Guess Where We're Headed Next? Create & Cultivate Los Angeles
Just hold on until May 7th, because we're coming home.
Create & Cultivate is getting back to its roots with our biggest dream conference we've held to date. We're so excited to host our 10th (#doubledigis) conference at the Hudson Lofts in Downtown Los Angeles. Think: floor to ceiling windows and women who have shattered glass ceilings.
Hold on to your Moon Juice LA, this is gonna be GRAND.
C+C Classifieds: Swipe Right On Your Next Career Move
This Valentine's Day, match with the job of your dreams.
If you’re looking for love this Valentine’s Day, you could either try to find the right partner on Bumble, or you could be on the lookout for your dream job. AKA 2016's match made in heaven. While we don’t have any experience in the love department, we have no problem playing your career cupid this Valentine’s Day.
If you’re on the lookout for the next move in your career, we know a few places that could be real keepers. Just make sure that when you put a ring on it, you invite us when you celebrate.
Casetify - Los Angeles, CA
Account Executive and Brand Acquisitions Manager
Marketing and Business Development Associate
bando - Los Angeles, CA
Poketo - Los Angeles, CA
Merchandising Coordinator
In-House Photographer
Graphic Design Internship
Copywriting/PR Coordinator Internship
Photography/Video Internship
Illustration Internship
Away - New York, NY
Producer (Brand)
Operations Associate
Marketing Coordinator
Social Media Coordinator
Undergrad Intern
Fossil - United States
Social Media Specialist
UX Manager
E-Commerce Coordinator
E-Commerce Product Manager
Graphic Designer, Associate
Lush Cosmetics - Vancouver, Canada
Production Artist/Graphic Designer
Visual Merchandising Manager
Retail Operations Manager
Clique Media - Los Angeles, CA
Accountant
Assistant Editor
Associate Social Media Editor, Who What Wear
Entertainment Editor
Graphic Designer
Research Analyst
Social Media Editor, MyDomaine
Deutsch Inc. - Los Angeles, CA
Account Planner
Digital Media Trafficker
Entry Level
Integrated Digital Producer
TBWA\Chiat\Day - United States
Account Executive
Digital Marketing and Web Analytics Analyst
Media Planner
Account Executive
Media Planner
Senior Planner
Social Media Manager
Strategic Planner
A Look Back to #CreateCultivateDallas: Recaps From Our Attendees
Missed out on Create & Cultivate Dallas? Here are all the recaps from our attendees to get you up to speed.
Create & Cultivate Dallas may have been last month, but we still remember it like it was yesterday, and are so overwhelmed with all the love that we got from our amazing attendees! So many of you wrote amazing recaps and pointed out some of your favorite things that you learned on site, and we’re so glad that you shared them with us.
If you happened to miss out on Create & Cultivate Dallas and are antsy to know what you can expect for our next city (we’re so excited to announce this Monday!), read all about how amazing Dallas was from our attendees’ point of view, and check out the links below!
House of Harper - Little White Dress
The Skinny Confidential - Mini Delites: Create & Cultivate
Katherine Schwarzenegger - Create & Cultivate 2016
The Style Line - The Next Generation At Create & Cultivate Dallas (A Recap)
Livingly - 6 Inspiring Things Learned At The First Girl Boss Conference
Cobalt Chronicles - Create & Cultivate
Molly On The Move - My Create + Cultivaet Dallas 2016 Experience
Freckles and Figs - Create + Cultivate (And Then Combust From The Most Inspiring Day Ever): A Conference Recap
Fit Is Chic - 10 Things I Learned At The Create & Cultivate Conference
Girl Meets SF - Create + Cultivate Recap: Dallas Edition
Blonde Barrage - Wise Words
The Polished Workbook - Create & Cultivate
A Southern Style - Create + Cultivate Dallas
Between Two Coasts - Create + Cultivate Dallas
Obviously Elizabeth - Create + Cultivate 2016
Vici Loves - Create & Cultivate Dallas
Earn Spend Live - 13 Takeaways from Create + Cultivate Dallas
Passport to Friday - Create + Cultivate Dallas Recap: A Motivational Experience
Lady Goodman - Create + Cultivate: Dallas
La Vie Petite - Create + Cultivate Dallas
The Stylish Soul - Create + Cultivate Dallas
Chasing Kendall - Create & Cultivate Conference (and Some Dallas Fun!)
Buttoned Bears - Create & Cultivate
HerStory Blog - Takeaways From Create + Cultivate That Everyone Can Utilize
Champagne Darling - Travel With Me: Create & Cultivate
If we missed you on this list, share your recap below!
The 5 Clutch Business Tools Every Startup Needs Now
Cutting out and pulling ahead of the competition starts here.
Managing the day-to-day stressors of a startup is, well, stressful. These five tools will help you mitigate and manage, so that you have time to focus on the million + 1 other tiny details. No one ever said rising, grinding, and making your own way was easy!
Breather: Your Place to Pitch
A startup doesn't always come with a cute office space. In fact, most of the time it's you hustling from your living room in the attempt to get your idea off the ground. Well, think of Breather as your wings-- because you should never pitch where you eat. If you need a space to look professional, Breather is your new startup BFF. Take meetings with potential investors or new clients in one of their rentable spaces. The way it works is simple. Sign up on their site for free, and book "peaceful and practical" spaces when you need them.
Freshbooks: The Fresh Way You Get Paid
If billing clients and keeping track of invoices is SBT (small business torture) Freshbooks is your savior. Freshbooks is an accounting software program that makes it easy to keep track of billing. Built specifically for small business owners to get organized and get paid, you’ll be tracking time, logging expenses and invoicing your clients with efficiency. It will make you look professional and gets that money in the bank an average of 5 days faster (based on a Freshbooks conducted of 2,000 users) than what you're used to. That's a whole business week.
Sell Hack: A Cold Email Is DOA If You've Got the Wrong Contact
Cold emailing is the new cold calling, but without the right contact you're wasting a fair amount of time sending off emails to info@bemyclient.com. Generic email accounts will sometimes get forwarded to the right place, but when you're attempting to build your business, the right contact is a golden ticket. Sell Hack gives you just that, and was created to make prospecting on the Internet easier. It's a simple plugin that gives you the option to search and build out email lists. So create an account, look up the people you want to pitch, and start hacking into success.
Bench Accounting: For the Numbers You Don't Want to Crunch
Make keeping your finances in order Bench's problem. For small businesses and small business owners, Bench collects all your financial data and turns it into tidy financial reports. Which means no: data entry, number crunching, or worrying that you are going to severely screw up your entire life with QuickBooks. Bench offers you a personal bookkeeping team, ready to tackle all of those receipts. You'll get financial statements every month and year-end reporting. It also makes TAX SEASON a breeze.
Sunrise Calendar: Keeping You Organized and On Time
So you don't have the capital for a personal assistant? Not a problem. Sunrise Calendar is a free calendar made for Google Calendar, Exchange, and iCloud that automatically syncs between your phone tablet and computer so you can access your calendar from anywhere. Fashionably late is not a thing in the startup world.
Reliving Our Favorite #LadyBoss Moments at Create & Cultivate Dallas
If you have C & C FOMO, we've got you covered. Watch this now.
#CreateCultivateDallas was only two weeks ago, but we're already looking back at some of the amazing moments and people we met on-site. To get you buzzing for our next city announcement on Monday, here's a little taste of what went down in Dallas!
Don’t fret if you missed out. We've got so much more in store for our next city! Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know Monday AM where we're headed to next!
ITK: Meet 7 Boss Female Staffers on Capitol Hill
There's other women besides Hill that are keeping things on lock.
Sure, you know Hill. She rocks a badass power suit, she's running for POTUS, and can hold her own on a stage. But do you the other women on the Hill? Capitol, that is. Women who are making moves and breaking barriers, ceilings, and deal will the quiet sexism that still exists there? These are behind-the-scenes-females who wield a fair amount of power and work to drive their party's message. We're highlighting seven female staffers who .
Kat Skiles is the digital director and senior advisor to Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Prior to joining Pelois's office in 2014, she was Press Secretary & Director of Online Strategy for the Democratic Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives, where she developed comprehensive outreach plans for Members of Congress that utilized the power of digital and traditional engagement strategies.
Alexis Covey-Brandt serves as the floor director for returning House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) According to Politico she keeps a low profile outside of the Capitol, but is one of "the most recognizable and trusted aides for Democratic lawmakers during frenzied floor votes, at meetings of House leaders and in the behind-the-scenes machinations that determine which bills, large and small, make it to the floor."
Sharon Soderstrom is one of nine Republican female chiefs of staff in the Senate and is the top aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Reema Dodin serves as Floor Director to the Assistant Democratic Leader, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), where she runs the whip operation for the Senate Democratic leadership team. As Floor Director, she runs the whip operation for the Senate Democratic leadership team, and advises on Senate Floor strategy for the caucus.
Rebecca Tallent currently serves as Assistant to the Speaker for Policy, focusing on Judiciary and Homeland Security issues, specifically immigration reform. She came to the Speaker’s office from the Bipartisan Policy Center where she served as the Director of Immigration policy and prior to her work at the BPC, served as Senator John McCain’s Chief of Staff.
Kelly Ward serves as Executive Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). Prior to serving as Executive Director, Kelly was the DCCC’s Political Director in 2012, where she oversaw the incumbent protection program and the Committee’s redistricting efforts, and the Regional Political Director for Incumbent Protection in 2010, working with more than 50 incumbent Members on their re-election efforts.
Jo-Marie St. Martin Green serves as General Counsel and Chief of Legislative Operations for the Speaker. She oversees all aspects of procedure for the House, the Republican Conference, and committees. She advises Boehner on filing lawsuits, like the one opposing President Obama's health care law. She's his ethics officer. And she's one of his top advisers.
Meet the Boss of the Floral Business: Bess Wyrick of Celadon and Celery
She makes it look easy, but it's not.
Serial entrepreneur Bess Wyrick is not only our MF BOSS Senior Event Producer at Create & Cultivate, she also runs Celadon & Celery Events, her fourth business venture which has been successful and profitable since 2008. This doesn't come as a surprise to us at C & C (did you see the florals and stages in Dallas?). Bess' work ethic is imbued with a Millennial spirit, the kind that's convinced it's possible to be an effective part of something bigger. The kind that believes we can create our own change and be disruptive in our own niches. So that's what she's done-- created the change herself (and it's blooming beautiful).
Basically for Bess, the world is her Oleander.
Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you found yourself in the floral and events business.
During college I spent some time working on the catering side of events and always loved when the events we worked on had the budgets to hire florists. I thought they were magicians! So after college I spent some time freelancing as a florist with a slew of the best San Francisco Event Designers. I started out on the production floral side which meant early morning flower market runs, long hours of processing flowers, cleaning buckets and vases, cleaning out the cooler, and then sweeping. My god I was always sweeping since florists make a huge mess. It didn't take long before I was picking up all the insider tricks. Before long I was designing weekly flowers accounts, working on weddings, and being hired as a freelance designer.
Plants, nature, soil it all made sense to me and working with it every day was second nature at that point.
What has been the biggest discovery you’ve made about yourself as a small-business owner?
You have to have more than passion to keep you motivated and driven. I have found that the crew you hire is the key to success. I am only as good as the team around me and I am better with a team that works independently, creatively, and passionately. As a creative I am always finding new ways to encourage and inspire my team to work harder but smarter. Luckily we are surrounded by beauty all the time so I have to remind them to not take advantage of it!
"Work harder but smarter."
Tweet this.
What was your biggest fear in launching your own business?
Running out of MONEY! This is my third business and unlike my last two I was launching without a business partner, in a new city, and I was still green! It was 2008 and I had just landed in NYC before the economy tanked and before too long my job, housing, and the life I had built was pulled out from under me. So I took my skill set, got a part time retail flower job and started hustling. I also took a studio in the NYC flower market where I converted it into a live/work loft and started to make the dream happen.
I never ran out of money because I did three things that I think were critical to my success:
1. Freelance, if I did not have my own gig, I was working for someone else.
2. I lived and breathed flowers, marketing, networking. I was ruthless when it came to promoting myself and the brand I was building.
3. I was the first company to ever offer Flower Workshops on sites like Groupon and Living Social. They were a huge success and sold out every time I did an offer. They became so huge I started doing them in other markets: LA, Miami, Dallas.
By year two I was already becoming a nationwide brand name that people recognized. While that type of marketing had its downfalls it propelled the business to get through the years where wedding and event budgets were scare.
People see pretty. But behind the scenes is a lot of tough work and labor. What are some other elements people would find surprising about event and floral production?
I started my business on the ethos of buying only local flowers, which means grown and shipped in the US only. In 2007 this was a very hard thing to do and meant I had to find these farmers myself. I would spend hours and days driving around to meet farmers and understand what they grew and what their capabilities were. It set my business apart in NY since the market was used to importing from Holland or Asia. Having spent four years of my life as a marijuana farmer I knew how important it was to find flower farmers who took the time to grow seasonal and sustainably. It is what my brand is all about!
In addition, the physical labor that goes into creating flowers for events is hard on the body, very time consuming, and tedious. Florists work long hours, in extreme conditions and it is a constant balance of heavy lifting and stretching to reach large installations. But it's a high to work long days and then step back and see the beauty you've created. I am addicted to that feeling; it is why I keep at it.
There’s a time frame when you’re working with flowers that’s a little… scary. How do you make sure things happen in crunch time?
Ahh, yes this is a secret language between the flowers, the environment, and the style of the event. The way flowers look at an event are leaps and bounds above how they look when I receive them. Most people would be surprised to know that I often get flowers five days before an event so I can work on changing their shape, opening them up, or allowing them to bloom so they are at their peak on event day. I am not a nervous person so this process is more like a dance between me and the flowers.
During Create & Cultivate Dallas I got all the soft flowers on Tuesday (ed note: the event was on Saturday) and spent the time to process them, heat them up so they would open, then stabilize them in a cooler when they were perfect. It is an art but comes with all those years I worked production and stuck it out in rooms with heaters and trucks with coolers!
What are the long term goals for Celedon and Celery?
The beauty about being in the event world is that you can be as transformative as a space. CC has become a resource to so many other florists on large floral build outs, destinations flower planning, and sourcing flowers in regions. I continue to see it be a design house that consults with agency on larger activations, and brand ideation. We are more than florists here at CC and that is why it has been so successful in so many markets. We are creatives, designers, producers, and most of all collaborators, and I hope to see it become a staple platform for future visual artists to come.
What It Takes to Become Two of the Most Successful Female Architects in America
“I have learned to talk hunting and fishing and SEC football.”
“Oh…I guess girls are going into architecture now.”
In the 1970s, this was the type of pronouncement one might hear as a female high school student trying to ask a professional architect about his job. And by “one might,” I mean it was Jane Frederick’s real life. The architect in question was likely not trying to be rude—female architects were still a fairly new concept at the time. Nowadays, women earn about 42 percent of architecture degrees in the United States, but they only hold about 25 percent of industry jobs. So: progress, but not enough.
Becoming an architect is no small feat—it usually takes about eight years of post-graduate training to complete 5,600 internship hours and seven exams—but you don’t hear encouragement toward the field as often as you do other go-to prestige categories like law and medicine. So, what is it really like to be a female architect today? For this piece, I spoke to major success cases: first, Jane Frederick, the principal architect at Frederick + Frederick, a small, well-established South Carolina firm that specializes in custom residences for hot, humid climates. She is a Fellow in the Aspen Global Leadership Network and currently serves on the American Institute of Architects Board as one of three at-large directors.
Then we have Courtney Casburn-Brett, the youngest entrepreneur-architect in the United States. Again, in an industry with an exceptionally long path to licensure, a 40-year-old professional is considered a “young architect.” Casburn-Brett started college at 14, was working for one of the top firms in the world at 20, and started her own firm when she was just 24.
The Early Years: “I’m lucky I stuck with it.”
It is perhaps no surprise that Casburn-Brett’s fast-track to architecture began at an early age. “We moved around a lot when I was young, and I was fascinated by how different all the houses we lived in and all the schools I went to were,” she says. “And I loved to draw. I would draw these buildings that I was experiencing depending on where we were.” For her 11th birthday, Casburn-Brett’s parents gave her graph paper and an architect’s drawing tools, including a scale and tracing triangles, and explained to her that this interest of hers could actually be a job one day. “From that point on, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” she says.
With an interior designer mother and an engineer father, architecture was a perfect synthesis for Frederick in more ways than one. “I was strong in math and really enjoyed art, and I felt like it was a good mix of the two,” she says. But female architects were few and far between at that time. Starting college at Auburn in 1978, there were only six women in Frederick’s architecture class of 50 people, and she did not have a single female professor.
Fast forward to 2004, when Casburn-Brett started at Auburn, and the class gender gap had thankfully closed a bit. She entered the first architecture class at Auburn that was half women, half men. Since then, however, “I’ve found that the higher I’ve climbed, the fewer women I’m around,” she says.
Climbing the Ladder: “I just didn’t fit in at all.”
In Casburn-Brett’s first job at SOM, the legendary firm behind projects like the Freedom Tower and the Sears Tower, she was lucky to find a female role model in her immediate team manager. “She was this really powerful, go-getter woman,” she says. “I was able to see the way that she interacted both with her peers and the next tier above her.”
Graduating in 1982 during the recession, Frederick was not so lucky. She started out working at a small firm in Washington D.C. who hired architects not as employees but as independent contractors. Frederick found herself babysitting for one of her co-worker’s kids to try to make ends meet. At her next job, Frederick was happy to discover her first female co-worker, but her boss ran into a cash flow problem yet again. “Then I worked in another job where I was not only the only woman but the youngest employee,” says Frederick. “That was the most challenging job I ever had. It wasn’t like they were unkind or anything, I just didn’t fit in at all.”
Back at SOM, Casburn-Brett started noticing that there really is a difference in how people interact with men and women in the industry. She says: “One of my favorite stories is about one of the leaders in my studio, an older gentleman who had been practicing hospital architecture for almost 50 years. He had this habit of micromanaging everything that I did. I had been out of school for a year and I wasn’t a licensed architect, so it made sense that he would want to keep an eye on his younger employees. But everything that I did, he would follow up my email with additional information or constantly insert himself, even when I was doing my job well. It drove me crazy because he didn’t do it to one of my male colleagues on the team.”
Instead of writing it off as something she would “just have to deal with,” Casburn-Brett took action. “I marched upstairs to his office and I told him that what he was doing, whether or not he was aware of it, was undermining my ability to do my job well. I said that if he would let me just do my job, I would take responsibility for any mistakes I made and we could re-visit the conversation, but if I didn’t make a mistake, it would save him a lot of time and effort,” she says. After that conversation, Casburn-Brett says he became her greatest mentor: “At that point, I don’t think he really knew the way that his behavior and training were coming across. To his credit, as soon as I brought it to his attention, he immediately changed the way that he interacted with me and treated me on the team. I learned that sometimes you just need to be a little more assertive.”
Of course, being an assertive woman also puts you on a tightrope of sorts. In her next job at a small development company in the South, Casburn-Brett was once told by a male colleague that her attitude was “very I-am-woman-hear-me-roar.” She remembers thinking, “Wow, that is an extremely inappropriate and a horrible thing to say,” but also taking it as a lesson on how to interact with different types of people. She explains: “What was a direct, business-oriented, confident approach to my work in the setting of New York wasn’t translating the same way here. My confidence level didn’t change, my competence level didn’t change, but the way I was being perceived did. I don’t want to suggest that you should necessarily change your behavior based on the people around you, but you do have to have an awareness about the best way to interact with certain people. So now that I’m a business owner and I interact with so many different types of clients and vendors, I find myself trying to actively at least show the warmer side of my personality if I’m being that direct all the time.”
Becoming Your Own Boss: “You get more control that way, but it’s tough.”
Without any female mentors in architecture—let alone those who had started their own firms—Frederick just became one herself. “I was 26 when I got my license, and six months pregnant when I passed my test,” she says. “And I was like, ‘I need to pass this test because once I have a baby I’m not going to be able to,’ which is what a lot of young women find. It’s very difficult to do with a family because you need that time to study.” She passed. And when her oldest daughter was born, Frederick set out on her own, doing freelance work from home that amounted to about six hours a day. A few years later she moved to South Carolina and opened Frederick + Frederick alongside her husband—a firm that has been going strong for almost 30 years.
Both Frederick and Casburn-Brett appreciate the freedom they have found by starting their own firms, though the challenges are many. “You get more control that way, but it’s tough,” Frederick says. “You have to bring the work in, and if there’s a recession you have to figure out how to make it through, but if that’s your temperament, it’s a really good route.” She acknowledged that at major firms you’ll have the opportunity to work on bigger projects, but that can be difficult as well. “One thing I’ve heard from other women is that in large firms they sometimes tend to get pigeon-holed doing interior architecture instead of doing say, big tall buildings,” Frederick says.
As she approaches the four-year mark of her company, Casburn-Brett is grateful that her client relations have been overwhelmingly positive. “I’ve definitely been fortunate that my story has brought to me the types of clients that I really want to work with,” Casburn-Brett says. “Being a woman is a part of that story, but it has more to do with being tenacious and young and going after something that other people may not have had the gumption to go after, like starting a business and getting a license at this stage in my career.”
What No One Tells You: “I have learned to talk hunting and fishing and SEC football.”
Casburn-Brett says the most important thing she’s learned is to come to the table prepared. “I want to make sure that I’m the person at the table with the answers, because I don’t want to give anyone any reason to doubt me and think that it has something to do with my gender,” she says.
And as Frederick has learned in her 35 years in the industry, having street smarts is just as essential. “One thing that’s really different is doing construction site visits—typically you are dealing with men, so I have learned to talk hunting and fishing and SEC football,” she says. “The other thing that might make a difference is I’m really tall—I’m 5’9—and I think that’s an advantage for me.”
Frederick urges young women to consider something she didn’t have the opportunity to consider when she was applying to architecture school. “Even though most schools now are mostly 50-50 male-female overall, I would check and see how many women there are who are full professors,” she says. “Not that you can’t have a man that is a mentor, but having some women there too is really important.”
Once you graduate, she adds, keep doing that type of research. “When you’re looking for your first job, really look at what the culture is like,” she says. “Make sure that it’s a diverse office, which will have a broader mindset and often have more flexible policies, particularly if you have small children or want to have children. Those types of firms can be large or small.”
As for architecture’s youngest entrepreneur, Casburn-Brett’s best advice is to make like Nike and just do it. “This is exactly what I knew I wanted and I went for it,” she says. “So whenever there were times that I could have given myself an out or it seemed hard or even impossible, there was no, ‘It might be easier to XYZ.’ I’ve never had a plan B. I was going to get into architecture school, I was going to be an architect, I was going to be a small business owner. I didn’t waste any time thinking about whether or not I should try to execute a different plan. I found a way through.”
Up In the Air: 3 Ways Boss Women Fly Hydrated
It's 10pm and you're in the airport lounge waiting to board a redeye for your business trip across the country. It's a flight path all too familiar to you-- after all, the hustle can sleep on a plane. Why not make moves across the country to make moves with your career the next day? You say it's time well-managed.
However, it can ravage your body. The mixture of recycled plane air, low humidity environments, and the moisture zapping tendency of winter, can leave you with dry skin, itchy eyes, and you're even more prone to catch a virus. So, what's a boss to do?
Drink Water
This may seem obvious, but for anyone on-the-go a drink and a movie sounds much more appealing (especially on a redeye) than a bottle of water. But make a point to buy a big one before you get on your flight, and make sure you finish it by the time you land.
Flyers tend to nix big bottles of water to avoid annoying their aisle mates by heading to the bathroom every hour, but lack of water and sleeping on a plane make for the perfect recipe for fatigue. Which, IS THE LAST thing you need when you're trying to nail down and impress an investor.
Have trouble remembering? Make it a game and take a sip every time the stewardess turns on the seatbelt sign.
Take Emergen-C or Airborne
It's not in your head that you always get sick on a plane. The air inside the cabin of a plane usually has a humidity level of 10 to 20 percent, which is much lower than typical indoor humidity of 30 to 65 percent. This low humidity level actually affects your health. When your airways are moist, the lining traps viruses from entering your body. When they are dry, those germs have a one-way ticket to your body.
Pack an immune booster in your carry-on.
Pack the Right Moisturizer
Dry, itching skin is the worst. So is a dehydrated looking face. You want to look fresh-faced and rested when you step off the plane. Yes to has a new line formulated specifically for dry skin. The Yes to Coconut is a natural collection that combines nourishing moisturizers like coconut oil that's perfect for skin in need of heavy hydration. To wipe away impurities and makeup try the Coconut Cleansing Wipes. The Ultra Hydrating Facial Souffle Moisturizer is non-greasy and super hydrating. And a dab of Ultra Hydrating Overnight Eye Balm says bye bye to dry eyes as you say hello to a new city.
The Future Is Female: These Women Are Owning Male Dominated Professions
A startup tech exec, a tattoo artist, and a video game developer walk into male-dominated professions. Think it's a joke? It's not. Men may still be the predominate gender in many occupations, but women with the guts, brains, and vision to launch ideas and companies are proving that breaking down stereotypes is only a blip of what they're able to do.
Kellee Khalil is the CEO and Founder of Lover.ly, the first bridal search engine that set out to solve the inefficiencies of the wedding industry for a new generation of brides. Founded in 2012 the site is like a cross between Google and Pinterest, with opportunities for advertisers and integrated content. Though the focus may be beauty and bridal focussed, the backend is straight data, numbers, and hardcore tech-- but what else would you expect from a CEO that's been coding since high school?
How have you seen the industry change over the last five years?
The most unprecedented change is marriage equality. In the last year, we witnessed a monumental step forward for our country, and we couldn’t be more thrilled about it. From the very beginning at Loverly, we’ve strived to be as inclusive as possible with our content, and the industry is finally catching up. Barbie and Ken-looking couples aren’t the only representation of love and marriage these days, and it’s about time we start embracing that.
How does it feel to be a woman in a male-dominated industry?
The tech space is predominantly run by men (with less than 5 percent of all venture-backed business run by women). The most successful companies in the wedding industry have been businesses run by men. And the community of people writing checks is mostly men. So, it’s challenging to drum up interest and capital from investors who don’t identify with the pain points of our industry’s primary consumer.
On the flip side, I believe being a woman building this product for other women is actually a competitive advantage. I have empathy for our users and understand their psychology as they are going through the ups and downs of planning their weddings. My mission is to alleviate the frustration and inefficiencies by simplifying the wedding planning process. :)
What do you think are the most common myths about women in tech?
Women in tech is a hot topic that media is covering. Because so few women are in the space, you often see only a few get a lot of media attention. This creates a perception that the world is glamorous and easily maneuverable. The reality is, being successful in the tech industry (as a woman) isn’t always smooth sailing. There are lots of challenges along the way.
How do you work to disprove those?
By continuing to make progress, grow our business, and innovate year over year to great reception from our audience, we prove that we are viable player in our space. Additionally, a big win was bringing on a President and COO, Peggy Fry, a digital media exec with 20+ years experience She too comes from a world traditionally run by men digital media and (advertising), and has held inspiring positions at some of the biggest names in digital media (AddThis, Netflix, AOL). The two of us have a crazy enthusiasm about our product and consumers which is reflected in the business.
Do you think it’s different being a women in tech in NY, as opposed to Silicon Valley?
There are some major differences between East and West Coast women-run technology businesses.. Women in tech in the Silicon Valley do statistically raise more capital. I believe this is due to the pure number of active angel and VC’s in the valley. Access is key. There’s also a preconception that businesses in the SV are more hardcore technology-focused, whereas in New York they tend to be more influenced by the surrounding industries (beauty, fashion, content, etc).
Lina Chen is the CEO of Nix Hydra, a VC-backed company that makes colorful and friendly mobile games popular among women. Chen and partner Naomi Ladizinsky established Nix Hydra in 2012, with the debut game Egg Baby. The game quickly became a massive phenomenon in the U.S. among teen girls and currently touts 14 million downloads with zero marketing spend and an impressive 4.5/5 average score from more than 430k reviews on the App Store. Both founders are Yale graduates and are showing no signs of letting the sexism of the gaming industry slow them down.
What is it like to work in a male-dominated industry?
We have been embracing it because it's a huge opportunity for us! If the industry wasn't so male- dominated, we probably would have had more trouble making a hit game on our first try (because there would be so much more competition in this space) and in fact, our company probably wouldn't even exist. Actually, right now we are mostly ignored by the gaming industry, presumably because what we are doing doesn't interest most people in it, and that is great because it gives us more time to figure things out and grow to an unstoppable size (haha).
More so, what is it like to work in a male-dominated industry where there is a ton of backlash against female gamers/developers. How do you deal with the pressure of both?
Like I said above, we have been mostly ignored because our games are nothing like the games that lots of more masculine developers are interested in playing or making. So we aren't competing with them and I think if someone is neither a threat to you nor doing anything that's of interest to you, your most natural response is to ignore them or be like 'that's nice, girls' and move on.
What made you decide to take on such a challenge in an industry known for its sexism?
Profit. Haha. No but actually when we started this company we were clueless. We had no idea what the industry was like or how to make a game and we didn't know anyone who was even a game maker. The first few game makers (male) we met were super kind, supportive and welcoming and no one warned us about anything negative. We started this whole thing because we couldn't find games we really wanted to play on our mobile phones and figured a lot of other young women probably felt the same.
Where do you hope to see the gaming industry go in the future?
To be a more magical, colorful and friendly place! We love diversity (obviously), but actually not so much for moral reasons as much as practical reasons - it just improves the ecosystem, speeds up progress and leads to more awesome products. So we'd love to see a more diverse industry in every way and we'd like to have had a huge impact on bringing about that change.
How do you see the gaming world changing?
The optimistic entrepreneur in me says it will change in the direction I've described in your previous question!
Mira Keras is a fashion school grad (FIT) and artist currently finishing a tattoo apprenticeship at a shop in Brooklyn called Tattoo Wonderland. According to Mira, the shop goes above and beyond in its commitment to serve everyone, and be inclusive-- which is more than in line with a boss blog post she wrote calling out fat-shaming and Instagram's ban of #curvy. Just last week she tattooed one of our favorite bloggers Christina Caradona of Trop Rogue, who spoke at the latest Create & Cultivate Dallas (check it out on Tattoo Wonderland's Instagram).
How do you feel as a woman in an industry that's heavily dominated by men?
I love being a woman tattooist. Female interest in tattoo culture is rapidly expanding, and I think that it is important to have tattoo artists that are women who understand and collaborate to reach their vision.
Have you had any days that really surprised you as a woman in the tattoo industry?
When I realized that I wanted to tattoo, it was so hard to find a tattooist to mentor, or even tattoo me. Some artists had this no girls allowed attitude, and some did not want to tattoo someone who didn't already have tattoos. Luckily, I found an awesome feminist mentor who has taken me under his wing.
How have you seen your industry change since you became a part of it?
My lifetime is seeing tattooing become way less taboo. It is finding its way to becoming a respected art. I love seeing more women become interested in tattoos, and tattooing. Femme-Only and pro feminist shops are popping up all the time, which is really exciting. There are so many amazing and inventive women changing the former rigid and exclusive rules, and inventing many new genres of tattoos.
What are your predictions for your industry's future?
The future will bring more women tattooing, and more developing in what is to come as far as technology and tattooing. I am always day dreaming of the day there are metallic and glitter inks, women's interest in tattooing is sure to bring in demand for these inventions.
Create & Cultivate Asks: What's Your 2016 Business Resolution?
More cupcakes, and what else?
From Julia Engel to Annie Lawless, we asked some of favorite speakers from our latest Create & Cultivate what they're gonna do bigger, better, and more boss in 2016.
It Takes Two: Business Bestie Outfit Giveaway from Lou & Grey
It takes two to tango, and we want to give you and your business bestie a treat.
Your business bestie. She's there by your side toasting to your promotion. Taking your late night phone calls when your computer crashes. And making you sit on your hands when you are itching to write a scathing email.
Your career wouldn't be what it is without her, and we're toasting to both of you-- for not getting bogged down by competition and for truly having each other's backs. Because when you're climbing that corporate ladder it's nice to turn around and realize that the person you've always relied on is right there next to you. (And looking good.)
Lou & Grey is teaming up with Create & Cultivate to give away TWO outfits: one for you and one for your BBBFF (business best friend forever). All you have to do is follow the below rules.
An Inside Peek at the Fossil x C & C Speaker Dinner
From an ombré tablescape to a killer group selfie, the night before the conference was fire.
To kick of Create & Cultivate Dallas, Fossil hosted an amazing Speaker Dinner at the W Hotel. Everyone from SoulCycle founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler to Who What Wear's Hillary Kerr showed up ready to mingle and oogle and ahhh the most gorgeous ombre table they'd ever seen. Before sitting, guests were given the option to emboss their Harper Crossbody bag-- something that Katherine Schwarzenegger jumped right on, and everyone went home with Fossil's fashionable activity tracker, Q Dreamer.
Click through to see our favorite moments from the dinner, the tablescape, and a fashion blogger selfie moment for the books.
Take 10 Minutes for a Hairstyle That Will Last 10 Hours
From a hair-don't, to a hair do in under ten minutes.
The last thing the Create & Cultivate staff has time to think about day of the conference is themselves. Which, after a long week of production prep and late nights, can result in some rather hairy, literally, looks. Luckily, Nick Stenson from Matrix was on hand to give us a few tricks, tips, and product helps that can turn any caffeine-fueled-work-weekend-hair into a polished and professional coif. Because while there is no such thing as a 40-hour work week when you're attempting to run the world a la Beyonce, there is a 10-minute hairDO.
Click through to watch Nick work his magic, that's just as doable for you at home. Steps below.
9 Killer Public Speaking Tips from Top Female Entrepreneurs
Get ready to pick up this mic we're about to drop.
Jittery hands, racing heart, blank mind. If you're climbing the career ranks, there is a good chance you've experienced one or all of these emotions when you get up to give a presentation or a talk. There's no escaping it, and the earlier you accept that public speaking is going to be a part of your career, the better. After all, practice makes perfect (or so said Tina Craig of Bag Snob this weekend at Create & Cultivate Dallas).
Whether you're prepping for a pitch meeting or you're planning to one day give a world-changing TED talk, we asked the industry best to give their quick and dirty tips for getting up in front of a crowd or an investor.
ANNIE LAWLESS, NY TIMES BEST SELLER, CO-FOUNDER SUJA, CREATOR BLAWNDE.COM
"Don't filter yourself because everyone can tell. Be authentic-- that will help you be conversational. And don't worry about what you think they want to hear."
DANIELLE DUBOISE, CO-FOUNDER SAKARA LIFE
"Memorize three things you know you want to say. Don't memorize anything else because you'll sound like a robot. And have a code word for yourself. Mine is solar plexus, for when I tap into my power."
SOPHIA RIVKA ROSSI, CO-FOUNDER HELLO GIGGLES
"The key to public speaking is to disassociate, j/k, to connect to what you are expressing, and just remember no one really ever cares more than you do."
JACLYN JOHNSON, FOUNDER CREATE & CULTIVATE
"The worst thing you can do on stage is think about yourself. What matters is the audience. So get out of your head and your inspirational insight will find a way into theirs."
JULIE RICE, CO-FOUNDER SOULCYCLE
"Speak from your heart. Everyone can understand passion...oh yeah and 'takeaways.' Leave people with something actionable."
TINA CRAIG, CO-FOUNDER BAG SNOB
“I talked about the end user, as if she was there.” On “Shirley,” the character she created and used when pitching HSN. Adding, "You do anything enough, and it becomes fun. Practice in your sleep."
HILLARY KERR, CO-FOUNDER WHO WHAT WEAR, CLIQUE MEDIA
"Some people thought we were cream puffs, but we were smart. I like to say it was like being bitten to death by a butterfly." On early fundraising meetings for Who What Wear.
RACHEL ASHWELL, FOUNDER RACHEL ASHWELL SHABBY CHIC
"Be truthful. It's too easy to say what you think sounds good."
ELIZABETH CUTLER, CO-FOUNDER SOULCYCLE
"And concise."
Mic drop, Elizabeth. *claps*
15 of the Most Quotable Moments from Create & Cultivate Dallas
Be inspired. Stay inspired.
There are so many brilliant moments at each Create & Cultivate, it's hard to pick our favorites. So we're rounding up a few that we couldn't not share. Click through to be inspired by the very best.
Press Play: Create & Cultivate Dallas 2016 Asks 'What's Your Business Resolution?'
At Create & Cultivate Dallas we wanted to know about resolutions. Everyone from Annie Lawless to Julia Engel shared what they want to do better and more boss in 2016.
Press Play: Create & Cultivate Dallas 2016
Create & Cultivate is an online platform and conference series for female entrepreneurs in the digital space. On January 30th, 2016 we brought our first show of the year to Dallas, TX! We hosted our keynote speakers Emily Schuman of Cupcakes & Cashmere, Co-founders Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power of Who What Wear, and Co-founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler of Soulcycle, alongside amazing female entrepreneurs like Julia Engel, Danielle Duboise of Sakara Life, Whitney Wolfe of Bumble, Katherine Schwarzenegger, Haylie Duff, Natalie Suarez of Natalie Off Duty, Christina Caradona of Trop Rouge, and many more!
5 Pieces of Must-Know Advice from C & C Dallas
Yesterday at Create & Cultivate these ladies (and one gent) dropped some serious knowledge.
Snapchat has DJ Khaled and his major keys, but yesterday Dallas had all the keys to creative, entrepreneurial boss success when Create and Cultivate hit Lofty Spaces. The energy was electric. Attendees were on fire with their outfits and questions for panelists. And the speakers, let’s say they knocked the yee out of the haw.
Here are five MAJOR KEY takeaways from yesterday’s Create & Cultivate Dallas.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MISSION
We heard this reiterated a couple of different ways yesterday, but there's not doubt that buzzword of the day was MISSION. Everyone from the Soul Cycle co-founders to Stephanie Mark of The Coveteur made it clear: the goal SHOULD NEVER BE FOLLOWERS OR MONEY. You start with an idea you believe in and make that carry your business and fuel those late nights.
"Trying to get 500k on Instagram is not a goal or a business plan."
Tweet this.
Soul Cycle co-founders Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler told the crowd that their mission has always been simple: "to put joy and empowerment into their business."
Sakara Life co-founder Danielle DuBoise encouraged the audience to make sure that their work “is a mission driven business, because it will change your trajectory.” Adding, “When times get tough, you can make it so it’s not about you. Stay true to your mission because that is what will carry you through.”
WHEN PUSH COMES TO SHOVE, JUST WORK B.
What we see on stage is pretty and inspiring, but is also the result of late, wee-morning work hours, tears of exhaustion, missteps, hustling two jobs to fuel to the passion project, and even moving back in with mom and dad.
At the end of day what everyone on these stages has is a propensity to work, work, work— something they reiterated to attendees time and again.
From Annie Lawless telling the crowd: “Any entrepreneur will tell you, you are always working, but for you it’s not a job, it’s a dream.”
To Emily Schuman explaining to a captivated audience: “Have patience. I’m sitting up here talking about all of these things I’ve done, but it’s taken a really long time. Have determination and patience and believe in yourself.”
On her early days of self-taught Photoshop Katherine Power told the crowd: “You just have to get it done.”
Kendi from Kendi Everyday said something rather similar: “You just have to decide to do it. And then do it.”
IT’S QUALITY AND QUANTITY
There is something to be said that “done is better than perfect”— which, is an adage we heard a couple of times from the stages yesterday. But when the world is watching you need to be on your A-game. Matt Crump of #candyminimal fame explained to the crowd the importance of delivering on both quality and quantity if you want to grow your following.
“I was working two jobs,” he said, “and moved back in with my parents. But I would make sure that what I was putting out was thoughtful and consistent. If it’s your passion, you make it great, and you make it work.”
Tina Craig of Bag Snob also made clear that in addition you need to know all sides of what you’re doing.“If you want to get in the business,” she said, “get in the back end of the business. Not just the fun. Not just the selfies.”
In the age of social platforms you have to consistently pump out content, but it needs to be solid.
A BAD RELATIONSHIP CAN RUIN YOUR WORK SPIRIT
We heard this sentiment repeated three times and we think it’s worth repeating here.
First, Whitney Wolfe CEO and Founder of dating-app Bumble asked the crowd to consider what a bad relationship has the ability to do. “If you’re in a bad relationship,” she said, “it can destroy your life.”
On a lighter (but also totally serious note), Soul Cycle CEO Elizabeth Cutler told everyone, “No deadbeat boyfriends for anyone who works for us.”
This also applies to work relationships. Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power are coming up on their ten year workaverssary and told attendees, “WE obviously have a friendship but it’s business first and foremost. You have to be respectful.”
THERE’S NEVER THE RIGHT TIME
Waiting for the perfect day to come along to take a risk? Not gonna happen.
When Danielle DuBoise and Whitney Tingle (who just made Forbes 30 Under 30) started Sakara Life they had a combined 700 dollars. Annie Lawless (also on Forbes' coveted list), who dropped out of law school and started delivering juice around San Diego in her 2-door coup, had less than that. If you’re waiting for lightning to strike, the stars to align, or enough money in the bank, there’s a good chance you’re going to miss your shot. There is someone right now taking that risk.
Tze Chun of Uprise Art told the crowd: “When you’re starting a company just saying it’s real, makes it real.”
Whitney Wolfe said, “There are so many days when it’s terrible. But if there is one good relationship taking place out there, it’s all worth it.”
And Soul Cycle boss Julie Rice put it clear as day: “Whatever you’re doing now, I actually only think there is one skill you need, and that’s making shit happen.”
Get ready for our announcement on Feb 15th about the next Create & Cultivate. Sign up for our newsletter to be the first to hear where we are heading next!!
8 Insider Moments at Create & Cultivate Dallas Speaker Dinner
Shhh. We're giving you the inside scoop.
Create & Cultivate Dallas is officially here. We can't believe it either. And while attendees were busy mixing and mingling at Common Desk Happy Hour, Fossil hosted a ombre tabled Speaker Dinner at the W, where drinks were had, old friends mingled, new friends met, and a snapchat maven gave a few rookies a schooling in the app. Here are a few of our favorite moments from the night's festivities.
1. To start the night, self-professed elevator- phobic Julie Rice of Soul Cycle fame, kicked off her heels and hiked 33 flights up to dinner. Which, is badass and equals buns of steel no matter how you spin it. (S. Cycle puns, you get it.)
2. Create & Cultivate Founder Jaclyn Johnson giving everyone a warm welcome to Dallas. "This is our biggest event yet, and this room couldn't be filled with more talent," she told the room. Creative truth bomb.
3. Katie Rodgers of Paper Fashion busting out the Sharpie and drawing at dinner for Claudia Naim Burt of The Boss Aesthetic. Because you can't have a blogger event without at least one sharp-doodling blogger. Check out her illustration here.
4. Tina Craig of Bag Snob and Hillary Kerr of Clique Media giggling by the bar and lighting their Snapchat story on their own. Because who needs a lighting crew?
5. Betches Aleen Kuperman and Jordana Abraham getting caught taking selfies at dinner and giving no bones about it. Naturally.
6. Haylie Duff and Katherine Schwarzenegger cozying up like old besties.
7. Emily Schumann, self-professed technology genius putting her money where her mouth was, by teaching Haylie Duff all about snapping. "It's cute when I use the slow filter on my daughter," she said-- to which, everyone cooed. Because it's cute as hell. And as of tonight, Haylie Duff has a Snapchat.
8. Tina Craig admitting that earlier in the day she chopped off her own hair in her hotel room. For real. The Bag Snob took a pair of Japanese scissors and snipped off more than an inch.