How #MeToo Has Changed The Way This CEO Runs The National Domestic Violence Hotline

Have you watched the Amazon Prime Video docuseries Lorena yet? It tells the story of Lorena Gallo, who after years of being the victim of domestic violence and marital rape, cut off her husband’s penis in 1993. The media had a field day with the story, overlooking the assault and rape to make a mockery of Lorena’s suffering. Twenty-five years later, though, Lorena is speaking out—alongside several prominent voices in the domestic violence space. Last week, we held a panel and screening series in New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco. We chatted with pros like Katie Ray-Jones, CEO of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, on how violence prevention has changed and the work we still have ahead of us.

Below, Katie shares her thoughts on #MeToo, activism, and the importance of self-care in the world of non-profit work.

Tell us about the career path that brought you to the role of CEO at the National Domestic Violence Hotline. What inspired you to work in the domestic violence field and to work with The Hotline?

From undergraduate school on, my career kept taking me on a path that I wasn’t intentionally seeking. Doors kept opening; opportunities led me to work in the domestic violence field. As an undergrad, I was placed into an internship in a restraining order clinic for domestic violence victims, part of a larger domestic violence service organization. So it was my first real exposure to the issue that allowed me training and education on domestic violence. That job prompted me to want to become a therapist where I would have a private practice and provide individual and group therapy. However, during my master’s program internship I was placed again working with domestic violence survivors. This eventually lead to a job with a multi-service organization where I led the residential and nonresidential domestic violence programs.

When my husband and I had our first child we decided to move from California to Texas, and I accepted a job with the State of Texas, as the state administrator for domestic violence programs. I learned more about The National Domestic Violence Hotline through that role.  When an opportunity for a Director position at The Hotline was vacant, I realized I was missing working in a direct service organization and that motivated me to want to start working with The Hotline.

What’s most fulfilling about your job?

When I hear from advocates their experiences working with victims and how they changed someone’s life, that is incredible. Being a part of the growth of the organization and the increase in education and awareness of the complexities of domestic violence has been fulfilling. We see evidence of this growth because of the annual increases in the number of people who reach out to The Hotline. Calls to The Hotline have more than doubled since I came here, and being able to serve more people is amazing to see. 

What’s most challenging?

The most challenging part is that with the growth leads to a need to continue to gain resources and continue to fundraise to be able to serve more people. It is incredibly heartbreaking for everyone at The Hotline that we are not able to connect with every person who is reaching out to us for these potentially lifesaving resources, because we lack the funds. That is the challenge because you know there is someone we were not able to serve who desperately needs help.

“When I hear from advocates their experiences working with victims and how they changed someone’s life, that is incredible.”

The Hotline was created in 1994 with the signing of the Violence Against Women Act. Tell us a little about how resources for victims and survivors have changed in the last 25 years, and how you hope they continue to evolve moving forward.

The movement itself has changed over the last 25 years. We have developed a greater understanding through research and survivor experiences to recognize the complexities in each domestic violence incident. For example, we now know the impact of trauma and how important it is to work with the family holistically and remain survivor-centered. Through experience and data, we have also recognized the need to provide culturally specific services to marginalized communities and being able to advocate and serve their specific needs at a greater level than previously. We have more work to do there. We are able to articulate in a more meaningful way to members of Congress the needs of survivors. It’s shelter, it’s therapy, it’s legal advocacy, it's training for law enforcement officers and judges, and educators.

The Hotline was first funded through the Violence Against Women Act, but now it is funded through Health and Human Services, a program called Family Violence and Prevention Act.  This allows multiple systems beyond the Justice Department to work together to find a solution. There is not just one service point that will end domestic violence, but it’s a collective effort of multiple systems coming together to support and intervene around the victimization of women.

For example, government agencies who are working with teens and those working on health issues, we know they both are in contact with youth who experience dating violence, so it’s important for there to be a multi-system coordinated response to address the complexities of the needed solution.

The #MeToo movement has created more discussion around sexual assault and domestic violence. We have noticed an increase of 40% in contacts to The Hotline this past year. We believe as a result of more public discourse on the issue, additional media coverage, people in abusive relationships and their friends and family are hearing these conversations, recognizing abuse in their relationships, and reaching out to us for help.

We continue to think about access to services as an organization.  Originally we only had services via phone, today we have phone, online chat and text. 

What do you think people misunderstand about domestic violence?

 First and foremost, people often think it’s a matter of leaving the relationship and the problem just all goes away. But that may be the most dangerous action a victim can take. We also know that without intervention for the abusive partner they have a high risk of abusing again.

We also still encounter people who believe that abuse happens only to the poor and uneducated, or maybe only in certain pockets of the country, so we still do a lot of education and awareness that it can happen to anyone. Domestic Violence does not discriminate.

What should someone know if a loved one is in a domestic violence situation?

This is such a common question for friends and family.  Research has shown that women go back to their abusive relationship about 7 times before they actually do leave. There are many reasons for this, first and foremost being love. The survivor remembers the person they fell in love with and still sees glimpses of that person.  Their partner is not abusive all the time. Promises are made. The abusive partner often promises to get help, that they will change and the abuse will stop. Often times, the abusive partner has isolated the victim and destroyed their self-esteem.

As a support person, it is important not to judge or tell the victim what they need to do.  Offer resources, be a good listener, let them know that you are there for them.  Help them think about their safety and connect them with The Hotline.  It is important not to bad-mouth the abusive partner.  This may prevent your friend from speaking about the relationship in the future. It is important to take good care of yourself through this process as well. 

“I’ve gotten better at ensuring I take good care of myself.  If I am not my best, then I am not serving survivors the best I can.”

Work-life balance has to be hard in a position like yours. How do you remember to step back and take time for yourself when your work is so constant and directly impactful?

It’s hard for most people who are working in nonprofit to prioritize your personal life knowing that there are people who are encountering really challenging situations and in my current role, knowing there are so many people who still need help. I’ve gotten better at ensuring I take good care of myself.  If I am not my best, then I am not serving survivors the best I can. So, one of my strategies is to calendar effectively.  I made a commitment to my boys that I will not miss a game, a play or a student conference.  Family is my top priority and it is important to me that my husband and boys know they are important to me. 

You’ve said previously that a big goal for you is to create intersectionality of domestic violence services with other social justice issues. Tell us about that goal and how the NDVH is joining forces to solve other issues.

We have had a few moments in our organization where we recognized the power of the data that we have. Because we are the only national organization with direct contact with so many survivors across the country, we can recognize trends and help other organizations that are working with different issues such as immigration, reproductive health, firearms, and other issues that impact survivors.  We really want to continue to elevate survivor experiences with these issues.

The data can help lawmakers and governmental organizations create better policies and programs that support survivors and victims with the critical needs they have, filling in where the gaps are and building out services. There is a place for the NDVH to be really thoughtful about partnerships with other organizations to lend our data and help each other.

What advice would you give to young women who want to work in social work, violence prevention, and similar fields?

This work is incredibly meaningful and impactful. The opportunity to help someone else is a gift.  I think the field is so passionate and committed to being able to support survivors in really thoughtful ways that there is a lot of collaboration and a lot of willingness to work together.

For anyone considering working in the field of domestic violence and sexual assault, there are needs for social workers, lawyers, doctors, therapists, politicians, etc. Regardless of your chosen profession, staying grounded in your purpose while remembering there is a lot of goodness in the world is important.

Be mindful and start early to set up your work life balance. You need to create one that helps you have a meaningful career and a balanced life. It is a blessing to know that you have an impact on people at all levels.

Watch the full four-part Lorena docuseries now on Amazon Prime Video.

If you have been directly affected or know someone who has experienced domestic violence you can reach out to The National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-7233 or chatting online with an advocate at thehotline.org. This non-profit is always available, all day, every day, 365 days a year. Highly trained expert advocates provide confidential support, safety planning, and connection with local resources.

A Day in the Life of a Published Author

Andrea Bartz is a master with words. Down-to-earth and candid, she’s not afraid to share her journey from initial idea to being published. Below, Andrea shares what it’s like to be a writer, how to combat the loneliness of writing, the best advice she’s been given, and getting a deal with Mila Kunis.

What does an average day in your life look like when you’re working on a novel?

I try to keep to a schedule, but I’m flexible if workday fun calls (like if I hear about a great museum exhibit and need to ditch my computer and head there on a random Tuesday—that’s the beauty of not having an office job!). Most days, I spend the morning answering emails and working on all the little pieces of being a writer that aren’t writing: updating social media, getting up to date on publishing news, reviewing other books, writing essays and giving interviews, etc. I take a break to work out (I’m a diehard ClassPass fan), and then I spend the afternoon writing or revising my novel. I have daily goals and once I’ve hit them (whether it takes an hour or five), I call it a night and usually see friends. I spend a lot of time in my tiny studio apartment, but I’m most productive when I’m set up with my ergonomic keyboard and dual monitors!

How do you manage your time while writing? Does your publisher give you deadlines, or do you create your own?

My publisher gives me deadlines, but they feel a little abstract: This many months from now, we’ll need a 90,000-word manuscript. So I create my own mini-deadlines to stay on track. I use pacemaker.press to figure out how much I need to accomplish every day and to record my progress, whether I’m drafting (1,200 words/day) or revising (currently about 24 pages/day). The important thing is to build in a cushion at the end and to recalculate whenever I fall behind—otherwise I get overwhelmed if I miss a day.

What was your experience like finding a publisher for this book?

I worked on The Lost Night for about two years before I thought it was in decent shape. In late 2016, I queried several dozen agents whom I thought would like it; I was in the slush pile, sending my query letter and sample chapter like anybody else. Three agents offered representation, and I signed with the brilliant Alexandra Machinist (who reps Tomi Adeyemi, Kevin Kwan, and many other stunners) late that year.

Alexandra took the book out on submission in February, and two editors were interested but not completely sold. They gave me their notes and said they’d be happy to look at a revision. I went to town reworking the novel yet again, which was scary and difficult: I knew that, even after all this work, both editors could pass on the revised draft. But their notes made it much stronger, and thankfully, my editor at Crown (the wonderful Hilary Rubin Teeman, who recently edited the number-one NYT bestseller One Day in December) made an offer in summer 2016. I’m also working with her on my second novel, The Herd, which will come out in 2020.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I’m always dealing with writer’s block! I truly never feel like sitting down and writing, even though I love what I do. For me, it’s all about mind games: I’m a big fan of the Pomodoro Method, where you set a timer for 25 minutes and do nothing but write until you hear the beep—you don’t check your phone, you don’t unload the dishwasher, you don’t look at Twitter, you just write. Even if what you write is god-awful, or even if it means opening up a second document and screaming into it (“I DON’T WANT TO BE WRITING TODAY I DON’T KNOW HOW TO END THIS SCENE I HATE THIS DON’T MAKE ME”)—that still counts as writing! Then you set another timer for a 5- or 10-minute break, and after it, you dive into the next productive period. I can accomplish more in two or three Pomodoro “writing sprints” than an entire afternoon of dicking around on my computer. I have to physically tuck my phone out of sight to stay focused, so I use the charmingly basic tomato-timer.com to keep track.

“Be a voracious reader of fiction that appeals to you (especially works by female authors and people of color!)”

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? What was your journey to writing like?

I’ve always wanted to be a writer—when I was little, I filled notebooks with poems and plays and short stories, and in college I studied journalism, which seemed like a “respectable” way to make a living with my writing. I interned at several magazines (in fact, I met Jaclyn Johnson when we were interns together at Conde Nast!) and then worked my way up the masthead as a magazine editor. I primarily worked at women’s magazines (including Self, Glamour, Natural Health, and Martha Stewart), and I didn’t mind that I was doing more editing than writing. I started writing The Lost Night during my last full-time job, five years ago, and the stars sort of aligned when the magazine I was working at folded: I became a freelance writer, and I worked hard to finish and sell my manuscript. I still do some freelance writing, but I love being able to focus on fiction now.

What advice do you have for aspiring female writers?

In terms of craft and outlining, I’m always recommending two books: Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel, which will help you plot out the emotional “beats” of your story, and John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story, which gives specific exercises for developing rich characters, building your world, and creating an emotionally compelling story. Read those, and be a voracious reader of fiction that appeals to you (especially works by female authors and people of color!)—that’s all you need. You don’t need an MFA, unless that’s the kind of community you’re looking for.

So many people tell me, “I would love to write a novel someday!” or “I wish I could write a novel!” I’m always reminding them that the only way to write a novel is to...write a novel! It seems daunting, but if you write 1,000 words a day, you could have a full-length manuscript in under three months. The important thing is just to sit down and start writing. Again, whatever mind games help you get there are great: Some people like taking a class because it forces them to write a certain number of pages a week. Others love having a writing group (or just finding a crit partner) because it forces them to write pages for swapping. There's no magic dust, but every single page you write makes you a stronger writer.

How do you combat the loneliness often felt by writers when they’re working?

This is a great question, and it’s something I struggle with; I’m an extrovert and I loved the collaborative, super-social environment of a magazine office, so I can go a little stir-crazy when I’m alone for too long. Exercise is so important for mental health in general, and workout classes in particular really boost my mood and energy level (in a way that using the Elliptical in my building’s gym can’t). I’m forced to go outside, see the sun, and be around other people. That’s huge, when you work from home!

About once a week, I’ll meet a writer friend for a work date, which is usually a catch-up lunch followed by a few hours of working. I know I won’t be quite as productive during our date, so I save certain tasks for cafe days, like updating my website or sending invoices. I try to schedule dinners or drinks several nights a week, so I have something to look forward to when I’m done writing. And finally, as I mentioned, every once in a while I just say screw it and head to a museum or movie or park or botanical garden. What’s the point of being self-employed if you never give yourself a break?

“The only way to write a novel is to...write a novel!”

For this novel specifically, how did the idea come about? Which came first: the story, the characters, the ending?

The characters and story hit me all at once. To give a little context, The Lost Night is a thriller about a woman unraveling the dark truth surrounding her best friend’s apparent suicide in a Brooklyn artists’ loft ten years earlier. It explores that moment of feeling young and free and invincible when you’re out on your own for the first time—and what happens when that all comes crashing down.

I had the idea when I was thinking back on my own “invincible” twenties, when the nerve center of my social life was this labyrinthine factory-turned-hipster-dorm in Brooklyn’s gritty Bushwick neighborhood. It was pretty wild: You could wander in on any Friday night and come upon a concert, a play, a poetry reading, an open mic, an EDM dance party, and who knows what else. I thought: What if, after one of those hard-partying Friday nights when a million mini-adventures went down, there was a dead body?

As for the ending: The whole time I was writing, I had no idea how it was going to end! It cracks me up when readers say they spotted this or that twist from a mile away, because I swear—I didn’t see it myself until it poured out of my fingers and onto the page.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

I almost didn’t write The Lost Night—I was so scared people were going to dismiss it because it  centers around a much-maligned “hipster” subculture. (Remember how much everyone hated hipsters in, like, 2014?) My friend Leah Konen, who’s also a fiction writer, gave me the best advice in the world: “Go all in on a shitty first draft. Take off your editor hat. Take off your what-if-people-make-fun-of-me-for-writing-about-hipsters hat. Just write!” No one had given me permission to write poorly before. So freeing!

What are you most excited for in 2019?

I’m of course incredibly excited for The Lost Night’s publication on February 26! Beyond that, Cartel Entertainment recently signed on to adapt the book as a limited series, with Mila Kunis on board as a producer. Things move slowly in Hollywood, I hear, but I’m incredibly excited to see my novel brought to life on the screen.

Keep reading for a sneak peek of The Lost Night!

Remember being 23? For many of us, that time felt loopy and free, brimming with possibility. We were out on our own for the first time, and friendships felt operatic, romances felt epic, and every weekend crackled with possibility. 

That was certainly true for Lindsay Bach, the narrator of my psychological thriller, THE LOST NIGHT (Crown, on-sale 2/26). She was 23 in 2009, and her artsy young group of friends all lived in Calhoun Lofts, a sprawling Brooklyn warehouse space with parties and concerts and general debauchery spinning out from every corner. Her best friend, Edie, was the group’s seductive ringleader—beautiful and mercurial, she had the city’s social scene in her thrall. After they found Edie in her loft with a suicide note on her computer and a bullet in her head, the group scattered, torn apart by shock and grief. 

Ten years later, Lindsay thinks she’s moved on: She has new, adult friendships and a slick job as the head fact-checker at a glossy magazine. So she’s not quite sure what compelled her to reach out to Sarah, a friend from the Calhoun Lofts era, when Sarah moved back to NYC. This adapted excerpt is from Lindsay’s catch-up dinner with Sarah, the first time Lindsay’s seen anyone from Calhoun Lofts in a decade. The conversation quickly turns to their beautiful, fallen heroine—and what really happened that fateful night...

*****

Sarah didn’t mention Edie again until we were finishing dessert, picking at a shared flourless chocolate cake. “It’s crazy to think about how much has happened in ten years,” she announced. “I was so glad to hear you wanted to get together. I thought about reaching out a few times over the years, but I just wasn’t sure after . . . I mean, after how everything went down after Edie.”

“That’s exactly how I felt, to be honest,” I said. “I know I just sort of . . . went MIA afterward. I mean, I guess we were all just grieving in our own way. We were so young. None of us were equipped to deal with it.” She nodded and looked away, and I realized she wanted me to go on. “I always thought you had it worse than anyone, Sarah. Worse than everyone. I mean, you found her. God, I haven’t thought about this in so long.”

I’d done my crying and then I’d let Edie go, tucking the whole ordeal away so that it couldn’t taint what came before. So I was surprised by how quickly the night came back to me now that I’d called it up. Now that Sarah was sitting across from me and talking about August 21, 2009, in dark, tenebrous terms.

It had been a Friday. A band had been rattling the windows in an apartment two floors up from Edie’s place, and a bunch of us were standing around at the concert, drunk or pretending to be. The guitars and bass were so loud, I could feel the vibrations in my collarbone. I remember registering with a flapping concern that I was too drunk, then scurrying out to the street, where a random girl had helped me hail a taxi home. Edie hadn’t been at the con- cert with us; Edie had been home alone, two floors down, crafting a brief suicide note and then pulling out the gun. Her time of death, we later learned, was while we were watching the band, their meandering chords cloaking the single gunshot. The rest I knew from my friends’ accounts, repeated so many times that I could see it: midnight, pitch black, Sarah hobbles into the apartment and flicks on the overhead lights, trying not to make too much noise in case Edie’s already asleep. Her screams had rattled the whole building, shrill and sharp and with that beelike whine hovering descant just above her cries.

“I know, it was awful.” She listed forward and I suddenly realized Sarah was  drunk.

“You moved back home, right?” 

“Yeah, my parents were pretty worried about me. I mean, I was acting like a lunatic, going all conspiracy theorist.”

“What do you mean?”

A sheepish laugh. “You remember. I guess I just didn’t want to believe my best friend could do that. She trusted me more than anyone, and I didn’t like feeling like I’d failed her.”

I sat up straighter. Her best friend? Who was she kidding? “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

“You don’t remember?” she continued. “I was running around insisting that Edie hadn’t actually killed herself, that it must have been an accident or foul play or something. I know, it’s ridiculous.” 

“Oh, wow, I didn’t realize that.” Sarah’s flair for melodrama resurfaced in my memory like something emerging from the mist. “What made you think it wasn’t a suicide?”

“Oh my god, it was all stupid little things, in retrospect. There was the fact that I found her in her underwear—she was always so perfectly put-together, so that seemed weird.”

Right, but it was circumstantial. When we’d talked it out in those first shaken weeks, it had also seemed plausible that she wouldn’t have wanted to ruin any of the beautiful pieces in her closet; Edie had treated them like precious artifacts.

“And the gun stuff didn’t make sense to me: She was left-handed, but the gun was in her right hand, and the wound was on the right side of her face. Until a forensic expert explained to me that if she used two hands, she could’ve wound up slightly off- center and just, like, crumpled to either side.”

Jesus. She’d talked to a forensic expert? I watched as she slurped the last of her fourth martini.

“But I learned enough about criminology to figure out that there are a few loose ends in any investigation. Because that’s how life is.”

“. . . Unraveling,” I supplied.

She smiled. “But yeah, my parents found me an awesome therapist, and she helped me face the facts. I guess we all turned out okay.”

“We did. And you shouldn’t feel bad about dealing with it however you needed to deal with it. We were all so immature and maybe didn’t know how to . . . ask for help.”

“You mean like Edie.”

I’d been thinking of myself, but sure, Edie, too. What with the debt and the depression and the suicide note on her laptop. The gun pressed against her temple.

“That was some heavy shit,” I said.

She poked at her cocktail napkin. “It’s still hard for me to believe sometimes. Like, we were at the top of our game. We were having the time of our lives.”

“I know what you mean,” I said. “Everyone glorifies their twenties, I guess, but for me that period was . . . It meant a lot.” I swallowed hard. “And then it ended. It’s nuts. Literally, we were dancing around to some stupid band just a few floors up while Edie was . . .”

Sarah narrowed her eyes. “Well, you weren’t.” 

“What?”

“You weren’t at the concert.”

Adapted from THE LOST NIGHT: A Novel Copyright © 2019 by Andrea Bartz. To be published by Crown Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House, on February 26, 2019. 

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These Workspace Cofounders Share the Problem With Saying Women Can "Have It All”

June Diane Raphael and Jess Zaino want to make coming back from maternity leave easier for new moms. The actor-producer duo, mothers themselves, found themselves constantly apologizing for their own motherhood—so they decided to do something about it. Enter The Jane Club, a Los Angeles-based coworking space where working and mothering go hand in hand. Beyond a (staggeringly beautiful) workspace, the club also offers full-time childcare and amenities like gym space, car washes, and wellness exams.

Below, June and Jess talk about what inspired the club and the best advice they’ve ever received.

What inspired The Jane Club? What did you see missing from the market?

We were both apologizing for being mothers at work and apologizing for working outside of the home when we were with our kids. There was no single place where you could pursue ALL of your success: the success of your professional dreams and the success of your motherhood. We were incredibly wary of the conversations around “having it all” and wanted to create a space that actually built the walls to do that.

Tell us a little about the club itself. What unique problems does the club solve for working moms?

We call The Jane Club the “mother of all workspaces” because women come here to work, yes, but they can also have their children taken care of at The Nest. They can work out. They can meditate. They can shop. They can learn about a topic they didn’t know about. They can get a blowout. They can get their car washed. All in our space. The reason we are constantly offering our Janes (our term for members) services to make their lives easier (from mani pedis to flu shots) is because we understand all that women are doing, all that they are taking care of in their lives. We take care of the women who are taking care of everyone else.

“We take care of the women who are taking care of everyone else. ”

We’ve gotta know—why is it called The Jane Club?

The Jane Club is inspired by Jane Addams, who paid the first month’s rent to start the first Jane Club for a group of working women in Chicago. Jane also co-founded the ACLU and was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She is considered the “mother of social work.” We also love having women’s names on buildings.

What brought you two together as business partners? What do you think each other brings to the table that makes for a great partnership?

We met at a women’s progressive political group after the 2016 election and were both in need of what The Jane Club offered. When Jess came to June with the idea, it was a no-brainer. From there, we pulled together an incredible team of women, including our Co-CEOs Zoe Regan and Dori Howard, to launch the business.

We are very different people and have different ways of looking at things. As challenging as that can be, it’s also our greatest asset as partners. We are not afraid to have difficult conversations and “go there” with each other.

Can women really “have it all?” Is that a myth?

We believe this phrase has been launched at women without any infrastructure in place to actually support them “having it all”—and it’s had damaging results. The Jane Club is interested in creating real support for women in their real lives and honoring all the work that they do. Can you imagine a world in which taking care of our children, elderly parents, and ourselves was valued?

What advice would you give to new moms who are facing the same pressure you faced when returning to work?

First, we would ask if their employer would consider having them work out of The Jane Club for their first year back at work. They can have their infants with us at The Nest and breastfeed in any area of The Jane Club.

If that’s not possible, our advice would be to reach out to their village for help—to be honest about what they need.

“We need to rewrite the rules between women and work.
The Jane Club is doing just that.”

What are the common challenges you've seen among female business owners and entrepreneurs?

Fundraising is more challenging for women than men, and proper funding is vital to the early stage of a business. Our incubator space was financed entirely by women who believed in our mission, and we are so proud of that.

We’ve had investors ask our team if our children were going to be OK with us working so hard at building our business. This comment is, of course, particularly infuriating, as men would never be asked the same question. But it’s also reinforced our belief that we need to rewrite the rules between women and work and change the conversation. The Jane Club is doing just that.

What’s the best “real talk” advice you’ve each received?

Jess: Ask for everything.

June: I received the best advice from my girlfriends after giving birth and heading back into the workforce. They told me that I would feel like I was failing all the time, and that if I took care of myself first, my children would do better.

What’s next for The Jane Club?

We have already outgrown our incubator space and are opening up our first official location in the spring of 2019 in LA. We know that the problems we are solving for women are not specific to Los Angeles, and we have plans to bring the Jane mission across the country.

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Why This Entrepreneur Chose Bootstrapping Over VC Funding After Working in Tech

Funding announcements get a significant amount of fanfare, but profitability and being cash-flow positive does not. Like it or not, venture capital is borrowed money and it must be repaid - with interest. Raising venture funding is glorified with big events but are there alternatives to VC funding?

After working as a marketing executive in startups, green technology and cloud hosting, Naly Rice started LN Creative Group (LNCG), a technology marketing company, after growing frustrated with the lack of technical expertise in marketing agencies and seeing new trends within the marketing industry. Naly chose to bootstrap her business instead of seek VC funding which helped her business become cash-flow positive within a couple years and avoid the often ignored side effects of VC investment.

You went from working in tech to owning your own tech marketing agency. How did you make the leap from tech employee to agency owner?

I worked as head of marketing for a couple technology companies and became increasingly frustrated with marketing agencies that didn’t truly understand technology, software, and brand experience. As a marketing executive, there always seemed to be a lack of partnership with marketing agencies. They saw the company as simply a one project client or a singular campaign when we really needed a true partner. The role of the CMO and the marketing department was also rapidly changing, and I saw my opportunity to get into the market.

I wanted to build a marketing agency with an “as-a-service” business model and technology at the core of everything we did. Working in technology made me realize how much better “off-site IT” was. It not only saved money, it actually helped some companies accelerate their growth. I wanted to recreate that model using marketing. I started doing research and when I read that Forbes declared “Marketing-as-a-Service” as the future of marketing, I knew I was on to something.

I started the company in 2013 and didn’t quit my full-time job until 2015 to ensure that I didn’t put myself in a risky situation. Even after I quit my job, I continued to work part-time and freelance to help pay the bills while I was getting the business off the ground.

What is bootstrapping and why did you choose that over VC funding?

Bootstrapping is when you start a business using your own capital with minimal or no outside investment. It allows you to maintain control of your business with discipline when it comes to spending.

When I worked in technology, I saw a lot of companies receive VC funding only for the businesses to quietly crumble a couple years later. I also saw small humble startups find alternative routes for funding and grow their businesses one customer at a time.

I chose bootstrapping because I wanted full ownership of the company, how quickly it would grow, and have time to iterate our business model without pressure from VCs to turn a quick profit. My service-based business also wasn’t a good fit for VC funding.

I saved every penny, reinvested income from the business, and was as lean and cautious as possible when it came to spending. I decided not to take any investments from family and friends, instead using my own savings and 401K. In the end, bootstrapping was the best decision I ever made for my business.

“The great majority of successful businesses start out small and carefully scale over time to become profitable companies, whereas venture funding is about high-risks, high-returns, and aiming for an IPO.”

What should women entrepreneurs know about venture funding?

Some entrepreneurs think they "made it" if they finally get funding. Little do they know, it's the start of a new partnership - with interest. It’s not free money and if you’re not successful the VCs can come and liquidate your company to recoup the funds. Venture funding isn’t a guarantee of success, and its side effects can sometimes sabotage your business.

Selecting the right venture partner, understanding the VC funding lifecycle/funnel, figuring out your exit strategy, and asking only for what you need are all critical things to consider if you’re seeking VC funding.

Also, a very small percentage of startups actually get funded - less than 1%. It doesn’t mean you should give up on your business idea. The great majority of successful businesses start out small and carefully scale over time to become profitable companies, whereas venture funding is about high-risks, high-returns, and aiming for an IPO.

“VC funding can’t replace a great product or
service that people willingly buy on their own. ”

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Be scrappy, test your product, and get one (preferably more) paying customers before you quit your job or seek funding. Whether you get VC funding or not, it still can't replace a great product or service that people willingly buy on their own. If you find that you can’t make one genuine sale, it’s time to rethink your approach, reframe the target market, and/or evaluate the business as a whole.

Additionally, have patience and schedule in “me time.” Burning out is real and harms you and your business. Self-care is exceptionally important when you’re starting a business so work hard, but also don’t forget to do you.

LN Creative Group is a technology marketing agency. Can you explain exactly what makes your agency different from other marketing or advertising agencies?

We believe that the future of marketing is in Marketing-as-a-Service (MaaS). The marketing department, and the role of CMO, has changed so much. Go to any company and the head of marketing’s job will be wildly different. Unlike traditional marketing agencies, we’re more like an off-site marketing department that knows the company and is indistinguishably aligned with our clients’ goals without the cost, time, and training needed to hire a full-time staff.

What are you most excited about in 2019?

Launching my podcast #MarTechTalk, speaking at more women entrepreneur events, and moving into a new home with my husband, Chris, and our dog, Taco.

Naly Rice is the CEO of LNCG, a tech branding, marketing & design agency.

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This Photographer Shares How She Sets a Fair Rate

You’ve seen the gorgeous photography from our #createcultivate100 list. Now, meet Annie McElwain, the woman behind the camera. Below, Annie shares her process for setting her rate, her dream client, and advice for young creatives.

How did you get into photography?

I used to be an actress and started photography as a hobby in my early 20s. I had no previous artistic background and never intended it as a career—I actually was a lot more academic in nature than artistic. However, there was something in me that has always wanted to tell stories of and share the beauty in the human experience.

What’s the most rewarding part of being a photographer?

Photos (especially portraits) often become more valuable, more cherished over time. The sentimental side of me finds this greatly rewarding.

In a dream world, who would you like to shoot?

The first female president.

What advice would you give to young artists and designers who are struggling to support themselves with their work?

It helps me to remember that without the struggle, we really wouldn’t appreciate it once we got wherever it is we want to go.

Where does your passion/drive come from?

It’s hard to say. I think everyone has drive once they find what they are passionate about. And sometimes finding this takes a lot of self exploration first.

“I do my best to live in a world where ‘likes’ don’t matter and real relationships are always more valuable than follower counts. ”

What keeps you up at night?

It varies between my ongoing to-do list, finances, and thinking about the next earthquake.

What advice do you have on knowing how to set a fair rate?

First, don’t compare yourself to what other people are charging, find what works for you in your life.

My basic approach to setting a fair rate comes from how much money I need to bring in each month and how many shoots I can handle each month. This gives a general idea of how much to charge for a shoot, though it’s not a perfect formula of course. Basically, I try to really understand the scope of the project before I send over a quote. With enough experience, I’ve come to really understand what my time is worth.

In a world where likes and follower counts are so coveted, how do you stay authentic and true to yourself/your brand?

I do my best to live in a world where likes don’t matter in the grand scheme of things and real relationships are always more valuable than follower counts.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work? How do your hobbies influence your art?

Yoga keeps me balanced, surfing reminds me to let go of control and to be present. Long walks and hikes allow my mind to wander freely. I escape with music. Travel, dinner with friends, podcasts— expand my horizons.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

If you always do your best, you will never regret anything.

When you hit a bump or hurdle in your career, how do you find new roads + switch gears to find success?

I think just knowing that you WILL hit bumps and hurdles in your career makes it a bit easier to deal with them when they come. I find peace in knowing that things like this are relatively cyclical and most artists careers have peaks and valleys. I had a business coach once who really helped me with the idea of failing. She taught me that we only really learn when we fail, not when we succeed. So while it can be humbling, making mistakes or trying things out that don’t work are what make us better.

What are you most excited for in 2019?

I’m really excited to experiment more creatively and collaborate more with other artists this year.

Day in the Life: Rachel Krupa of The Goods Mart & Krupa Consulting

Welcome to the first installment of our new monthly series, Day in the Life! Through this Q&A series, you’ll get an inside look at the day-to-day lives of some of the most inspiring women in business.

To kick things off, we sat down with Rachel Krupa, a true force of change in the health food and wellness industry. At her PR agency, Krupa Consulting, Rachel promotes food and wellness brands through press, social, and events. Her newest venture, a “healthy convenience store” called The Goods Mart, puts her knowledge of that same space to work through what The New York Times calls “A 7-Eleven for all you organic people.” Read on to hear Rachel’s take on routines, self care, and the best snacks at her shop right now.

Are you a night owl or a morning person? When do you do your most important work and why?

Honestly, I’m both… I love getting up early and hammering through emails or taking calls before 9am, and then I get my second wind at 5 or 6pm. I love the quiet, calm feeling in the mornings and the energy that the just post-dusk evening brings. I live for the the sunrise and fall peaks of each day.

What time do you get up? What’s the first thing you do upon waking?

I wake up around 5:45-6:30am – it just depends on my day! But every day, I wake up and roll right into a workout class – Pilates or yoga!

What does your morning, pre-work routine look like?

I like to have a structured morning…wake, workout, and after the workout, I mediate when I get home, drink a liter of water, listen to music, dry brush, oil pull (while showering), take my Chinese herbs, collagen, and sprinkle on some essential oils with quick glance at emails to see what’s coming in…I try to swing by the store before heading into the office if I don’t have a meeting.

What’s your commute like? Do you listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks? Any current faves?

During my commute, I’m either listening to music or rolling calls. I keep it simple — KISS FM, or still listen to Pandora (so old school ☺). Right now I’m obsessed with the “Dreamy Snowy Day” channel.

You own a consulting business and also run The Goods Mart. What’s the best and worst part of running two very different businesses?

Crazy enough, my two business actually compliment each other. Krupa Consulting is a PR agency focusing on food and wellness. We work with incredible restaurants (Shake Shack, Milk Bar, maman, Hanoi House, Monty’s Good Burger, byChloe), the tastiest CPG brands (MatchaBar, McConnell’s Ice Cream, Vital Farms, Good Catch, This Bar Saves Lives), and the best wellness brands (goop Wellness, Clean Market, WTHN, Fleur Marche). Our goal is to build media and consumer awareness and we often discuss how to drive more traffic to their stores, studios, and sites by sharing the cool things they are doing.

With The Goods Mart, I’m pretty much doing the same thing but it’s my own brand.

I’m never not learning something! I’m able to see what consumers are talking about in the store and share it with our brands. It’s FUN to get real time feedback from real customers!

The worst part - I wish there was more time in the day to get more done! And juggling two inboxes can get a little crazy at times.

What are some exciting projects you’re working on this month?

Last week, I was at Fancy Food in San Francisco, a very large specialty food and beverage show where we got to see and taste the new products and trends in food. We had a handful of clients exhibiting, and then I walked the show to find cool new products to bring into The Goods. Also this week, Monty’s Good Burger just launched the Impossible Burger 2.0, we’re doing desk sides with Fleur Marche in New York, and I looked at a few new spaces to potentially open another store!!!

We just signed a few new clients, Kiito (an incredible plant-based protein drink) and Juneshine (a hard Kombucha), so this week we’re in planning mode with them. It’s our time to get really creative and present our ideas. We’re also doing a farm visit with our client Roam, a female-centric cannabis vape company. I love how transparent our clients are and how they welcome us to see all parts of their business. I’m jumping on a red eye on Wednesday (I’m not excited about that), but on Thursday, I’m speaking on a panel. The Goods Mart will be curating all the snacks for the event and we’re bringing in our slushie machine! I’m excited for the event guests to try our kombucha slushies!

Do you ever reach inbox zero? How do you handle the constant influx of inquiries and communication entrepreneurs are so familiar with?

In my dreams, my inbox would be at zero! Earlier in my career, I couldn’t sleep if I had unread emails, but boy, times have changed. Now, I actually mark emails as unread if I need to keep them on my radar.

I also believe email is not always the best method of communication. Slack has been a lifesaver for internal communication for both Krupa Consulting and The Goods Mart. It helps to streamline communication and greatly reduced office chit chat!

What product are you currently most excited about selling at TGM? Why?

It’s really had to narrow them down!

Rind – it’s a local Brooklyn brand that dries fruit with the skins on. The persimmons and kiwis are ridiculously good.

We just brought in a new spice soda called Dona – the pink peppercorn lemon is so refreshing!

I’m also a fan of Laiki (they taste like a Bugle, but with only 3 ingredients) — we’re the first to carry their new Vegan Cheese flavor.

Little Secret Wafers (hello, better-for-you Kit Kat)!

Delish Fish — they taste like a Swedish fish but without all of the artificialness)

Dang Sticky Rice Cakes — I just polished off a bag.

…and last but not least.. our pineapple kombucha slushies!

What are some work habits that help you stay healthy, productive, and on track to reach your goals?

At our office and in the store, I believe you need to create a mood to be more productive and keep energies high – it’s about the smells, the music and the energy of the work environment.

We always have aromatherapy on (or burn incense). In the office, we alternate playlists to coordinate how people are feeling, while in the store, we have some really rad playlists created depending on the time of day.

At Krupa Consulting, we try to step away from our computers during lunch so we’re not eating and working. Each team meets on Mondays to discuss the goals for the week for our clients and then meets again on Thursday or Friday to discuss how the week went. It keeps the communication flowing!

And I’m a believer in getting out of the office during the day to walk around and clear your mind. Every day at 4pm, I walk to get a matcha. It’s my time to clear my mind so I can finish the day strong. It’s also important to add small hints of wellness into your day – rub on a dab of essential oil, think about breathing, talk about something really random to make yourself and other laugh. We all work REALLY hard, but you need to break it up, even if it’s for a minute.

Any favorite apps you use regularly?

Top used apps currently are: Slack, Dropbox, Delta, Square, Instagram, Insight Timer, and Sleep Cycle.

What are you reading/watching right now?

I need to read more books… I have Howard Schultz “Pour Your Heart Into It” on my nightstand.

Before I go to bed, I need to watch an easy show it helps transfer my mind away from emails. My guilty pleasures are The Magnificent Mrs. Maisel, New Amsterdam, and You.

How do you spend an average evening?

An average night is spent doing more emails from home. I turn the lights low, blare some tunes, and spend some quality time with my inbox. But at least two nights a week, I make plans with friends/clients to have dinner and catch-up sessions.

I’ll also toss in, weekends are very much a time for self-care. I regularly get massages, acupuncture, and IV drips. I need to give my body some TLC because I know I push it hard.

When do you go to bed? What’s your “optimal” # of sleep hours?

I tried to be in bed by 11pm, but normally it’s closer to midnight! I aim for at least seven hours a night, but I feel good as long as I have more than six hours.

What’s the most rewarding part of your day?

Going to work! I love what I do and the people I get to work with daily. The teams at both Krupa Consulting and The Goods Mart are stellar; they put their heart and soul into it. I’m inspired by them daily. We also get to work with so many outstanding brands.

At The Goods Mart, we’re able to introduce new, better options to our customers and have them leave with smiles on their faces. Shopping can be FUN!

How This CMO is Transforming the Cannabis Industry For Your Health

What happens when women and cannabis join forces? As it turns out, success. dosist, an award-winning California-based wellness brand, is proof. Their proprietary cannabis pen offers a safe, consistent dose of formulas created to promote sleep, pain relief, calmness, and more. We were thrilled to partner with the company, named Fast Company’s most innovative brand in 2018, to host a happy hour our Miami Vision Summit. Below, we chat with Anne-Marie Dacyshyn, chief marketing officer, about what women bring to the table in the wellness industry and how dosist is transforming healthcare...one dose at a time.

You joined Dosist in July. What appealed to you about the company, and what did you most look forward to?

What appealed to me about joining dosist were three key and powerful things: First, it offered me the chance to be part of a monumental global shift where this incredibly powerful and therapeutic natural resource is on a trajectory towards widely adopted legalization, which is huge from a wellness perspective. Next, I was inspired by dosist in particular in that it had already pioneered and innovated a game-changing proprietary dose control device and targeted formulations, all aimed at helping people naturally manage their health and happiness. And finally, the leadership team and brand culture led by CEO Gunner Winston was beyond inspiring, so when it all added up I knew this was a chance to make history in not only transforming the cannabis category, but also transforming how people think about healthcare, working with an incredible and talented team along the way.

Women hold more executive positions in the cannabis industry than the average U.S. business. Do you think women bring a unique perspective to the category, and how do you see female-led companies changing the future of cannabis?

To start, at dosist we are 100% focused on the wellness side of cannabis use, and in fact are building a leading modern wellness brand vs. a cannabis brand. And I believe it is that important distinction and focus on health and wellness that has attracted an influx of women into the space and into our brand in particular, as consumer history has shown us that women have often been the catalysts in helping shape and drive the new global “modern wellness” platform as they continue to seek out and demand natural alternatives to support their wellness routines. So, from there it is only logical that more women are stepping in and helping drive this initiative and conversation through key roles, to help accelerate the access to and development of more cannabis-based wellness products.

As for how this influx shapes businesses at dosist we believe the best products and brands come out of companies with a culture that fosters and promotes diversified thinking across the board. So for us that comes from building a diverse leadership team that is not just about gender diversity, but also diversity across backgrounds and experience, and it’s all of these factors that are paramount to achieving our goals.

“There is still so much misconception and stigma that exists around this amazing plant, so it is imperative for us to ensure we are always educating first and foremost about its potential as a powerful therapeutic tool.”

Dosist is run by a more diverse leadership team than the average brand. What advantages does this have, from both a marketing perspective and an internal one?

We’re certainly proud to have a female CMO, CFO and a diverse team. But we’ve never thought about it in terms of hiring quotas. At dosist we are committed to developing talent around three principles – inspiration, collaboration, and accountability. And, do you share our vision of transforming healthcare? It’s those shared values across the team, combined with our commitment to innovation in products, therapeutic formulations and consumer experiences that inspire and differentiate us in empowering consumers to naturally manage their health and happiness.

What differentiates dosist from other companies in the cannabis space?

To start, at dosist we are focused on an entirely different approach in that we are building a leading modern wellness brand which uses cannabis to provide relief from some of today’s most common ailments through science and innovation. Our products and formulas are engineered to take the guesswork out of cannabis treatment, and create consistent, safe and effective results for our consumers.

We achieve this through a few key things. The first is our proprietary and award-winning dose pen, that uses superior vaporization technology to activate the key cannabis compounds in our targeted formulas and delivers a precise 2.25 mg dose each and every time, notifying the consumer of a complete dose with a slight vibration. Dose control is imperative to effectively using cannabis as a therapeutic tool, and we are the leaders in this technology and initiative.

Next, we worked with leading cannabis scientists to engineer our six targeted formulas:

Bliss, Sleep, Calm, Relief, Arouse and Passion, to deliver optimal health benefits without the sometimes overwhelming effects of THC. From reducing pain and inflammation to getting a better night’s sleep our formulas are expertly engineered to elevate your health and happiness naturally.

And last, we are dedicated to being the leader in providing education and awareness for consumers about cannabis. There is still so much misconception and stigma that exists around this amazing plant, so it is imperative for us to ensure we are always educating first and foremost about its potential as a powerful therapeutic tool. We are committed to breaking through the pre-existing barrier of misconception and ultimately removing the stigma that still exists.

What about your job makes you feel most fulfilled?

In short, all of it. From the opportunity to be a part of something that is so impactful to so many people’s lives and the incredible stories we hear from our customers every day, to the amazing and talented group of people and partners that I get to work with (like partnering up with Create & Cultivate at Art Basel!), it’s an incredible journey we are on to help people discover cannabis and utilize it as a safe, therapeutic alternative medicine. So it’s all of that and more that keeps me fulfilled, inspired and grateful.

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This Skincare Line Founder Shares How She Stays Innovative After 35 Years In The Business

Skincare is having a moment. The industry that’s poised to reach $177 billion by 2024 is growing exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. But in a world where we’re inundated with product after product on social media, we wondered: How is it possible to stand out among millions of other products that promise to tone, tighten, and brighten better than the next? We sat down with Sandie Tillotson, who cofounded skincare company Nu Skin more than three decades ago, to find out.

How did you originally envision your career? Did you always want to work in beauty?

As a young girl, I wanted to be a teacher. I went on to receive a degree in physical science and a teaching certificate from Brigham Young University. I was married with two small children and had been substitute teaching elementary school classes when I was approached by my mother-in-law. She had used a product she loved that helped her lose a lot of weight and asked me to help her sell it through a direct sales channel. It was at this time that I discovered my entrepreneurial spirit, and I experienced tremendous success as a distributor for that company. Unfortunately, the company later filed for bankruptcy, and I was suddenly unemployed.

But I knew the power of direct selling and believed that skin care was a perfect fit for direct sales. At the time, skin care products on the market were loaded with mineral oils and other harmful ingredients and fillers, and our little group of founders set out to create a new line of products with all of the good ingredients and none of the bad. We created a list of innovative ingredients and hired a formulation expert to create products using only beneficial ingredients. Many told us that it would be too expensive and that we would not be successful, but people loved our products, and we’re still going strong nearly 35 years later.

What was the moment you learned the beauty industry was the right fit for you?

I knew we had something special the day we ran out of product bottles. In the early days, our product came from the manufacturer in bulk, and we packaged it ourselves. It was so effective, it became difficult to keep up with the demand. While we waited for our next bottle order to arrive, our customers started bringing their own containers so they could get our fabulous products without delay. They brought whatever they had—baby food jars, plastic packages, whatever worked—and we carefully measured out product into those containers so we could meet their needs. We knew we were onto something exciting.

Nu Skin

Your biography mentions that you’ve done a lot of philanthropic work. What have these efforts taught you as a business owner and leader?

I believe that not only are we the happiest in life, but we are also at our best, when we are “motivated by love.” Great things happen when we are focused on helping others rather than making money. Together, my business partners and I embraced this philosophy, and we infused it throughout the company we created. We wanted to help others be successful professionally so that they could use that success to help improve the lives of others around them. Helping others makes the work we do and the success we find that much more fun and rewarding.

One of the things we did early on was establish the Nu Skin Force for Good Foundation – with Nu Skin covering all the operating costs of the Foundation. This was important to us because when someone donates, they know that 100 percent of their donation is going to help improve the lives of children around the world.   

What are some key characteristics in your opinion that make female business owners successful?

I believe we each have our own talents and gifts that we bring to everything we do. It is up to us to discover what our strengths are, and then to use them to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. When I became a mother, I learned how important it was to nurture and care for others. I found that for me, loving others and giving of myself without expecting return – in my home and in my professional interactions – was the best way I could care for others. At the same time, we need to know when to separate emotions from business decisions. Do not take things that happen in business personally, but learn how to separate and handle them without letting it affect you emotionally.

What’s the key to maintaining relevance and encouraging growth after so many years in business?

At Nu Skin, creation and innovation are central to everything we do. We do not rest on yesterday’s successes, but instead look to the future and what we can offer next. In fact, in our last earnings release, we reported our fourth consecutive quarter with revenue growth of 20 percent or more. How many 35-year-old, multi-billion dollar companies can say that? This is a tribute to the great team of people we have – both our employees and teams – who are connected by a common cause of being a force for good in the world and together have created a great environment for both company and individual growth and development.

Nu Skin

What makes Nu Skin stand out from its competitors in a crowded space?

While we have developed products that are proven to work and that people love, our real differentiator is our culture of empowering people to improve lives. Over the past 35 years we have built a worldwide sales force who are successfully sharing our products and opportunity through social media. This “force for good” philosophy, coupled with our dedication to helping people to discover their best selves, are what make us unique.

Just yesterday, I received a video message from a woman who through tears shared how grateful she was that she wouldn’t have to work this Christmas and could enjoy the time with her family. Nu Skin not only allows her to set her own schedule, but through her Nu Skin business she has been able to purchase food and gifts to share with others this Christmas. She was thanking me, but I reminded her that she was the one who did this for herself and her family through her sharing and caring for others.  

With an emphasis on all things digital, how has the company structure changed in recent years?

The digital age has made it possible for people to get the word out about our products faster, easier and to more people than ever before. Technology helps our sales leaders be more efficient and successful but doesn’t take the place of a personal connection. People use our products and join our global family because of personal relationships and recommendations based on trust. And at the end of the day, every person wants to know that you care for and are there for them.

Where do you see the beauty industry heading in the future?

As is the case with almost any industry right now, the beauty industry is changing rapidly. Right now, we are seeing a huge demand for in-home beauty devices that deliver spa-like results. Technology is enabling people to understand their unique skin care needs and discover more personalized regimens. Innovation is always on our minds, and we are constantly improving our products and looking for additional products our customers want and need.  As science discovers new ingredients and technology offers us new products to share, we will embrace those innovations and develop new strategies to share with our Nu Skin family.

Nu Skin

You’re known for creating a unique global marketing plan. Any tips or insights you can share with our readers who are looking for ways to market their businesses internationally?

Even as we were just starting our business, we had the hope of expanding globally—we even named our new business Nu Skin International to reflect that thinking. The first market we expanded to was Canada, and even with the proximity and similarities to the United States, we needed to work with a different currency and label our products in two languages. Fast forward to today and we have expanded to nearly 50 markets.

Our goal in each new market has been to establish a reputation as a solid corporate citizen and industry leader. We do this by working closely with local government officials and building trust with our sales leaders and customers by keeping our promises. It is this trust that allows us to grow and continue to be successful.

Along the way, we have made mistakes and learned valuable lessons. One of the most important questions we would always ask ourselves, and still do, before expanding into any market is whether we have the cash and other resources necessary to properly support the market. If we don’t, we don’t open the market until we are ready.

How do you stay current and up-to-date on the latest trends in the business world?

I’m both a businesswoman and a person who loves to learn.  As I’m traveling the world, I constantly look at countries, cultures and customers through the lens of a business owner.  Everywhere I go, I search for trends and product ideas that will delight and improve the lives of our customers. I also get invaluable advice from my children, grandchildren and our global family of leaders who keep me in touch with current health, beauty and social media trends. What would we do without our amazing millennials?

Nu Skin

It’s Monday morning and your schedule for the day is packed. What are the first things you do to prepare for the day?

My day always begins with a Facial Spa treatment to wake up my skin. It feels incredible! I follow that with a shower where I use my LumiSpa, Liquid Body Bar and, depending on time, some of our other great Nu Skin shower products. After breakfast I take my LifePak and other daily Pharmanex supplements I love. The other day, I counted the number of Nu Skin products I use before I walk out the door every day and got to 40. I guess you could say that I’m a “product of the product!”

What is one skincare product you can’t live without?

When the airlines lost my luggage for three days, I missed everything! But I learned that my health and beauty “must haves,” were Pharmanex LifePak vitamin supplements, Nu Skin 180 Face Wash and our ageLOC Tru Face Essence Ultra moisturizer. Lucky for me, I was attending a Nu Skin event and plenty of people were there who were motivated by love to share their supply with me!

What’s your go-to song to sing in the shower?

I’m not much of a shower singer, but anyone who knows me will tell you I absolutely love music. I listen to and enjoy all genres of great music and have an extensive collection of playlists. One of my favorites is a playlist I’ve been compiling of songs that empower women. When I listen to these songs, I’m inspired to believe in myself and do my very best in everything I do. Here’s the link.

Enjoy, and feel the power you have to change your life and change the world!

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Ask The CEO: Should You Go Into Business With Your Partner?

In 2009, Courtney Nichols Gould left her job as a tech startup executive, moved to Los Angeles, and took a beat to think about what she wanted to do next. While in LA, she reconnected with an old colleague, Gordon Gould, who was researching how nutrition affects children’s brain health. The two joined forces and launched SmartyPants, a vitamin company with a sharp focus on high-quality ingredients, affordability, and great taste. Coincidentally, she and Gordon also fell in love and got married, so her business partner is now her real-life partner, too.

We checked in with Courtney on her biggest hurdles, best advice, and what it’s like to run a multimillion-dollar business with her spouse.

How did you step into the wellness space?

SmartyPants started out as a conversation among friends and shared struggles in finding an elegant, high-quality, palatable, and affordable solution to gaps in our diets and our family’s diets. Initially, we just wanted to launch a comprehensive solution for parents, but as soon as we launched our “baby” online back in 2011, we heard from so many parents that they wished we would make a comprehensive supplement for them to use as well. We realized the problem we were trying to tackle was great. Any problem takes time, attention, and likely money to solve, so being able to put all that energy toward solving a problem for a much larger group of people moved our interest to an all-out obsession that has been the engine for our growth—both in the number of customers and retailers we serve (from Amazon to Whole Foods to Costco) to the number of grant recipients we reach through our work with Vitamin Angels (8 million grants and counting!).

If you could go back to year one, what piece of advice would you give to yourself?

Every unpredictable nightmare increases your company’s capacity to handle its much bigger future—which turns a negative into a very big positive.

What do you think are some of the biggest hurdles in the wellness space today?

I think the scariest one is the “everyone is an expert” issue. Wellness has become one of the biggest growth areas for investment, which means a ton of money is flooding in, so ill-founded ideas can get resources. That might have negative consequences for investors in a field like fashion or mattresses, but in a field that intervenes with someone’s health, consequences are felt by the end user themselves. Combining that growth with primarily online sales without the kind of checks that retailers require (proof that you are testing and producing your products in accordance with FDA guidance) can create the very real risk that someone could become hurt, which is bad for all of us.

“Having someone in the trenches with you, husband or not, is critical to make sure you are leading with your best ideas.”

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What is the best part of having a Co-CEO? And what’s it like working with your husband?

Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely and stressful business. Having someone in the trenches with you, husband or not, is critical to make sure you are leading with your best ideas. Bouncing things off each other ensures more rigor around your thinking and also means you can have a bad day and someone else can help step in and vice versa. Most of the great businesses I admire have a team at the helm. Working with your significant other can be hard, and it can be amazing! It’s all about communication. We feel really lucky to have been able to build this business together and for our kids to witness the amount of work required to build something from scratch.

Do you have any advice for women who are considering getting into business with their partners?

Make sure you have different skill sets. It works for us because we have very different areas of expertise. I run the business with a focus on product design from beginning to end, and he is our chief data scientist with a strong expertise in e-commerce—the foundation of our business.

What about your job makes you feel the most complete?

Being able to see that we are having a real impact: Through providing a better product to our customers; by showing other companies they can make better choices and still be profitable, which helps to change the industry as a whole; and by putting a matching grant in place with Vitamin Angels before we launched. That allows us to have a much bigger impact than we ever thought possible.

Where do you see the wellness and vitamins industries in the next 5 years?

I think you will see an increasing focus on quality and efficacy and a lot of new and interesting formats to drive compliance. With a lot of investment dollars out there, there will be plenty of competition, and that’s always a good thing for the end user.

What’s the best piece of business advice you’ve ever received?

1. Never do or say anything you wouldn’t want to see printed on the front of the New York Times.

2. It’s how you make the hard decisions—that no one will ever know about—that shows you where your integrity lies.

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How This Brooklyn Beauty Brand Is Shaking Up A Traditionally-Stuffy Industry

We were thrilled to partner with Amika, a haircare company known for their Instagrammable packaging, at our Miami Vision Summit! We sat down with Chelsea Riggs, Amika’s brand president, to talk about how the company is doing business differently, with an eye toward philanthropy, self-expression, and approachability.

As an independent beauty brand, what are some of the benefits and challenges of operating in Brooklyn, NY?

A benefit of being a Brooklyn based company is the access to talent. Brooklyn, and especially the specific neighborhood where we are located, is full of creative and young talent. Early on being in Brooklyn was a little bit of a hassle for new hires, but it is now a major benefit for more than 50% of our staff who also live nearby. Williamsburg & Bushwick are home to one of the biggest artist communities in all of NYC, which influences the type of residents due to proximity to the best restaurants, boutiques, events and nightlife. The community which we live and work also inspires the overall essence of the brand and company culture.

One of the challenges of being in Brooklyn is the ease of access to clients, vendors and industry events. Many are in Manhattan, and purely due to NY traffic and transit system it can be a challenge for clients to visit our office or for our team to hop over to a vendor for a meeting. Oh, and the NYC rent! 

The brand has experienced tremendous growth over the years. How did you manage to get its name out there and onto the shelves of big retailers? 

Sometimes things look like an overnight success on the outside, but we’ve been at it for almost 10 years! As an early hire for the company, I played a large role in developing and executing our distribution strategy in the early days. We were in Birchbox, Sephora, Bloomingdales and a handful of local retail partners within 18 months of launch. Having a unique product(s) and strong branding is the first step in getting your product noticed by retail merchants and editors. It’s important to choose retail partners who believe in the potential and have the ability and incentive to increase the brand equity. It turns out many of these retailers happen to be premium or indie retailers themselves and understand the point of difference it brings to their company to have independent and/or exclusive brands. 

The methods we used the grow the brand were based on our limited budgets, as we were (and still are) 100% independently owned. We first started with Facebook & YouTube as our main marketing channel (before Instagram days), then we introduced PR when we got a small budget, and soon after we began mass sampling when Birchbox came into the market. We are a professional salon brand and our stylists all over the world are our biggest brand advocates. They are trusted resources for hair products & trends, like a facialist or dermatologist would be for your skin. We tapped into social media to communicate our brand philosophy and use it as a vehicle for education and inspiration. These are still core methods we use today, but as we’ve grown, and our budgets have as well—we have a lot of additional support to choose from.

However, in today’s market you have a plethora of brands entering the beauty industry every year due to lower barriers-to-entry. There is no shortage of options for retailers, so you really need to have a product and brand that is addressing a market need. What’s amazing about starting a brand today, even in a crowded market, is the ability to communicate directly to your customers. Social media is game-changing in that respect. You can learn exactly what your clients’ needs are, in real time, and include them in the product development process. You can see how they interact with the product, how they recommend it to their closest friends, and have a direct relationship. It’s an amazing switch from the traditional beauty industry approach, or really any industry. It’s also very important to merchants that you have a strong digital presence and connection to your core customer.

Just because “that’s the way it’s always been done” doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way.

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Amika is also rooted in philanthropy. We’re big believers that responsible businesses are the future and have the power to change the world. Why is it important for brands to pay it forward? 

Amika has always given back, since we were able to. However, only this October we announced that we have partnered with one organization that we are whole-heartedly passionate about: HairToStay. It inspires me to work with such an amazing organization that is only just beginning and to play a part in their journey. HairToStay is a nonprofit organization committed to raising awareness and financial aid for scalp cooling technology, a treatment which can prevent hair loss during chemotherapy. 

It’s our mission to do a part in spreading the word about scalp cooling as an alternative to chemotherapy related hair loss. Cancer treatment affects all of us, whether directly or through a friend, family or colleague. As a business, we can use our voice, and amplify the message through our large network of professional hairstylists and salons to educate clients about this new, amazing technology—so that cancer doesn’t have to define you. 

How has social media impacted the success and growth of the brand? 

Since we’ve used social media as a core marketing focus since the early days, we’ve seen a lot of changes. It started out as an outlet to communicate directly to our customer, give a sneak peek into the behind the scenes world of the brand, and break down brand-customer barriers that previous existed. Today, social media serves as a platform to not only interact but also learn from our customer, provide education and inspiration, and facilitate a community of not just Amika fans but hair junkies. Influencers have played a massive role in increasing the brand visibility and trust in the products. While we still stay connected to a large number of influencers, we have a select amount of ongoing partnerships with those who align with our brand ethos and that beauty enthusiasts trust. 

What is the biggest hurdle you’re currently facing as the president of an indie beauty brand?

One of our biggest hurdles right now is scaling the brand. We have a strong core of loyal Amika fans, but how do we take what has worked so far and spread that to a larger base of beauty consumers? With all the success and triple digit growth year after year, we still have tons of room to grow. Only a small base of people who have heard of the brand have tried it, which on the positive side, means there is a tremendous amount left to grow! 

If you could go back to year one, what’s one piece of advice you would give yourself? 

Don’t be afraid to do things differently. It’s something that we inherently always did because I (and the founders) did not come from the beauty industry world. A lot of the advice we received back then was from industry veterans who gave us the lay of the land and how “things are done around here.” We entered the market as outsiders, bringing a fun & colorful hair product to the professional salon products world–which historically was very stuffy. We had a direct relationship with end consumers and retailers, which was technically a no-no at that time if you wanted to be a pro brand. These two things set us apart and gave us the momentum to create something the market needed, which is now an entire category itself–prestige hair care. While it’s not to say that advice from people who came before you aren’t relevant, you must find your own way of doing things too. Just because “that’s the way it’s always been done” doesn’t mean there isn’t a better way.

We’re also big believers in speaking things into existence (hey, Oprah!). What is your dream partnership for Amika? 

We are big believers of collaboration, it’s even listed in our core values collaboration over ego. It’s a tough choice, because there are so many amazing brands we would love to partner with. But, the one we would most definitely choose is off-white. I mean, who wouldn’t want an off-white blow dryer! They also say to Dream Big, right? 

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How One Blogger Discovered the Value in Her Work, and How You Can Too

You don't need to write a novel to tell a story.

Paola Mathé is the embodiment of this. A storyteller at heart, the blogger and Creative Director was born a dreamer from a small town in Haiti. Paola moved to the United States during her teenage years, where she lived in a one bedroom apartment with her family in Newark, NJ.  Of her mother, the creative shares, “She’s had a very tough life and over the years I’ve seen her get stronger and smarter." It's certainly helped shaped the woman Paola has become. 

A driven individual, Paola was the first in her family to graduate from college, receiving her dual bachelor's degree in Economics and French Literature at Drew University. Post-grad she went on to launch a career in hospitality. As is the narrative with many bloggers, she started Finding Paola as a creative outlet during a time when her career was soaring. She recalls getting “four promotions over the course of about six months--I was dominating and living that life," she says. "But I got really into it [the blog] and made time. I was working 50-60 hours a week, managing all of these different people but really wanting to be creative. So that’s what I started doing. And I remember thinking, I don’t have much, but how can I create this? How can I show people that they can live without having much?”

This was during 2009 when the blog in its infancy was called Finding Paola: Lost in New York. What was she searching for? Was she truly lost? Not exactly. “I was writing about things I was not familiar with but were intriguing and exciting. I was really trying to find who I was. I started seeing this girl," she says self-referentially, "who, whether she had someone to go to an event with or not, she would still show up, she would meet people, network, and then I started seeing me changing in front of me-- doing all these things I was never comfortable with, really trying to get stronger.”

She was busy documenting different events, but the content evolved over time to include her personal style. "I tried to keep up with that, while also being as honest as possible." She says that having a blog, especially before the dawn/explosion of social media was really hard. “I felt like everyone was studying a manual I didn’t have and everything looked the same. I didn’t want my blog to be that because my life is full of color and I felt like my story was so different from the blogs I was reading. I remember subscribing to a lot of them, trying to follow and keep up and then unsubscribing because I didn’t relate. But then I’d wonder why they were getting so popular. I didn’t realize that at the time my blog was also getting popular. I thought it would just be friends and family.”

“I felt like everyone was studying a manual I didn’t have."

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Occasionally she'll read her old posts to see how much she’s grown, although many have been lost as she’s transitioned platforms over the years. “A lot of posts don’t migrate," she laughs recalling the days when twenty views would get her really excited. “I thought the only person reading it was my mom because she was terrified of me being in New York and wanted to keep tabs on me.”

Describing herself as a shy child surrounded by strong women in Haiti, including her mother, Paola says, “I remember always trying to be in charge of her money. I would always try to calculate everything. How much does sugar cost and how much does rice cost? I was shy, but I was very observant. I had very strong opinions and I knew when I was older I wanted to be treated a certain way. I remember being in this house full of women. My mom didn’t like to be alone so when we lived in our family house in Haiti she surrounded herself with friends-- people who weren’t relatives but I would call them cousin. I saw how all these women lived. As a little girl I saw their love lives, how they cried, how they handled things, and I remember sitting there-- because in Haiti it’s very strict you can’t just get into grown folks business-- and thinking about what I liked and didn’t like. That’s why Fanm Djanm is important. They were all strong in their own way, but I didn’t want to be treated how they were treated. As I got older and older I found myself solving problems. And I realized that I could solve problems and be creative.”

She is referring to her company, Fanm Djanm, a head wrap collection and popular lifestyle brand launched in 2014 that celebrates the strength of women while empowering them to live boldly. It means “strong woman" in Haitian Creole. 

She keeps the two brands separate. 

Fresh looks from Fanm Djanm

At first she was running both, going back and forth between Instagrams, but now employs “a team of talented young women who work with me. A very small team." Paying members of that small team is incredibly important to her, noting that she knows really talented women who work for much bigger brands for free. “I really believe in them and I know they will go far,” she says of her team, wisely knowing young women need champions. "I lived in Newark and you kind of feel like there’s no world outside of Newark and the whole world wants you to fail. It’s not true. You have to leap. You have to seize life and see it from different perspectives.”

She further explains why it was necessary to separate the two brands. "Fanm Djanm," she says, is “about celebrating strong women, so I shouldn’t be the only strong woman." It's rather sensible. "I am surrounded by strong women all the time and they’re what inspires me. There are days when I don’t want to get out of bed and I have think about someone who inspires me. Then I have that extra something to get up and try.”

Try and do. Both are happening in her world, which includes a recent move with her husband from NYC to Austin, TX, a transition she openly shared as hard in a recent blog post. In short: She hasn’t made complete peace with the move yet. Her office remains there, as does her small team. 

In New York Paola says she walked everywhere. In Harlem she would see strangers and approach them, asking about their life, their stories and if she might photograph them. She hasn't found this yet in Austin. 

“I would go up to a stranger in the street if I thought they had a story or they’d be an amazing person to have a conversation with. I love talking to older women a lot. I started photographing older women in Harlem and I would approach them and tell them how beautiful and amazing they are. They would look at me like I was crazy-- that’s how you know you live in an ageist society," she adds. "When you tell an older woman she’s beautiful often they think you’re making fun of them or it surprises them.”

She also digs in on another known vestige of an ageist society: the list. “People think you’re failing at life because you’re not doing something before you’re 30. I know so many amazing people who didn’t start to find themselves until later. When I meet a woman who says, ‘I’ve been doing this for a while, but it wasn’t until I was 45 that I really found my voice,’ to me that’s really inspiring. These aren’t just women breaking the rules but those who are doing something positive and impactful for their communities. I want to showcase stories like that."

It's her spirit, willingness to move forward and try her hand at something new is what makes her voice unique. She also happens to have a badass vision, knowing her way around color and a camera. “I go to bed dreaming about it because I know it’s potential," she says excitedly about the company. And I still can’t believe that I’ve accomplished what I have from nothing.”

"I think I used to say ‘I’m living my dream’ before I actually was. I think now I am living my dream because I can wake up and turn something down or say, I’m not into that I’m sorry-- or say, I do think I can do this, but for more money.”

“I can do this, but for more money.”

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The combined result of saying no and knowing your worth, two things that Paola has developed over the years, is Fanm Djanm. The blogger does feel like she’s struggling to ensure that sponsored content remains true to her voice. “Everything that I do I have to be passionate about," pausing to note, "I’m privileged enough to do this, right?” She says that when sponsorship opportunities do arise, most brands want to tie her story to it.

While she's priming herself for greatness and Paola is still getting used to people telling her story. “There was a video recently of me and I started crying because I was like WHO is this woman, WHY are they using these words to describe her-- oh it’s me and...” She's in awe. As she should be, sharing one last story. 

“I painted the floors in my office in Harlem myself. I was tired and I wanted to get it done, because customers don’t care if you’re painting the floors, they want what they’ve ordered. But I was tired and I sat down and was looking around. And I remember thinking, “Oh my God, this is me. This is mine."

She laughs. "The woman who wrote the piece about me in the New York Times described it as a matchbox and I was like 'damn, not even a shoebox?' But still, its my colorful matchbox."

photos courtesy of: Finding Paola

 Arianna Schioldager is Editor-in-Chief at Create & Cultivate. You can follow her @ariannawrotethis.

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Why Sophia Bush Says She's a Tender-Hearted Softie—Who Takes No Sh*t

SOPHIA BUSH IS A FORCE. 

Read on.  

Sophia Bush is the woman you want your daughter to grow up to be. 

She's also the woman who would tell you to encourage your kid to be their own person. Forge their own path. It's certainly what she's done. The activist and actress jumpstarted her career when she dropped out of the University of Southern California at 21 to join the CW TV show One Tree Hill. On her 30th birthday, she built a school in Guatemala with the Girl Project. She's raised money for those affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, lived on $1.50 a day to raise awareness about global poverty, taken to her platforms to call the GOP "heartless," supported diversity in Hollywood, gay marriage, and women everywhere. 

We caught up with the powerhouse to ask, well, everything about her drive, passion, and badass squad (like the very rad, Ruthie Lindsey). 

Read on.

You made a name for yourself in Hollywood, but activism has always been in your heart. What do you want to be remembered for?

What we do is not who we are. That’s true for all of us. Our careers, no matter what kind, are simply a piece of our greater life puzzle. So personally, I hope that the people who matter most to me remember me as a passionate person who stood up for others. As a woman who was for other women. As a friend who showed up to the best of her ability. And as a tender-hearted softie who took no shit. 

I hope that the people who matter most to me remember me as a tender-hearted softie who took no shit. 

You’re heading to Houston pre-Style Summit. Why is it important for you to be there early?

It’s devastating to see the effects of Harvey on Houston. But seeing folks step up and show up to help is deeply inspiring. I’m just hoping to do my part and lend a hand where I can. Beyond donating and sending clothing and other supplies, knowing that I have the opportunity to lend a literal hand means a lot to me. Our government may be lead by petulant children who feel that arguing about whether science is real or not — newsflash: It is. Arguing that it isn’t is as stupid as claiming that gravity doesn’t exist—but we as citizens can sidestep the madness and show up for our neighbors. That’s what makes this country so great. Us, and our commitment to and support of one another. 

You’ve said that in your early career you felt treated like a “chess pawn.” Which, so many women experience, inside Hollywood and out. How did you come to understand your power?

Understanding power is an interesting notion, and I believe that it’s closely tied to self-worth. But self-worth is not a fixed destination you arrive at and then poof! You never feel insecure, or threatened, or anxious, again. Sadly. Wouldn’t it be great if it was!? As those notions of power and worth apply to career verticals, there are systems and behavior patterns in place that subjugate and challenge women everywhere. In every business. From micro to macro aggressions, we face consistent and unrelenting adversity. It’s exhausting. And for me, refusing to be treated as a chess pawn or a plaything or an object was a reaction to that adversity, and it's blatantly and undeniably unacceptable. There is only so long that people can and will put up with circumstances that are flat out wrong. Using my voice, and standing up for myself and those around me has made all the difference.

"Self-worth is not a fixed destination you arrive at and then poof! you never feel insecure."

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How have the past few years changed your thoughts on what your next five years look like?

The past few years taught me a lot about what I want, and also about what I will not tolerate. The positive and negative ends of the spectrum of recent experiences have both been great for goal setting. Everything is a lesson. And it all boils down to the truth that I’m ready to take more control of my career and what it looks like. That will affect projects I want to helm — as an actor, a producer, a director — and the way people working on those projects feel when they come to work. And that’s what I’m looking forward to most. Creating environments that feel safe, freeing, creative, and open. That’s perhaps the greatest way I’ve come to understand my power thus far. And I’m so looking forward to what’s next. 

"Champion other women. And you’ll draw in women who do the same for you." 

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You’re surrounded by such a stellar squad. Can you chat a bit about the moment when you knew female friendships would power you through?

I cannot remember a time when that truth wasn’t clear and apparent to me. The adage “it takes a village” exists in our cultural lexicon for a reason. We are communal beings. We find greater happiness in a community than in solitary existence. And my community of women is such an exceptional example of that truth. We are a family. We lift each other up. We challenge each other. We support each other in work, family, play, and adventure. I’m in awe of my friends’ brilliance and boldness. Their creativity and their capacity for love. I cannot say enough good things about them. We are a tribe of women that is truly for other women. And if you want friendships like that? Be a woman like that. Be for other women. Collaborate with other women. Champion other women. And you’ll draw in women who do the same for you. 

Arianna Schioldager is the former Editor-in-Chief at Create & Cultivate. You can follow her @ariannawrotethis. 

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The One Thing That Held Kristen Bell Back

photo credit: Brian Bowen Smith 

Despite the unfolding drama over a Lazy Boy in the Bell/Shepard household, Kristen Bell's life in Hollywood is refreshingly not dramatic. 

Sure, she can play a woman who accidentally winds up in a heaven-like afterlife, a cut-throat emotionally stunted employee, voice a Gossip Girl and a princess Frozen into our hearts, and find time to work alongside her hubby in the soon-to-be-released CHIPS, but she's also the woman who surprises her older sister, Sara (+ fam), with a basement renovation, has everlasting and true love for sloths, fiercely protects her daughters' privacy, and dedicates her time to organizations like This Bar Saves Lives. She's the kind of woman you want to grab fro-yo with and then let in on your plans to take over the world. She's the kind of woman you'd want around in a crisis. And you know what? She'd probably show up with a pickaxe, extra batteries, and some space blankets. 

We caught up with the actress and activist to chat aging in Hollywood, dealing with the girth and grit of social media, and what she's so damn excited about.

Social media wasn’t around when you were a kid, but you definitely seem to have a healthy relationship to it now. What advice to you have for young girls dealing with the pressures of social?

My hope for young girls in regards to social media is that they are able to discern the difference between actual reality and presentational reality. Once you acknowledge that everything you see is precisely curated and tailored to perfection, you are freed of the futile need to “keep up”. Social media can be super fun, but when taken too seriously, it breeds feelings of false inadequacy. It makes people, young and old, feel as if their life isn’t show worthy enough. And conversely, while you shouldn’t feel less than because of social media, you also shouldn’t feel more than. Don’t let your feelings of self-worth come from detached clicks. My fear is that young people conflate Facebook likes with human affection. They confuse the heart on Instagram for a beating one. My advice is to let social media be fun. Don’t let it be important.   

"Let social media be fun. Don’t let it be important."

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Who are some women you admire either in your professional or personal life? And why?

There are many women in my life I look to as examples of good, but one that stands apart is Shannon Sedgwick Davis. She is an attorney, a philanthropist, and is currently the CEO of the Bridgeway Foundation, an organization devoted to ending atrocities around the world.  I am in constant admiration of her ability to balance humanitarian and for-profit work, and her unwavering commitment to kindness. She is a model of compassion and my personal yardstick for righteous human conduct. She rules. 

How, as a woman have you thought about growing older and is that any different than how you’ve thought about it as an actress?

As I’ve gotten older, my life experiences have only gotten better. Age has brought me a newfound confidence, appreciation and peace that were previously missing. In regards to work experiences, I think the common sentiment is true: work becomes more challenging as an actress as you grow older. I have been very lucky in my career opportunities, but objectively age limits the roles you play. I can no longer play a 20 year old. It’s not ageism; it just wouldn’t reflect reality, and the entire profession is predicated on creating convincing realities. So, yes, I think there are professional challenges that come with age, but I also believe thoughts control your language and your language controls your life. Negative thoughts attract and self-fulfill a negative outcome, so I do my best to re-frame the picture and not allow future limitations to become my present ones. 

You’ve said that you “shatter” a little bit when people don’t like you. How have you balanced this feeling with a career where, at least initially, you’re hearing “no" a lot?

I, often find that many of the people pleasers I know are artists in some capacity. Yet, there is no other industry more fraught with no’s; death to someone who is always searching for a yes. When I was younger, I found this juxtaposition very hard to reconcile. But, I reached a point where I learned, out of necessity, to divorce my need to please from my career. It was the only way to survive the rejection and ultimately it was the key to success. There is a lot of excess noise that comes with allowing everyone to have a say in your self-worth. Once you shed that, you instantly become (ironically) a more likeable version of yourself. 

Plates are spinning around you all the time: actress, activist, mom, wife, friend. What’s your strategy for when you drop one? 

Gentleness. It’s impossible to complete life’s balancing act with a perfect record. You are bound to wobble or misstep or even fall. It’s just part of the game. But dwelling in temporary defeat is what causes more permanent ones. So, it’s very important to be kind to yourself, shake it off and move forward. 

"It’s impossible to complete life’s balancing act with a perfect record."

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What are you most excited about?

I’m excited about the near future when today’s girls are running the show. I attended the Women’s March in Los Angeles and was in awe of how many young faces were amongst the crowd. It was inspiring to see youth in action; 5th grade faces demanding equality and showing a mental strength beyond their years. When I was young, society asked its children to be polite, to follow the rules, and to stay in line. This new group has thrown all of those commandments away. Young girls are now being raised to ask questions, they are being taught to know the difference between “what is” and “what should be,” and they are learning how to demand fairness at a very young age. It brings me peace to know our future lies in these hands.  

Join us and Kristen Bell at SXSW where she'll be joining us on stage as our featured speakers. RSVP here. First come, first serve.

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This L.A. Streetwear Designer Changed The City's Retail Game

Source: Behind The Hustle

LA-native, streetwear, footwear, and jewelry designer, Melody Ehsani was going to be an attorney. "I always knew I was really passionate about justice," she says a few days following a return from the United State of Women Summit in D.C., convened by the White House where leaders and influencers gathered to enact change for the #stateofwomen. "But I thought that the only way to work toward justice, was through the legal system." 

In the early 2000s, Melody completed a variety of internships in legal fields. She worked on Capitol Hill, on human rights campaigns, and at private law firms. "I couldn't see myself," she says, "doing that for the long haul." So she dropped out of law school after a week and had the ubiquitous 'who am I' conversation. She didn't land immediately on designer. Instead she took her love for basketball and tried to turn it into a career. “I knew wasn't good enough to be a player, but I played growing up and in college and I thought, maybe I can represent players." But the internships she took did not live up to her fantasy. "Growing up, these were my idols," she says. "Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson-- and I was in this fantasy land about what the business would be." What she found was an incredibly misogynistic environment that didn't vibe well with her. Nor did what she calls "the negative side of the business." 

She left the sports world and recalls feeling "super depressed during that time." Until a friend referred Melody to a "medical intuitive." She had no idea what that meant, but she made an appointment. "It was the first time in my life," she says, "when someone said, 'you're a product designer.'" At first Melody rejected everything the woman told her and was unable to see herself as an artist or a designer.  

Both of her parents were artists and she says the rejection of the notion had to do with them. "They didn't want me to be an artist," she says, "because neither of them had succeeded.”

"I grew up thinking art doesn't make money, it's not practical, it's cool to have as a hobby, but it's not lucrative. So I never viewed it as an option.” But she also said the woman "struck something deep." 

"I grew up thinking art doesn't make money, it's not practical."

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She ended up researching product design and found that the number one program in the country was at the Art Center in Pasadena. The first night she showed at class "every star in the sky aligned."  

"I knew," she says, "this is what I should do." 

***

Source: The Hundreds

Melody's eponymous flagship shop is in the illustrious strip of Fairfax Ave. populated by streetwear brands like New York’s iconic Supreme, which was among the first to open in 2004, and the (now-closed) Odd Future store. Its a block that plays host to pop-up shops from moguls like Drake, who opened a temporary OVO store in December 2015, and Kanye, who most recently hosted a surprise “Life of Pablo’”merch store in May. When *something* happens on the block, the lines twist and turn as far as the eye can see. It is highly dude trafficked.  And it's a strip of street that's been described as intimidating for those not in the know. 

But when Melody moved in a little over 3 1/2 years ago she didn't feel that vibe. "I think all of the guys on the block were dying for some female energy. I don't think the general online culture of streetwear is a direct reflection of many of the brands."

"I don't think the general online culture of streetwear is a direct reflection of many of the brands."

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She started around the same time as Lanie from HLZBLZ and Married to the Mob in 2008, though Melody's store remains the only female-owned on the block. "We didn't know each other that well, but there was still a sense of community. I've always felt encouraged and welcomed by this space." 

"We are all actually connected," she says, "it's not just a saying."

Source: The Hundreds

The Melody Ehsani brand is about female empowerment and not being defined by your past. When you first walk into her Fairfax location you're greeted by a large print of the famous Fred W. McDarrah photograph taken during a women’s liberation demonstration in New York in August of 1970. The women hold a banner that reads: Women of the World Unite.

It’s a feeling that emanates through Melody’s work, which is in part influenced by her Persian roots, her passion for women’s advocacy and justice, and her American upbringing on hip-pop, punk, and basketball.   

For the United State of Women Summit, a female-owned company was commissioned to organize all the creative materials and they reached out to Melody to create custom letterman jackets for both the President and First Lady.  "The majority of times I get opportunities like this it's from other women who are familiar with the brand. Women who are paying it forward." 

She's of the camp that believes there is enough space for everyone to succeed and never felt in direct competition with other female streetwear brands. "Even if we're all doing the exact same thing, it's actually impossible for us to do it the same." This was not an innate feeling however, and she says it took her a minute to realize this. 

"When I first started, my pieces were getting knocked of, super early on, not brands but by mass market Chinese distributors and it was really bumming me out." She thought her business was going to fold because she couldn't compete with Chinese prices. "They were making the same thing for four dollars." But then she had an epiphany after seeing a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit in LA. "It was the first time I had seen that many of his pieces in person. After the exhibit I went to buy a print." Looking at the print however, “I realized, ‘I don’t want this.’” 

"When someone makes something it contains a part of that person, it contains what they put into it-- essentially the love is there. You can make a perfect copy, and there's a market for that, but there are people who will always want the original."  

It was in that moment she says she understood, "there's even room for the knockoffs. There's something for everyone, at every price point." 

The store itself is a hang spot for kids who attend local Fairfax high. "There's no prerequisite here," she says. Girls from the school will come and ask for advice or hang out until their parents can pick them up. 

"There are girls that are skaters that don't really fit in anywhere else so they hang out here." It's a positive and empowering space for young women."

"There's no one that's writing the script for us now," she says. 

"I try to use a lot of language and emblems that have never been used in this context before." She doesn't want to rewrite history, she wants to make it. Rather than asking about a past, she wants to know "Who are you now? Who are you today?"

Melody today is a far cry from attorney. She's venturing further into apparel as well as continuing her collabs with Reebok, the first of which launched in 2012. "The business grew in a way I was able to scale it slowly," she says. ME has no investors. 

As for the summit? ”It was eye-opening," she says, noting being excited about how much has changed even in the last ten years. "When I first started everyone told me I needed a business plan, so I did a bunch of research and every business plan I found was created by a man, and none if it worked for my brand.”

She knows how special it is to not be attending these events as a lawyer, but as a creative, and the odd cyclical nature of where she started and where she is now. 

"I always bug out. When you're working in the legal field your goal is to be invited to events like that. But as corny as it sounds, I believe in the power of fitting in where you belong." 

" I believe in the power of fitting in where you belong." 

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"You start to realize everything you're invested in will weave into your life. I really didn't see how justice could be a part of design. The way it's weaved into my work through the years, it's magical," she says. "There's no other word for it. It's divine."  

Melody Ehsani is located at 424 1/2 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Arianna Schioldager is editorial direction at Create & Cultivate. You can find her @ariannawrotethis and www.ariannawrotethis.com

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4 LGBTQ Female Entrepreneurs Changing the Game

At C&C we're constantly talking to trailblazers. Women who champion others because they champion themselves first. In honor of Pride Month, we're highlighting some of our fave openly out female entrepreneurs.

Left: Gigi Gorgeous, Right: Nicolette Mason

Tim Cook might be the first name that comes to mind when you think openly gay CEO. In fact, before Cook came out, there were no openly gay CEOs in the Fortune 500. But there are countless other women (and men) challenging the status quo of what it means to be an entrepreneur. We love the below women who have forged their own path. Created their own careers. And continue to fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community. 

GIGI GORGEOUS 

Being inspired keeps up alive. And YouTube star Gigi Gorgeous, currently clocking 2.2 million followers on the video platform and 2 million on Insta, is nothing short of inspiring. Born Gregory Lazzarato, the middle of three brothers, Gigi began sharing YouTube videos from her bedroom in Toronto in 2008. They were confessionals, makeup tutorials, and normal goofy videos with high school friends. At the time Gigi identified as a gay male, receiving support from both her parents. Her brothers appeared in videos alongside her as well. It was after losing her mother to cancer that Gigi posted a video officially identifying as transgender. That was December 2013. 

She’s spent almost a decade in front of the camera. She edits all her own videos. She's taken acting classes and made a few moves in the world of cinema. As to who she wants to work with? "Any major star would be amazing," she says. "I really love acting." But she's also broken barriers, working with major brands like Pantene and Crest- what she calls “pinch me moments.”  "When I signed the deal for the Crest campaign for 3D White, I bawled my eyes out to my dad, but it shows what you put in, is what you get out.”

"Being a transgender woman I know the hardships that the people in my community go through," she says. "I think it's important to get my story out there for the world to see. We saw this with Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox-- they're huge media icons but they made transgender a household topic and that's really powerful. It changes people's perspective." 

For our full interview with Gigi click here. 

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.

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." For our full interview with Ingrid click here. 

Left: Ingrid Nilsen, Right: Rachel Berks

NICOLETTE MASON

We think it's maybe a little too obvious about how much we fan girl over writer and influencer Nicolette Mason, but the sharp-witted bloggers is the real deal. "I never thought working for a fashion magazine was ever in the realm of possibility for me," said blogger and writer Nicolette Mason. "I had the education and the background, but there was no one who looked like me. No one I could look to as an example," she shared. "When Vogue Italia reached out to me and asked if I would be a contributor and a year from that point Marie Claire asked me to come in as a columnist and I penned a column for five years-- it was so amazing and surreal to know that my voice did have the potential and ability to be part of the mainstream." 

Nicolette says, "It's the job of content creators and media creators to reflect our real world." For more on Diversity and Representation in Media click here. 

RACHEL BERKS, FOUNDER OF OTHERWILD

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.  For our full interview with Rachel click here. 

Who are some women you admire? Share in the comments below!

Cover photo credit: Thornspike

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Finding Honest Inspiration with Working Wonder: Kate Sands

Beauty and fashion blogger Katie Sands is #alwaysbeinghonest. It’s why she created the hashtag-- and why her Instagram handle is @honestlykate. She’s not only living authentically, she’s creating her own future, using her platform to reflect her journey as a young woman in NYC. 

Wondering how? By asking for what she wants. #WorkingWonder. 

“If you want it, ask,” she’s told her 100k+ followers. “This is something I always try to live by. You’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t ask for it. What’s the worst that’s going to happen, someone will say no?” 

It’s a simple concept that many of us find so hard to execute. 

To find out more about Katie, her journey as a blogger, some of her fav beauty tips, and more, read on. 

Let's start with the basics. What does the idea of Working Wonder mean to you?

I believe a Working Wonder is someone who can accomplish as much as they can while looking and feeling their best, especially when it comes to guiding others along the way. There are so many people out there who don’t want to share contacts or put in a good word for others, and I can never understand why. Reaching out on behalf of a friend, or even a mere acquaintance, and connecting people is so important in the world we live in and could mean so much to someone. I always admire people who have the ability to make others feel comfortable and welcomed around them.

Life is too short to have a negative attitude and make people feel less than how they should feel - a simple smile and warm personality can go a long way. That’s something I always strive for, whether I’m working or just hanging with friends. Anytime someone is overwhelmed with work, but still takes the time to reach out and make others feel good about themselves, that is a Working Wonder to me.

How has the content and inspiration you share through your HonestlyKate platforms made you feel wonderful?

There is no better feeling than seeing people react in a positive way toward HonestlyKate. I created HonestlyKate at the end of last year as a platform I could use to reflect my journey as a young woman in New York City, trying to grow and inspire as many people I could reach. I know so many people trying to pursue their dreams in the Big Apple — and let’s face it, we all want to look good whether we’re on the subway, at a job interview, or just out for the night with our closest friends, because you never know who you’ll run into. From the beginning, it’s been my goal to inspire girls to curate their own futures and let them in on my fashion and beauty secrets along the way. What better place than New York to do it all?! When I see that my goal of helping inspire women to curate their own futures is working, I get so excited and it all feels so worth it.

You mention the ‘Honestly’ in your name represents authenticity. How do you encourage women to stay authentic while creating content for their audiences?

Don’t try to be everything for everyone, just try to be something for yourself - someone that you are proud of. I try to always stay true to who I am and what I value, no matter what kind of obstacles come along the way. Being honest is what my brand is all about, but I’ll admit it can definitely be hard to not get swept up by the glamor of it all — especially as things grow and evolve. I think it’s key to surround yourself with people that really ground you and remind you of what’s truly important. Cherish those people, and don’t lose them! I always remind myself of the core reasons of why I started to blog: my love for fashion and my passion for helping people be their truest selves. As long as you’re true to yourself and your ambitions, you will always be authentic, regardless of how saturated the industry you are in is.

Don’t try to be everything for everyone, just try to be something for yourself - someone that you are proud of.

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Another important aspect of staying authentic while creating content for a particular audience is to have a clear vision. Of course, this vision can evolve, but it’s good to start with a direct message for your audience and to have a good sense of what you want your brand to showcase. Don’t be afraid to take risks in your style. Don’t be threatened by numbers of followers. Look at your engagement and find the link between what you love and what your audience wants to see or hear from you - figure out how you can relate to them, and in turn inspire them. It’s good to adapt, as long as you always come back to your true intentions and are sure it’s the right direction for you.

What is your advice for younger female entrepreneurs struggling to feel their own sense of wonder? Or, those wondering if they're on the right track?

A great piece of advice that I once received from a mentor is that it’s okay to feel stuck, or to feel like you aren’t doing enough — everyone feels that way at one point or another. And when that feeling comes, take a few steps back and ask yourself why you started doing what it is you are doing. Don’t be afraid to fall, because most of the time you will be falling in the right direction.

I also think that young entrepreneurs get stuck on this idea that everything has to be new and extremely original, and I believe that in the world we live in, authenticity is key — but it’s okay to take inspiration from the people around you and channel it to fit your own aesthetic. Once you feel more comfortable with the idea that everything doesn’t have to be extremely original and new, you can start to take the pressure off of yourself and focus that energy into putting a new spin on the things you’re passionate about.

Don’t be afraid to fall, because most of the time you will be falling in the right direction.

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Do you think there is a difference between 'beauty' and feeling 'beautiful?'

I believe the word “beauty” refers to everything on the outer layer of the self. It’s the more superficial level. Your skin, your hair, your body shape — these are all visual elements that contribute to your outer beauty. But being beautiful is something that radiates from within. When someone emanates positive energy and inspires those around them, that is beautiful. That’s what we should all strive to be and feel.

What do you hope other women feel about themselves and the concept of "beauty?"

I hope women view themselves as beautiful from within. The outer layers come later. One of my aspirations for creating HonestlyKate was to promote a positive image of what it means to be and feel beautiful, and for me, that meant using fashion and beauty to help others develop confidence within themselves. Beauty is all around us but feeling beautiful is something all women need help with at times, and that’s what I wanted to help others with.

So, speaking of beauty... we all have our own tips and tricks. We recently found out that only 20% of visible skin aging comes from the natural aging process. Mary Kay®'s TimeWise Miracle Set 3D™ helps protect your skin against the rest – what else do you incorporate into your beauty and wellness routine to combat the environmental and lifestyle stressors that contribute to premature skin aging?

Oh, there are so many things! The number one habit I’m trying to get rid of is always drinking out of a straw! I know it sounds silly, but I’ve read multiple times that it’s horrible for aging in your face. It’s just so much more fun for me to drink out of a straw than not to! Another huge tip to help combat stressors that contribute to premature aging is to take a step back or a day off. A lot of times I realize that I’m stressing over things that are so minute in the grand scheme of things. It’s easy to get carried away with the little stuff, but taking a step back really helps to ground you and recognize what’s truly important.

Working out is one way for me to de-stress. I try to break a sweat at least three times each week. It’s tough when you’re so busy, but at the end of every workout class I’m reminded of why it’s so important to get the body moving, it really does combat stress and release good endorphins. I’m also trying to cook more for myself, which can be really difficult as an influencer. There are always dinners and events with people and brands that offer such delicious food, but at times it can be overwhelming. I now know it’s okay to say “Hey, can we meet for coffee instead?” Finding the right balance is important.

When do you feel the most wonderful?

I definitely feel the most wonderful when I’m working on my non-profit, Kate’s Closet! I can’t say too much about it yet... but stay tuned. Giving and helping others, especially those who really need it, is so important to me — it’s what makes me feel like I’m having a real positive impact on the world.

Who is a woman you would consider a Working Wonder? Someone, you want to give a shout out to?

My biggest fashion Working Wonder is Patricia Fields! She single-handedly created what a New York woman should emulate in beauty, fashion, and attitude. Both in Sex and the City, and now with Younger. One of the reasons I began my blog was because of my passion for costume design, it’s something I studied in college and always had my heart set on. My whole life I acted in plays and musicals, but then I realized that fashion and beauty were two things I also wanted to focus on for my career. Patricia Fields paved the way for me (and so many others) and showed us how to marry the two. She showed us that it’s possible to be passionate about more than one thing. She never takes credit and is always behind the scenes, but I think she deserves a major applause!

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We'll be featuring wonderful women paving the way in their careers as part of our new Working Wonders series with Mary Kay. Check back for more inspiration and wonderful words of wisdom.

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Building a Selfless Squad with Working Wonder: Ally Love

Ally Love’s name is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. This empowering and inspiring woman has hearts in her eyes and joy in her soul. The host, model, dancer, producer, and founder of LoveSquad has created a career where she’s in charge. 

Case in point: she created LoveSquad to share her own personal journey to find fulfillment. It has evolved into a means to unite people, to motivate readers, to help others push their limits, improve their habits, and finish everything with Love. 

Wonder how she does it all? Read on to find out more about Ally’s Squad, her day-to-day, and why a little sweat can do wonders for you too. 

Let's start with the basics. What does the idea of Working Wonders mean to you? 

It means being selfless in the approach to make the world a safer, and better place by championing diversity, and equality. 

How has the work you do with LoveSquad made you feel wonderful? 

LoveSquad is about community. So, the fact that I’m able to empower and encourage others through confidence, tactile takeaways, and support, is what makes me feel wonderful, and more importantly, makes others feel wonderful. 

LoveSquad believes in being multifaceted, sweating on the outside and taking those first steps to improving what’s on the inside. How do you encourage women to actually take those first steps? 

I encourage women to begin with conversation. This is the first step and ultimate process for change. It’s through conversation, that we are able to find creativity, cultivate ideas, and work through concepts.

What is your advice for younger female entrepreneurs struggling to feel their own sense of wonder. Or, those wondering if they're on the right track? 

If struggle is your current position, I would always advise young entrepreneurs to take a break. Take a couple of days to be present, gauge the health of the business, and prioritize your objectives. From there, you can get advice from a mentor, or a trusted friend on whether you should continue to pursue this career path. 

Take a couple of days to be present, gauge the health of the business, and prioritize your objectives.

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Do you think there is a difference between 'beauty' and feeling 'beautiful?' 

I think they are one and the same. They are both subjective, offered to everyone, and both do not indicate or dictate your self-worth. 

What do you hope other women feel about themselves and the concept of "beauty?" 

That they don’t have to be “beauty” or “beautiful” unless they want to. It’s a label, however not the end-all-be-all.

So, speaking of beauty... we all have our own tips and tricks. We recently found out that only 20% of visible skin aging comes from the natural aging process. Mary Kay's TimeWise Miracle Set 3D helps protect your skin against the rest – what else do you incorporate into your beauty and wellness routine to combat the environmental and lifestyle stressors that contribute to premature skin aging? 

I love vitamin C toner to remove dead skin and invigorate my color. 

When do you feel the most wonderful? 

I feel most wonderful when I’m a part of a conversation that is not only inspiring but providing insight that could potentially encourage and change lives. 

Who is a woman you would consider a Working Wonder? Someone you want to give a shout out to? 

I think that Elaine Welteroth is doing an incredible job standing out front and center as a woman- as even more as a black woman, she is an example to all women to get out and be the change we want to see, to stand up and advocate for justice and equality.

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We'll be featuring wonderful women paving the way in their careers as part of our new Working Wonders series with Mary Kay. Check back for more inspiration and wonderful words of wisdom.

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Poppin' By: Meet Paloma Jonas, Lingerie Designer Who Believes in the Power of Good Undies

Introducing "Poppin' By" a Create & Cultivate profile series in Partnership with Chandon. Every month this year we're profiling a female entrepreneur, popping by their work space and enjoying a bit of bubbly. Here's a cheers to amazing, working women!  

Paloma Jonas co-creator and designer of Valentine NYC lives in Los Angeles with her hubby, Jason, and two babies, Bowie and Rome. It's a full household with two under two. But the challenges, and joys, of motherhood have not stopped her from pursuing the company she and fellow former model Whitney Brown started in 2012.

It didn't start with lacey underthings. Rather, it was an online photography and interview editorial the duo dubbed "Valentine." 

According the the co-founder, "It seemed people were in need of more intimacy, romance and human connection. Valentine was giving them just that. Inspired by this need for affection." As such, Whitney and Paloma decided to create their version of the best intimacy instigator, lingerie.

Before she turned her design sights on your top drawer, Paloma worked as a model where she, "learned a lot about the fashion industry through watching people who were working in it. I worked with big companies for a while and learned about how the fashion industries worked through these big companies."

More so the creative has, "always been interested in design-- that’s what I went to school for." Though she admits, lingerie wasn't the direction she initially intended. "I thought I was going to do shoe design when I was studying," Paloma says. Until she noticed, "a need for lingerie in my life that I could not find. Something that wasn’t too cheap or expensive and fit me well. I couldn’t find it, so it’s something we set out to do ourselves."

Born from the desire to reinvent romance, the Valentine aesthetic is simple, sexy shapes in a range of four sizes. It's dyed in classic colors that compliment a variety of skin tones and its stretchy enough to fit a variety of body types. By combining premium lace with fabrics like spandex and cotton their lingerie is comfortable enough to wear everyday. 

Even for busy mums, like Paloma. 

Though the Aussie-born Paloma admittedly lacks personal time she is learning to love every moment, which, between running a company and raising two cuties can be quite a challenge. One she's certainly proving up for. "It’s extremely difficult to be running a business as a mother of two. I’m still trying to figure it out to be honest. What helps me is having allocated business hours and being very present with my kids at home. I try to not bring my work home unless the kids are in bed and I can sneak out my laptop."

At the moment, Valentine focuses mainly on e-comm, but the co-founders know that a brick-and-mortar presence is important when selling something that fits so closely to the skin. A couple times a year they host a pop up shop selling their latest collection along with items from other aligning brands. Select pieces are sold in key retailers as well, but the plan is to keep that portion of the business to a minimum.

The women use three main goals to guide their brand. It all starts with the product. "We try to create premium product at an affordable price and that product is sexy everyday lingerie," shares Paloma. Second, they employ women, "in every aspect of our business," she explains.  "From female photographers to our accountants, we’re always trying to support." And, "Lastly, reinventing romance is really what guides us. Love and intimacy have just seemed to disappear and we always try to bring it back. We do a lot of events where we do speed dating and we include romantic love notes in our orders. We really want people to feel beautiful in lingerie. We don’t want women to feel like sex objects but to feel really good about themselves and to feel understood."

As is such with a great hair day, Paloma knows, "There’s nothing like a good pair of underwear. A good pair of underwear can entirely lift your mood. If you’re wearing a good pair of underwear and bra you feel good about yourself-- and it’s not about other people seeing it, it just gives you a little bit of bounce in your step."

Be sure to check back next month for the next installment of Poppin' By. 

Photo credit: Anna Maria Lopez

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Finding Purpose With Working Wonder: Jamie Taylor

Known for her positive outlook and entrepreneurial spirit, Mary Kay Independent Elite Executive Sales Director Jamie Taylor knows how to hustle! After starting her Mary Kay business as a 20-year-old college student during summer break, Jamie quickly devoted herself  to her Mary Kay business.
 
She knew that it was up her to make her business successful, and Jamie certainly enjoys the commissions and profits she earns in her Mary Kay business as well as the flexibility it provides and recognition she receives for achieving various milestones in her business.  Jamie has also earned the use of two Mary Kay Career Cars, referenced Pink Caddy!  She has turned a love and passion for beauty into operating her Mary Kay business full-time with great results. She is a proven “working wonder!”
 
Find out more about Jamie’s work ethic, her commitment to her business, and why she’s a Working Wonder below. 

Let's start with the basics. What does the idea of Working Wonder mean to you?

To me, working wonder means a woman who works at her full capacity when it comes to passion and love for what she does. She thoroughly enjoys what she does and works with vigor and a zest for life and her work. She finds purpose in what she does, and she walks forward in that unapologetically.

How has your Mary Kay business helped you feel wonderful?

My work as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant helps me to feel wonderful in so many ways. The way I feel when I work is directly correlated to the impact I’m making in other women’s lives. I love my business because I feel that my number one job description is to help other women feel beautiful, powerful and capable. In turn, it makes me feel those things as well.

You've said that you're known for your upbeat attitude about entrepreneurship. Can you tell us more what that's about? We want some of that!

I have an upbeat attitude towards most things as I’m naturally gifted with a positive outlook. However, I do feel a strong love for entrepreneurship. I believe in it so much! I grew up in an entrepreneur’s home and I got to be a direct beneficiary of someone who worked hard for what they wanted and made their dreams a reality. Today, being an entrepreneur myself is one of the best parts of my life because it allows me to design a life I love on my own terms. I have found that some people are uncomfortable “being their own boss” and all the ups and downs that usually ensue. But I believe it works for me so well, even when I fail, because I believe in the process and how it is molding me as a person. 

What is your advice for younger female entrepreneurs struggling to feel their own sense of wonder? Or, those wondering if they're on the right track?

Being young and ambitious can be an unsure journey and one of the biggest things that many young women struggle with is the fear of what others may think or the fear of rejection. I still struggle with this on a regular basis! As a young entrepreneur, you may feel intimidated, criticized, or simply not taken seriously. My advice is to keep working on what you feel you have been called to do while also finding someone who believes in you and helps you to shine. I’m learning that time REALLY does fly, and we do really grow up. The older I get, I find my struggles feel different than they did when I was 20. I’m glad I embraced the refining process that made me who I am today. I’m so thankful for the older women who breathed belief into me so that I didn’t quit. So - keep going, hitch yourself on to someone who is where you want to be, find a great mentor who believes in you, only listen to those who “get it”, and actively study what makes YOU great! The more comfortable you are with your own gifts, the more you can use them!

How do you aim to empower other women through your work?

My line of work is all about empowering other women. Sometimes it comes in the form of helping a woman feel beautiful in her own skin by sharing Mary Kay® products with her and teaching her tried-and-true beauty tips. I love seeing a woman feel confident in how she looks on the outside because it often can transform them to be confident on the inside as well. Sometimes empowering women looks like coming alongside them and teaching them how to build a business like someone did for me. It’s so cool to see someone make a difference in their income, skillset, network, and goals. I love being a part of seeing women change their lives in the areas they want to see changes in the most!

On your blog you've talked about what happens when you try your best, but, alas !! you don't succeed. Who do you lean on during those moments?

I’ve tried and failed many times in my five years of building my business and I’m sure I still have a few missed goals ahead of me. Feeling like you didn’t succeed, or you missed the mark, is difficult and emotional no matter how much you tell yourself that it happens to everyone. There are a few things that help me pick myself back up when I’m down. The first is the assurance that I’m not quitting. I wholeheartedly believe that the best is yet to come. With each failure I ask myself “is THIS going to be the thing that STOPS me?” and the answer is always, “heck no! I’ve come this far!” Another thing that I lean on is the truth that everyone really does go through this. Sometimes we compare our “behind the scenes” to someone else’s “highlight reel” and it can make us feel very alone when we’ve failed. One of my efforts in life and work is to be transparent on social media with my ups and my downs!  This helps us to all feel more connected and it encourages those who look up to me. A community is one of the best ways to hang in there when you aren’t feeling so hot!

With each failure I ask myself “is THIS going to be the thing that STOPS me?” and the answer is always, “heck no!"

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Do you think there is a difference between 'beauty' and feeling 'beautiful?'

Sure! I think that ‘beauty’ is something that we can find anywhere and in anything or anyone. Beauty transcends outer appearances and can be found right in the middle of pain and hardship. Feeling beautiful is a way we carry ourselves. Again, it doesn’t have to always be about the outer appearance. We can feel beautiful when we are kind, doing what we love, and being who we were made to be.

What do you hope other women feel about themselves and the concept of "beauty?"

Of course, I hope that everyone woman is deeply aware of her unique beauty, both inside and out! This is a huge struggle as a woman of any age. We tend to be so incredibly hard on ourselves. I think that when you see something beautiful in another woman, it’s important to speak up and tell her. The more we magnify another woman’s beauty, the closer she can become to seeing it herself and the closer we can get to seeing it in ourselves.

So, speaking of beauty... we all have our own tips and tricks. We recently found out that only 20% of visible skin aging comes from the natural aging process. Mary Kay®'s TimeWise Miracle Set 3D™ helps protect your skin against the rest – what else do you incorporate into your beauty and wellness routine to combat the environmental and lifestyle stressors that contribute to premature skin aging? 

Skincare is everything! I am totally in love with the new TimeWise Miracle Set 3D™! Every morning when I put on the day cream that is supplemented with a wonderful, non-greasy broad-spectrum SPF, I feel proud of myself for protecting my skin. I know I’m doing myself a huge favor. I also find that a healthy amount of sleep, water, and a clean diet make a huge difference in how my skin looks! 

When do you feel the most wonderful?

I feel my most wonderful when I’m walking in my purpose. I can get so sidetracked by comparison, stress from wanting to perform at a high level, or every day stressors. However, when I’m truly spending time helping other women build a life they love, I feel alive and I can sense how much my life’s work matters.

Who is a woman you would consider a Working Wonder - someone you want to give a shout out to?

My best friend Jordan is truly a “working wonder” to me. I am always blown away by her consistency and strong work ethic. She works passionately without apology and she is a woman of her word. When I am around her, I am inspired to also be MY personal best every day. She is her best in the big ways and the small ways and she has gone on to build a beautiful, thriving business and a full life. She empowers me to do the same! 

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We'll be featuring wonderful women paving the way in their careers as part of our new Working Wonders series with Mary Kay. Check back for more inspiration and wonderful words of wisdom.

How to Launch a Really Successful Business with Your Mom

The dorm furnishings world is a $6 billion + dollar a year industry. Which sounds like there wouldn't be a lot of white space for a new competitor. But leave it to an incoming college freshman to find the missing part. 

In 2009, when Amanda Zuckerman went shopping with her mom, Karen Zuckerman, to find items for her first dorm room, the soon-to-be college freshman grew increasingly frustrated. "We were going to all these big retailers but we couldn't find the required twin extra long bedding that also came in styles or good quality and fabrics," the entrepreneur explains. Amanda says nothing felt representative of her personality, nor did she want a "bed-in-a-bag solution that didn't allow for any creative expression." 

That was the lightbulb moment. If Amanda wanted this, so did hundreds of thousands of other incoming freshman and dorm dwellers. The mother-daughter pair started slow and small in 2010 with a Wordpress blog designed to talk about college life and decor. And then, Amanda says something really set in the second half of her freshman year. "I said, 'let's do it,' and we started with a simple site and small collection that really fit our mission to give the college student the product and content they needed to design a space they would love to live in." She had the test market at her fingertips. So the duo tested their product, bootstrapped their biz, and were able to scale. It didn't hurt that Karen was President and Chief Creative Officer of HZDG, a creative agency, and had clocked plenty of time launching brands for her clients.

In 2012 they went full-teen-steam ahead, launching Dormify, a website offering style-minded college students a better and more stylish way to decorate their first abode. 

Five years later the company has disrupted that 6 billion dollar biz. They've also expanded offerings with an apartment line, APT by Dormify, launched when Amanda was moving into her second apartment in New York. As a brand it makes total sense: she's grown up with the company and the company is growing up with her. 

Read more to find out about the beginning years, scaling a business successfully, and what it's really like to work with your mom. 

How long from the time you had the initial conversation did you decide, 'Let's really do this?'

Amanda: It was 2009 and we were standing in big box store and we said to ourselves, "We can’t believe this doesn’t exist already. We need to create our own line.'" I put together a look I really loved a lot of my friends in my dorm were asking me for help and they couldn’t believe how we transformed it. So we knew we could do this in an affordable and feasible way for other students like me. When we started we actually wanted to get a proof of concept first. So we started a Wordpress blog to get people starting to talk about dorm decor in college life-- this was pre-Instagram and Pinterest and blogging was very new at this point. And in 2010, the second half of my freshmen year something really set and I said let’s do it. We had a simple site and small collection, both which really fit our mission to give the college student the product and content they needed to design a space they would love to live in. From there, we gradually started adding more and more categories and growing it. We did a lot of testing over the course of two seasons to see what worked and didn’t before we were able to scale. So it was kind of a slow start, but in 2012 is when we really started.

Did you have any idea about market testing or any of the business acumen you have today? Or was it all new? 

A: My mom founded a creative agency 30 years ago right when I was born actually. So she has tons of experience, from launching a business of her own to to launching brands and creating new brands. That was a huge part of it. We knew that when the time came to launch our business that combined, I had an understanding of what college students and she had creative and advertising skills. That was all we needed.

Right, you were the market. So what are some lessons she taught you as a kid that made you know she would be a good business partner?

A: My entire life I've seen her drive and passion. Those values have really stuck with me since the beginning. But she’s really taught me to go for it when I have an idea. Her advice to me and to others is always to execute your ideas because a lot of people have ideas but it takes a lot of guts to go out and actually do it. So she’ll say you can’t do it alone, but build a strong and passionate team and try your hardest. And she’s definitely assured me that I will make mistakes but not to let them slow me down.

"A lot of people have ideas, but it takes guts to go out and do it." 

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So the dorm furnishings world is a 6 billion+ industry. So when you're looking at that number but still thinking, "I can do this better," what is that thought process like? Is there doubt? 

A: It’s a huge market, we definitely realized that. But the students that we reach find us and they really, really love us. So our biggest focus is getting our name out there and growing as organically as possible.  And because this is a brand that started from my college dorm room and is competing with big box competitors, that doesn’t really bring up doubt--  it empowers us.

The idea was before Insta and Pinterest were huge, so at what point did you say we need to step up our social game?

A: It really started organically. We knew that getting involved with some of these early platforms was really important. And we were kind of pioneers there. We wanted to communicate with our customers the way they communicate with their friends. So we knew that traditional forms of advertising weren’t going to work for us and it was really seamless in that sense. 

 Your demo is online all the time. They are digital natives. Do you use user-generated content?

A: Yes, definitely. So we learned so much over the years and we really changed our strategy because of user-generated content. What resonates close with me is showing product in a real environment and showing real rooms. That's the best way we can show our product off. It also really helps drive our clients for the next year because we want to hear from our audience and what they’re looking for and what they can't find. We are always listening to them and are really upfront with them. And they love that we're really involved.

So what are inbound college freshmen asking for?

A: As a very simple example, people were asking for headboards which wasn’t something we necessarily thought of first or for a dorm room, but we added it this year and it is one of our top sellers. They really want sophisticated designs, so over the years we’ve kind of changed our design perspective in some ways to account for that. And they have shown us they really want to design the rooms themselves and they want a little bit of help. So we give inspiration and they can customize the looks based on the recommendations we provide.

And there is always a market because there are always college freshmen.

A: Right, which is a really exciting part of our business. We get to cater to a whole new audience every single year and our customer gets to grow up with us. We start with them in their freshmen dorm room and then they move into an on-campus apartment and then maybe an off-campus apartment so the size of their bed changes and they need new bedding. They know they can come to us to do so. And we also launched an apartment line called APT by Dormify so once they’ve graduated we are also there to design their space as well.

You bootstrapped the business, but at what point did you and your mom get together and decide you needed funding?

A: So my mom really was the one who handled the funding side. We quickly saw that in order to service our customer across all the categories we needed to invest more into our product development and inventory. And similarly when we started to see early traction through word of mouth and organic marketing, we really needed more people and additional funding to execute our ideas to the fullest extent. To really scale. This was in 2011, so it was pretty quick-- really right after we tested the proof of concept. We had to prove to investors that we had something going and a lot of our early investors were friends and families that had kids in college and some are actually my closest friends, so they saw first hand the need for a solution like Dormify. And they wanted to help us out and invest but, anyone who wants to do that needs to see a proof of concept.

On the company’s site, the "behind the scenes," it’s all women running the show.  Was that an intentional choice? 

A: It happened naturally, it really wasn’t intentional. When we were growing our team we connected with passionate individuals who experienced the same problem I did. They really wanted to get behind Dormify’s mission. But every year guys are getting more and more into the design of the dorm process so maybe we’ll have our first male Dormify employee soon.

You've learned a lot from your mom, but what are some things you've taught her? 

A: I definitely taught her what college kids really want. Even though she thinks she knows-- she’s had three kids go through college. But being really close to the audience. Even since I’ve graduated we have such stronghold with the audience and we know exactly what they’re looking for.

Now that you're in business together, how's your relationship with your mom? 

A: We don’t live in the same city but we see each other all the time. We work really well together, we have all the same sort of thought-processes and same style so we learn from each other and we really use each other’s strengths.

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