and foremost.” 

“‘Ohhh, Bobby supports women now? When he used to put naked girls on t-shirts and still kind of does…’” We chat about one specific shirt The Hundreds released in 2011, with a woman’s body divided into sections a la vintage Mexican posters from butcher shops. It received a fair amount of hate— understandably.  Woman-as-meat, not the most progressive message, though Bobby says the point was that we shouldn’t treat women as such. “I would never make that shirt again,” he admits. “Luckily, I'm surrounded by some very generous, patient women who take the time to explain little things to me. But that’s part of the problem, there’s not enough awareness in our space.”

His is an axiomatic approach to learning. “I want to be engaged in life,” he says. “I always say that life isn’t short but the chapters are and I really read every paragraph.”

“Life isn’t short but the chapters are and I really read every paragraph.”

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The world of streetwear has to be willing to engage in that convo, and not use feminism or other such messaging as a marketing tool. “I don’t have anything to gain from the other brand, I make my money, I’m good. I’m not balling out of control. I don’t have a yacht. But when it comes to any type of injustice, I want to flatten it out because it doesn’t make sense to me. If you’re a logical person, you shouldn’t be able to live in a world that’s illogical.”

He believes artists and designers are looking at the world thinking, ‘It’s not pretty enough, I know how to make it better.” That’s the way he approaches injustice of any kind, from police brutality to racism, ageism, gender issues, and beyond.

At this juncture he says he doesn’t know enough to be able to claim “feminist.” 

“That term is so nuanced now. I don’t know enough. I’m here to learn. That’s the way to grow and progress, be willing to learn and listen.” 

“I learn so much from women, and I wish more men would listen, but they won’t because they think certain content ‘is for girls.’”

photo credit: Josh Escueta 

As to whether or not the community is ready for "Jennifer," he’s split. Despite the boys club of it all, he says, “I think a guy who is drawn to streetwear is actually pretty advanced; there is a sense of snobbery sure, it’s a very high-fashion approach to casual, basic attire. But it also draws in the kind of person who wants to be better, know more, and wants to be ahead of what everyone else is doing.”

“What could be more advanced and more ahead than supporting human rights issues and women’s issues or listening to the black community?” he asks. “If you don’t get on the female empowerment train, you’re going to lose. You’re not just going to lose in life, you’re going to lose in business.”

"If you don’t get on the female empowerment train, you’re going to lose."

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We bring up a novel we just read, “All New People,” where the father tells his daughter to always be herself because in one hundred years, it’s "all new people." Bobby nods, agrees, and then switches it up. “I’d go so far to say, every day it’s all new people.” 

“I can reinvent myself every single day. I can add something new to the conversation. I always say new conversations, new opinions. It frustrates my team because every quarter I come in and change my mind, but get with it. It’s 2016 and this is the way the world works. Every day is different.” 

Arianna Schioldager is editorial director at Create & Cultivate. She never gets to profile men. 

More from our blog: 

Why Philanthropy Will Always Be at the Core of the Kendra Scott Brand

As the woman behind Kendra Scott’s creative strategy, Katie Marston dedicates her work to building Kendra and her brand’s strength on an international scale through the reinforcement of Kendra Scott’s founding pillars: Family, Fashion and Philanthropy. Her main goals? To connect on a genuine, personal level with the consumer through fashion and always find a way to make a positive difference. 

Kendra Scott founded her company in 2002 with only $500 and just after the birth of her first son. Seeing herself as a mom first, she was driven to create a work culture unlike any others in the industry. To Kendra, it was just as important to tuck her kids into bed at night as it was to become a leader in the business world. And she made it her priority to hire individuals with those same family values, making the “Family First” mindset a crucial part of the Kendra Scott work culture. Kendra Scott’s three core pillars built a strong foundation that has led the company to incredible growth and success, and set an example that other companies are eager to follow. 

But for Marston, another priority has become just as essential to the company’s future: Telling the story of Kendra herself. Many brands’ founders fade into the background and let the business become the focus. But Kendra, as lead designer, founder and CEO of Kendra Scott, LLC, remains at the heart of every aspect of her company’s growth. From the design of a new collection and visits to her growing number of stores, to philanthropic partnerships on local and national levels, the Kendra Scott brand continues to be the actualization of Kendra’s personal vision.

Kendra Scott began designing jewelry in the spare bedroom in her Austin home. She was inspired to craft the jewelry she wanted to wear, jewelry that she says “filled the void between high-end brands and pieces that would fall apart after a few wears.” She walked, with her baby on her hip, selling her jewelry door to door to the local boutiques in Austin. When she sold out of her first collection in her first day, she knew she was onto something special. “Although to this day I don’t know if it’s because they really liked my jewelry, or they just felt sorry for me!” Kendra jokes. Kendra Scott has made a name for herself in the fashion industry through her impactful designs, which evolve alongside the world of fashion and provide customers with high value product at an accessible price.

Kendra’s desire to give back is in her bones. When she was 19, Scott began a company called Hat Box. Inspired by her stepfather’s own battle with cancer, the store was focused on using the proceeds to raise money for cancer research. That philanthropic business focus followed her into her next venture, Kendra Scott jewelry, and has become a genuine and differentiating factor for the company. Kendra Scott lives by the belief that there is always something to give, and is driven to “do good” and make a positive difference in the world through her business.

"Kendra Scott lives by the belief that there is always something to give, and is driven to 'do good.'”

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It was that unique approach to business that first caught Katie Marston’s attention when she joined the company nearly two years ago. “Philanthropy was not merely an add-on. They weren’t following a corporate giving model,” Marston said. “Giving back was the heart of the Kendra Scott brand, bringing life and loyalty to the business in a way no other brand could match. And I knew I had to be a part of it.” 

As Kendra Scott’s VP of Marketing, Marston has identified a few key points to consider when developing your company’s giving initiatives. First, and most important, is a genuine passion for giving back. For Kendra, that passion came from her stepfather Rob, who spoke the message “You Do Good” to her during his battle with brain cancer.

“Because of Rob,” says Scott, “I was inspired to create a business that did something more, that gave back to the community in real, meaningful ways.” It’s this incredible dedication to philanthropy that has become a hallmark of the Kendra Scott culture. “‘You do good’ aren’t just words; it’s a motto I carry into all choices throughout my business.” 

“I was inspired to create a business that did something more, that gave back to the community in real, meaningful ways.”

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Katie Marston echoes Kendra’s passion for philanthropy, and explains how this key part of their business has strengthened the company in a powerful way. “A philanthropic element to business can inspire fierce customer loyalty, but it has to be authentic,” Marston explains. “People want to support companies that care about what they care about. That’s why we value the grassroots connection so highly.” 

This hits on another mantra of the Kendra Scott company: “What Matters to You Matters to Us.” Whether it’s donating jewelry to a silent auction at a local school, hosting fundraising events in our store for a neighbor in need, or participating in a walk for a local organization, Kendra Scott believes there is always something to give. “We genuinely care for our customers and the causes they care about,” Marston says. “As a company, we believe that giving back in our communities is the greatest way to make a difference.” 

"As a company, we believe that giving back in our communities is the greatest way to make a difference.” 

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With the opening of every new Kendra Scott store, there is a team dedicated to getting involved with the community on the ground level, researching and figuring out how to get involved with local organizations. Scott admits, “It’s certainly not the easiest business model to follow, but philanthropy has become an integral part of who we are. And the relationships we have built with our customers as a result are truly invaluable.” 

Today, Kendra Scott partners with thousands of philanthropic organizations nationwide through her Kendra Gives Back program, which just last year gave back $1.4 million and donated over 50,000 pieces of jewelry. On a national scale, Kendra Scott supports The Seton Breast Cancer Care Center, MD Anderson Children’s Cancer Hospital, and the National Down Syndrome Congress. 

To learn more be sure to check out Katie Marston on panel when she joins us at #CreateCultivateATL.